“There is not one episode or crisis in our national history in which the Jews have not played a part,” Commissioner of Education John W. Studebaker said today in a statement reviewing a new study on America’s debt to Jewish immigrants which will be dramatized in a Department of Interior broadcast on 102 stations of the Columbia Broadcasting System on Sunday night as part of the series entitled “Americans All — Immigrants All.” The script was written by Gilbert Seldes.
The review is “especially timely,” Mr. Studebaker said. “It shows that since the day of Luis de Torres, the Jewish member of Columbus’ crew, who is said to have been the first white man to set foot on American soil, the Jews have been enriching the stream of American life. Today, more than four million Jews are contributing to America’s progress in science, art, music, agriculture and public service.
Recalling that “Jews, not jewels, provided the funds for the first voyage of Columbus,” the Education Commissioner reviewed the services of the Jews in colonial days, their aid to the country during the Revolution and in subsequent wars. “From the beginning of their colonial life,” he said, “the Jews have been vitally concerned with the progress and development of distributive occupations and commerce.”
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.
