An effort to win the Jewish masses in the United States, to the support of a world Jewish congress in the summer of 1934, who in turn “will compel their masters to accept this idea,” will be undertaken, asserted Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, honorary president of the American Jewish Congress and chief protagonist of the world Jewish congress plan, in an address delivered on Sunday at a joint meeting of the National Executive and Administrative Committees of the Congress at the Hotel Astor.
The meeting on Sunday was the first of a series of similar meetings to be held throughout the country which will be addressed by American delegates to the world Jewish conference where the world congress was decided upon, in an effort to bring to the Jewish communities first hand reports of what transpired at Geneva.
Rabbi Wise was one of eight speakers, all of whom were unanimous in the belief that the convocation of a world Jewish congress is made inevitable by the march of events.
All the speakers too were agreed that the Jews of the United States must play a decisive role in the convening of such a congress.
“The world Jewish congress is needed and it must come to pass, but it will not come to pass, but it will not come to pass, unless we persuade American Jewry to support it,” Dr. Wise asserted. “If we win the Jewish masses they will compel their masters to accept the idea.
“If we achieve it, if that Congress be held, if we, together with our European brothers hold the great Jewish Congress, not only will the World Jewish Congress be a political event in Jewish history, but God give it, that after the world Jewish Congress, Jewish history may begin to read differently.
“Who knows but that a great daring, unafraid effort on our part may have a transforming effect upon Jewish history for all the generations to come,” Dr. Wise exclaimed.
At the Congress session he reiterated his challenge uttered in his sermon at the Sunday morning services of the Free Synagogue, to those Jews, who cannot maintain a courageous attitude to abstain from participation in Jewish affairs. At the same time, however, he asserted the world Jewish congress initiators welcome support from all sides.
“We exile no one. No Jew is going to be put into “Cherem” by us,” he said. “The only Jews who are going to be shut out of the world Jewish Congress are the Jews who shut themselves out, because they deny the brotherhood, the peoplehood of Israel,” Dr. Wise said.
“European Jewry, he asserted, “expects us now to move forward. We must and we will. When I speak of European Jews, I mean the great Jewries representative of the conference outside of our own—the Polish, Roumanian, German—those three Jewries together which promise four and a half million Jews. Those three Jewries, numerically and our Jewry, when thrown together constitute over half the Jews of the world. They know the difficulties. They know all the charges that have been made. They know all about the dire prophecies and still they expect us as a Jewry not yet smitten by anti-Semitism, as are the Jewries I have named, to take the lead, to keep the lead, to do the spade-work in making possible the World Jewish Congress,” he asserted.
Discussing the charges that the leaders of the Geneva Jewish Congress played into the hands of the Hitlerites, Rabbi Wise said:
“Within a few days, we have been told by some one whom I have alluded to today as a tourist Rabbi, or a rabbinical tourist, that the conference in Geneva played into the hands of Hitler.
“Whenever Jews do anything self-respecting, the fear is expressed that they are playing into somebody’s hands.
That is an old, old story. You know even the protest rabbi. The great Herzl had the great protest-rabbi. Why should not we little men have our protest rabbi. It is the fate of a great Jewish people to be opposed, to be threatened, politically and violently, to be menaced by those who make no contribution to the solution of the problems of Jewish life, but talk, talk and talk. I talk too, but at least I can say, I am a brother, a friend and servant of the Jewish people. These men talk like the enemies of the Jewish people: Hands off. Leave us alone. If you have nothing to bring to Jewish life but a cheap imitation of pusillanimity in dealing with Jewish problems, leave us alone, let these problems be determined by men of decent self-respect,” Rabbi Wise challenged.
He recalled that on August 14th, the day on which the Jewish conference in Geneva opened, the “Jewish Daily Bulletin” carried a despatch from Berlin in which it quoted reports received by the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, declaring that the Central Union has in recent weeks been flooded with communications from the provinces revealing how the “hitherto peaceful Jewish life in the small towns has been turned into a veritable hell where the Jews fear for their lives.”
“That appeared on August 14th,” he proceeded. “At the same time our friends tell us we are playing into the hands of Hitler. I wish you had heard the German delegates. Of course they did not say: ‘Jews of America, Jews of Roumania, Jews of Poland, please help us. We are lost. We are going down in defeat.’ They fought this with the courage of men and carried themselves with the dignity of Jews. But they are infinitely grateful for the sympathy and heartening that we brought them.
“Dr. Georg Kareski, former president of the Berlin Jewish Community, said: ‘We shall feel strengthened by your understanding and your brotherliness whatever the days that lie ahead may bring us’.”
It is ridiculous, Rabbi Wise asserted, to be intimidated by the charges hurled at the Jews by the anti-Semites wherever they be.
“There was a half-sane Congressman in Pennsylvania last year who said: ‘The international Jewish bankers are responsible for the depression.’ And he began by citing the name of Kuhn, Loeb and Company. He lied and he knew that he lied. He lied falsely and foully. Neither the international Jewish bankers, nor Kuhn, Loeb and Co. had any more to do with the depression than you or I. Will the protest rabbi presume to urge that the firm of Kuhn, Loeb and Co. withdraw from the banking business because the Congressman declared that Jews are responsible for the financial depression? No. He would not dare to do that. He did propose that there be no world Jewish congress, that there be no united Jewish action, because we are playing into the hands of Hitler,” Rabbi Wise asserted.
Other speakers included Bernard S. Deutsch, president of the American Jewish Congress; Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Congress; Baruch Zuckerman, vice-president of the Congress; Z. Tygel, director of the Federation of Polish Jews and secretary of the Committee which is to arrange for the convening of the Congress; Mrs. Stephen S. Wise, president of the women’s branch of the American Jewish Congress and Abraham H. Cohen, director of the American Jewish Congress. Nathan D. Perlman presided.
Mr. Deutsch described the Geneva Jewish conference and stressed its representative character. “We of the American delegation came to the conference to listen and to learn from our European brothers. Their simple yet eloquent recital of their conditions taught us to respect their unanimous decision to convene a world Jewish Congress at the earliest possible time.”
He expressed his belief that the Geneva Jewish conference “succeeded in pricking the conscience of the liberal Christian world as evidenced by the flood of favorable comment from leading newspapers throughout the world.”
The organizing committee of the world Jewish congress, he asserted, is “determined to bring into the eventual world Jewish congress all forces in world Jewry,” and concluded on the note that: “We have here in this world Jewish Congress the great and historic instrument which will regenerate the Jewish people if we possess the courage and the will to grasp this instrument and forge it to our use.”
Describing the aims of a world Jewish Congress, Dr. Tenenbaum said it is “to strive for survival through revival. The world Jewish congress is a vital necessity. There was never a more propitious time for Jewry to unite in the defense of all that is valuable in civilization.”
Baruch Zuckerman urged that the Jewish masses and the labor groups in particular, be drawn into support of a world Jewish Congress.
Mr. Zuckerman’s address was in the nature of a farewell as he sails on the Bremen on September 30th, to take up residence in Palestine in connection with his work for the Palestine Foundation Fund.
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.
