The first anniversary of the Jewish Section of the Interfaith Committee for Aid to the Democracies was celebrated tonight at a dinner honoring its chairman, Dr. Israel Goldstein, held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
It was announced at the dinner that the goal of $400,000 set by the Jewish Section for 1941 has already been far exceeded in funds raised and stimulated among Jewish groups. These funds have provided scores of mobile kitchens and seven children’s nursing homes, without regard to race or creed.
In tribute to Dr. Goldstein’s efforts in behalf of British civilian relief, checks aggregating $25,000 to establish an English nursing home in his name were presented to Frederick W. Gehle, chairman of the Fund Raising Division of the British War Relief Society by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, toastmaster of the dinner. The home will be a haven for children wounded and orphaned through air raids.
Dr. Goldstein in his address voiced the hope that the time may not be distant when British war relief will no longer be necessary and when a victorious Britain will turn to the task of post-war reconstruction. “In that day, all of us who are helping today will look back with Thanksgiving upon the work of our hands,” he stated. “We shall be thankful that we have had some share in saving alive and keeping strong in body and in spirit British children who will take their places in the new and better world of tomorrow.”
Congratulatory messages were read from Eleanor Roosevelt, Lord Halifax, Vice-President Wallace, Governor Lehman, Lady Reading, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Senator Alben W. Barkley, William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, Matthew Woll, chairman of the American Labor Committee to Aid British Labor and others. Speakers included Dr. L. M. Birkhead. national director of the Friends of Democracy, Henry Torres, famous French lawyer who spoke in French, Dr. Maurice L. Perlzweig of London, Henri Bernstein, famous French playwright, Prof. Louis Finklestein and Judge Morris Rothenberg.
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