Response
The plan won little support from leaders of American Jewish people, with the exception of the Labor Zionists of America. Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, stated that adoption of the Alaska proposal would deliver "a wrong and hurtful impression ... that Jews are taking over some part of the country for settlement."
Non-Jewish Americans also moved against the proposal, relying on anti-Jewish rhetoric and fear of the socialism that was commonly believed to be associated with European Jewish populations.
The plan was dealt a severe blow when Franklin Roosevelt told Ickes that he insisted on limiting the number of refugees to 10,000 a year for five years, and with a further restriction that Jews not make up more than 10% of the refugees. Roosevelt never mentioned the Alaska proposal in public, and without his support the plan died.
Read more about this topic: Slattery Report
Famous quotes containing the word response:
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All revelation has been ours.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“I am accustomed to think very long of going anywhere,—am slow to move. I hope to hear a response of the oracle first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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