Powerful stimulus to the Keren Hayesod Campaign was provided yesterday during a luncheon and dinner in Dr. Weizmann’s honor, in which over a thousand persons participated and distinguished American Jews featured.
The day closed after midnight Tuesday with $250,000 assured as the beginning towards New York’s quota of $2,000,000.
After analyzing the contending forces in Palestine and declaring that “in Palestine one walks on a sounding board”, Dr. Weizmann appealed to the editors and publishers gathered at the luncheon at the Commodore Hotel to facilitate the Zionist case. Other speakers included Herman Bernstein, who presided, Norman Hapgood, and Adolph Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, who expressed his admiration of the devotion of the Zionist workers in Palestine.
The dinner at the Hotelastor in the evening was the occasion for the appearance on a Zionist platform of Louis Marshall, President of the American Jewish Committee, Mr. Marshall informed the gathering that the American Jewish Relief Committee’s program of relief for Jewish communities abroad was being gradually liquidated. Decrying the emphasis put on party differences and insisting this is the time to sink all distinctions between Jews, Mr. Marshall appealed to the American Jews to take up the chal-Lange contained in the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate by helping financially in the restoration of Palestine.
Dr. Weizmann’s speech included a review of the political achievements of the Zionist movement and an unusually fervent appeal to the Jews of American to shoulder the responsibility for the upbuilding of Palestine.
Presenting Dr. Weizmann with the pen which President Harding used in signing the Joint Resolution of the United States Congress approving of the Jewish homeland, Senator Seldon P. Spencer of Missouri referred in glowing terms to Zionism as the fulfillment of scriptural prophecies. Senator Spencer plans to visit Palestine next summer.
Bernard A. Rosenblatt, Chairman of the New York Drive, presided. He read a message of support from Nathan Straus and R. Keskue Craigie, First Secretary of the British Embassy, as representative for Ambassador Geddes, expressed the hope that success would come to the meeting.
Morris Rothenberg’s appeal for funds elicited announcements of several five thousand dollar contributions and a large number of smaller subscriptions.
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.
