Zionist Administrative Council Hears Demand for “grand Show-down” on Palestine

A demand for a “grand show-down” on the Palestine problem, which will guarantee both free Jewish immigration and the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth, was voiced here today by Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, addressing 200 Zionist leaders from all sections of the country attending a meeting of the administrative council of the Zionist Organization.

The council, which is the ruling body of the ZOA between conventions, adopted a resolution urging immediate action by the United Nations to save the estimated 2,000,000 Jews in the Balkan countries and Hungary. It also called on its nation-wide membership – which now totals over 100,000, according to a report delivered at the meeting – to arrange special observances on April 19 to mark the first anniversary of the battle of the Warsaw ghetto.

Reporting on behalf of the Jewish National Fund of America, Mendel N. Fisher, its executive director, announced that a total of $2,144,000, was remitted to Palestine for new land purchases during the first six months of the fiscal year. Judge Morris Rothenberg, president of the JNF, announced at the meeting the establishment of a colony in Palestine in honor of Dr. Stephen S. Wise on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The funds for this colony will be raised by the Zionist Organization of America and its constituent organizations. Judge Bernard A. Rosenbaltt, president of the Keren Hayesod, reported that during 1943 a total of $2,781,000 was remitted to Palestine through this fund for Jewish colonization, immigration and other reconstruction activities conducted under the supervision of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. An additional $1,250,000 was remitted through the fund for Jewish colonization and immigration in the first quarter of 1944, with an additional $600,000, due to be remitted in the very near future.