DER PALAESTINA - CENTRALE DER AGUDAS JISROEL - An official activity report of Agudath Israel detailing the efforts and activities of the association in Germany to save Jews and bring them to Ererz Israel under Nazi rule, Frankfurt am Main, 1937. Typewriter printing. German. Rare.
The report details how starting in 1933 with Hitler's rise to power and the narrowing of German Jewry, Agudat Israel increased its efforts to help Jews escape from its territory and immigrate to the Land of Israel, despite the fact that it had not previously acted in this way. The report states that until that year the association was almost never engaged in the activity of bringing Jews to the Land of Israel due to the spiritual danger of mixing with secular Zionist groups. It was called the "Reich Representation of German Jews" and as a result Agudat Israel's office was forced to negotiate directly with it. The association decided to establish a "Palestine headquarters" in Germany and in several countries outside of it, which would help bring Jews to the Land of Israel. The report details the association's activities in the various offices throughout Berlin, and the difficulties it faced with the rise of the Nazi Party to power. The report was written during a difficult time when the Nazis closed all the offices of the association that were officially operating, and as of the time of writing the report (1937) individual offices were operating voluntarily by the workers in them. The report also discusses Agudat Israel's relationship to the "Settlement Fund" and an examination of careful cooperation with it, the nature of the culture department and its activities in Germany, the activity of Dr. Yitzhak Breuer in helping Jews who left Germany, extensive detail about land that the association bought in the Land of Israel, The activity in 'Beit Ya'akov' schools in Germany, its activity in the Netherlands, Austria, Serbia, Vienna, institutions in Latvia, etc. The report tells about a rescue fund established in Warsaw that is used to support Jews who were physically and property harmed by the Nazis etc. The principle that emerges from the report is that Agudath Israel's opposition to Zionism is not opposition to immigration to Eretz Israel, and that due to the plight of the German Jews everything must be done to help the Jews leave and immigrate to the Land of Israel.
44 p. Stencil printing. 33 cm. apparently missing end.
