Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, honored for 25 years of service as chief rabbi of the United hebrew congregations of the British empire, surveyed tonight a quarter of a century of anti-Jewish oppression culminating in the Nazification of Austria and found the Jewish outlook dark, save for “the bright star” of Palestine.
The American-educated Chief Rabbi, formerly a United States citizen and once a rabbi at Syracuse, N.Y., was presented with a portrait of himself at a meeting at which his work was praised by leaders of British Jewry. Following the presentation, made by Lionel de Rothschild, Dr. Hertz declared:
“The quarter of a century under review witnessed veritable tornadoes of human malice — a cycle of massacres with more than 100,000 Jewish victims in the Ukraine in 1919, 1920 and 1921, the crucifixion of the Jew in Germany since 1933, and today also the Jews of Austria.
“The state cult, the blood cult, the hate cult has arisen, which has resulted in a new barbarism, mercilessly efficient, which launched a world-wide propaganda against the Jews and shamelessly denied human rights to all of Jewish descent. Germany is not the only theatre of Jewish misery, and the amount of such misery in the world today is a heartbreak.
“Particularly distressing is it that the would-be emigrant Jews has found nearly every door of the newer lands, formerly wide open, now barred and bolted. The outlook is dark, but for the one bright star of Palestine.”
Sir Robert Waley Cohen, vice-president of the Board of deputies of British Jews, was chairman of the presentation committee. Among the speakers, besides Mr. Rothschild, were Rabbi Asher Feldman, Dayan of the United Synagogue; Neville Laski, president of the Board of deputies; Sir Maurice Bloch, lady Spielman and A.M. Lyons, member of Parliament.
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.
