Jewish Congress Fight Against Nazi Outrages Renewed in Urgent Call

Announcement was made last night at a meeting of the Administrative Committee of the American Jewish Congress that its honorary president, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Rabbi of the Free Synagogue and President of the Jewish Institute of Religion, has taken leave of absence from his duties for the present, alike in the Synagogue and the Institute, in order that he may devote his entire time to the work of the Congress, with special relation to the present German situation and especially with relation to the coming sessions of the American Jewish Congress to be held in May and an early session of the Executive of the World Jewish Congress in London.

At the contemplated session of the Executive of the World Jewish Congress, Dr. Wise, together with other leaders of the Congress, including its President, Bernard S. Deutsch, will attend on behalf of the American and World Jewish Congress.

THE CALL OF THE CONGRESS

The American Jewish Congress has issued the following call:

“To all the Jewish Organizations in New York and vicinity:

“The American Jewish Congress calls upon all the Jewish Organizations and Lodges to renew the protest movement of American Jewry against the persecutions in Germany. Never have conditions warranted such a mass demonstration of American Jewry as is now urgent. The German government assures us that the wave of atrocities and shedding of blood has passed, but the so-called “dry pogrom” against the Jewish masses in Germany still continues. Jewish attorneys, Jewish doctors, Jewish professors, Jewish nurses, Jewish judges, Jewish officials, Jewish students, and even Jewish children in the schools have been thrown out in the thousands.

SLOW DESTRUCTION

“The present German Government does not continue to destroy the Jewish people in Germany with one blow, but she destroys them slowly. The Jews of Germany are robbed of every possibility of earning a living. They are cut off from every source of livelihood. Every day brings new reports about the atrocious deeds, insults and acts of degradation against the Jews in Germany. The boycott, although unofficial, still continues. Jewish business men are forced to dismiss their Jewish help. Jewish books are being burned publicly in the streets of Germany. The doors of the universities are closed to the Jewish students. The professions which were a source of livelihood for the past hundred years are closed to them.

“Even converts are not spared. Anyone with a drop of Jewish blood in his veins is insulted and degraded. The six hundred thousand Jews in Germany have been classified as Class Two, depriving them of the right of true citizenship. After having lived in Germany more than a thousand years, the Jew is declared a stranger in the country where his grandparents and great-grandparents lived and contributed to the fame and culture of Germany.

WORSE THAN VIOLENCE

“The American Jewish Congress looks upon this forcing out of the German Jews from all economic positions which they have acquired, this brazen insult and degradation of an entire people, as even worse than atrocities and acts of violence which were committed at the beginning of the Nazi regime. The American Jewish Congress considers this attempt, which Hitler now makes upon the existence and honor of the Jews in Germany, as an attempt not only against the German Jews but also on world Jewry. For it is obvious that if Hitler will succeed in carrying out his bloody program against the Jews in Germany and set them back to the status of the Middle Ages, it will be but a simple invitation to the other anti-Semitic countries to follow suit and then we shall have such a bacchanal of world anti-Semitism as has never been witnessed in modern times.

LET THE WORLD KNOW

“Against this danger, the American Jewish Congress calls upon the Jewish masses in America to protest in the strongest terms possible. Let all America and its public opinion be aroused by the Jewish cries of protest, which should be heard from New York to California. Let the Jewish sorrow and wrath, which burns in every Jewish heart, burst forth like a volcano from one end of the country to the other. The world must not be led to think that we have calmed down, or that the world can sit back peacefully before complete justice will be meted out to the Jews in Germany.

“In order to organize the renewed protest movement, the American Jewish Congress calls a mass conference, which is to take place next Wednesday the 19th of April, 8 P. M. at the Hotel Pennsylvania, 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, New York. Every Jewish organization in New York and vicinity should send two delegates with credentials. Those lodges that do not meet until Wednesday can send two of their officers who should have credentials. All Jewish organizations who agree with us, that the protest should be confined only to the Jewish persecutions in Germany, are welcome. All Jewish organizations, with the exception of those who were rejected at the last meeting at the Hotel Astor, must come. The hour has struck for the greatest demonstration which the Jews of America have ever had.

“Let us all, through our representatives, reason together at the conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania, and let the call issue forth to all American Jews to renew the protest demonstration against Hitler and against the persecutions of the Jews in Germany.”