Scoring the “insidious whispering that Jews should not be so active and conspicuous” in American public life as a means of avoiding anti-Semitism, Nathan Straus, former New York State Director of the National Emergency Council and former New York State Senator, declared here tonight his belief “that any Jew who counsels abstention from the highest privileges of American citizenship is betraying his country.”
Mr. Straus spoke at a dinner under the auspices of the Passaic Jewish Community Council for the purpose of launching the local drive on behalf of the national campaign of the United Jewish Appeal to obtain $3,250,000 for the relief and rehabilitation of Jews in Germany and other lands and for the settlement of Jews in Palestine. Mr. Straus is national treasurer of the United Jewish Appeal.
Speaking at the dinner with Mr. Straus was William Rosenwald, younger son of the late Julius Rosenwald, who was recently named a national co-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal. Harry K. Hecht was chairman of the dinner.
Emphasizing that no Jew can hold himself aloof from the fate of other Jews, Mr. Rosenwald declared that “however good you or I may be as Americans, the fact is inescapable that we are also judged as Jews. This judgment which is passed upon us is influenced by the status of Jews in other lands—Jews all over the world, in America and abroad. The Nazi philosophy does not stop at the Rhine. In helping our brothers overseas, we are, at the same time, protecting our own interests.”
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.
