The fourth annual New England Conference of the Polish Federation of American Jews was held this week at Nathanson’s Hotel, Millis, Mass. More than two hundred delegates and guests were present. The guest speakers were Benjamin Winter, national president; Z. Tygel, national director; Dr. Hayim Shoshkes of Warsaw, representing the Polish-American Chamber of Commerce, and also an official of the Polish Government associated with the banking system. The New England office of the American Jewish Congress was represented by Rabbi Joseph S. Shubow, who pleaded for full support of all Congress activities including the boycott. Other speakers were Harold Diamond, national vice-president, of New York; Samuel Berk, I. Herschkon, and Adolph Ullman. Max Nigrosh presided.
A resolution was adopted which urged that closer relations be established between Poland and America for the sake of encouraging mutual import and export trade; secondly, absolute assurance of support of the carrying through of the boycott in all respects by members of the Federation; thirdly, congratulations were extended to Poland for its more generous treatment recently of the Jews.
Dr. Shoshkes described the poverty and misery of Polish Jewry. He stated with pride, however, that despite these conditions, the great majority of Polish Jews remain proudly and uncoweringly as Jews who refuse all allurements to assimilation, maintaining an elaborate school system both in Hebrew and Yiddish wherein Jewish national consciousness is stressed. He stated further that the Polish Government today is rather friendly to the Jews and fully supported by the Jews as against the anti-Semitic Endeks. He also described the tense political situation because of the constant threat of the Nazi regime against Poland, and appealed for closer commercial relations between Poles and Americans in the hope of diverting a large proportion of the trade that is today entered into with Germany. He pointed out that this should be of mutual benefit for the Jew and the Pole and also a benefit for American citizens generally.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
