Dr. Mordecai Nurok, chief rabbi of Latvia, was welcomed at City Hall yesterday afternoon by Mayor LaGuardia and Aldermanic President Bernard S. Deutsch. The visiting spiritual leader is in this country for the first time, having come to attend the recent meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
Last night, appearing at a reception in his honor given at the Hotel Astor by the American Jewish Congress, Dr. Nurok appealed to the Jews of the United States to come to the assistance of their co-religionists in Europe “in the most precarious situation which has confronted them in centuries.”
EUROPE FAVORS CONGRESS
He declared that European Jewry is almost unanimously behind the proposal for formation of a World Jewish Congress and charged that opposition to the project is based on “fear and circumspection.”
“With the example of German Jews before us,” Dr. Nurok warned, “we see clearly that the methods prompted by fear and circumspection have not availed us and will not avail us.”
The Jews of Europe are being persecuted and discriminated everywhere, he said.
“They are robbed of their freedom and citizenship rights, thrown out of responsible positions and declassed economically.”
GOES ON TOUR TODAY
As a founder of the Committee of Jewish Delegations of Paris and a member of the executive committee for the proposed World Jewish Congress, Dr. Nurok leaves New York today on a lecture tour. He will speak on the plight of European Jews and their attitude toward the Congress plan.
In his talk last night he said they need a center to which they can appeal in time of need.
“Such a center can come into being only through the participation of the masses of the Jewish people and not through individuals, however prominent their position.”
There is no valid reason why diverse groups should be unable to work together in a common cause, the speaker asserted.
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.
