Jewish Agency Responds to Moscow Jewish Appeal

The Jewish Agency for Palestine today responded to the appeal issued by a meeting of Soviet Jewish intellectuals in Moscow last month urging the Jews of the world to an active fight for the destruction of Nazism. Sending its “fraternal greetings” to the Jewish of Russia, and assuring them that “the Jews of the world will not fail the common cause,” the Jewish Agency says in its reply:

“Your special appeal to world Jewry to unite against Hitler and all he stands for has reached us and we wholeheartedly respond to it. From the very outset Hitler made the Jews his chosen victims. In the countries which one by one fell under his sway he has reenacted his cruelties in intensified degrees. Fascists the world over have followed his lead. Now he has reached Soviet lands. With deep sorrow we hear of your sufferings. But we are proud of the fight which you are putting up in the Soviet armies whose achievements have earned universal admiration and have strengthened our faith in victory.

“That faith we did not and shall not lose even in the darkest hours. Where enslaved, Jews bear their fate with dignity, where free, they fight. In Palestine the Jewish community, now numbering a half million plays its part in the struggle. Ten thousand Jews have enlisted in the Jewish units of the British army and have joined the British air force and navy. They fought with distinction in Libya, Abyssinia, Greece, Crete and Syria. Many more thousands eagerly await their turn to enlist, and should the enemy ever reach Palestine the men and women of our people will fight as you do.

“Tens of thousands of Jews in other countries ask for the chance to serve in a Jewish army so that we as people may take our place in the struggle for a common cause. We send you our fraternal greetings. You may assure all your fellow citizens that the Jews of the world will not fail the common cause.”