Negotiations to convert the Jewish Brigade into a nucleus for a permanent Jewish garrison in Palestine are now under way by the Jewish Agency, it was revealed today by Moshe Shertok, head of the Agency’s political deaprtment, addressing the World Zionist Conference.
Shertok Joined Dr. Weizmann and Ben-Gurion in the warning that the victory of the Labor Party in England does not automatically mean Zionist success. However, he added it opens “new vistas for our political struggle.” He urged the Zionist leaders “to gather strength for a political offensive.”
Flatly rejecting any suggestion to make Palestine a bi-national Arab-Jewish state, Shertok said that at present an understanding with the Arabs on the basis of the Zionist program is impossible, but an understanding can be reached after the Great Powers render their decisions with regard to the future of Palestine. He disclosed that a ruler of one of the Arab countries confided to him that there cannot be any talk about Arab-Jewish relations now, that such talk must wait until Britain, the United States and the USSR come to a decision on the Palestine issue.
In the meantime, Shertok said, the Zionists must mobilize all their forces to counteract the political offensive which the Arabs are now launching in England and the United States. He concluded by proposing that the political offices of the Jewish Agency in London, Washington and Jerusalem be reorganized to work as one unit.
MEMBERS OF JEWISH BRIGADE ADDRESS THE WORLD ZIONIST CONFERENCE
Two members of the Jewish brigade addressed today’s session of the World Zionist Conference dwelling on the moral effect which the appearance of a Jewish military unit had on Jews in liberated countries.
Greeting the conference in behalf of the Jewish brigade, Sergeant Feinstein stated that the Jewish order of the day must be “All Jews out of Europe.” He said that members of the Brigade not only gave of their own financial resources to help the liberated Jews, but stimulated them spiritually. In a number of liberated towns, Jews came out with blue-white flags to greet the units of the Jewish Brigade, he stated and thousands eagerly exchanged words in Hebrew, with the members of the Brigade and sought information as to how and when they could proceed to Palestine.
Sgt. Grabowski, another member of the Jewish Brigade, told the conference that the Brigade proposed to take to Palestine the remains of Dr. Theodore Herzl, father of political Zionism, who is buried in Vienna. He dramatically described how the Jewish Brigade entered Rome on the day when the conversion to Catholicism of Dr. Isarel Zolli, chief rabbi of Rome was announced. “The appeareance of a Jewish military unit in the city restored the morale of the stunned Rome Jews,” he declared.
The Jewish Brigade, Sgt. Grabowski reported, lost no war prisoners to the Germans in their fight on the Italian front. The bodies of fellow Jewish soldiers removed from the battle field during the dark hours of the night. There are forty-three graves of fallen members of the Jewish Brigade today at the Bolzano cemetery, and many other graves elsewhere, he said.
MIZRACHI PRESIDENT DEMANDS REORGANIZATION OF ZIONIST EXECUTIVE
The complete reorganization of the World Zionist Executive was demanded today at the World Zionist Conference by Leon Gellman, president of the Mizrachi Organization of America. He complained that the Zionist political activities are not coordinated and that the leaders of the world Zionist movement are concealing their real intentions and are “only paying lip service to the idea of a Jewish Commonwealth.”
Mrs. Judith Epstein, addressing the conference in behalf the H adassh, pleaded for the elimination of dissension in the movement. She said that the critics of the present Zionist adminstration are wrong when they suspect that the world Zionist executive is inclined to minimalism. She emphasized that American Zionists are “absolutely united.”
Dr. Joseph Fischer and Samuel Segal, delegates from France, reported on the growth of the Zionist movement in France since the liberation of the country. They reported that the French Zionists are new organizing a strong Zionist movement in North Africa.
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.
