A Week’s Events in Review

Zionists in America, of all shades and factions, were kept busy this week arranging their annual drives and public gatherings. General Zionists were busy inaugurating the half-million-dollar campaign for the Jewish National Fund. Revisionists were busy with the arrival of Vladimir Jabotinsky, their leader, here to promote the Tel Hai fund. Laborites were busy with the opening of the hundred-thousand-dollar Gewerkshaften campaign in this country, which has become one of the most discussed issues in the press.

The center of attraction was Mr. Jabotinsky. Building up his opposition against the present Zionist leadership, he came to this country to outline what he calls “the new deal in Zionism.” A fiery orator and a brilliant journalist, he was given a rousing reception at Mecca Temple in New York, appearing there after an absence from the United States for a period of nine years.

JOB INSURANCE IN PALESTINE

The views which Mr. Jabotinsky presented at the meeting are not new to students of Zionism. A new note was struck by him, however, when he came out for the first time with a novel project that unemployment insurance be introduced in Palestine with national Jewish capital in order to combat the argument of the Palestine government that Jewish immigration must be restricted to avoid unemployment. Mr. Jabotinsky believes that this argument of the Palestine government would not be in place if the Jewish National Fund or the Keren Kayemeth would institute unemployment insurance for every Jewish worker.

Since there is no unemployment in Palestine today, this novel project is worth a good deal of attention. It deserves the support of every Zionist group and can be carried out easily for the benefit of the Jewish workers in Palestine and for a larger Jewish immigration.

Mr. Jabotinsky also emphasized the fact that the present boom in Palestine may lead to an unprecedented crash if the government continues its policy of restricting Jewish immigration and of hampering Jewish export trade. He explained that the absorptive capacity of the land depends upon the amount of goods the settlers are able to sell at home and abroad.

LONDON PAPERS PREDICT CRASH

The warning that Palestine may face a severe economic crisis despite its apparent prosperity was also sounded this week by several newspapers in London. The Daily Telegraph pointed out that the cost of living in Palestine has risen to an unhealthy level and that industrial enterprises may have to close down, owing to the impossibility of working at a profit. The London Morning Post expressed the belief that Palestine is “running before learning how to walk.”

Whether these gloomy predictions are correct or incorrect, Jews all over the world are, so far, disregarding them altogether. Millions of Jews are looking forward to the opportunity to proceed to Palestine, despite all these pessimistic prophesies, and many of them are rebelling because they are not given a chance to obtain an immigration visa.

GREECE AND POLAND VOICE DISSATISFACTION

In Greece, in several cities, open revolts took place this week against the Zionist Executive for not granting immigration certificates for Palestine. The entire Jewish population in several cities gathered to protest to the Zionist Executive, threatening a cessation of the entire Zionist work. In certain Greek cities immigration visas were demanded of Zionist leaders at the point of revolvers.

In Poland, too, tremendous dissatisfaction with the present Zionist Executive is growing as a result of the method of distribution of immigration certificates. Many consider the present system very unjust. The Executive of the Jewish Agency intends to send a special commission to Poland to pacify the dissatisfied Jewish masses there.

Dissatisfaction with the system of distributing immigration certificates was also voiced this week in Palestine. At a convention of the Jewish Farmers’ Association, it was demanded that the entry certificates should, to a large extent, go to persons willing to settle on the land, and not in the cities. The Association will now undertake direct negotiations with the Palestine government to obtain such certificates independently of the Zionist Executive, in order to bring from Europe trained Jewish farmhands who would be only too willing to remain in the Jewish colonies, where there is a tremendous shortage of workers.

KHALDI’S MOVE EXCITES PALESTINE

While dissatisfaction prevails everywhere with regard to the distribution of immigration certificates, unity is prevailing in Jewry as to the deplorable step made this week by the newly-appointed Arab mayor of Jerusalem, who, immediately upon entering his duties, notified the Jewish vice-mayor that he would not permit him share in the administration.

This statement on the part of the Arab mayor who was elected with the help of Jewish votes has provoked a great deal of excitement among all the Jews of Palestine, especially since they had reason to believe that the newly-appointed mayor, Dr. Khaldi, would cooperate in a more friendly way than his predecessor, Nashashibi. The issue is still not settled. It is quite certain that the Jews will not permit themselves to be tricked by Dr. Khaldi in the typical Levantine manner, which he has adopted. The Jews in Jerusalem are today a majority in the city. Their representatives cannot be ignored in the manner the new mayor wishes to ignore them. The Palestine government will no doubt have to step into this quarrel which Mayor Khaldi has now started with the Jews.

STREICHER ATTEMPTS TO PUSH BOYCOTT

Immigration to Palestine, while still continuing on a large scale from other countries, has tremendously subsided from Germany. It seems as if the wave of Jewish immigration from Germany is nearing a normal average. Those who were ready to leave Germany have left the country within the two years of the Nazi regime. The rest are trying to adjust themselves in the Reich under its circumstances.

Entering their third year of power this week, the Nazis have again renewed their propaganda to boycott Jews in commerce. The notorious Julius Streicher arrived this week in Munich, where central headquarters of the Nazi party are still located, and attempted organization of the anti-Jewish boycott there along the same lines as in Nuremberg, where he is the ruler. His efforts were, however, not received enthusiastically by the average man on the street. The thousands of anti-Semitic leaflets which his messengers distributed on the streets were demonstratively rejected by the passerby.

GOERING IN POLAND TO CEMENT ALLIANCE

At the same time the Nazi government announced this week that the process of depriving East European Jews of German citizenship granted since the War is nearing completion and that about ten thousand have already lost their vote.

Cementing their relations with Poland, the Nazis this week sent no less a figure than General Goering to Warsaw. The pretext was that Goering was visiting Poland for the hunt. The real reason, however, is that Germany wishes to win Poland for a coalition against Soviet Russia and to eventually start a united invasion into Soviet territory. Such an invasion would involve the territories of the Ukraine and White Russia, where hundreds of thousands of Jews reside. The Jewish press in Poland is, of course, not permitted to express opinion about Goering’s arrival. One of the Jewish papers was confiscated just for hinting that Goering is a second Haman.

SOVIET STRENGTHENS JEWISH COLLECTIVES

An announcement from Soviet Russia this week brings the news that the Jewish colonies there have benefited to an extent of eleven million rubles—about six million dollars—from a decree which the government has issued, writing off the indebtedness of the agricultural communities.

According to Dr. Rosen, head of the Agro-Joint now in America, this act on the part of the Soviet government, of forfeiting its loans to the Jewish colonies, will tremendously strengthen the position of the Jewish collectives.