The rabbis and presidents of Manhattan congregations affiliated with the Greater New York Campaign of the United Jewish Appeal met at luncheon yesterday at the Hotel Commodore to report on funds already raised in the various congregations preparatory to the official opening of the campaign on Sunday. Major C. Douglas Booth was the guest speaker.
“The Jews are in the minority virtually everywhere in the world,” said Major Booth, “and as such a subject for persecution.” He recalled pogroms he had actually seen in Morocco, Rumania and Hungary, and arrived at a discussion of the situation in Germany. The duration of Hitlerism, in his opinion, will be long, and the important question is a plan of action for the interim.
‘ANARCHY OF SOVEREIGNS’
“We have returned to an anarchy of sovereigns in which the voice of the international community is very faint, and therefore cannot be heard,” he said. “It remains to find how we can save the human lives and human values that are being destroyed. The League of Nations, as we have already seen, can do nothing. Private actions of individual groups-both of Jews and non-Jews-fostering expressions of horror and economic boycotts are more than useless. The only course that remains is a well thought out and organized campaign of settlement relief to bridge the gap. In the case fo you Jews, courage and generosity will enable you to do this and earn the gratitude of the world, if not receive it.”
Among the other speakers were Samuel Blitz, who presided in the absence of Nathan Straus Jr., and Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson of Temple Emanu-El The latter paid tribute to Major Booth as a “friend of minorities.”
Prominent among those who attended were Rabbis Louis I. Newman, David de Sola Pool, Israel Goldstein, Milton Steinberg, William F. Rosenblum, Ira Eisenstein, Herbert Goldstein, Elias Solomon and Leo Jung.
The Brooklyn Auxiliary of the Pride of Judea Children’s Home announces that on May 19 it will hold its Spring Dansant at the Menora Masonic Temple, Brooklyn
Proceeds will be donated to the Home.
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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.
