[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]
The charge that the Polish government has evaded its duty in connection with the Polish-Jewish Agreement is made by Dr. Leon Reich, ex-President of the Club of Jewish Sejm Deputies, who negotiated the Agreement with the government, in an article in “Der Moment,” Yiddish paper of Warsaw (Feb 28 issue), wherein his interview to the press representatives is given.
Dr. Reich especially takes to task Grabski, the Education Minister, who, in a recent statement, claimed that the Polish government has fulfilled its obligations and expressed surprise at the attitude of the Jews. Referring to Grabski’s assertion that the question of the numerus clausus was not one of the important points in the Agreement, Dr. Reich relates a number of facts and incidents during the time the Agreement was being negotiated to show that the numerus clausus was one of the cardinal points.
“I appreciate,” Dr. Reich concludes “the benefits derived by the Jews from those points which have been realized. But I positively cannot regard the Agreement as fulfilled on the part of the government so long as the desideratums established in the course of the discussions between the members of the cabinet and the representatives of the Club of Jewish Deputies have not been carried out. Those desideratums are absolutely essential to the economic and cultural well-being of the Jewish population in Poland. It is particularly impossible to regard the Agreement as fulfilled until the question of the numerus clausus, which constitutes a great wrong against the Jews, has been settled.”
The emphasis by Dr. Reich primarily on the cultural and political phase of the Jewish problem in Poland at a time when the economic question has not been solved is held to be the chief weakness of the Polish Jewish Agreement by S. Hirshhorn, who discusses in another issue of “Der Moment” Grabski’s statement as well as Dr. Reich’s reply.
“The Jewish demands,” we are told, “always called for national rights as well as civil-economic equality. But it never occurred to anyone to say that national rights could serve as a substitute for elementary civil-economic rights. True, there were theoreticians who showed that without national rights it was impossible to enjoy civil-economic rights. But that without civil-economic equality national rights are unthinkable–this was so obvious that no theories were required to prove it. People who had their very bread snatched from their mouths can not enjoy the benefits of good schools and libraries. Members of a community whose last ‘groshen’ is extorted through excessive taxes cannot be helped when their Kehillah is granted the right to tax them more. And such is the case with regard to all the other ‘concessions,’ cultural and religious, even the most extensive, of which Grabski boasts so loudly.”
ANOTHER DEFEAT FOR THE KLAN
The defeat of the Klan in Suffolk and Nassau counties, where the K.K.K. was believed to be stronger than anywehere else in New York State, is seen as a good omen by the New York “Times” and the “World” (Mar. 23 issues).
The “Times” regards this event as the end of another “epidemic.”
“On the surface these were Democratic victories, but underneath was a revolution against the till lately irresistible Klan,” the paper says. “The fact that most of its candidates were Republicans meant little or nothing in explanation of the small votes they received. Few of the Republican leaders admit affiliation with the now discredited order.
“Thus has good sense returned to Long Island, and its people have resumed the display of their accustomed intelligence.”
The “World” writes as follows:
“The defeat of the Klan in Suffolk and Nassau Counties is perhaps not important in itself, though the Klan was believed to be stronger in these counties than anywhere else in New York State. But the defeat is important as another evidence of how the wind is blowing. In States like Texas and Oklahoma; in cities like Detroit, Buffalo and Louisville last November; now in villages like those on Long Island, the Klan has met disaster.”
PARENTS SHOULD OPPOSE RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Parents should resent the plan for combining religious teaching with public school teaching, asserts the Baltimore “News” of March 19.
Writing editorially, the paper remarks:
“A committee of business men will endeavor to combine religious teaching with public school teaching. The idea is to take a certain part of the school day for religious teaching in churches. Public school teachers would go to the churches teach religion and get paid for the work. It would not interrupt regular classes, presumably. Some parents still feel able to look after their children’s religious training without help.
“It is an interesting suggestion, although many will feel that reading, writing and arithmetic can be taught successfully and safely apart from theology, and will resent the suggestion that the American public school is not working satisfactorily.”
JEWS IN AMERICAN AGRICULTURE
The notion common in many quarters that the Jews are essentially a city people who are unadaptable to farm life, has been refuted once more, declares the “Jewish Daily News” in an editorial commenting on the recent report of the Jewish Agricultural Society, which shows that there are 75,000 Jewish farmers in America today cultivating one million acres of land, valued at over $100,000,000.
Referring to the successful Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine, Argentine and southern Russia, the paper further points out that while farming has generally been growing less popular in this country during the past two decades, the Jews have proven the exception to the rule.
“The exodus from the farm,” the editorial observes “has become a serious problem in America and in Europe and the governments are seeking ways and means to keep the farmers on the land. With the Jews, however, farming and colonization have grown increasingly popular of late years. This is an encouraging fact.”
Benjamin Schwartz, attorney and editor of the “Jewish Times” of Baltimore, Md., was the principal speaker at a massmeeting at the Chamber of Commerce, Petersburg, Va., on Wednesday. The meeting opened the Joint Campaign of the Palestine and Relief Appeals. Twenty-five hundred dollars in cash and pledges was raised at this meeting towards a quota of $5,000. Moe Levy, State Chairman of the United Jewish Campaign, presided.
The tenth anniversary of the Zherei Chevra Shas, Pittsburgh, Pa, was observed at a dinner at the Beth Jacob Synagogue. The organization, composed of 40 Pittsburgh Jews, to study the Talmud and to propagate the orthodox faith, has completed an intensive study of the first four books of the Talmud.
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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.
