top

January 7-8: Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion appear before the Peel Commission. (Read a selection from Weizmann's statement.)

February 15: The water company Mekorot is established by Jewish Agency, Keren Hayesod, the Jewish National Fund and the Histadrut. The first water pipeline is extended from the foot of the Carmel to the western Jezreel Valley. One of the "founding fathers" of Mekorot is Levi Eshkol, who will head it for years.

April 13: The first of the vessels called the "Af al Pi" ("Despite All) group, which during 1937-1939 are brought to Palestine by Moshe Galili and the Betar movement, disembarks 15 illegal immigrants on the Haifa shore.

June 8: The Palestine Maritime League is founded with the support of the national institutions. Its object is the development of Jewish shipping and encourage "the seafaring pioneering spirit in the Jewish people." In 1938, the league will found a nautical school affiliated to the Haifa Technion.

August 20: The 20th Zionist Congress opens in Zürich. The partition proposal is the main subject of debate preceding and during the Congress. Advocates of partition stress that in light of the Nazi danger in Europe, the plan for the establishment of a Jewish state, however small, should be accepted in order to provide refuge to the masses of Jews whose fate was threatened. Opponents, headed by Menachem Ussishkin, Yitzhak Tabenkin and Berl Katznelson, reject the idea of dividing the country, on the grounds that so small a state cannot solve the problems of the Diaspora Jews, will be overly dependent on Britain and will be outbalanced by the proposed new Arab state. After prolonged debate, a proposal by Ben Gurion was accepted: the Congress declares that the partition plan proposed by the Peel Commission is not to be accepted, but nevertheless empowers the executive "to carry on negotiations in order to clarify the exact substance of the British government's proposal for the foundation of a Jewish state in Palestine." Chaim Weizmann is reelected president, and the executive is also reelected under the chairmanship of David Ben Gurion.

In the wake of the Peel Commission the Jewish Agency sets up committees to begin planning for the state. Its role was summed up as follows: "It may be said that the Jewish Agency has used to the fullest extent the position conferred on it by the Mandate. In the course of time it has created a complete administrative apparatus. This powerful and efficient organization amounts, in fact, to a Government existing side by side with the Mandatory Government."

The efforts to suppress the terror intensify relations between the Jewish Agency and the authorities. (Moshe Shertok: "This entire defense enterprise will not work unless it is run by the Jewish Agency.")

October 20: Death of Felix Warburg, public figure and American Jewish philanthropist. Born in 1871, he was one of the founders of the "Joint" and its president from 1914 to 1932. Warburg was one of the first donors to contribute to the establishment of the Hebrew University. He was also one of the non-Zionist leaders who took part in the establishment of the Greater Jewish Agency and was elected chairman of its Administrative Committee in 1929. He resigned his post in 1930 as a protest against the publication of the White Paper.

Immigration during 1937 is at its lowest since 1931: 10,629.
16 settlements are founded.

Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive: David Ben Gurion.

Treasurer of the Jewish Agency: Eliezer Kaplan.

Chairman Youth Aliyah Department: Henrietta Szold.

Chairman Settlement Department: Dr. Maurice Hexter.

Chairman of the Immigration Department: Eliahu Dobkin and Moshe Shapira.

Arthur Biram (1878-1967), principal of the Reali School in Haifa, initiates a paramilitary training program for his students.

January 12: The first Arab testimony is given to the Peel Commission following a decision by the Arabs to revoke their boycott of the commission.

February 11: Vladimir Jabotinsky, banned by the British from entering Palestine, appears before the Peel Commission in London.

Although a cease fire prevails in Palestine from October 1936 to September 1937, numerous incidents occur.

April 23: On the eve of the reunion of the "Irgun Bet" movement with the Haganah, about half of its members seceded an independent existence as the Irgun Zv'ai Leumi (Etzel).

May: Yitzhak Ben Zvi, chairman of the National Council, represents the Yishuv at the coronation of King George VI.

June 30: The first religious kibbutz, Tirat Zvi, is founded in the Bet Shean valley. It is the first of five "Homa U'Migdal" settlements set up during the week preceding the publication of the Partition Plan of the Peel Commission.

July 7: The findings of the Peel Commission are published.

Elections in the Yishuv for the 20th Zionist Congress result in 85 seats for Labor, 20 for Mizrahi and 18 for the three General Zionist factions.

July 30: Session of the Permanent Mandates Commission.

August 29-30: Violence resumes after almost a year of uneasy calm.

September 26: Arab attackers murder the British District Commissioner of the Galilee, Lewis Andrews.
Arab rebels take control of large swaths of the country - roads, villages and cities.

October 1: The British respond harshly to the Arab renewal violence. The British begin operating military courts in the Galilee. The Arab Higher Committee is disbanded, the Grand Mufti, Haj Amin al Husseini, is desposed and flees to Lebanon disguised as a Bedouin. Several Arab leaders are deported to the Seychelles islands.

October 24: The government announces the appointment of Sir Charles Taggart as responsible for the elimination of terrorism in Palestine.

October 30: Report of the Royal Palestine Commission.

November 11: The first Etzel attack occurs, killing two Arabs at a bus deport near Jaffa street in Jerusalem, and wounding five.

November 14: Black Sunday. Etzel attacks Arabs in Jerusalem and Haifa. The question of offensive or defensive behavior is debated in Palestine. Etzel openly espouses ending the Haganah policy of restraint.

December: Arab terrorism intensifies in Jerusalem.

December 23-25: The British army suppresses Arab bands in the Galilee.

December 27: The Haganah decides to establish Field Companies under the command of Itzhak Sadeh.

Mandatory report for 1937.

Nazi Germany in 1937.

The Nazis order all works by Marc Chagall in German museums taken down.

The Nazis hold the exhibition "Entartete Kunst" - "Degenerate Art" in München. It includes works of famous 20th century Jewish artists.

Paul Muni (Muni Weisenfreund, 1895-1967) stars in "The Life of Emile Zola", which receives an Academy Award for the best picture. The main theme of the film is the Dreyfus case. Antisemitism, which destroyed Dreyfus' career, is completely ignored. The word "Jew" is absent from the script. Joseph Schildkraut (1895-1964), as Dreyfus wins an Academy Award as best supporting actor.

The Jewish Museum Berlin holds an exhibition in honor of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Don Isaac Abrabanel, with a catalog by Rachel Wischnitzer (1892-1989). Later in the year, it holds an exhibition on the 100th anniversary of the death of Akiba Eger, the grand rabbi of Posen, again with a catalog by Rachel Wischnitzer. it is probably the last Jewish exhibition in Germany before the Holocaust.

Jiri Langer (1894-1943), Czech poet and author writes "Nine gates to the Chassidic Mysteries", a volume of Hasidic tales. Born to an acculturated upper-class family, Langer leaves his native Prague for the Hasidic community of Belz. He teaches Hebrew to his friend Franz Kafka. He will flee to Palestine after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Paul Muni and Luise Rainer are the main actors in "The Good Earth", Pearl S. Buck's story of the ups and downs of a Chinese peasant family.

October: Anti-Jewish riots, inspired by local Nazis break out in Danzig. Half of the city's Jews leave within one year.

The South African Aliens Act closes a loophole in the Quota Act of 1930 and halts the entry of Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany into South Africa.