Dr. William E. Dodd, the new American Ambassador to Germany, sailed for Europe on the S. S. Washington yesterday with the conviction that an improvement in the position of the Jews in Germany is bound to come before long. Dr. Dodd declared to a representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he is sailing with definite instructions on the racial question in Germany which, he hopes, will lead to a change in the present situation. He recently had conferences on the subject with President Rosevelt, he stated.
“I have studied thoroughly the problem of the Jews in Germany since my appointment as American Ambassador to that country,” Dr. Dodd declared. “Being a liberal and a scientist, my views on the racial question are obvious and ought not to be defined. I am fully in harmony with the President’s attitude on the subject, and his views on the racial question are well-known from his stand and actions in this country. I cannot, of course, disclose the details of my discussion with the President, but I am sure that a change of the situation of the Jews in Germany is bound to come.”
The new Ambassador who is better known as a scholar than as a politician, is loking forward to his activities in Germany where he has spent a number of years in his early life. He speaks German fluently, and is well aware of the great task that confronts him in his new job.
His unassuming personality and reluctance to talk much portrays a scholarly attitude to say less than he knows. He, however, could not resist making the following characteristic remark at the end of his interview, “Well, all my life I have fought for academic freedom, and now again I am confronted with a rather difficult problem.” He did not quite finish his sentence, obviously mindful of his diplomatic mission in Germany.
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, honorary president of the American Jewish Congress, sailed on the same boat to confer with European leaders on the subject of the persecution of Jews in Germany and for wider participation in the projected World Jewish Congress.
Dr. Wise is proceding directly to London where he will confer with British leaders and will proceed to Paris and Geneva for a series of special conferences there relating to the question of German Jewry.
Later in the summer he will attend a special meeting of the Executive of the World Jewish Congress, which will be held in August either in Geneva or Prague and will precede the opening of the World Zionist Congress. He will be joined abroad by Bernard S. Deutsch, president of the American Jewish Congress and other American representatives of the Executive of the World Jewish Congress.
In a statement issued prior to his departure, Dr. Wise called upon all Jewish organizations to join in making the World Jewish Congress the most representative organ of the voice of world Jewry.
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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.
