American Jewish Women Told of Their Obligations to Jews in Europe

The responsibility of Jewish women in America to aid their sisters in war-torn Europe was outlined here today by Joseph C. Hyman, executive vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, addressing the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations.

Paying homage to a number of European Jewish women who have displayed outstanding courage in the face of Nazi brutality, Mr.Hyman appealed to the Jewish women in the United States to remember not only their American duties, but also their Jewish duties.

“It is a primary obligation of the American Jewish women always to keep in the forefront of their thoughts the suffering and need of their sisters in Europe,”Mr. Hyman said, ”For European Jews today have only one source of help and hope left; can look in only one direction for their salvation. Their faces are tuned toward us and we must respond not only through tangible activities which spell help, but through feelings of solidarity and comradeliness that spell hope. The sacrifices which we must make to accomplish this are indeed insignificant in comparison with the sacrifice of blood which they have made for a decade and which they are continuing to make today.

”There is still another responsibility which American Jewish women have, that of preserving a culture which is as old as recorded history. We American Jew are now guardians of Jewish tradition. We cannot expect that our co-religionists in Europe, barely able to exist, will do much more than keep body and soul together. They have transferred to us the torch of Jewish learning, and the duty devolves upon American Jewish womanhood to us the torch of Jewish learning, and the go out. Religious worship, Jewish education, maintenance of the synagogue and community center-these are but a few of the tasks which come to mind. Above all, women must hand down to today’s Jewish children the tradition of our faith -a faith whoso light is so clear and warning that it has helped to keep alive myriads at their lowest ebb,” Mr. Hyman declared.