Dr. Arthur Ruppin, colonization expert in Palestine, and Samuel Untermyer, president of the Keren Hayesod were the principal speakers at the meeting yesterday in the Hotel Astor of the newly formed National Council of the Keren Hayesod. More than 100 delegates from all over the country and some 350 prominent workers of New York were present.
Dr. Ruppin pointed out that although about $30,000,000 has been spent in Palestine by the Jews of the world and there have been more than 35,000 immigrants, the success of the undertaking depends upon two factors: the creation of a self-supporting Jewish peasantry consisting of small independent cultivators and groups of agricultural settlers on a cooperative basis and the development of handicrafts and industry which will meet the needs of an agricultural population. If these things can be accomplished, he added, immigration will take care of itself.
Mr. Untermyer spoke of the Jews who were not giving their support to the Zionist movement. “Their support”, he said, “is not only desirable, but essential to success, and their cooperation in the practical upbuilding of the Jewish homeland should be and will be actively sought, and the channels for such cooperation are about to be provided. It was to provide the broadest possible platform upon which Jews of every type and description might cooperate that the Keren Hayesod was established.”
Morris Rothenberg, Chairman of the Palestine Foundation Fund presided at the afternoon session.
Hermann Conheim, treasurer of the Keren Hayesod, reported that the receipts of the year ended June 30 were $2,110,390.84, as against $1,635,887.88 for the previous year. The income for 1923-4 it is hoped, will approximate $3,000,000.
Dr. Weizmann was present but made a brief address, reserving most of what he had to say for his Monday evening address.
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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.
