A large gathering of members of the Order Sons of Zion, a constituent body of the Zionist Organization of America, and many prominent Jews, honored Vladimir Jabotinsky, leader of the Zionist Revisionists, at a banquet given Wednesday evening at the Town Hall Club, under the auspices of the Order Sons of Zion.
The dinner was another step in the recent development following the adoption of a resolution by the Executive Committee of the Order, endorsing the program of the League of Zionist Revisionists and the insistence of the Committee that Mr. Jabotinsky prolong his stay in the United States in order to head a propaganda campaign for the aims of the League of Zionist Revisionists in the United States.
Sol Friedland, nassi of the Order, presided. Nathan Straus, Herman Bernstein, Dr. Herman Koerner, president of the Viennese sport club, Hakoah, Elias Ginsberg, Solomon Jacobi, executive secretary of the Central Committee of the Zionist Revisionists, Morris Symonds of Sydney, Australia and Judge Jacob S. Strahl, president of the Judea Industrial Corporation, were the speakers of the evening. The guest of honor was the last speaker.
Judge Strahl stated that the Order Sons of Zion, which was the first to take a definite stand with regard to the establishment of the Keren Hayesod in the United States when the then leaders of the Zionist Organization of America were opposed to inaugurating the Keren Hayesod collections in America, felt that it was its duty to come out openly for the Zionist Revisionists’ aims.
“I am capitulating to Jabotinsky,” Dr. Koerner declared. “Circumstances and events force us into the camp of the Revisionists. We will join his ranks with flying colors,” the president of the Hakoah declared.
Adherence to the Zionist Revisionists ideas, particularly with regard to proper protection in Palestine, was given expression to by Mr. Morris Symonds, president of the League of Sydney Zionists.
Mr. Herman Bernstein criticized what he termed “the silent boycott of the Zionist press” against Vladimir Jabotinsky. “It is a mistake to believe that a gifted publicist cannot be instructed with the affairs of statesmanship. Herzl was a publicist, Nordau was a publicist and, one may say that, in a broader sense, Moses, the Jewish Lawgiver, was a publicist, who put the Jewish people on the pages of mankind’s history.” Mr. Bernstein stated. Mr. Jacobi gave a description of the career and many achievements of the guest. Mr. Ginsburg, who was one of the group arrested by the military administration in Palestine following the 1920 riots, described Jabotinsky when he was a fellow-prisoner with him in the Acre jail, for taking up the self-defense at that time.
An ovation was rendered to Nathan Straus by the gathering. Nathan Straus paid tribute to Jabotinsky. “For no other man in America would I have come to New York today,” Mr. Straus said. “I love Jabotinsky and I believe that he who stands up for the right is right.”
Mr. Jabotinsky gave an outline of Zionist Revisionism. “The Revisionists are charged with pessimism. The contrary is true. We believe in the power of the Jewish people. We believe that right is more than might and we believe that in our fight for right, we are bound to win out. I believe, like Herzl, that the British are not a people of robbers, but are a people of judges. They will not commit any injustice to the Jewish people,” he declared.
“As to the program of the Zionist Revisionist League, if it could be shown that the problems which one or another point of the program deals with could be solved in any other way, we would dispense with it. We are entering a time of fighting for our ideals. I pledge to you my devotion and loyalty, just as I am sure of yours,” Mr. Jabotinsky concluded, amid acclamations from many in the audience.
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.
