Members of the Chicago division of the American Jewish Congress are now preparing to resume their efforts with increased intensity this fall, following the receipt of reports on the work of the division during the last seven months.
At a meeting at the Coveant Club, when reports were presented, Robert Stearnes, naturalized American of German birth, gave a stirring description of the treatment of the prisoners in Nazi concentration camps and analyzed the Jewish situation in the Reich.
“For the moment,” said Mr. Stearnes, “Hitler’s position is strengthened. To a certain extent, he has the army behind him. He would never have had men like Capt. Ernst Roehm shot if the army hadn’t been behind him.”
GERMAN PEOPLE UNINFORMED
Mr. Stearnes asserted the German people are not fully informed as to developments in their country and said they live in fear.
“No one wants to take a chance,” he asserted, “when Hitler is willing to kill anybody.”
He urged continuance of the anti-Nazi boycott and suggested that refugees from the Hitler terror be given positions in Jewish business houses in the United States.
Rabbi Samuel H. Blumenfield, secretary of the division, rendered a composite report of the activities of the various committees. Others who made reports were Mrs. Jennie F. Purvin, Leo H. Lowitz, James J. Glasener, Berthold L. Goldberg, Max A. Kopstein, Claude A. Benjamin and Rabbi S. Felix Mendelsohn.
Louis Segal of New York City, speaking on “Why an American Jewish Congress?”, said such an organization is necessary to safeguard Jewish civil, political, economic and religious rights.
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