Branding Nazi Germany as “enemy No. 1 of world Jewry,” the World Jewish Congress commission on combating anti-Semitism today submitted a series of resolutions calling for a battle against anti-Semitism on a world front.
The commission is headed by Prof. Horace M. Kallen of the New School for Social Research, vice-president of the American Jewish Congress.
The resolutions call for intensification of the boycott of German goods and services and provide for establishment of a central bureau for combating anti-Semitism.
The report calls on liberal and non-Jewish elements throughout the world to intensify the anti-Nazi boycott. It declares that the fight against anti-Semitism is bound up with the fight for equality of all races.
The immigration committee asked the congress to address an appeal to all nations able to absorb immigrants to open their gates. The report emphasized the serious position of the Jews in East European counties Its resolutions follow:
1) Urging the congress to invite all Jewish organizations interested in migration problems to coordinate their activities and follow a unified plan.
2) Asking establishment of emigration offices in various countries to aid in carrying out well-planned emigration.
3) Recommending that the congress negotiate with governments to ascertain the possibility of absorbing immigrant.
4) Suggesting the congress approach the Jewish Colonization Association for assignment of part of its capital to transfer East European Jews to new lands, if the governments permit.
5) Urging Jews in countries able to absorb immigrants to assist the congress in negotiations with their governments.
BIENNIAL ELECTIONS FOR CONGRESS URGED
The Organization Committee recommended that the congress be constituted as a permanent body to be elected biennially. Between sittings, its work would be conducted by a council meeting annually. Its day-to-day work would be conducted by an elected committee.
A plan for raising the budget by proportional contributions from Jewish communities was submitted by the finance committee. It discussed, as an alternative, taxing Jews individually.
The Palestine committee submitted a resolution affirming the Jews’ desire to live in peaceful cooperation with the Arabs. It appealed to Great Britain and the League of Nations against suspension of immigration or future limitation based on political grounds.
The resolution declared that suspension, ‘however temporary it would be, would act as an injustice and a cruelty directed against the most vital interests of the Jewish masses throughout the world.”
RIOTS BLAME PUT ON BRITISH OFFICIALS
Rev. Maurice L. Perlzweig, head of the political information department of the World Zionist Organization, charged that a number of members of the British administration in Palestine were partly responsible for current disorders.
Addressing a special session on the Palestine situation, he stated:
“I must say frankly that there are elements in the Palestine administration which must have a heavy responsibility for the course which events have taken there.”
He declared the authorities had not been prepared for the outbreak in Jaffa on April 19 and delayed two days before taking adequate measures for protection of life and property.
He criticized the employment of striking Arabs to drive military transports and assailed the threatened suspension of Jewish immigration into Palestine.
Dr. Stephen S. Wise said the Palestine mandate was given to Great Britain for the sole purpose of serving the League of Nations in safeguarding and furthering the development of a Jewish national home.
He paid tribute to the conduct of the Jews in the face of provocation.
Isaac Gruenbaum, of the organization department of the Jewish Agency, said the Jews had not been affected economically to the extent the Arabs had expected. The Arabs, he declared, had not succeeded in shattering Jewish hopes, but violence was continuing serious, threatening Jewish hopes and affecting not only the Palestine Jews, but all Jews hoping to go to Palestine.
Suspension of immigration would be a premium on Arab violence, he added.
Five delegates of radical Jewish groups in the United States, barred from the World Jewish Congress proceedings, early today presented a memorandum to the praesidium denying they had approved attacks on the Palestine Jews.
“We reject and disdain this allegation,” the memorandum said, adding that the Communists were ready to defend the interests of the Jewish masses with their very lives.
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.
