Sharp criticism of the Anglo-Jewish community for failing to support Jewish health work was voiced here by Dr. Redcliffe N. Salaman, president of the Jewish Health Organization of Great Britain, who appealed for funds to carry on the work.
“We seem to need a German crisis, a pogrom, or a Rothschild to be evicted from a restaurant, before the community wakes up,” Dr. Salaman said.
“Here we are ready to assist in the healthful upbringing of the young but our intelligent community won’t back us.
“This community of ours is a queer one,” Dr. Salaman declared. “I have served it for forty years and the longer I serve it, the queerer it seems. Why do we allow our schools and religious classes to be so badly equipped and ventilated? Are we really humbugs or do we really care for the children’s health and education?
“We as a Jewish health organization are willing and anxious to rectify some of the present evils and would beg the Jewish community to give us a free hand in putting these schools and classes in a better condition.
“Jews pride themselves on their care for children and probably no children in the world are so overfed as Jewish children. Yet how difficult it is to get money for organizations to remedy the under-feeding of poor children. The time has come for the Jewish community to wake up!”
Dr. Salaman also paid a tribute to Dr. Schwarzman, to whom the Jewish health organizations in England owe their origin.
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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.