(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)
Bishop Desider Balthasar, head of the Calvinist Church in Hungary, convoked a big public meeting in the Theological High School, Debreczyn, for the purpose of organizing support for the pro-Palestine work in the country, states the “Wiener Morgenzeitung” here. The head of the Jewish National Fund in Hungary, M. Bela Szekeli, delivered an address on the present position of the Zionist movement.
Dr. Karl Erdoe, Rector of the High School, in opening the meeting, said that the upbuilding work of the Jews in Palestine was restoring to the country its ancient holiness.
Bishop Balthasar, who began his speech with the words “Shalom Ubracha,” said: “The Jewish question which is occupying us at present is an immense question. It is an eternal question, like the Jewish people itself which God maintains eternally in its genius, its distinctiveness and its cultural forms.
“Those who look at the Jewish question from the standpoint of anti-Semitism belong to the less valuable elements of civilization. The civilized world sees the question not from the anti-Semitic standpoint, but from the standpoint that the Christian community in order to safeguard its own interests must look to it that the Jewish people which lives scattered all over the world should so arrange its future that it should be of benefit to all mankind.
“There is no contradiction between Zionism and the patriotism of the Jew to his country. The upbuilding of Palestine is the basic solution of the Jewish question and it promises to be a success. It means a liberation not only of the Jews, but also of those sections of the Christian community which look upon world problems with humane eyes. It is our moral duty to support the upbuilding of Palestine, this splendid economic and national concentration of the forces of Jewry. We Hungarian Protestants must cooperate in this work together with the Protestants of England and Germany. I am very proud to be at the head of this pioneer work in Hungary,” the Bishop stated.
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.
