Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.– Editor.]

That the United Jewish Campaign for East European Relief and Jewish colonization in Russia which was originally intended as a drive for a brief period will have to be continued for a number of years to come is the assertion made in the “Forward” of New York by Zivion, who writes on the Chicago conference in the issue of October 9.

“At the conference in Philadelphia,” the writer says, “the question whether or not Jewish colonization in Soviet Russia is merely a fantastic enterprise undeserving of attention was discussed. Today, however, the Jewish colonization is a fact which no one attempts to deny. Today there is only one question: Where can sufficient funds be secured to satisfy the growing desire of Jews in Soviet Russia to settle on the land?

“Dr. Rosen reports that despite the fact that last year only one-fourth of those desirous to settle on the land were taken care of, an additional thirty thousand families have registered for land settlement this year.

“When the conference in Philadelphia was held it was sought to create the impression that the relief work was being renewed only for a brief period. Fifteen million dollars would be secured and that would close the renewed activities, it was stated. It is to be hoped that at the Chicago conference, however, there will be no talk about stopping the work, but rather of pursuing it with added energy.

“Jewish colonization work in Soviet Russia will require the assistance of America for a number of years to come and America must not withhold this help. It is the most important assistance which the Jews of America can possibly render their brothers on the other side, and American Jewry can give, if it only wishes.”

THE KOSHER KITCHEN AT HARVARD

The establishment of a kosher kitchen for the Jewish students at Harvard University, which some time ago was charged with anti-Jewish tendencies, is commented on by the Jewish press.

“We do not know exactly,” observes the “Jewish Morning Journal,” “to whom credit is due for this achievement. At any rate the influence of the late President Emeritus of Harvard, Dr. Eliot’s last address in which he called upon the students of the University to stick to their respective religious traditions, is to be felt. Time often achieves what the mind does not. Only a year ago Harvard University was accused of anti-Semitism and now it has a kosher restaurant for its Jewish students.”

The “Jewish Daily News,” Orthodox paper of New York, regards the establishment of the kosher kitchen of Harvard as an indication of the growing influence of Judaism among the Jewish students.

“We believe,” the paper remarks, “that since the Union of Orthodox Congregations has found it necessary to establish a kosher restaurant in Harvard, the Union, no doubt, previously made an investigation to ascertain whether there would be a sufficient patronage for such a restaurant. We may assume, therefore, that Judaism is growing among the Jewish students. Years ago it would have been impossible to do such a thing at any university in America.

“There is another point in connection with this,” the paper further writes, “Sometime ago there was talk of an unfriendly attitude toward the Jews on the part of Harvard University, that the heads of Harvard were displeased at the number of Jewish students at the institution. Whether this was true or not is of no importance in relation to the subject we are discussing here. It is important, however, that the Jews answered–with a kosher restaurant! We think there could be no more appropriate reply to unfriendliness than to stand firmly by things that are Jewish.”

K. K. K. KAPUTT

Under the above caption the New York “Times” of Friday presents an editorial review of the present situation of the Ku Klux Klan throughout the country. The paper finds that the Klan is on the wane everywhere and observes in conclusion:

“The K. K. K. will have, has already, successors. There will always be fanatics and fools, crooks to exploit them, politicians eager to use them; and when we see tolerance prevalent in the United States, we shall yank our ascension robe out of the closet. As true believers in ‘the Nordics’–if we could find out what ‘a Nordic’ is–we are constantly pained by the knowledge that the latest consummatte flower of bigotry blooms on the old American stock. Where is the Americanization brigade?”

Fire Commissioner John J. Dorman, whose joke over the radio last May about a “Mr. Cohen” caused several Jewish organizations to demand his resignation on the ground that he had reflected on Jewish people in general, was among the five men installed Friday night as honorary members of the Naer Tomid, an association of Hebrew firemen in the New York Fire Department.

The installation was at the Riverside Synagogue before several hundred firemen and their relatives and friends. The other new honorary mmbers installed were Dr. Harry M. Archer, Honorary Fire Department Surgeon: General Sessions Judge Max S. Levine: W. W. Cohen, an honorary Deputy Fire Chief, and Dr. William J. Rosenkranz, a Bronx physician interested in the welfare of firemen.

Benjamin Schwartz, editor of the “Jewish Times” of Baltimore, succeeded Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg as head of the United Palestine Appeal Region No. 4 with headquarters in Philadelphia, according to an announcement issued by Bernard Stone, National Executive Director of the Appeal.