My dear Mr. Rosenberg:
The Allied Jewish Campaign has my unqualified approval, and I am giving it my utmost support. It is, in fact, difficult for me to understand the mind of the man or woman who will not help.
For all of us possession of wealth is largely accidental— a result of the accident that brought our fathers or ourselves to a country of boundless opportunity. Our wealth constitutes a social responsibility not properly discharged by using it to buy expensive clothes and more expensive jewelry for members of our family. The use of that wealth to give our brethren abroad a chance for life and some measure of happiness is a privilege for us, and an act of justice to them.
The Jews of America, made up of individuals differing in their places of origin, their political affiliations, even in their conception of the exact meaning of our religious heritage, are united today in that which has always united the Jewish people— the call of need. That unity of purpose for the relief of human suffering symbolizes our spiritual inheritance. The Allied Jewish Campaign comes as heartening evidence that in this material and selfish age the spirit of the Torah and the Prophets still lives in our people.
Sincerely yours, Nathan Straus, jr.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
