The conference of all Polish Jewish parties and organizations, which was held here today and which was called for the purpose of forming a united Polish Jewish front, ended in a fiasco.
The failure to achieve unity came despite the fact that every speaker at the conference emphasized the dangerous situation in which Polish Jewry finds itself today. Speaker after speaker pointed out that not only is Polish Jewry threatened with economic ruin, but that even elemental rights enjoyed by citizens everywhere are being denied.
The Agudath Israel, ultra-orthodox Jewish group; the People’s Party, the Zionist Revisionists, Jewish economic organizations, and the Judenstaat Party, formerly the Grossmanite Revisionists, agreed to join an all-Jewish representative body without laying down any conditions. However, the central committee of the Polish Zionists insisted that only politically independent organizations be allowed to join the new group, hinting that since the Agudath Israel is affiliated with the Pilsudski government majority, it would be impossible for it wholeheartedly to defend Jewish interests if non-Jewish factors were involved.
Agudath Israel representatives contended that in internal Jewish affairs their organization is completely independent, but refused to agree to the withdrawal of the Aguda deputies in the Sejm from the government club.
At the same time the Agudath group rejected a motion made by the Revisionists and the Judenstaat party to form an all-Jewish group without the participation of the Polish Zionists. Speakers for the Aguda contended that the only value in an all-Jewish body would lie in the fact that all Jewish organizations would be represented and that without the Zionists it would be of no use.
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.
