B. C. Vladeck, general manager of the Jewish Daily Forward, declared today that lack of national plan, economically, and lack of an understanding with the Arabs, on the political side, were the chief troubles besetting the Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Mr. Vladeck, a non-Zionist, who recently returned from a survey of Jewish communities abroad, spoke at convocation exercises of the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work following addresses by Felix M. Warburg, who greeted the 50 new students for the Board of Trustees, Dr. Solomon Lowenstein, who welcomed them to the social work profession, and Dr. Maurice J. Karpf, director of the school.
While praising the accomplishments of the Jews in Palestine, Mr. Vladeck asserted that each organization carries out its plans without coordination. “In a national movement and in a national state, as some hope it will be, there is no national plan,” he said.
Dwelling on the current disorders, Mr. Vladeck, who spent five weeks in Palestine, said the Arabs had no economic grievances–and the vice-president of the Arab Supreme Committee admitted this to him–but rising nationalism was asserting itself, and was particularly strong because it “is an new sensation to the Arabs.”
He warned that although disorders might abate during the rainy season, they would break out again. The Nationalist movement could not weaken, he said, “it must grow stronger.” Asserting that there must be some understanding between Jews and Arabs, Mr. Vladeck said that because none had been reached “everything the Jew has achieved is in jeopardy.”
He warned the Zionists against pressing for martial law, declaring, “You can’t build a homeland on the bayonets of British soldiers.”
Mr. Warburg and Dr. Karpf emphasized that growing anti-Semitism was providing new problems for the social worker. Mr. Warburg urged the students to guard against the spreading of anti-Semitism in this country, declaring he “never dreamed it would grow all over the world at such frightening speed.”
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.
