Central Conference of Rabbis Hears Newfield Urge Leaders to Unite

Opening the forty-fourth meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis here today, Rabbi Morris Newfield, of Birmingham, Ala., made a survey of the condition of the Jews in Germany since the advent of the Hitler regime.

He expressed the grateful appreciation of American Jewry that “the civilized peoples of Europe and America have spontaneously expressed their sympathy with the Jews of Germany in their sad plight and have fearlessly condemned those outrages and brutalities.”

Rabbis from all sections of the country, gathered here for the conference, heard Rabbi Newfield deplore “the lack of unity in American Jewish life” in its approach to the solution of the problem of the German Jews. He stressed the paramount need for such unity in order to bring the fullest “moral and financial succor to the dispossessed and jobless Jews of Germany.”

“American Jewry has been thoroughly aroused by the grave plight of our German brethren, and is making strenuous efforts to bring them succor,” he asserted. “In connection with these endeavors, two paramount problems have forced themselves to the attention of all American Jews. One is the lack of unity in American Jewish life. Never has this been so forcibly demonstrated as in this bitter emergency. All of us are ready to help. Several national organizations are engaged in this task. But instead of unity of action there is dissension; instead of concert of counsel, there is discord and disagreement as to procedure.

“Concerted action by the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the B’nai B’rith and other national organizations would undoubtedly lead to quicker and better results. We need a united Israel.

“I therefore recommend that the Central Conference of American Rabbis not only endorse this movement for unity but express its readiness to participate in any plan that will lead to its consummation.”