23,000 American Jews Ready to Join Jewish Army, Dr. Weizmann Reports in London

At least 25,000 young American Jews would volunteer immediately if a call for a Jewish Army were issued. Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, stated today at a press conference.

Reporting on his impressions of his four-months stay in the United States and Canadz, Dr. Weizmann said he believes that the young Jews in the United States will respond enthusiastically to any recruiting call for a Jewish Army. “The sky is the limit as far as these young American Jews are concerned,” he stated.

Dr. Weizmann said that he noticed a remarkable change in the attitude of the American non-Zionists towards Palestine. This change, he explained, has come gradually, and many developments contributed to it. The result is, however, now visible. A year ago neoterritorial ideas were floating about in America, including the projects of settling Jews in Alaska, in the Dominican Republic, and in British Guiana. But when the need of a place for Jewish mass-immigration became more acute, the hopelessness of all schemes, outside of Palestine, became obvious. Now Palestine alone holds first place with American Jews. Furthermore, the Jews in America have now perceived that if Palestine is to supply the solution to Jewish immigration, there must be a Jewish State, because settlement of Jews on the needed scale can no longer be carried out by voluntary organizations. The financial needs will require power to impose taxation and ability to secure large loans.

In the past, Dr. Weizmann declared, the Jewish National Fund and the Keren Hayesod, as well as other Zionist institutions, have done pioneer work in the economic upbuilding of Palestine, though the bulk of imported Jewish capital came from private sources. In the future, due to the fact that European Jewry has become impoverished, Palestine will have to absorb immigrants who have lost all their possessions, and the part which national Jewish capital will have to play will thus become even more important.

Dr. Weizmann concluded by saying that the serene faith of American Jews in Palestine has made him very happy. He pointed out that he found in America an attractive and keen generation of young Jews of Russian and Polish origin, educated in the United States. The apparatus of the Zionist organization in America is adapted to their needs. “I saw no signs of communist tendencies among the Jewish youth there, and Jewish leaders in America express no serious fears in this direction,” Dr. Weizmann reported.