Over 700 people crowded into Beethoven Hall, 210 East 5th Street, Wednesday evening, to pay tribute to the memory of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, who was assassinated in Palestine. Representatives of all groups of Zionist laborites, and officials of the Zionist Organization of America united in condemning the murder, and reaffirmed their unshakable determination to carry on the upbuilding of Palestine despite obstacles put in their path.
A large portrait of Dr. Arlosoroff, draped in black, hung over the platform, and the platform itself was decorated with the emblems of the Poale Zion and the Zeire Zion, also draped in black. In opening the meeting, Meyer Brown, secretary of the Poale Zion, announced that the speakers had requested that there be no applause.
Morris Rothenberg, president of the Zionist Organization of America, said that words were inadequate to describe his sorrow. “I am here as a representative of the Zionist Organization, to mourn the death of Dr. Arlosoroff, not only as a labor leader but as a Zionist leader. I worked with him when he visited the United States and was in a position to know of his brilliant work on the executive of the Jewish Agency. How tragic, that his life should have ended just as he devised plans for bringing to Palestine our wretched brothers and sisters from that awful land now called Germany. It is no secret that the improved relations between the Jews and the mandatory power in Palestine are primarily due to Dr. Arlosoroff,” he said.
Mr. Rothenberg asked that all judgment on the murder be reserved. He declared that the mere possibility that the act was the result of inner party strife should cause all factions to stop and think where they were going and put an end to all such doings. “A new atmosphere has come into the Zionist movement,” he said. “First there are differences, then comes the cry of traitor, now a life has been taken. This cannot be tolerated. It is shameful that within the Zionist ranks should be found the hand willing to kill opponents.”
Mrs. Goldie Meyerson, representative of the Palestinian Labor Delegation, said that the American Poale Zion had decided to place Dr. Arlosoroff’s name first on the list of labor delegates to the Zionist Congress the day before the news of his assassination reached here. She paid tribute to his qualities of leadership.
Emanuel Neumann, American member of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, told of his intimate association with Dr. Arlosoroff and the esteem in which Dr. Arlosoroff was held by everyone in Palestine including the High Commissioner.
“A new monster has arisen in our midst,” said Mr. Neumann. “There is room among us for all shades of opinion providing they are legitimate, but murder is alien to the Jewish point of view, and Zionism is above all a Jewish movement. I extend the condolences of the Executive of the Jewish Agency.”
Other speakers included Jacob Fishman, Dr. S. Margoshes, Chaim Greenberg, Louis Segal, secretary of the Jewish National Workers Alliance; Joseph Schlossberg, secretary of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers; Israel Mereminsky, member of the Palestinian Labor Delegation, and Isaac Hamlin, of the League for Labor Palestine.
The meeting was held under the auspices of the Poale Zion, Zeire Zion, National Committe for Labor Palestine, Jewish National Workers Alliance and the Women’s Pioneer Organization.
REVISIONIST MESSAGE
Following the meeting it was learned that the following telegram had been sent to the chairman of the meeting: “We sincerely grieve with you over the irreparable loss of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff. Our hearts bleed over the untimely death of this young, brilliant son of our people.” It was signed by Elias Ginsburg, chairman of the Central Committee of the Zionist Revisionist Organization of America. The telegram was not read at the meeting.
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.
