Honorary President of the Mizrachi Organization of America
The principal questions before the coming 18th Congress should be divided into three main problems.
1. How to build a great community in Palestine which shall further the development of Palestine as the Jewish national home and lighten the troubles, if not of millions, certainly of tens of thousands of Jews who are compelled to leave the diaspora. To this question belongs the matter of certificates, which became not a help but a hindrance to Jewish immigration, as well as the regulation of these certificates, as long as they continue to exist, in such a manner that members of the middle class who do not have a thousand pounds but are willing and capable of helping in the building of Palestine, industrially and as colonizers, shall not be considered less desirable than the chalutzim. Also, religious workers who are members of the Hapoelha-Mizrachi should not be crowded out by other elements desiring to enter the country.
POLITICAL ATTITUDE
In this category too, is the question of Transjordania, which in the near future must become a place of activity and immigration for thousands and thousands of families.
A part of this problem, too, is the question of the political attitude towards government work in the land, with regard to governmental aid for new industrial undertakings. There is also the problem of not admitting into the Jewish community the establishment of a legislative council or premature income tax.
The 18th Congress must not be satisfied with enlarging the Jewish community in Palestine at the rate of 15 to 20 thousand a year, but must aim towards much larger figures and aid must be secured. Whether by a loan or by other means, provision must be made, for the Jewish nation is on the threshold of an abyss if Palestine is not built at much faster tempo than heretofore.
WARNING OF NON-JEWISH SPIRIT
2. The second problem before the 18th Congress is the matter of the spiritual life of Palestine. The Mizrachi for years has warned that there is danger of a non-Jewish spirit even in the Jewish land, and the warning has unfortunately proven true not only in the religious sense but in other phases of life as well. At a time when there is rejoicing over increased immigration from the countries of the diaspora, there are also to be noted diaspora tendencies. There is even a danger that foreign groups are attempting to establish schools with foreign tongues as the languages of instruction. The holiness of the Sabbath and of the holy days is being cheapened and desecrated in various places and by various people, and even the bitter class war which has flared up in Palestine is a product of the diaspora, not only on the part of the workers but also of other groups which see strength not in spiritual but in physical might.
If the 18th Congress is to stand on the proper heights, it must take measures to incorporate the Jewish spirit, the Torah and the mitzvas into the educational system of Palestine, as well as to bring strong pressure to bear socially and politically to prevent the desecration of the Sabbath and the holy days, to establish compulsory courts of arbitration between employers and employees, as well as between various labor groups.
At the same time there must be a return to all that is Jewish economically as well as spiritually. There is grave danger that not only Jews but
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.
