Adler Asks Increased Aid for Allied Campaign

Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary and a member of the administrative committee of the Jewish Agency issued an appeal yesterday for increased contributions to the Allied Jewish Campaign.

“It requires a robust spirit to look upon the conditions of the world and particularly of the Jewish people in the world with cheerfulness,” said Dr. Adler. “Here in America an undue timidity has developed on the part of the more apprehensive among us in coping with the needs which the industrial and commercial depression have brought about.

“But taking the conditions in this country at their worst, there is nothing in any Jewish community in America at all comparable with that which exists in other parts of the world. For every case of distress in America there are 100 infinitely worse cases in Poland; Roumania, a country impoverished, has aggravated this situation among its Jewish population by all kinds of excesses; in Russia, where no discrimination exists, everybody is impoverished almost to the last stage of exhaustion; added to that now is the dangerous situation in Germany, a danger which not only makes the lot of the poor harder, but threatens the property, the rights and mayhap even the lives of that strong and hitherto self-contained Jewish community.

DOORS OF COUNTRIES CLOSED

“Economic conditions and political agitation have closed, or almost closed, the doors of most countries to which the Jews of Eastern Europe might go to remove themselves from an intolerable situation. Grave difficulties impend in the Holy Land, the cradle of our people and our religion. All the more must the courageous Jewish settlement in Palestine be aided and encouraged and the institutions for education, culture—the hospitals and the health centers be supported.

“While undoubtedly there has been considerable shrinkage of the substance of many people in this country, the extraordinary prosperity of past years has by no means been transformed into impoverishment. It we are honest with ourselves, we will still find that we have reserves far in excess of what we had before the War when the fifteen years of the indescribable sufferings of European Jewry began. Over against the few who, perhaps, have lost their all, there are countless of us—the overwhelming majority—who are still in the position to give without depriving themselves and their families—indeed, to given even more generously because of the inability of those who unfortunately are denied the privilege of continuing their support.

“With the full sense of the need at home and even with the full recognition of the difference in philosophy of various sections of our community, I appeal to them to become and remain united in this plain and simple duty of doing for our brethren overseas the little which will make the difference to them between life and death.”