(By Our Geneva Correspondent)
Cities, like human beings, have their destiny. Take Geneva, for example. A peaceful little Swiss town, living uneventfully for centuries, it suddenly became the political centre of the world, the international town par excellence. Brussels and Vienna, its rivals for the seat of the League, have not yet forgotten their early resentment and envy at the selection of Geneva over their heads.
Geneva is the seat of the League of Nations, and of the International Labor Office. Politicians and diplomats from all the countries of the world meet in Geneva. Almost every Sate in the world has a permanent representative here with his staff and dices. Dreamers and idealists, would-be benefactors of humanity come here from all the corners of the earth in the hope that in Geneva they will at last find understanding for their plans.
It is the fate of the Jewish people to have no place among the fifty-five nations which belong to the League of Nations. The League only recognizes States, it recognizes Abyssinia, Panama, Luxemburg and Costa Rica. But the ancient people of Israel, with its sixteen millions of population is not recognized for it has no state.
JEWS VITALLY AFFECTED BY LEAGUE’S WORK
Yet the Jews are vitally affected by the work of the various International institutions in Geneva, in connection with the building up of the Jewish Home in Palestine, in connection with the protection of Jewish Minorities in the countries of the Diaspora, in connection with the everlasting Jewish problem of emigration, in connection with a hundred and one other questions which affect the Jews directly, and it has from the beginning been obvious that Jewish organizations must establish their own representative organs in this city of the League. The League of Nations is responsible for the administration of the mandated territories, including, of course, Palestine. The League of Nations is the institution entrusted by the Peace Treaties with the duty of protecting minorities. And the International Labor Office is the body which watches over the question of emigration.
It has thus been essential for Jewish representatives to be in permanent contact in Geneva with the League of Nations and its instituutions. But, as the Jewish way is, it was not done immediately. Things were allowed to dritt. The Zioninst representation in Geneva was set up only about three years ago, and now the modest little Zionist office is to be found within a few minutes’ walk of the Palace of the League of Nations.
It’s work is clear. It is the permanent agency and connecting link between the Zionist Organization and the League, and especially the Permanent Mandates Commission. It is there to keep the diplomats and officials in Geneva informed of what is going on in Palestine, and to interest them in the Palestine rebuilding movement, and to try to obtain assistance and support for the difficult work of building up the Jewish National Home in accordance with the terms of the Mandate.
The Zionist bureau here publishes a little bulletin which is sent out to all the important personages grouped around the League of Nations. Dr Victor Jacobson, the Zionist Representative in Geneva, has been the initiator of the movement for the establishment of Pro-Palestine Committees in various countries like France, Italy, Hungary, etc., which are composed of non-Jewish statesmen and which endeavor to help forward the work of the Zionist Organization.
REPRESENTING THE JEWS IN GENEVA
Not far from the Zionist Office is the office of the Council for the Protection of Jewish Minority Rights. The offices were previously occupied by the Secretary-General of the International Union of League of Nations Societies.
A child of the American Jewish Congress and the Committee of Jewish Delegations, the Council has retained Mr. Z. Aberson, who has been in Geneva as the representative of the Committee of Jewish Delegations since the establishment of the League. The work is being expanded now in accordance with the resolutions of the conference on Jewish. Minority Rights, which was held some’ time ago in Zurich and which decided to have the head office of the new council in Geneva.
Mr. Aberson is at the same time the representative in Geneva of the United Jewish Emigration Committee, the Emigdirekt as it is known, and in this capacity he takes an active part in the Emigration and Refugee Committees of the International Labor Office. The Emigdirekt is now linked up with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of America and with the Jewish Colonization Association, and here, too, the work is now being conducted on a much larger scale.
Now there is Mr. Lucien Wolf, who comes regularly to Geneva as the representative of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of the British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Alliance Israelit Universelle and puts up always at the Hotel Angleterre. He is ever active on behalf of the rights of the Jewish minorities and his prosecution of the Hungarian Government before the bar of the League of Nations because of its Numerus Clausus, is historic.
Mr. Wolf is also a member of the Refugees Commission and the Immigration Commission of the International Labor Office, in which respect he does important and valuable work on his frequent visits here.
There is Mr. S. Cohen of the Jewish Society for the Protection of Women and Children, who too is on the Immigration Commission of the International Labor Office and is one of the experts of the League of Nations on the White Slave Traffic.
The Agudath Israel also sends its representative to Geneva, to put its case before the Mandates Commission, to make representations against the projected reform of the calendar, in which it was joined by Mr. Lucien Wolf and by Chief Rabbi Hertz. From time to time Mr. Leo Motzkin comes to Geneva and other important personages in Jewish life who wish to see the League of Nations at work and to make representations in regard to matters which closely affect the Jews. The visit of Mr. Louis Marshall some time ago was a notable event.
ON BEHALF OF THE JEWISH MINORITY
And there are the Congresses of National Minorities which are held in Geneva, and to which Jewish Deputies belonging to the Parliaments of many countries, men like Deputy Grueunbaum of Poland, Deputy Rabbi Nurok of Latvia, and Deputy Dr. Robinsohn of Lithuania come to attend them on behalf of the Jewish minorities of their countries.
Always there is work being done here on behalf of the Jewish cause, interventions being made to the League of Nations and its institutions on behalf of oppressed Jews, and measures formulated to protect and to help the Jews and other oppressed groups throughout the world.
The Jewish people as such is not represented as a member of the League of Nations, but the Jewish voice is heard in the League and Jewish representatives are active in behalf of justice, liberty and humanitarian work in this international centre, the home of the League of Nations.
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.
