A series of mass meetings to be held at the same hour on Sunday evening in hundreds of meeting places throughout New York are being arranged by synagogues, temples, Sabbath schools, clubs, fraternal and labor organizations in connection with the $6,000,000 United Jewish Campaign of New York, which began this week.
Rabbis, teachers, community workers, and business, industrial and professional leaders, have joined with the campaign officers in instituting the meetings, in response to a request issued by Louis Marshall, honorary chairman of the campaign. An address by David A. Brown, chairman of the National campaign, will be read at all the meetings.
“Unusual conditions necessitate un-usual methods,” Mr. Marshall wrote.
“For many months there has been presented to the Jews of America and particularly the Jews of New York, the tragic situation of the Jews in Eastern Europe and in Russia. The press-Yiddish, Anglo-Jewish and English–has revealed in hundreds upon hundreds of stories, the suffering, the actual starvation and the frightful economic condition of the Jews in Europe.
“The Six Million Dollar Campaign for Greater New York, which began on Sunday, April 25th, is to continue through to May 9th. It is the desire of the New York organization that every man, woman and child of the Jewish faith in this great metropolitan area participate in this Campaign.
“To accomplish this, it becomes imperative to call a number of mass meetings to be held in the synagogues, temples, sabbath schools, Talmud Torahs, private clubs, fraternal organizations, and social institutions of every. It is our purpose to have assemble in one evening, the greatest number of people that has ever been gathered in one evening, the greatest number of people that has ever been gathered together for a humanitarian cause in the history of this or any other country.
“There are in the city of New York, over 1,500,000 Jewish men, women and children, and we are hopeful of gathering together in the hundreds of meeting place in this city, not less than 500,000.
“We request you to call together on Sunday, May 2nd, your congregation or membership.
“We take it for granted that as a Jewish group you will be vitally interested in the success of the New York Campaign which means, of course, the relief of those men, women and children in all parts of Europe who today are suffering and dying for the want of the essentials of life.
“In the case of children’s organizations, such as Sabbath schools and Talmud Torahs, it is expected that these meetings will take place in the daytime–either in the morning or the afternoon of May 2nd.
“It is impossible through our regular trade organization machinery, to reach in the course of the campaign the hundreds of thousands of generous persons who are willing and anxious to give to this cause. We are, therefore, making this kind of effort to reach the Jewish population en masse.
“In the name of those millions of Jews who have suffered during the past twelve years; in the name of those mothers of Israel who have lived through a thousand hells; in the name of countless hundreds of thousands of children who have and are suffering the pangs of hunger, we are asking you to join with us in making this enterprise the great success that we have every right to expect it to be.”
Sunday has also been set aside as Children’s Day for the campaign in Jewish Sabbath schools and religious classes. Special children’s leaflets are being distributed this week.
A meeting of principals of Jewish schools of all kinds in the city, to coordinate plans for the Children’s Day program in their institutions, will be held this afternoon at the campaign headquarters at the Biltmore. Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, chairman of the campaign advisory committee and Dr. Bernard Semel, will be the speakers.
Three labor groups of the city pledged contributions to the campaign fund yesterday. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, at a meeting at No. 3 West 16th Street, addressed by Alexander Kahn, chairman, and Baruch Zuckerman, secretary of the People’s Relief Committee, pledged $50,000 to be raised from its membership.
The International Pocketbook Workers’ Union, in response to addresses at a meeting at its headquarters at No. 11 East 18th Street, by the same speakers voted a $10,000 contribution. The Neckwear Maker’s Union pledged $5,000 at a meeting at No. 7 East 15th Street, addressed by Mr. Kahn and Meyer Gillis, of the Joint Distribution Committee.
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