Zionist organizations rallied today — with the aid of important non-Zionist Jewish bodies — to protest to the British Government against the reported threat to the Jewish homeland in Palestine and to seek the intervention of the United States Government against scrapping of the Balfour Declaration.
Faced with what they feel is the greatest political threat to Jewish national aspirations in the holy land, Zionist organizations formed a National Emergency Committee and began the establishment of emergency councils throughout the country to organize public opinion against London’s reported intention to make concessions to arab violence.
One form which the protest movement took was an appeal for the sending of telegrams to President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull asking American action in behalf of the Jews. A form telegram was published in Jewish newspapers. It was said that thousands had wired Washington in the first days of the drive.
Intense activity was apparent among Zionist groups here. Leaders of all Zionist organizations conferred last Friday and Sunday to close their ranks in view of the Palestine crisis. Dr. Solomon Goldman, president of the Zionist Organization of America, arrived here by airplane from Chicago and announced that he would remain in New York for the duration of the crisis.
Messages protesting against any abandonment of the Jewish national home policy were sent to Malcolm MacDonald, British Colonial Secretary, and to Washington by Zionist organizations, and also by the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Labor Committee and the National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs.
A cable signed by B.C. Vladeck, chairman of the Labor Committee, addressed to Mr. MacDonald, said: “Jewish Labor Committee, representing five hundred thousand organized Jewish workers in the United States, humbly submits that stoppage Jewish immigration to Palestine would be unfair and cruel. Jewish workers in Palestine sacrificed their lives in building up arid country into civilized settlements. Fairminded people, irrespective of political or social creed, expect your Majesty’s Government to widen, not to close immigration door to Palestine.”
The American Jewish Committee, in a cable sent to Dr. Weizmann for transmission to Mr. MacDonald, signed by Sol M. Stroock, chairman of its executive committee, said: “The American Jewish Committee expresses the earnest hope that the British Government will continue to exercise the responsibilities of the mandate for Palestine in accordance with the principles of the Balfour Declaration.
Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Committee and member of the Jewish Agency Council; and Henry Monsky, president of B’nai B’rith, joined the heads of the American Jewish Congress, the Z.O.A., Hadassah, the Poale Zion, Mizrachi, the United Palestine Appeal, the Palestine Foundation Fund and the Jewish National Fund in a protest cable to Mr. MacDonald.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
