JEWISH ENVOY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 10, 12 January 1934, Page 12

JEWISH ENVOY.

DR. BENZION SHEIN. ADDRESSES IN DOMINION. DUE FROM SYDNEY TO-MORROW. On a mission of education and appeal to the Jews of New Zealand, Dr. Benzion Shein, special envoy of the World Zionist Organisation, will arrive in Auckland from Sydney to-rnorrow morning. Dr. Shein, who will remain in New Zealand for six weeks, will deliver a series of addresses to the Jewish congregations and the general public on the aims and objects of the Zionist movement, the progress of the rehabilitation of Palestine and the Jewish situation in Germany. He will be accorded a civic reception by the Mayor, Mr. G. W. Hutchison, at mid-day on Monday, and will address the- Rotary Club at its luncheon. On Tuesday night he will be given a reception by the Auckland Hebrew congregation, and on Thursday he will address a public meeting. Dr. Shein expects to spend a fortnight in Auckland.

Born near Riga in 1902, Dr. Shein in 1930, graduated with honours in medicine and surgery at the Basle University, where he was appointed to the staff of the surgical and later the obstetrical clinic. In 1924, after devoting much time to Zionism and other Jewish cultural subjects, he became official propagandist of the South African Zionist Federation, and in that capacity travelled throughout South Africa and Rhodesia. In July, 1927, he was appointed delegate to the loth World Zionist Congress, at Basle (Switzerland), and last year, at the instance of the World Zionist Organisation, he undertook a tour in the interests of the movement, and on behalf of the Jewish National Fund, established to assist the transferencs to Palestine of GermanJewish refugees expelled under the Hitler regime. This mission is taking him through New Zealand, Australia and the Far and' Near East. Before leaving on his tour, Dr. Shein revisited Palestine after an absence of 12 years—he had worked as a pioneer in the malaria-infested swamps of the Valley of Jezreel —and his survey of conditions disclosed many changes. TelAviv, the new Jewish city near Jaffa, had grown in population from 16,000 to 70,000, and the malaria-infested swamps of Jezreel had become farms, orchards and gardens. More than 45,000 Jews were engaged in agricultural occupations and employing the most modern methods of cultivation and treatment of the land. Approximately £42,000,000 has so far been spent in the rehabilitation of the Jewish people. Of this sum the Jewish National Fund has contributed £5,000,000, collected from Jewrv all over the world.

In Australia Dr. Shein is reported to have created a deep impression as an eloquent speaker.