The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

“planned” mass migration was preferable to a policy of infiltration which would
encompass only small groups of migrants over a protracted time frame. 5
New York Rabbi Jonah B. Wise pledged the cooperation and financial support
of the American Joint Distribution Committee and noted that millions of dollars had
already been expended in Central Europe for refugee work. Dr. Arthur Ruppin of the
Jewish Agency remarked that forty thousand Jewish refugees had been admitted into
Palestine by the time of the Conference. Norman Bentwich of the London Council for
German Jewry and Nahum Goldmann representing the World Jewish Congress called for
inclusion in the workings of the meeting the Jews of Poland, Rumania and Hungary.
Goldmann anticipated the eventual migration of at least two hundred thousand Jews from
Greater Germany in the near future. Mrs. Mary Ormerod, a London Quaker and
secretary of the Coordinating Committee, reminded the delegates that the refugee crisis
was not solely a Jewish issue but included German Christians who were unable to support
Nazi policies and consequently became “refugees for conscience sake.” 6
“Short” analyses of the memoranda and public statements of these groups were
constructed by the Conference Secretariat and submitted to the delegations as a whole.
The sub-committee members heard “moving stories [of a] great human tragedy” that
5 Ibid., 1. The British League of Nations Union’s first chairman was Lord Cecil and Lloyd George and
Sir Edward Grey served as honorary presidents.
6 Ibid., 4. Reform Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise (1881-1959) established a weekly radio program in 1934, the
“Message of Israel,” and served as the national chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee from 1931-
1938. He became national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal in 1939 although he did not support
Zionism. Bentwich (1883-1971) was an English Zionist who served in 1920 as Attorney General in
Palestine and chair of international relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During 1933 he
assumed the post of deputy to the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from Germany.
Nahum Goldmann (1905-1982) was a Zionist and Jewish leader who had served in the Jewish affairs
section of the German Foreign Ministry during WWI. During the interwar period he belonged to a more
radical Zionist faction opposed to the leadership of Chaim Weizmann but following the assumption of
power of Hitler in 1933 he became a Weizmann supporter. Ruppin (1876-1943), a Prussian born Jew and
attorney, became a sociologist and director of agricultural projects within Palestine.
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