Historic Conference Launches UJA Drive
Detroit Shares in Initial
Gifts Totalling $27,000,000
(Continued from Page 1)
Presented as a report on Israel's status, Mr. Sharett
gave a .brilliant analysis of the relationship of
Israel to the Diaspora. He began his report by re-
ferring to his meeting, 10 months ago, with the
then Secretary of State George C. Marshall and
his assistant, Robert Lovett, after which he pro-
ceeded immediately to Palestine, on the eve of the
declaration of the Jewish State's independence.
When he arose to speak the audience spontan-
eously began to sing the Hatikvah and there was
prolonged applause when he told of his efforts to
secure the recognition of Israel by the nations of
the world—a task in which he was spared the need
of writing to the United States because of Presi-
dent Truman's prompt action on May 14.
Mr. Sharett paid tribute to the determina-
tion and courage of Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion and declared that "his place in
history is secure for all time." He also praised
"the phenomenally brilliant American," Dr.
Ralph Bundle, for his efforts to make peace
in the Middle East.
He was especially effective in his evaluation of
the Arab problem. Declaring that Israel's desire
is to live in peace with her neighbors, Mr. Sharett
pointed out that the original UN decision called
for an almost equal division in population between
Jews and Arabs, with 650,000 Jews to have lived
there as against 400,000 Arabs. The flight of the
Arabs, to the total surprise of the Jews but as a
result of instigation by Arab states who believed
they would return to drive the Jews into the sea,
has changed the picture entirely. Now, he said, a
return of Arabs to Israel is impossible because the
Jewish State has been built on an entirely dif-
ferent basis, strictly as a Jewish community, un-
like the plans originally envisioned. The only
solution now, he said. is for the Arab states to re-
settle their refugees. Part of the funds needed for
this purpose, he pointed out, will come from the
compensation to Arabs by Israel for lands which
Arabs had abandoned.
Mr. Sharett revealed that states across the
sea already were planning to welcome Jews
who were to be driven out of Palestine by the
Arabs. To this extent, it was believed. that
Israel would be defeated. He paid tribute to
the Jewish pioneers and their army which
accomplished the superhuman task of defeat-
ing seven invading armies with few weapons
at their disposal:
Mr. Sharett also described the expansion of territory
in Israel. Under the UNSCOP Israel was to have 62
per cent of the 10,000 square miles up to the Jordan.
After the Jews were forced to yield a part of the ter-
ritory, the division was to have been55 per cent to
45 for the Arabs. As a result of the war started by the
Arabs, Israel now has 77.3 per cent of that territory.
Asserting that there can be no permanent peace as
long as the Arab problem exists, Mr. Sharett said that
Israel is vitally interested in solving the refugees' prob-
lem; that proposals for their return represents 'a "false
remedy;" that only their resettlement in neighboring
countries will bring a solution. "We have not solidified
ourselves in order to find ourselves again attacked from
within and without," he declared. "Israel has evolved as
a purely Jewish structure and Arabs would find them-
selves in a totally different country from the one they
left. The UJA must take it into consideration that funds
are needed for compensation to Arabs for their lands."
Immigration
the last 10 months reached
170,000 and the total for the first year of liberation,
as of May 15, will reach 200,000, Mr. Sharett re-
ported. In the last five months, he said, the average
number of settlers per month was 24,000.
He declared that the time to disarm has not yet
come, "even if we demobilize to some extent in the
near future. We all have a vision of peace, but we shall
not be the first in the world to disarm. By obeying the
sheer instinct of self-preservation, we shall retain an
army at as small a percentage as possible. Therefore we
must increase immigration to be able to draw upon
workers as well as a defense force. We multiply at a
smaller rate than our neighbors, although the govern-
ment now has a program of encouraging births and of
discouraging infant mortality."
An interesting pOrtion of his address was his descrip-
tion of the acquisition of the Negev, the occupation of
Elath and the demands by Jews in Israel for rapid devel-
opment of the southern portion of the state.
"There are no economic miracleS," Mr. Sharett
pointed out. "If you want to produce you must invest.
You must have hospitals and schools for the newcomers.
We want to see Israel teeming with economic activity,
politically free. Our people are aglow with Messianic
impatience."
The Foreign Minister said that "without the area of
land we owned and accumulated before May 14, with-;
out industrial and military equipment, without those
potentials, we would not have had a Jewish State. All
these helped us achieve our position."
He praised the "foresight" of Dr. Nahum Gold-
maim who advocated an immediate solution of the
problem by accepting statehood in a part of Pal-
estine. This statement was interpreted as a vindica-
tion of those who accepted and advocated partition.
At the same time, Mr. Sharett praised the activities
of Dr. Abba Hillel Silver; Dr. Emanuel Neumann
and the American Zionist Emergency Council for
their tremendous efforts which had led to the favor-
able UN decision and for having accepted the de-
cision for immediate statehood by abandoning their
earlier stand. Here, too, it was clear that he was
referring to the acceptance of partition by the
American Jewish leaders.
. Mr. Sharett . also paid honor to Rudolph Sonneborn,
Abraham Feinberg and the group who puchased ships
for transporting immigrants at a time when such actions
were attacked as "illegal" by the mandatory power.
He said that the cnly boundaries in Jewish responsibil-
ities to the Jewish state are those of the Jewish hearts.
"The UJA," he declared, "is the instrument for the ful-
fillment of our needs." He expressed joy over Henry
Morgenthau's return to leadership in the UJA. At this
point he stated: "We deeply regret the controversy that
took place and we were overjoyed to hear that the
UJA again is on the march as a force in American
Jewish life and that it is headed by Mr. Morgenthau.
The work has begun. You must and can exceed your
goal. I have heard' it said that business is not too good.
Let us rather inquire into the state of business of the
Jewish people. The business of the Jewish people is
in a state of highest boom. All meetings today shine in
the reflected glory of Israel. They all partake of that
glathour. But there still are breakers ahead, dangers to
be overcome. Between triumph and catastrophe there
is only one step. It is up to you to take that step and to
assure that triumph."
Several -times during the sessions,. references were
made to the restoration of unity in the UJA and the
return to leadership of Messrs. Morgenthau and Montor.
Mr. Morgenthau discarded the prepared text of his
opening address to declare that unity would not have
been possible without the efforts of Berl Locker, chair-
man of the Jewish Agency Executive, and Dr. Nahum
Goldmann, the support of Edward M. M. Warburg and
the sympathetic understanding of David Ben-Gurion.
He expressed confidence that 1949 will be at least as good
as 1948 in dollars and cents and that "all of us will have
to give as never before. It is a wonderful feeling that
we again have a UNITED Jewish appeal. Mr. Sharett
can take back with him a message of encouragement to
Israel's Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan who is sitting
on pins waiting for the results of this meeting." He added
that "business will be good and profits ample." "The
old team is back again," he said, referring to Mr.
Montor.
U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan
praised the "perfect democracy" of Israel's Knesset and
'Israel's role as "a bastion of freedom and liberty in
the Middle East." He bewailed the "callousness of na-
tions and governments toward the problem of refugees
in the last 15 years" and said that Israel's reception of
180,000 immigrants is "more of a feat than building a
government or fighting a war."
Mr. Warburg (who will address the opening
fund-raising event of the Detroit Allied Jewish
Campaign next Tuesday) reported that 10 out of the
50 DP camps in Germany already have been closed.
He declared: "Into this hall has come a sense of
history," and he warned that it must not\be watered
down into a sense of routine. He told of the move-
ment of Jews from Yemen, from North Africa,
from every port of exit, with the aid of the JDC.
Judge Morris Rothenberg, national JNF president
and acting chairman of the UPA, urged that we should
not "lull ourselves into the false belief that our task
is done. The ideal Jews nurtured through the ages was
to end the homelessness of a people, and thus restore
them 'once more to dignity and national creativeness on
their own land. This is the moment to end that home-
lessness."
Speaking of the "tough job" to reconvene the UJA,
Mr. Locker stated that "this conference is proof ithat
it has been accomplished and that the UJA is in work-
ing order."
Dr. Abraham Granovsky, world JNF president, said:
"Our frontiers must be secured by the creation of deep
belts of 'security settlements' to guard the approaches
of Israel, Strategic villages must be established along
all major communication and transportation routes."
A message to the conference from Dr. Emanuel
Neumann, ZOA president, declared that the UJA
this year "must command the support and devotion
of all sections of American Jewry."
Yaakov Zerubavel, Chief of the Department for
Middle East and Oriental Countries of the Jewish
Agency, warned that "Jews in some Moslem lands are
threatened with death or imprisonment and confisca-
tion of their property unless they can flee to Israel.
The 21 Jews recently tried in absentia and sentenced
to death in Iraq were extremely fortunate to escape
to Israel. Many other Jews in Arab lands may look for-
ward to trials in absentia and' punishment of death for
crimes they did not commit unless they too can flee to
Israel.
"New schools are being created for Arab students
in areas where the Arab population is high," he said,
"and it is interesting to note that when the fighting
ended in Faluja (in the Negev) and that territory be-
came part of Israel, the Arabs did not leave, but were •
eager to remain in the Jewish state."
David Hacohen said that Israel has major tasks
ahead of it to consolidate the recent military victor-
ies it has won. He warned: "There is no guarantee
that we cannot still lose our battle for independence
in Israel. We must realize what our victory meant
to the Arabs, whom we hope to be our friends.
Today, they are embittered by defeat, and we must
prevent a situation whereby in five or ten years,
under some new military leader, they might rise
against us once again. We must work to fortify and
strengthen the state, even if it means we must
maintain a large army—and we hope that we will
not have to do so. One way to overcoming that dif-
ficulty is to bring in hundreds of thousands of im-
migrants, so that our state can be strengthened by
force of numbers. The immigrants desperately need
to come to Israel, and Israel desperately needs
them."
A cable from Dr. Israel Goldstein, treasurer, of the
Jewish Agency, cautioned the conferees that "th
e re-
sults of the Washington conference of the United Jew-
ish Appeal will determine whether the Jewish Agency
will be compelled to say to the myriads of Jews in
Europe and North Africa "We cannot make room for
you in Israel."
Julian B. Venezky of Peoria, Ill., chairman of a
53-member UJA delegation to Israel, said: "The need for
cash to care for the immio- rants is. desperate. Credit
resources which provided for their food and clothing
are exhausted. High government. officials with whom
we spoke in Israel expressed the fear that they might
have to limit immigration if great amounts of cash are
not made available through the United Jewish Appeal
—not two months from now, not a few weeks from now,
but immediately."
Mrs. Golda Myerson, in a message to the conference,
said that "that which seemed impossible a year ago
has happened. We in Israel, a mere handful, for a long
time practically empty-handed, have emerged the win-
.
ners in this struggle against well equipped armies of
seven Arab states. I wonder at times whether the Jews
of the United States realize how great a share is theirs
in our victory."
The picture in transient camps of Marseille where
. Jewish refugees are awaitino . ships to Israel was de-
scribed as "not a pretty one" by Mrs. Walter E. Heller,
of Chicago, a vice-chairman of the National Women's
Division of UJA, member of the UJA overseas delega-
tion, who declared that "both in Israel where newcomers
live crowded in tiny tents and in Marseille where they
are packed into so-called transient camps, the condi-
tions are almost as bad as in the DP camps from which
they have just come."
An urgent appeal for maximum support of the UJA
was addressed to the 1,200 delegates by Dr. Chaim Weiz-
mann, President of Israel. Speaking to the conference
by means of transcription, the Israeli Chief Executive
said that of the Four Freedoms enunciated by the late
President Roosevelt during Wotid War II, freedom from
fear and freedom from want "have special meaning
for the people of Israel and especially for those home-
less and oppressed whom we are receiving on. our
shores." He declared that Israel can assure the new-
comers that they will have freedom from fear, but
that the Jews of the United States must. through their
support of the United Jewish Appeal, provide the funds
that will guarantee freedom from want.
Asserting that the establishment of Israel "has
swung open the doors of opportunity for large
masses of the Jewish people," former Governor
Herbert H. Lehman pointed out that now Americans
. can see the end of the road of relief and charity, of
providing mere subsistence for the pitifully small
remnant of European Jewry. He emphasized- that
the emptying of the DP camps of all Jews before
the end of 1949 was a major item on the agenda of
the United Jewish Appeal.
U. S. Ambassador to Israel James G. McDonald,.
in a message to the UJA meeting, said that he was con-
vinced that Israel was now on the road to establishing_
peaceful relations with its Arab neighbors. He said
that the Jews of Israel will increasingly demonstrate that
as a people they have capacities comparable with the
most advanced people of the West, and, if given' the
opportunity, they can not only rebuild their national life,
but, through it. give rich gifts for our common humanity, •
and not the least of these gifts would be to bring more
and more to millions of non-Jews in the United States.
and elsewhere the conviction that anti-Semitism is as
outmoded as witchcraft. Israel will not only make secure'
the future of your brethren, it will also help to save us
other Americans from the grievous sin of brute preju-
dice. Israel will thus help us all, Jews and Christians,
to be better Americans."
William Rosenwald, president of the United Service
for New Americans, reported to the conference that
the United States Displaced Persons Commission is
anticipating an influx of between 10,000 and 12,000
DPs per month durincf this coming summer. He said
b equipped to meet the needs of
that the USNA must be
a "bare minimum" of 25.000 Jewish DPs in 1949 and
probably larger numbers, if Congress acts favorably on
President Truman's recommendation for liberalization
of the present DP law.
Eliahu Elath, Israeli Ambassador to the United •
States, warned the assembled Jewish leaders that the
reconstruction tasks today facing Israel cannot be suc-
cessfully accomplished without the assistance of the -
Jews of America through the $250,000,000 campaign of
the United . Jewish Appeal.
In a stirring address which electrified the audience,
Dr. Nahum Goldmann acclaimed the great collec-
tive UJA enterprise and called the fund the test
of the political and moral maturity of American
Jewry. He asserted that "it is much more difficult to
retain collective responsibility after success has been
attained." He reiterated that total political victory
has not yet been won, that there still are dangers,
that "no Jew can allow to demobilize himself as long .
as there is no real peace;", that we must remain in
a state of minor mobilizat
ion. He said there are
three categories of Jews who are waiting to be ad-
mitted to Israel: DPs who are yet to be evacuated,
East European Jews who must be taken to Israel
while the doors of exit are open for them and the
Jews of North Africa.
Levi Eshkol, chief of the Agricultural Settlement De- -
partment of the Jewish. Agency, reported that 60 new
settlements have been established in Israel in the past
10 months, and that present plans call for the establish-
ment of another 100 in the coming nine months. He said
that one-fourth of the immigrants coming into Israel
will be settled on the land. He stated "that 5,000,000 of .
Palestine's 7,000,000 acres now belong to the Jewish
states" as a result of the, establishment of independent
Israel and the clearing of its territory of Arab invaders.
Mrs. David Levy called for assurance of "the biggest
campaign to Meet the biggest opportunity in Jewish
history, and urged that the women be utilized for •
action in behalf of UJA.
A message from Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion,
broadcast to the conference by a special recording,
.stated in part:
"You, the Jews of America, have played a noble part
in the rise of Israel. With your help and the help of
Jews throughout the world, memorable things have
been accomplished. But our eyes are turned as they
always have been, to the boats which are coming in
and which are yet to come. Some 25,000 Jews are arriv-
ing month by month. They must be housed, fed, clothed,
enabled to pursue their crafts and professions and
helped to become productive citizens in our democracy,
"The country which our victorious army has liberated
must speedily be rebuilt to receive all the Jews who
wish to and must leave their present abode. History has
placed in our hands this great historic chance, to put
an end forever to the misery and degradation in the
life of our people and to insure for Israel a permanent
place of honor among the nations of the world. We here
all hope that you, the great Jewish community in Amer-
ica, will once again rise•to the great occasion and crown
with complete success this grand and glorious mission
which has fallen to our generation. With your devoted
help it will be achieved.'
The conference sent a congratulatory message to Dr.
Stephen S. Wise who on Sunday night was honored at
a dinner in New York on his 75th birthday. Many of
the delegates left for New York upon conclusion of the
Sessions to attend the dinner in Dr. Wise's honor.
THE JEWISH NEWS---I3
_Friday, MaKeli 25, 1949