[4.11.
1933-1938: Legal German Jewish immigration to
Palestine: 44,537 (official number)]
[Figures]
During the first three years, 1933-1935, the figures were
most impressive. Of a total of about 81,000 Jews who left
Germany 22,700 (28 %) left for Palestine. In 1935, when
62,000 Jews entered that country, it seemed as though this
was the most practical solution to the problem of the
refugees, politics and ideology aside.
[The Palestinians are not asked or mentioned, and the Arab
protest seems to be simply repressed].
[Joint fights for
priority to German Jews coming to Palestine]
Yet even in that heyday of optimism as regards the future
of the Jewish settlement in Palestine, two problems arose
to plague JDC. The first was the obvious fact that while
the German emergency was getting grimmer year by year, the
Jewish Agency allocated to German Jews well under a third
of the entry permits into Palestine. JDC exerted
considerable pressure on the Agency to change this policy
and to give German Jews an absolute priority.
Table 8:
Immigration
(Legal) to Palestine of Jews from Germany and
Austria
|
Year
|
From Germany
|
From Austria
|
Total
|
% of total (legal)
immigration
|
1933
|
6,803
|
328
|
7,131
|
22.3
|
1934
|
8,497
|
928
|
9,425
|
21.4
|
1935
|
7,447
|
1,376
|
8,823
|
14.5
|
1936
|
7,896
|
581
|
8,477
|
26.8
|
1937
|
3,280
|
214
|
3,494
|
28.1
|
1938
|
4,223
|
2,964
|
7,187
|
40.5
|
Total
|
38,146
|
6,391
|
44,537
|
22.3
|
(End note 62:
Sources: 15-2, Max Birnbaum; Rosenstock, op.
cit, pp. 15-32, HOG report on immigration to
Palestine. The figures included "tourists" who
stayed on in Palestine and were later legalized
by the government. If we combine the above
figures with those in Table 7, we will see that
Palestine absorbed approximately 18.4 percent of
total Jewish emigration from Germany in 1933,
36.8 % in 1934, 35.4 % in 1935, 31.5 % in 1936,
14.2 % in 1937, and 12 % in 1938. The figures
may have to be revised upwards very slightly to
take into account illegal immigration to
Palestine in those years. Between 1933 and the
end of 1938 about 165,000 Jews left Germany, and
of these about 45,000, or 27.2 %, entered
Palestine).
|
(p.163)
However, the Central Bureau for the Settlement of German
Jews in Palestine, an Agency office run by Dr. Weizmann,
could not accede to the request. The Agency had to
consider the claims of Jews in Poland, Lithuania, and
Romania, because those were the main constituents of the
Zionist organization and also because the situation of the
Jews in Eastern Europe was, from the economic point of
view certainly, even worse than that of the Jews in
Germany. In desperation, the Zionists even looked to Syria
and other Middle Eastern countries as temporary havens.
Weizmann stated that "there was plenty of room in Syria
for Jewish immigrants and that he understood that
Jews would be welcomed to that country."
(End note 63: 14-51, CBF Allocation Committee meeting,
5/7/34 [7 May 1934])
JDC's second problem was that the Zionists attempted to
make it use its funds for transporting emigrants to
Palestine. In this they succeeded in a large measure. JDC
put the cost of transport to Palestine, including its
expenditures for vocational training for Palestine, at
about $ 993,000 between 1933 and the end of 1938.
(End note 64: 42-Palestine immigration, 1938-43)
Even if the computation was exaggerated, as it seems to
have been, there is no doubt at all that JDC did in fact
support immigration to Palestine to a marked degree. This
was at a time when there was considerable competition for
funds in the United States between JDC and the United
Palestine Appeal. According to one JDC compilation,
various Palestine-oriented appeals collected a total of $
2,848,000 in the United States in 1933/4, whereas the JDC
collections amounted to $ 2,553,000
(End note 65: 42-Palestine, general, 1933-38)
at the same time. Weizmann's Central Bureau in London
received 936,000 pounds
(End note 66: 15-32)
between October 1933 and December 1938, or about $ 5
million. JDC income between 1934 and 1938 came to about $
12.8 million;
[Reasons for the Joint
Distribution Committee to support emigration for
Palestine - connection with ZA (Zentral-Ausschuss)]
but JDC had to give aid to East European Jewry, apart from
looking after refugees everywhere and supporting German
Jewry as well. Why then should JDC also support Palestine
ventures?
In April 1934 JDC issued a statement of policy, which
said: "Were the CBF, the ICA, the Jewish Agency for
Palestine to agree to a sharing of these responsibilities
(for everything outside of Palestine), which no other
agency in large measure has attempted to meet, the JDC
(p.164)
could see its way clear to an understanding whereby
important part of its resources can be applied toward the
settlement of German Jews in Palestine."
(End note 67: 14-46, Statement of Policy, 4/20/34 [20
April 1934])
Despite the declaration, in practice JDC had no choice but
to support the Palestine immigration office in Berlin,
because it was part of the Zentral-Ausschuss, and JDC
could not help supporting ZA in all its activities. Even
apart from that, Kahn found it necessary to support
Hechalutz in France and Poland, in Holland and Austria,
because it was one of the agencies that made the most
effective use of the money given them. On Palestine, JDC
suffered from a split personality; while heated arguments
might take place in its Executive Committee on how to
avoid spending too much money there, Warburg would declare
at the National Council that "the money spent there, which
at one time might have worried us, is well founded and
well spent."
(End note 68: JDC Library, National Council meeting,
4/13/35 [13 April 1935])
