Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest in is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does indicate approval. –Editor.]

Regret that the Zionist convention in Buffalo saw fit to adopt an antagonistic attitude in its resolutions on Jewish colonization in Russia and on the question of the Jewish Agency is expressed in the Jewish press of New York, which comments editorially in yesterday’s issued on the results of the Buffalo convention.

The fear that the consciousness of power which made itself manifest at the convention, as a result of the successful achievements of the American Zionists during the year past, “may send Zionist work in America along dangerous paths which may lead to an open split in the ranks of American Jewry and thus spoil, perhaps for a whole generation, the chances of a full participation by all American Jews in the reconstruction of the Jewish Homeland in Palestine,” is voiced by the “Day,” which observes further:

“The firm antagonistic attitude of the Zionist convention to Jewish colonization in Russia, on the one hand, and the veiled warning to the Marshall group, that the Jewish Agency will proceed without them, clearly demonstrate that the Zionist Organization of America is becoming intoxicated with a sense of its own power and is beginning to stray from the clear path of cooperation with all elements, which can and should and must be brought into the circle of Palestine reconstruction.”

The “Jewish Daily News,” giving utterance to the same view, thinks the American Zionists have made Dr. Weizmann’s task more difficult when he will come to the United States soon to make the final effort to draw non-Zionists into the Jewish Agency.

The paper declares its belief that whereas there was good reason for the Zionists to be agitated over the Russian colonization plan a year ago, there is now no cause for such agitation in view of the compromise arrived at at the Philadelphia conference.

“The entire situation regarding the work of the J. D. C. has been altered in so far as any connection with the Zionist question is concerned,” we read. “Not only has the J. D. C. has not harmed the Zionist funds, the J. D. C. has no more relation to Zionism than any other philanthropic drive, with the difference that the J. D. C. is giving some of its funds for Palestine too. Hence, the question arises: What was the sense of the Zionist convention making an issued of something that does not touch the Zionist interests and which can only create bad blood?”

As regards the Jewish Agency, the paper says: “Weizmann’s coming visit here will close the last chapter in the Jewish Agency work, and we will know whether the non-Zionist group, consisting of wealthy and influential Jews, will join the Palestine work through the Jewish Agency or not. While the two parties are still negotiating, it would certainly have been better to await the result of Weizmann’s forthcoming visit.”

The “Jewish Morning Journal” also regrets the attitude of the Zionist convention, expressing the conviction that the suspicion of an anti-Zionist move on the part of the leaders of the Russian colonization plan, is without foundation. The paper feels, moreover, that the resolution on the Jewish Agency should not have contained the clause which criticizes the non-Zionist group. “Such a method of cooperating with Dr. Weizmann is somewhat strange,” the paper avers. “We do not believe that Dr. Weizmann is so sharply opposed to the Crimean colonization as the convention in Buffalo was. And if he is not, if he does not wish to come out against the group whose cooperation he has sought to secure, he cannot be assisted when the men in whose name he speaks, openly go further than he does.”