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Mizrachi Parley Urges Britain Not to Curtail Palestine Entry

November 21, 1939
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The Mizrachi Organization concluded a two-day emergency session here last night with adoption of a manifesto pledging American Orthodoxy’s fullest aid to suffering Jews everywhere, proclaiming Palestine as the only place of refuge for new Jewish war victims and urging the orthodox to support the United Jewish Appeal and the Jewish National Fund.

The convention sent cables to the British Government and to Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald urging them not to curtail immigration to the Holy Land “at this critical hour.” The cables declared that the aims of the Allied Powers, who contend they are waging war against Hitlerism and for freedom of humanity, cannot be accomplished unless the Jewish people are accorded freedom.

The convention also adopted a declaration stating that the Mizrachi does not recognize Zionism built on the Balfour Declaration, but “the one created by the traditions of the forefathers of Israel.” A nation-wide membership campaign to increase Mizrachi strength in this country was decided upon.

Rabbi Wolf Gold, chairman of the World Mizrachi’s central committee, ridiculed plans for colonization proposed at the White House conference of the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee, terming them an “opium measure” and declaring that Palestine can absorb “millions of new refugees.”

Rabbi Solomon Goldman, president of the Zionist Organization of America, deplored the lack of “Palestinian consciousness” in American Jewry and expressed the hope that the new crisis would correct this situation. Other speakers included Gedaliah Bublick, Leon Gellman and Dr. Kurt Blumenfeld.

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