Over the opposition of the German delegation, the 19th biennial World Zionist Congress at its closing session today adopted a strongly worded resolution protesting the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis and appealing to the world to “assist the Jews in the fight to guarantee their existence.”
The action came after Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York, president of the American Jewish Congress, in a powerful address had scored the Nazi regime in Germany.
The Zionist Congress together with the Jews throughout the world are fighting the racial theory of the Nazis “which aims to degrade a people on the sole basis of race,” Dr. Wise declared.
He stated that it was beneath the dignity of the Congress to pay attention to the “slanders and falsities” of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” However, he thanked Swiss Jewry for furnishing an occasion to expose those falsities by the Berne trial, (He referred to the recent trial in Berne in which the “Protocols,” purporting to reveal a Jewish plot for world domination were ruled a forgery.”
The resolution follows:
“The 19th World Zionist Congress raises its voice against the systematic deprivation of rights of German Jewry which with growing intensity is undermining the moral and material existence of the Jews in Germany.
“At the same time the defamation of the entire Jewish nation is also being conducted by the German government with a view to undermining the Jewish position in the whole world.
“The Zionist Congress considers it its legitimate duty to repudiate in the name of the Jewish people the defamation of the Jews on account of their racial origins as a contradiction in the elementary principles of morality and justice.
“The protest against this deprivation of rights does not concern only the Jewish people, but it is a question of the defence of the principle of equality of rights of all peoples.”
The resolution further declares, “The Jewish people, which has defended its honor and national character during centuries of history regardless of great sacrifices, will never under any circumstances or for any price give up this fight.
“The Jews will fight for equality of rights of Jewish citizens of all countries as well as for their rights of existence as nationals among the nations of the world, and will defend with the same determination its right in other countries as they will defend the right for its national existence in Palestine as the solution to the problem of the Jews.
“The Jewish question has become a world question. It demands for its solution the cooperation and sympathy of the non-Jews of the world.
“The 19th Zionist Congress appeals to all peoples of the world to assist the Jews in the fight for the defense of their honor and to guarantee their existence.”
The resolution was reported to the Congress by Dr. Wise as head of the Committee on the Situation of the Jews in Diaspora Lands.
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.
