[The purpose of the Digest is informative. Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval–Editor.]
That Jewish honor may suffer from the conflict between the “rights” and the “lefts” in the Jewish labor unions of New York and that therefore Jewish public opinion will have to intervene in this fight, is the opinion expressed by the “Day” of Jan. 16, wherein we read:
“The conflict between the Right and the Left in the Jewish labor movement has gone beyond the limits of a purely economic fight and has assumed the aspect of a national scandal, which concerns the whole Jewish people of America.
“The question of wages and hours and of union control has been pushed into the background; the sore problem of leadership in the broken ranks of the Jewish labor movement has been obscured. First of all, above all, there stands today the question of Jewish honor, of the Jewish position in America, which is placed at stake o##ing to the quarrels between the two factions in the labor movement.
“It was criminal and unpardonable at the very outset when the charges of ‘bolshevism’ were hurled back and forth in order to discredit the opponents. Even then anyone familiar with the situation in America could foresee the danger that such a charge might strike not only the accused labor leaders and their followers, but the whole Jewish community in the United States as well.
“It is too early to pass a verdict on the serious charges of the American Federation of Labor; these charges are being investigated and we need not anticipate the findings. But one thing is certain: no matter how the investigation results, whether in a victory for the Rights or for the Lefts, the Jewish immigrant will be the scapegoat.
“Something must be done, and quickly, to stop the bitter, desperate internal conflict in the Jewish labor movement, which not only endangers the position of the immigrants who are now in America but also endangers the chances of the thousands and thousands of immigrant families who are so anxiously looking forward to a change in America’s atitude on immigration. Unless the leaders of the fighting factions will arrive at a peace, at an armistice or at least decide on methods of combat that will not disturb the peaceful, so to say, civil population, Jewish public opinion will have to intervene in order to make them all harmless. The interests of the Jews of America stand above the interests and rights of the Rights and Lefts.”
Full cooperation with New York authorities in investigating the graft charges made against members of the Police Department in connection with the recent fur strike, was pledged by William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor.
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.
