Brooklyn’s citizenry of all faiths honored Rabbi Stephen S. Wise at a dinner in the Hotel St. George last night, culminating a series of local celebrations of his sixtieth birthday.
The dinner marked the opening of a borough wide campaign against the spread of Nazi propaganda in this country, and Rabbi Wise consented to be the guest of honor on condition that proceeds of the affair be used for that purpose, Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May, who was the toastmaster, announced.
Among those attending were the Rev. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, former president of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America; James H. Post, philanthropist; Professor Alfonse Goldschmidt, exiled German scholar; Rabbi Sidney S. Tedesche of Union Temple, and Rabbi Harry Halperin of the East Midwood Temple, who delivered the invocation.
Brooklyn Division of American Jewish Congress and a dinner committee of 500 headed by Justice May sponsored the dinner for Dr. Wise who was characterized by Mr. Post as “the best known Jew in the world.”
Dr. Goldschmidt described Rabbi Wise as “one of the most sincere, truthful and effective warriors against the terrible injustice of Hitlerism.”
Justice May called the attention of those present to the fact that the Nazi counter-offensive was concentrated in the borough and it was therefore fitting to launch a campaign against Hitlerism there. Dr. Goldschmidt expressed the belief that the collapse of the Nazi regime will come sooner than most people expect.
ASKS INTENSIFIED BOYCOTT
Responding to the tributes, Rabbi Wise declared, “We are met here tonight not to celebrate the personal fortunes of any individual. We are met as men, as Jews and as Americans–in order to take counsel with regard to what is at one and the same time the most grievous menace that has ever confronted world Jewry and, by the same token, the most imperiling challenge that has come to Christendom and indeed to all of civilization within 1,000 years.”
Rabbi Wise called for the reinforcement of the boycott against German goods and services, stating that “the Jews must assume the major part of the burden, must unite in salvaging the wreckage, that is to say, in providing and creating refuges for those fortunate enough to escape the hell of Hitler’s Germany.”
He expressed the hope that the United States Government may yet utter something to the effect that “the world cannot endure half-Hitler and half-free.”
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