2â½ Million Dollars to Be Raised in America for Palestine: Quota Fixed by Jewish Agency Campaign Con

The sum of two and a half million dollars was fixed today at the all-day session of the Conference on Palestine held at Biltmore Hotel under the chairmanship of Dr. Cyrus Adler, as the American quota towards the funds of the Jewish Agency for the upbuilding work in Palestine. About 500 delegates were present from all parts of the United States.

Mr. Morris Rothenberg, who has been elected Chairman of the Campaign, said that he hoped to achieve the goal set by June.

The funds are needed immediately in order to save the entire work of the Jewish settlements in Palestine from collapse, it was urged by the leaders of the Jewish Agency in Palestine, who addressed the Conference. Many of the activities in Palestine have been curtailed or altogether stopped because of the lark of funds, they said.

The new campaign, which will be conducted in co-operation with the Keren Hayesed, will be the first independent campaign conducted in America by the Jewish Agency since its formation at the Zurich Conference in August 1929. In view of the consummation of the enlarged Jewish Agency, it was stated at that time, it was felt by the leaders of the Joint Distribution Committee of America that two separate campaigns, one for Europe and another for Palestine would be unwise, and the 1930 campaign was accordingly launched as a joint campaign for both the Palestine work and the East European activity of the Joint Distribution Committee. It aimed at raising a sum of six million dollars, of which 2 1/2 million dollars (the same sum as is now aimed at by the new campaign) were to go for the Jewish Agency work in Palestine, and 3 1/2 million dollars for the work of the Joint Distribution Committee. Owing to the financial depression in America, the drive encountered difficulties, however, in raising this amount, but it succeeded in spite of the difficulties in raising a total of 2 1/2 million dollars in pledges. Just before this campaign was closed on December 31st. a statement was issued that it had been found that separate campaigns would enable each organisation to emphasise its own requirements in those quarters where they will meet with the most sympathetic response.

Mr. Felix M. Warburg, Dr. Cyrue Adler, Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Mr. Herbert H. Lehman, Lieutenant-Governor of New York State, Judge Julian W. Mack, Honorary President of the Zionist Organisation of America, Mr. Robert Szold, Chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Zionist Organisation of America, Judge William M. Lewis, President of the United Palestine Appeal, Mr. Morris Rothenberg, Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, Mrs. Edward Jacobs, President of the Hadassah, Mr. Louis Lipaky, former President of the Zionist Organisation of America, and Rabbi Dr. Stephen S. Wise are among the signatories to the appeal for the new Palestine campaign.

CAUSE OF PALESTINE NEVER BEEN IN SO CRITICAL A STATE AS TO-DAY MR. FELIX M. WARBURG SAYS IN MESSAGE TO CONFERENCE: HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JEWS HAVE SINCE THE WHITE PAPER LOST CONFIDENCE SO COMPLETELY THAT FROM FINANCIAL STANDPOINT AND FROM MORAL STANDPOINT A DEFEATIST POLICY PREVAILS: WE MUST AND DO BELIEVE MR. WARBURG DECLARES THAT OUT OF NEGOTIATIONS UNDERTAKEN BY PRIME MINISTER SOMETHING WILL COME WHICH MAY RESULT IN RESTORATION OF JEWISH FAITH.

The cause of Palestine has never been in so critical a state as to-day, Mr. Felix M. Warburg writes in a message addressed to the Conference.

Referring to the negotiations now in progress between the British Government and the Jewish Agency representatives, Mr. Warburg suggests that satisfactory conclusions may be expected in regard to an adjustment of the differences of opinion regarding the White Paper.

This is another call to arms – not for a battle to destroy an enemy, but a battle to gain friends for a cause which has never in so many ways been in so critical a state as it is to-day, Mr. Warburg says. It is unnecessary for me to say that I am referring to Palestine. Surely the fault-finding, unfriendly, unconstructive tone of Lord Passfield’s White Paper has been a cruel blow to all of us and has laid some of us low, Mr. Warburg proceeds, in describing the efforts made to secure a withdrawal of the policies enunciated in the White Paper. Nothing in my life, he says, has affected me physically and morally so deeply as this set-back which Palestine has so cruelly suffered, but I am by no means hopeless that our protests will bear fruit. We must and de believe that out of the negotiations which the Prime Minister has so promptly and so fairly undertaken something will come which may possibly result in a restoration of the faith of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Jews who, since the White Paper, have lost confidence so completely that from the financial standpoint and from the moral standpoint a defeatist policy prevails.

MR. RAMSAY MACDONALD TOLD LATE LORD MELCHETT DR. WEIZMANN LORD READING AND MYSELF THAT HE FELT INFINITELY WORSE ABOUT SHAW REPORT THAN WE DID MR. WARBURG SAYS AND HE WISHED OUR ADVICE REGARDING WHAT COULD BE DONE TO CORRECT IMPRESSION MADE BY IT: SOME OF US SUGGESTED NO NEW COMMISSION TO PALESTINE BUT ONE STRONG PERSONALITY TO WORK OUT MODUS VIVENDI: FEW DAYS AFTERWARDS PREMIER TOLD ME HE HAD FOUND SIR JOHN HOPE SIMPSON WHO WOULD DO WHAT WE HOPED FOR: WE HAD EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE SOMETHING FRIENDLY AND CONSTRUCTIVE WOULD BE FORTHCOMING.

When the report of the Shaw Enquiry Commission was received in London, Mr. Warburg reveals, the late Lord Melchett, Dr. Weizmann, Lord Reading and I discussed the danger, the faults and the unfair findings of the report. Prime Minister MacDonald opened our very friendly session with the statement that it was not necessary for us to express to him our disappointment in regard to the Shaw Report; that he felt infinitely worse about it than we did and that he wished our advice regarding what could be dome to correct the impression made by it.

Some of us suggested that no new commission be sent to Palestine, but simply one strong personality to look over the situation and work out a modus vivendi without concerning himself too much with the past. A few days afterwards, the Prime Minister told me that he had found a man who would do what we hoped for, and that Sir John Simpson had been asked to go. As the results show, nobody could have worked any harder or thrown himself more devotedly into the study of these complicated affairs than he did. His report is a weighty document, though to be sure we cannot agree with all his findings. He himself says on nearly every page that he does not consider himself an authority and that he had to gather his information at such speed and from such sources as he could, so that he does not consider the basic facts upon which he had to draw his conclusions by any means final.

From what we learned while he was making his investigation, we had every reason to believe that something friendly and constructive would be forthcoming. Before we had an opportunity to read the report, I accepted the invitation of Lord Passfield to come to London to discuss the situation. Lord Passfield dwelt on the difficulties which he had encountered in the administration of the Mandate. I suggested that he surely had not invited me to come to London merely for the purpose of hearing these complaints; that I hoped to get some constructive message from him which I could lay before the Agency meeting to be held in Berlin. He gave Dr. Maurice B. Hexter, a member of the Agency’s administration and me a message which I delivered in Berlin – which promised safety for the Jews of Palestine; also the resumption, in due course, of Jewish immigration and Government assistance through some Government loan for the acquirement of land for settlement of the landless Arabs and also the consolidation of the Jewish colonies. What happened between that conference and the final editing of the Simpson report has remained a riddle.