The blaze of enthusiasm which has attended the visit to this country of Queen Marie of Roumania was deprecated by Rabbi William H. Fineshriber, of the Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, in his Sunday sermon at the Temple.
Rabbi Fineshriber expressed fear for the American standards of democracy, in speaking of the receptions accorded Queen Marie.
“One accepts the Queen of Roumania gladly as a woman of undoubted charm,” he said. “She has done excellent war work. But there are thousands like her, here and in Europe, but they are not banqueted or acclaimed. What has she done for humanity, what has she done for her own country? Has she uttered a single word of protest against the outrages committed in Roumania against the Baptists, Unitarians, Catholics and Jews?
“Human beings are beaten and tortured, homes destroyed, houses of worship burned. And all this is done not by irresponsible mobs, but by men of education and of political prominence. And the Roumanian government has not punished the offenders or protected the helpless victims. And the representative of this criminal country is greeted joyously by our Mayors and Governors!”
He expressed the hope that the remarkable enthusiasm attending her reception merely indicated “the triumph of skillful publicity methods and not the progressive disillusionment with democracy.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
