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.]

The statement made by Jewish members of the U. S. Congress at the recent conference of the American Jewish Congress to the effect that it would be inadvisable for them as Jewish members of the Congress to make a protest against the atrocities in Roumania, is criticized in the “Day” of Dec 27 by B. Z. Goldberg, who says:

“It is true that the Jewish Congressmen are not representatives of Jews in the Congress, but of American districts populated not by Jews alone but by various nationalities. However, were it not for Jewish votes it is doubtful whether the Jewish Congressmen would have been elected and, moreover, it is not necessary for them to speak at Washington as Jews for Jews but as Congressman speaking on a subject that concerns the families of their district constituents, and that is the duty of all Congressmen, the non-Jews even more so than the Jews. When an Irish Congressman has Greeks in his district he keeps his eye on all that goes on in Greece, and a Jewish Congressman, even if he were chosen by non-Jews, would certainly lose no grace in the eyes of his constituents in responding to the humanitarian call of his fellow Jews.”

OTTO H. KAHN DENIES RUMORS

A denial of the notion prevalent in some quarters that he has left Judaism is made by Otto H. Kahn, the noted banker and patron of the American theatre, in an article released by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the current American Jewish press. The article discusses the role of the Jews in the movement for the development of artistic standards in the American theatre. The writer, Leo M. Glassman, quotes Mr. Kahn as follows:

“Religious observance is instilled in one’s youth. My parents were not practicing Jews and did not bring me up to be a practicing Jew. But I never left Judaism and have no idea of doing so.”

Julius Goldman of the New York banking firm of Goldman, Sachs & Co., has given $10,000 to the Johns Hopkins University for research in geology. The gift, Dr. Frank J. Goodnow, President of the university, explained, lays the foundation for the first of a series of special endowments needed to enable the university to carry out its new plan for concentrating all its efforts on research and graduate work.

According to Mr. Goldman’s stipulation, his gift is “to constitute a nucleus for a research fund in geology,” the income alone to be used for that purpose and the principal to be held as permanent endowment.