The annual meeting of the Anglo-Jewish Association today heard President Roosevelt praised for his proposal for international aid to refugees and the British Government urged to open the doors of Palestine to stricken Jews of Europe.
Leonard Stein, chairman of the association’s executive committee, who presided, recorded with gratitude “the generous initiative” of President Roosevelt and acknowledged “the liberal spirit” with which Sir Samuel Hoare, British Home Secretary, received representations for Jewish and other refugees.
He urged the British Government, before reframing its Palestine immigration policy for the interim period before the final settlement of the Holy Land situation, to have regard for the urgent and desperate need of those Jewish communities which were literally in imminent peril of destruction.
Denouncing proposals for enforced Jewish emigration, Mr. Stein expressed the hope that spokesmen for Jews would never admit voluntarily that Jews whose homes had been for generations in certain parts of Europe could be treated like an alien element to be bandied about from one city to another “like so many packages of unwanted merchandise.”
He revealed that the Polish League of Nations Society intends to submit to the next meeting of the International Federation of League of Nations Societies a resolution favoring the convening of an international conference to “solve the Jewish problem in Europe.”
The preamble of the resolution states that “the presence of an excessive number of Jews in Poland and neighboring countries has led to abnormal situations, such as usurpation of cities and partial monopolization of industry, commerce and handicrafts by foreign elements, namely the Jews, combined with the fact that owing to scarcity of capital and lack of unoccupied land, it is impossible to divert the activities of Jews to other occupations.”
The resolution therefore urges “financial assistance to help Jews emigrate from those countries where, because of their large numbers, they are a heavy burden on the national economy.”
Mr. Stein apologized for the unavoidable absence of Leonard G. Montefiore, president of the association, and read a letter from him announcing his intention of not standing for reelection in 1939 after thirteen years as president. Other speakers were Chief Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz and Neville Laski, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
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.
