The opening session of Hadassah’s 24th annual convention today heard Mrs. Moses P. Epstein, president, urge the swelling of Zionist ranks in america in order to strengthen the pressure of American public opinion for maintenance of the Jewish homeland. American Jews, she said, must not be deterred by recent happenings which have shaken the world, changed boundaries and shuffled the balance of power in Europe.
Declaring in a keynote address that Hadassah had tripled its $100,000 goal for the Youth Aliyah last year, Mrs. Epstein pleaded for continuation of the transfer of refugees to Palestine as a means “to salvage a whole generation of Jews.” Mrs. Robert Szold presided at the afternoon session.
Hadassah sent $1,250,000 to Palestine last year, it was announced by Mrs. Alexander Lamport, treasurer, including $340,000 for Youth Aliyah, $105,000 for the Jewish National Fund and $424,000 for the Jerusalem medical center.
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, said in a message: “no ray of hope shines today save Palestine. though the Jewish home is passing through an anxious and difficult period, the Jews there have unshaken courage. They are holding and will continue to hold the front-line trenches.”
An international broadcast was held tonight over the facilities of the National Broadcasting Company. Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, of the Union The Theological Seminary, speaking from New York, pleaded for Christian support of the Jewish homeland. He urged that “Fascist machinations inciting the Arabs to destroy the light of hope of the Jewish people in Palestine be frustrated.” Mrs. Rose Jacobs, former president of Hadassah, spoke from London.
Several hundred delegates from 46 states are attending the convention, at the Hotel Jefferson, According to Mrs. Szold, convention chairman, who said this was the most vital convention in Hadassah’s history because of the threat to Jewish survival.
Last night the Hadassah national board met to consider budgets for the coming year, and earlier in the day a pre-convention session of business and professional women’s divisions heard Miss Susan Brandeis, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, urge Jewish education in the home. Pointing to conditions in Germany, Italy and Czechoslovakia, she stressed the need for inculcating Jewish youth with respect for Jewish history.
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.
