Truman Pays Tribute to Jewish War Dead; Hails Jwb Contribution to Troops’ Welfare

Tribute to the man and women of Jewish faith who died in the war and to the contributions of the Jewish Welfare Board was paid today by President Truman in a message to Frank L. Weil, president of the JWB, read at a special memorial service this morning at Arlington National Cemetery, at which a wreath was laid on the tomb of the unknown soldier.

“As the united instrumentality of the American Jewish community for war service,” the President said, “The National Jewish Welfare Board world-wide program of services and activities on behalf of the welfare, religious and morale needs of the man and women of the armed forces contributed substantially to victory. In training camps, on battlefields, in hospitals, and now in veterans’ facilities the six-pointed star of the JWB is a universally recognized symbol of unselfish service to the nation. In common with all who fought and died for victory, these Jewish men and women were motivated by unity of purpose and animated by faith in the American way of life. The best monument to their memory would be the kind of world to justify their faith and their sacrifice.”

Addressing the opening session yesterday of the 29th annual convention of the JWB, Mr. Weil reported that nearly 600,000 young man and women of American Jewry had served with various branches of the armed services, and 34,000 received citations including the Congressional Medal. He said that the challenge to provide for their spiritual and religious needs was met by the application of 1,045 rabbis for the chaplaincy, of whom 422 were endorsed by the Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities of the JWB, and 311 commissioned.

Tribute to the role of U.S. Jews, under the seige of the JWB, in helping win the war was voiced by Lindaley F. Kimball, president of the USO, of which the JWB is a member agency. Kimball landed the “immeasurable contribution made by the J.W.B. to victory over fascism through the channel of USO” and said that to Weil “should go the credit for first conceiving of USO as an integrated response to a national need.”

In an initial progress report on the independent nation-wide survey launched by JWB to guide the organization’s peace-time program, Professor Salo Baron of Columbia University stressed the novel responsibility of Jewish community centers in the United States and Canada. Pointing out that the destruction of European Jewry not only shifted the center of gravity of the entire Jewish people to the United States, but also dissolved time-honored patterns of European Jewish communities, Dr. Baron said that “the experiences of the voluntary American Jewish communities are increasingly serving as indispensable guides to the newer Jewish communities developing throughout the western hemisphere and British Commonwealth of Nations.”