Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 230

part of the Jewish population too, which until recently held aloof from Zionism, within our sphere of activity and to see to it that a number of them should be enabled to settle in Palestine. Both in a memorandum to the Executive in Jerusalem as well as in the press we have called attention to this problem of our village Jews and sought to interest the authorities concerned. Our efforts havenot been without success. Of the 400 certificates which the Jewish Agency allotted to farmers from the previous schedule we received 100 for East Galicia, on the basis of which about 800 Jews were able to be admitted to Palestine. Local branches of this organisation are being formed in most villages, and over 2,000 applications have been registered for immigration certificates. Women's Organisations.—The W.I.Z.O. is active in this country. In a number of towns there are also groups of the " Kolo Kobiet Zydowskich," to which women who are General Zionists belong, whilst the W.I.Z.O. is of an inter-party character. Palestine Office.—The Chairman of the Palestine Commission is Dr. David Schreiber. We have complained for years of the treatment of the Lemberg Palestine Office by the Jewish Agency, which has subordinated our office to that in Warsaw, although there is no legal ground for it. We are not represented in the Warsaw Palestine Office, and decisions are taken there without any influence on our part. Despite our repeated demand to place our Palestine Office on the same level as the other and to rcognise it as independent, nothing has yet been done. The independent settlement of the immigration matters of East Galicia by the office in Warsaw has often aroused our dissatisfaction. Funds.—It may be mentioned that the Ussischkin campaign yielded 45,494.05 zl., the expenses amounting to only 5,266.26 zL The Keren Kayemeth is directed by Rabbi J. Levin and the Keren Hayesod by Mr. N. Landau. Cultural Work.—As in the previous period the Jewish Education Society and the Tarbuth have been active, the former under the direction of Dr. M. Geyer and the latter under Dr. Max Leser. Shekel Collection.—The Shekel Collection is being carried out by us this year on a very large scale. The final figures are not yet known, but it can already be stated that about 140,000 Shekolim will be disposed of for the 19th Congress. Local Politics.—As in previous years the Seym deputies, Dr. H. Rosmarin, Dr. E. Sommerstein and Dr. Fischel Rottenstreich, together with other Zionist deputies of Poland have been in charge of Jewish national politics in this country. Their indefatigable efforts were devoted to the defence of the economic and cultural positions of the Jews, but they were only able to a very small extent to mitigate the process of pauperisation to which the Jewish population is exposed. In most places elections for the communal councils have taken place, at which our organisation took a leading part in fighting for an adequate Jewish representation. The result of this work was the election of an adequate number of Jewish 230