The anti-Nazi boycott is primarily a Jewish movement, not non-sectarian, was the keynote of a conference held yesterday under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress at the Hotel Commodore. More than 400 representatives of Jewish organizations were present.
In the principal speech of the conference, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, newly elected president, made the following statement:
“Important and inevitable as the boycott movement is it seems an unviolent weapon against the Nazi government, which in the last few days has inflicted a series of acts of violence against the Jewish people. The Nazis ruthlessness has culminated in the refusal to permit the Jews to unfurl the German Nazi flag and has declared that the Jews shall not be enrolled in the German army. This is the ultimate of human degradation. The boycott is the answer, an answer of non-violent but of moral firmness and great resistance.
Minimizing the effect of labor’s support, Dr. Abraham Coralnik, associate editor of The Day, declared that “it is up to the Jews to maintain the boycott.
“The Hiler movement,” he said, “is a movement from below, not above, and we must show the German masses that the Jews cannot thus be trifled with.”
SEES EUROPE JOINING
Dr. Cornalik predicted that Europe and America will follow the lead of the Jews in boycotting Germany.
Continuing on the same theme, Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum, chairman of the American Jewish Congress Boycott Committee, pointed out that German exports have dropped twenty-five per cent and asserted that “there is no doubt that the success is ours.”
Praising Samuel Untermyer for his work in furthering the boycott, Dr. Tenenbaum said that “he spoiled the fruits of his labor by calling it non-sectarian.”
Discussing Germany’s recent flouting of the Versailles Treaty, Dr. Tenenbaum maintained that only lack of cash will prevent Germany’s rearmament and this, he said, will result from the boycott.
Dr. Samuel Margoshes, editor of The Day, declared: “Those who are against the boycott are against the Jewish nation.” He criticized the “so-called patriots” who claim to represent the feelings of the Jewish masses in opposing the boycott.
Abraham Goldberg, vice-president of the Zionist Organization of America, asserted that the boycott received the spontaneous support of the Jews because it was a movement which arose from the masses.
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.
