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 attempt of the Roumanian representatives in that country and in the United States to whitewas: their government by exploiting the address of Rabbi Niemirover who tried to absolve Roumania of responsibility for the anti-Jewish excesses, is the subject of an editorial in the “Jewish Daily News” (Feb. 15). The paper takes occasion to point out that in Russian Jewry under the Czar during the anti-Jewish persecutions and during the massacres of Jews in Poland by the “Hallerchiks” there was never a case of a Russian or Polish Jew coming to the defense of the government against the protests from abroad.

“That is how the Russian and Polish Jews acted,” we read. “They did not forget their human dignity, and permitted the Jews in other countries to give vent to their just feelings. It was to be expected that the Roumanian Jews would act likewise. Whatever Rabbi Niemirover’s motive may have been, he cannot repair the harm that was done and the disgrace to the Jewish name as a result of his address. It is a deplorable incident which will not be forgotten so soon.”

JEWISH PAPER ON THE $500,000 GIFT FOR A Y. M. C. A. IN JERUSALEM

The announcement of the anonymous gift by a wealthy American of $500,000 for the erection of a Y. M. C. A. building in Jerusalem is viewed by the “Jewish Morning Journal” with “mixed feelings,” the paper declares editorially in its issue of Feb. 15. Such gifts by Christians, especially when they are an anonymous, are calculated to serve as an example for wealthy Jews, the paper declares, adding:

“When we come to regard such a Christian religious endowment in our ancient holy city from a Jewish point of view, it would be unfair to emphasize unpleasant possibilities. The organization of Christian youth is liberal and tolerant, and though it causes us no satisfaction when Jews join it, we regret the weakness of the Jewish young men more than the hospitality of the Christians. And whoever is familiar with this organization may feel certain that in Jerusalem too, it will not become a medium of religious hatred or anti-Jewish prejudice, such as other Christian organizations in Palestine are.

“From another point of view,” the paper continues, “the present gift is to be seen as a continuation of the old policy of the Christian countries and of all sects to entrench themselves in Palestine. All nations support religious institutions there and the Christian churches and monasteries in Palestine are regarded as bulwarks of religion and indirectly also of the nations supporting them. The Jewish situation in Palestine would be much stronger today of the Jews of the world would have such an attitude to our religious foundations there, if the new ‘yishub’ would be built as a strengthening and extension of the old.”

“UNCLE SOL” EXPLAINS SIGN

The sign over his door reading “Uncle Sol, Your State Treasurer, Welcomes You,” which brought an anti-Semitic slur from the Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Property, Ballard, was not put up by Sol Leyitan, the State Treasurer of Wisconsin, but by a friend who is not a Jew. This is the explanation given by Mr. Levitan in a letter to a mid-west newspaper which had ridiculed him. His letter reads in part:

“You are in error in referring to me as having ‘put a sign over his office door, Welcomes You.” I did not conceive, order, pay for, or put up such a sign. A private citizen and friend–who is not of my faith, but who is dearer to me than many who are–conceived the idea of putting such a sign on the inner door of my office during the inaugural ceremony of our state officials, with the thought of removing it shortly afterward. So that in this instance, at least, the ‘warm sentiment’ and the ‘broad sympathy’ and the ample nature’ and the ‘warm heart’ and the ‘noble purposes’ were displayed by a private citizen toward a public official, and not by the official toward the citizen. But if the reverse were true, a sincere intent in that respect by those who seek to serve a citizenry whose government, in fact as well as in theory, should rest in their consent and love, can spell no ill either in your state or mine.”

CANTON’S CHIEF ADVISER SAID TO BE A JEW

The reports that the chief adviser of the Cantonese government in China is a Jew who at one time practiced law in Chicago, is commented on by the “Day” of Feb. 14. The paper points out that Jews are to be found everywhere, even in the remotest places, performing services for mankind.

“It is our fate, our destiny,” the paper writes. “Seattered and dispersed in every corner of the globe, we appear everywhere. Perhaps it is good so, perhaps it is not good. In our dispersion we sometimes become crystalized so that we rise to the position of the world-man who says his word and uses his influence, sometimes where he is asked, sometimes where he is not. The world needs the best in us and takes it.

“The revolutionaries in China needed a man to advise them, so they sent for a Jew, or the Jew announced himself at the right moment. Who is this man? Jacob Borodin, once a yeshivah student of Witebsk, who has gone under many names in order to serve mankind. In London Jacob Borodin was known under the alias George Brown; in Chicago, where he practiced law, he used the name Gruzenberg; elsewhere he called himself Koening.

“Jacob Borodin is the servant of humanity; he furnishes brains, ability and personality-free of charge.”