ZOA Formulates Post-war Program; Wants Jewish Case Placed Before Peace Conference

A four-point post-war program of the Zionist Organization of America was made public here today by Judge Louis E. Levinthal, ZOA president. It asks for the restoration of equal rights to Jews in Europe and the establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine. The program, which will be submitted to the American Jewish Conference, also demands that Jews be given the right to place their case before the peace conference. It reads:

“1. The United Nations are engaged in a war for survival. As Americans and as Jews, we seek, first of all, the victory of the forces of democracy, of equality and of freedom over those of tyranny and brutal aggression to the end that men everywhere may enjoy the Four Freedoms – Freedom of Worship, Freedom of Expression, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

“2. For the uprooted and despoiled Jews of Europe, who were the first victims of the assault against democracy and civilization, we demand that relief and rehabilitation be provided at the earliest possible moment. Those who desire to return to their countries of origin must be enabled to do so; while opportunities for migration and settlement must be afforded to others who will wish to emigrate and begin life anew elsewhere. On behalf of the Jews in European countries, we demand, further, full equality of rights with their fellow countrymen as individuals. In those lands where group rights shall be granted to others and where the Jewish population involved desires such rights for themselves, we urge full equality of status; and we urge that guarantees to this end be provided by the United Nations.

“3. We want an end to the Jewish homelessness. Now more than ever Palestine provides the most practical answer to the desperate need of the multitude of Jews whose rescue from Europe, as soon as possible, is imperative in a physical as well as in a spiritual sense. We ask that the Jewish people, too, shall have the opportunity to live and to develop as a free people in its own historic homeland, in Palestine. We demand that the gates of Palestine be opened wide on a scale commensurate with Jewish need; that all limitations on land settlement by Jews be removed; that the Jewish Agency for Palestine be vested with control of Jewish immigration into Palestine and with the necessary authority for the upbuilding and development of the country; that Palestine be established as the Jewish Commonwealth, in which Jews will be a majority of the population – a self-governing and democratic commonwealth in which the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities will be assured, and bound only by those reservations which in the post-war world shall apply to all states.

“4. We ask, finally that the Jews, through appropriate representation, shall be accorded the right to place their case directly and officially before any peace conference that may be called, or any authority designated by the United Nations for the reconstruction of the post-war world.”