Naiditch, European Zionist Leader, Attacks Magnes and Bergmann and Calls for Resignation of Hebrew U

Not until the investigating committee will determine who is to blame for the acts of violence committed in Palestine in recent months, not until the civilized world will see clearly who is to “bear the mark of Cain,” can there be any talk of peace negotiations, declares Isaac Naiditch, Zionist leader, in the Paris Yiddish daily, “Haynt.” But in any event, says Mr. Naiditch, such negotiations should not be conducted by irresponsible or short-sighted persons.

Indicting Professor Bergmann and Dr. Magnes for their recent pronouncements, Mr. Naiditch declares:

“Dr. Hugo Bergmann, who is at the head of such a great national Jewish institution as the National Library permits himself to write, in the general as well as the Zionist press articles in which we are accused of chauvinism and of violating the rights of the Arabs, and he has chosen this period of bitter struggles in which we find ourselves today for his harangues. To such outbursts at such a time a really healthy people should give only one answer: such people cannot remain any longer at responsible national posts.

“At the head of our university stands Dr. Magnes. We cannot tolerate the fact that this gentleman, acting in an entirely irresponsible manner, is carrying on negotiations about a peace treaty with the Arabs, agreeing upon a parliament where Jews should be represented in proportion to their numbers in the country, which means entrusting the Yishub in the hands of an Arab majority and allowing our enemies to supervise Jewish immigration, forgetting entirely that even Churchill’s White Paper declares that Jews are coming into Palestine as of right and not as of sufferance.

“How can such an irresponsible person, who does everything as it seems by impulse, remain at the head of that cultural institution that should serve the national interests of Palestine and world Jewry?”