No matter what happens in the present war the Jews “will never be expelled” from Palestine, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, member of the Jewish Agency Executive, declared in a speech prepared for delivery tonight before some 1,000 delegates attending the opening session of Hadassah’s 26th annual convention at the Hotel Gibson.
“Even though almost anything imaginable may happen in Palestine in the next few weeks or months in these revolutionary times, it is unthinkable that even if the worst were to come to pass that the Jews in Palestine will take to boats and leave the country,” Dr. Goldmann said. “They will fight for their position in that country. They may be out-numbered. They may be overpowered and defeated. But they will go on fighting — they will never be expelled.”
Citing Palestine Jewry’s lead in offering manpower and material aid in the fight against Nazism, Dr. Goldmann said “the moment may come, perhaps sooner than we think, when the Jews of the world will be called upon to follow the lead of Palestine Jewry.” He asserted that “our task will be to help them in this fight, to support them by all means and with all resources available.”
The Jewish Agency leader expressed the view that politically the Jewish position “is much better” now than it has been in recent years. If the Munich spirit had prevailed, he said, the Jews would have been the hopeless and isolated Don Quixotes of the fight against Nazism but “the civilized world has recognized what we preached for year…that Hitlerism means inevitably and essentially world domination” and “we are once again a people among peoples, fighting with them against Nazi barbarism.”
S.K. Ratcliffe, British newspaper correspondent, said that “there could be no life or future for Palestine and the adjacent lands if the Near East were to fall under the power of a triumphant Nazidom.” Other scheduled speakers at tonight’s session included Mrs. David de Sola Pool, Hadassah president.
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.
