Rabbi Stephen S, Wise defended the Palestine-German barter agreement in an address last night before 800 persons attending a meeting in the Hotel Astor called by the Zionist Organization of America to hear reports of American delegates to the Lucerne World Zionist Congress.
The agreement, which set up an indirect method for German Jews emigrating to Palestine to withdraw their capital in the form of Reich goods, had been attacked by Joseph Kraemer, head of the Order Sons of Zion, as a violation of the anti-Nazi boycott.
Rabbi Wise declared that regardless how vigorously the boycott is pressed, the Jews cannot be permitted to “rot in Nazi Germany.” The barter pact, he asserted, has allowed thousands of Jews to come to Palestine and reconstitute themselves.
Louis Lipsky, honorary president of the Z.O.A., who was chairman, pointed out that the Zionist Congress had placed full control of Haavara, Palestine office for the execution of the agreement, in the hands of the Zionist Executive with the stipulation that only goods of Jews coming from Germany would be admitted.
Rabbi Israel Goldstein, president of the American Jewish National Fund, asked support of the Histadruth, Palestine labor federation. Other speakers were Morris Margulies, secretary of the Z.O.A., and Bernard Shelvin of the Jewish Morning Journal.
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