American Council for Judaism Issues Statement Against British White Paper

A declaration by the American Council for Judaism opposing the provisions of the British White Paper on Palestine that stop immigration of Jews and restrict their purchase of land was made public today by pressing J. Rosenwald, president of the Council, from its national headquarters in his city. At the same time the Council reaffirmed its opposition to “Zionist nationalism” and issued a call to American Jews to “organize in strength, out of deep concern for oppressed Jews everywhere, behind a non-nationalistic program to deal with the total Jewish problem.”

“Beyond the abrogation of the White Paper,” the statement declares, “lies the need for a basic solution. That solution, we believe, can come only when there is world wide recognition of the rights of Jews to full equality. It can come in Palestine only when the pretensions to Jewish Statehood are abandoned and we seek instead freedom of migration opportunity based on incontestable rights and not on special privilege. The declaration of our Statement of Principles is beyond challenge from any quarter. ‘We look forward to the ultimate establishment of a democratic autonomous government in Palestine, wherein Jews, Moslems and Christians shall be justly represented; every man enjoying equal rights and sharing equal responsibilities; a democratic government in which our fellow Jews shall be free Palestinians whose religion is Judaism even as we are Americans whose religion is Judaism.'”

In regard to the discriminatory provisions of the White Paper the statement declares: “We of the American Council for Judaism record our unqualified opposition to those provisions. In behalf of the substantial section of American Jews whose views on Jewish problems coincide with ours, we petition our Government to use its best offices to prevail upon the British Government not to proceed with so prejudicial and unjust a policy.” Opposition is based on the fact that “proposals which exclude Jews, as Jews, from right of entry and restrict Jews, as Jews, from the acquisition of land, do violence to the fundamental concept of democratic equality and thus to the very purposes and ideals to which the United Nations are pledged,”

The statement emphasizes that the American Council for Judaism is dedicated to the view that Jews, a religious community, shall have, as of right and not on sufferance, full equality all over the world. “We ask for no special privileges for Jews anywhere in the world,” the statement says, “We will resist to the utmost the imposition of any disabilities on Jews anywhere in the world. There is no compromise on this basic demand.”