A plea for strengthening the Zionist Organization, and the statement that Zionists would have to carry the burdens of Palestinian development for some months, until the Jewish Agency is organized, were the comments made by Louis Lipsky, President of the Zionist Organization of America, on his return from Europe on Wednesday on the S. S. Homeric. Mr. Lipsky had attended the annual meeting of the International General Council of the Zionist Organization in Berlin from July 19th to August 3rd, and several important conferences of the Zionist Executive in London.
Declaring that the sessions of the Actions Committee had revealed that economic conditions in Palestine were improving, and that there are fair prospects of a resumption of Jewish imigration into Palestine during the course of the year, Mr. Lipsky said that the Zionist Organization had managed to weather the financial crises which beset it for the last two years. “If the financial support of the Jews of all countries continues to be normal,” he said, “there is ground for believing that during the next year the Zionist movement will be ready for another forward stride.”
Commenting on the tasks that face Zionists in the upbuilding of Palestine, Mr. Lipsky said: “The experience in Palestine of the past eight years years has taught the Zionist Organization the comparative uselessness of theoretical discussion. In fact only through earnest self-sacrificing, intelligent work in Palestine is it possible to find the right method to be employed in the development of the Jewish National Home. It is now agreed by all parties and factions in the movement that only that enterprise is worthwhile which justifies itself by results. All else is persiflage and the jargon of romanticism. That principle being conceded, an adjustment is now possible between the enthusiastic idealist and the man of practical experience.
“The annual meeting of the Zionist General Council in Berlin,” continued Mr. Lipsky, “made a thorough examination of the Report of the Experts Commission of which Lord Melchett, Dr. Wasserman, Felix Warburg, and Dr. Lee K. Frankel were the commissioners. This report was an impartial, exhaustive investigation of Palestinian conditions. It contained a series of practical recommendations of considerable value. When one considers that all of the commissioners with the exception of Lord Melchett, for the first time came into practical contact with the Zionist problem, the report is indeed reassuring testimony of the value of the cooperation to be brought into Zionist affairs by the extended Jewish Agency, which it is expected, will be established during the coming year. The first step is to be taken this fall by the American group, of which Mr. Louis Marshall is the head.
“The Zionists at Berlin expressed their appreciation of the value of the Report and formulated the principles that should underlie the program of the Jewish Agency when it is established in accordance with the resolutions of the Zionist Congress. These principles as framed by the Berlin Conference are basic in the opinion of Zionists, to the creation of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, as outlined in the Mandate. I have no doubt that our friends of the non-Zionist group will unreservedlly help to incorporate these principles in the constitution of the Jewish Agency of which they will be part.
“It will take months, however, to organize the Jewish Agency. Those elements of the Jewish community which are to be drawn into the responsibilities of the Palestine Mandate are not to be perfunctory co-operators. They are to be representative of the influence, intellectual and financial, of segments of American Jewish life that have hitherto stood aloof from Zionist problems. The problems of organization are numerous and difficult. For the time being it remains for the organized Zionists to carry on alone the heavy burden of Palestinian development until the Jewish Agency comes into being.
“Recent events in American Zionist circles,’ said Mr. Lipsky, “give indication of a slackening of the morale of the membership of the Organization. There is needed not only a sense of discipline and a stronger feeling of responsibility, but a vigorous resistance to the intellectually demoralizing atmosphere which has been created during the past year by destructive forces in the movement masquerading as political opposition. To that end it is important that during the coming year–side by side with energetic effort to collect funds for Palestine–more attention be paid by all local Zionist groups to Zionist education, the clarification of the ideology of the movement and the development of greater interest in the Hebraic renaissance.
“The enduring, the stable element in the movement for the recapture of a national life for the Jewish people is the Zionist Organization. The task of Zionists, now more than ever, is to make the Zionist ideal a persuasive, convincing force in Jewish life, and thus create strength for the upbuilding of Palestine and power to recreate the national spirit of the Jewish people.”
Col. Michael Friedsam, head of B. Altman and Co., returned to New York on the Homeric. He had been abroad on a vacation. Morris Gest also returned.
COMMUNICATION TO THE EDITOR:
Sir:
In your issue of September 4th, it is stated that the Congregation Adath Israel of Cincinnati is said to be the oldest orthodox congregation in the country.
May I point out that my Congregation, Shearith Israel of this city, is nearly 200 years older than the Cincinnati congregation, it having been founded in 1655?
D. de Sola Pool,
Rabbi, Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue New York, Sep. 5, 1928
A membership drive for 10,000 new members is being conducted by the United Israel Zion Hospital of Brooklyn. Louis Rabinowitz is Chairman of the campaign. He is confident that the quota of 10,000 members will be enrolled.
Rabbi Albert G. Minda, formerly rabbi of the Temple-Beth-El Synagogue, South Bend, Ind., will become rabbi of the new Temple Israel at Minneapolis, Minn.
Temple Israel, which was built at a cost of $400,000, will be dedicated this week.
Dedication services will take place on September 7, 8, 9 and 10. The Temple Israel was organized in 1878 as the Temple Shaari Tov and has served continuously in the Minneapolis religious community since that time.
More than 2,000 persons attended the funeral services for Dr. Meyer A. Persky, Providence surgeon and author of several medical papers, at the Lincoln Park Cemetery. Military units and members of the American Legion paid tribute at the grave.
Dr. Persky, surgeon at both the Miriam and Homeopathic hospitals, Providence, died suddenly in his office. But 36 years old, he was well known for his medical work.
He served overseas as a lieutenant. He was member of the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Providence Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Overseas Lodge of Masons of Providence, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and of the Sons of Zion synagogue of this city.
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.
