Letters to the Editor

To the Editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin:

The cruel senselessness of the fate of the German Jews gives us a great deal of food for thought.

Will the Jews in Germany realize that their past policy of unconditional assimilation to German cultural life has caused, to a large extent, their present troubles and that, being undesired, maintaining a dignified distance from the Germans and their cultural aspirations would today be the only appropriate policy.

A neo-German one hundred percent Jewish patriotism would today be a grave mistake. Nevertheless there seem to be indications that certain Jewish groups in Germany have not yet learned enough from their experience and, in trying to adjust themselves to the new situation, are not always maintaining the dignity imperative in their position which alone will command respect from the German people.

For the Jews in other countries the present events are also a great lesson. The policy of the German Jews has proved to be wrong. Anti-Semitism will never be overcome by abnegating ourselves, our individuality, our race and religion, by full absorbing the culture of other nations and throwing overboard the spiritual treasures of our own people.

In the contrary, by developing these cultural values, Jewish learning and self-consciousness in ourselves and our children we create a resistance power in our people for times good and bad which alone will secure for us the respect of our neighbors.

S.S.

FOR A SYMBOL OF GRATITUDE

To the Editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin:

Captain Alfred Dreyfus was the greatest sufferer from anti-Semitic injustice in modern times, the victim of a military cabal whose intrigues almost defied detection and while this is remembered by those who lived during the exciting times incident to his incarceration and trial, several generations have since been born and their knowledge of the Dreyfus affair is vague.

The story lives in history and even a motion picture has recently revived interest in the case. But the heroes of the case, the real liberators of Dreyfus, seem to be forgotten and I propose that they should be remembered in bronze as a tribute by the Jews of this country to Justice triumphant and a tribute to France, where final justice saved the good name of that Republic, which now offers the Jew exiled from the land of Hitler, asylum.

In appreciation, America should erect a monument to the memory of Colonel Picard, Emile Zola and Georges Clemenceau, the noble trio that suffered banishment from their country in the cause of Justice which they lived to see restored and the wrong done them righted by a generous people.

I propose that a suitable memorial be erected in a conspicuous place, such as the Mall in Central Park and a replica sent to the people of France, to reciprocate the magnanimity of France’s presentation to this country of the Statue of Liberty. H. Jandorf.