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 recent favorable statements on Palestine made by Felix M. Warburg and by Prof. Vavilov, director of the Soviet Government’s agricultural experiment station, as a result of their visits to that country, are commented on by the “Canadian Jewish Chronicle” of Feb. 15. The paper writes:

“Mr. Warburg’s encouraging statements are especially welcome for their favorable effect on American Jewry; the comments of Prof. Vavilov are valuable because expressing the opinion of an agricultural expert. He praises the Zionist Organization for establishing an agricultural colonization in a country like Palestine.

“Both these reports, emanating from independent observers, and free of propagandistic bias, should hearten the workers for Zion, who are liable to become discouraged by the purely temporary play of economic forces that sweep over Palestine as the rest of the world, checking for a time the expansion of industry and the flow of immigration. Palestine after all is not America, which an unprecedented boom has exempted from the less favorable economic conditions prevalent in the rest of the world. But economic depressions have their allotted time and inevitably give way to better times.”

THE TWO RABBIS IN THE HUNGARIAN UPPER CHAMBER

The election of the two Hungarian rabbis, Koppel Reich and Immanuel Loew, to serve as representatives in the Hungarian Senate, is the subject of an article in the Hamburg “Juedisches Familienblatt,” wherein the work and personalities of the men are described. We read in part:

“Both are most dignified leaders of Hungarian Jewry. But the election of Chief Rabbi Immanuel Loew has an additional significance as an indication of the awakening Jewish consciousness in Hungary. For it is not only a question of personalities but of determination as to the political method in Hungarian Jewish life. Rabbi Loew was the only one who had the courage to take a stand against the regime of the numerus clausus, whereas the ‘Budapester’ betrayed their own cause when in the elections to the lower house they took a stand for the regime.

“Chief Rabbi Koppel Reich,” the paper continues, “is a great Talmud scholar and he personifies in his venerable appearance the true orthodox Jewry of Hungary. His influence had a great deal to do with the rise and development of orthodox Judaism in Hungary. He is 89 years of age and, as the oldest member of the Senate, was to have opened the sessions. But he was prevented from doing so by the protests of the anti-Jewish elements.

“Rabbi Loew belongs to the small group of scholars whose name is known throughout the world. His special field is the study of the realities in the Bible and the Talmud, wherein he combines tremendous erudition with a splendid method of research and vast knowledge of languages. About fifty years ago he published his ‘Aramaeischen Pflanzennamen.’ In recent years he concluded three volumes of his work on the ‘Florader Juden,’ two more volumes of which he is now working on. The entire scientific world is interested in this work of his, which also has a practical value in that his research on flora and fauna will be of service to the awakening Palestine. The Hebrew Univercity recognized his great deserts as a scholar by appointing him to a professorship.”