Jewish people if its doors of entry are closed against them. In view of the indescribable sufferings the Jewish people together with others are bearing, it certainly seems to be the debt of humanity to give them as well as others a haven for living.

On the other hand, there need be no fear on the part of any concerning the future of the Holy Land when one day it shall become a Jewish Commonwealth for the Prophet Micah, in describing that day said, “Every man shall walk by the name of the Lord his God and we shall walk by the name of the Lord our God." In other words the Messianic Era for the Jew is not that we shall have one religion but that all shall be able to serve their own God, every one sitting under his fig and his vine tree with none to make him afraid.

At this time House Resolutions 418 and 419 if passed unanimously by the Foreign Affairs Committee will undoubtedly bring a note of hope and of courage to the millions who look forward to the United States as a nation who will answer in the affirmative, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

May God soon send to all mankind, even our enemies, a healing peace and to the United Nations a speedy victory and a Holy peace.

Sincerely yours,

Rabbi HERBERT S. GOLDSTEIN,
Honorary President,

Union of Jewish Orthodox Congregations of America.

THE JEWISH NATIONAL HOME IN PALESTINE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1944

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10:30 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, Hon. Sol Bloom (chairman) presiding.

Chairman BLOOM. The committee will kindly come to order.

The Chair would like to state at this time we will hear from the representatives of those organizations that merely want to present petitions and statements.

Is the American Federation of Labor representative here?

Mr. HINES. Yes, sir. I want to make a very brief statement. Chairman BLOOM. Very well; will you please be seated and give your name to the reporter?

STATEMENT OF LEWIS G. HINES, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

Chairman BLOOм. The Chair wishes to announce that we will hear these witnesses briefly and then resume with Mr. Rosenwald who has completed his principal statement, I understand.

You may proceed, Mr. Hines.

Mr. HINES. I will take but a moment, Mr. Chairman, to bring you a message from William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, in reply to your program inviting him to attend this meeting. Unfortunately, he is out of the city at this time. He desires me to give you this message:

The American Federation of Labor desires to express itself as being in full accord with the intents and purposes of House Resolution 418 and House Resolution 419 which call upon the Government of the United States to use its good offices and take appropriate measures to the end that the doors of Palestine shall be opened for free entry of the Jews in that country, both now and in the post-war period.

President William Green, of the American Federation of Labor, has just recently stated that

Our Government and the British Government agreed to this plan and the League of Nations approved it. In 1922 Congress unanimously endorsed the establishment of Palestine as the Jewish national homeland and it has reaffirmed this action several times subsequently.

Unfortunately, the British Government has seen fit to change its former policy. It has issued regulations which will, in effect, forbid further immigration of Jews into Palestine. This action comes at a time when the need of a haven for the victims of Hitler's barbarous persecution is greater than ever before.

The American Federation of Labor, which has always been a stanch supporter of the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish national homeland, believes it is proper and just for our Government to exert its influence in behalf of that cause.

We feel that the good faith of the United Nations in this war would be impaired if Great Britain is allowed to break its solemn pledge to the Jews which was made after the last war. We hope that passage of this resolution will be instrumental in prevailing upon the British Government to live up to the Balfour Declaration, thereby inspiring greater confidence in the justice and fairness of the post-war decisions the United Nations will be called upon to make.

Mr. Chairman, there is nothing I can add. I might state in passing that representatives consisting of some six and one-half million members of the American Federation of Labor heartily approve this. Chairman BLOOм. My compliments.

Is there any other representative who wishes to present a short statement?

Mrs. EPSTEIN. Yes; Mr. Chairman.

STATEMENT OF MRS. JUDITH EPSTEIN, PRESIDENT OF HADASSAH, NEW YORK, N. Y.

Chairman BLOOм. I would like to present Mrs. Judith Epstein, president of Hadassah, from New York.

Would you kindly explain for the benefit of the committee and also for the record just what the Hadassah means and just what it represents?

Mrs. EPSTEIN. I would be very happy to.

Hadassah is the Women's Zionist Organization of America with a membership of 125,000 Jewish women organized in 600 chapters throughout the country.

Its purposes are: One, to foster understanding of Zionist principles, and two, to maintain, initiate, and support important and specific tasks for the upbuilding of Palestine as the Jewish National Home. In recent years Hadassah has played an increasingly important role on the American scene. It has taken its place in all activities that further the war effort; it has raised more than $50,000,000 through the sale of War bonds; it is cooperating to the fullest as a unit with the Red Cross, United Service Organizations, Office of Price Administration, and all other groups functioning in the war effort. It is deeply concerned with the problems of the preservation of the American democratic forms and has an active educational program to foster the democratic ideal.

For the first phase of our work we have organized the American Jewish women both in senior and junior bodies throughout this country and we have helped create those conditions which have made it possible to facilitate settlement of the Jews in Palestine.

Hadassah was organized in 1912 and undertook in 1913 a very limited medical project, namely, the sending of two American-trained nurses to the country to make an attempt to meet the scourge of trachoma and other ills which beset the country.

Before the end of the war, Hadassah sent to Palestine the American Zionist Medical Unit of trained doctors, nurses, sanitary engineers, and so forth, whose purpose was to meet the very serious situation which disease and epidemics were causing in that country. Health conditions were so bad that they were affecting not only the civilian but also the military population.

In order to stress as effectively as I can what Hadassah has accomplished in a very short period of time, I would like to contrast has situation of Palestine when the Hadassah medical unit was sent there

in 1917, while the war was still raging in the country, with the present situation. There was no machinery set up for the operation of this unit. The nurses, sanitary engineers, and doctors had to improvise everything on the spot. In World War No. 2 the large number of people, troops, visitors, and medical corps stationed in Palestine have found a completely different scene, and I think we can say with justifiable pride that Hadassah has played an important part in creating the conditions as they exist today.

There is in Palestine today a medical center. It was opened by Hadassah in May 1939 and consists of a nurses' training school, a postgraduate medical school, a completely modern hospital equipped with the latest scientific equipment and manned by men from lands from which they had been expelled and whose medical history they have helped make. These men have brought into Palestine their training and knowledge and a completely modern approach to the medical and health problems, of not only Palestine, but the whole East.

The medical center is utilized for civilians, but it has been able to care for special military cases. In addition, it has been able to offer service to the military medical branches of the United Nations through weekly conferences held at the hospital where clinical discussions, based on the needs of the troops, have taken place. Our laboratories have been put at the disposal of the military, and we are happy to say that we have been helpful by making available to them vaccines and other scientific help.

A dramatic contribution was the utilization of a wound-healing powder which was evolved through the cooperation of the Hadassah and Hebrew University laboratories and put at the disposal of the British Army. So successful was the use of this new wound-healing product that it was also offered to the Russian Government.

A second example of the change that has been wrought in Palestine is the condition of the youth population. When the armies entered Palestine in World War No. 1, they found a population whose health condition was at the lowest ebb. Children wandered about uncared for, beset by serious disease, and so seriously undernourished that their future health was jeopardized. A survey of the youth population today will show that in a quarter of a century, six or seven centuries have been bridged, and the standards of the twentieth century introduced into a land that had been living on the level of the thirteenth century.

The large oriental population in the country had accepted the fact that it was the will of Allah that children should die in infancy. With the opening of the Hadassah child-welfare centers, it became clear that prophylactics could change that fate. Therefore, we believe that what we have brought into Palestine through Hadassah's health program is important, not only for the Jewish population alone, but also for the Arab population of Palestine, and indeed, for the Near East as a whole, bringing there health standards that evolved in the western world and which bear the imprint of the twentieth century. Such standards carry with them potentialities for a completely new approach to public health and bring a new scientific era to that part of the world.

I want to say one word on the effect of our work on the Arab population, both direct and indirect. Arabs have benefited directly by taking advantage of our hospitals and our out-patient departments.