Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.-Editor.]

The Jews of Roumania now have an ally in the Baptists, avers the “Day” (Nov. 10), commenting on the decision of the World Federation of Baptist Churches, as announced by Dr. Edgar A. Mullins, its president, to file a protest with the League of Nations against Roumania for her persecution of the Baptists.

“The attitude of the Baptists is exactly similar to the attitude of the Jews toward Roumania. We, too, have realized that the only way to influence the Roumanian Government is through enlightenment of public opinion. And we, too, have realized the importance of turning to the League of Nations, as to the conscience of mankind,” the “Day” declares.

“But up till now we have been among the very few to raise a voice against Roumania, and apparently the Jewish voice does not reach very far. Public opinion reacted very indifferently to our protests and even the conscience of mankind’ was not moved much by our cry.

“Perhaps things will now take a different turn; for now the Jews are not alone in their protests but the Baptists also, the true acknowledged Protestants of the Christian Church, are raising their voice against the same government. If our Jewish complaints were disregarded, perhaps their complaints will be heeded, for they have better luck than we and more esteem, being connected with the most select element of American Christian society. Jewish public opinion will therefore watch with keen interest the further steps of the world Federation of Baptist Churches.”

INTOLERANCE IN PORT HURON

The row created in Port Huron, Mich., by elements believed to be connected with the Ku Klux Klan, because the new flagpole of the Methodist Church in that town was presented by a Jew and is to be dedicated by an Irish Catholic churchman, is termed “an example of ignorant intolerance” by the Chicago “Tribune” of November 10. The paper says:

“The affair is an example of ignorant intolerance. To most of us, the gift of a flagpole to a Christian church by a Jew, and the selection by a Methodist minister of a Roman Catholic priest as a speaker, bespeak a generous, patriotic fellowship, admirable and exemplary. What more fitting than that a ceremony commemorative of a national union of all creeds should be shared in by all creeds?

“It has not been discovered who the plotters are. Their activities have the earmarks of the Ku Klux Klan, but they may be mere straggling ignoramuses, equal in savage brutishness, but as yet not dangerously organized. Whoever they are, they are too uncouth to realize that they are threatening the safety and sanctity of the national emblem with its thirteen stripes side by side and its union of forty-eight stars, instead of protecting it.”