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 fact that the highest percentage of immigrants who remain in the U. S. after their arrival here is held by the Jews, with the Irish next in line, which was disclosed in the recent report on “Migration and Business Cycles” issued by the United States Department of Labor, is commented on by the “California Jewish Review”. The paper says:

“There is nothing unexpected or startling in the report, but the confirmation of generally known facts by official inquiry helps to disprove much of the stupid cant and pseudo-science of immigration exclusionists and the noble Nordics. The study shows that though incoming South Italians far exceeded in number the immigrants of any other race, yet the net immigration was only 44 per cent for the fiscal years 1908 and 1923, while it was almost 95 per cent for Hebrews, 89 per cent for Irish and over 80 per cent for Germans. For all races, the net immigration was 65 per cent. From all this data there emerges one incontrovertible fact and that is that Jews who come to America come to stay and make it their permanent residence. They are prepared upon arrival to become Americans and participate in American life to an extent beyond even that of the chosen Nordics who are welcomed by the self-appointed saviors of America.”

ON THE LATE GEORG BRANDES

That the late Georg Brandes, though of Jewish origin, was essentially a “Hellenist,” is the opinion expressed in the “Jewish Daily News,” where we read:

“While it is true that Brandes condemned outrages committed against Jews, he was an out and out Hellenist. He had absolutely nothing in common with Jews. He had completely removed himself from everything that was Jewish.

“However, whatever the attitude of Georg Brandes towards Judaism and Jews, the fact remains that he was one of the master minds of modern days. He was a great critic, perhaps the greatest of critics of the ninteenth and twentieth centuries. He was a great Shakespearean scholar as well. Our regret is that he was not Jewish, that he did not devote some of his genius, some of his talents to his own people. Even when anti-Semites fought him he did not change. He remained to the end of his days the Hellenist.”

Brandes had no “haven of spiritual rest,” declares the N. Y. “Sun,” for “he was able to bring the thunder clouds down about his head.” The paper says:

“He was known to be a Jew. Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was his name; this he never denied. He was never known to attend a synagogue, so his own race was against him. He opposed woman suffrage on the ground that women were the more numerous chur##geers, and that to give them the franchise, would tend greatly to strengthen the clerical party. He had estranged the Danish Protestant church by his strictures on what he termed its narrowness and the subsequently verified suspicion that he was an atheist. He had no haven of spiritual rest.”

Howard Rogers, architect of Albany, N. Y., announced that a $250,000 Jewish Community center building is to be erected soon at 111 Washington Avenue. Mr. Rogers has prepared plans for the building, which will be of reinforced concrete and brick construction and will extend from the rear of the present building to Elk Street.

A gymnasium will be on the lower floor with four bowling alleys and ample space for spectators, exercise rooms, handball courts, basketball court and massage and steam rooms. The office of the physical director will be located on this floor.

On the floor above the gymnasium will be a plunge finished in glazed tile.

A court in the rear of the old building will be improved with flowers and shrubs. Imitation Caen stone will be used generally in the construction.

Dining, meeting, smoking and club rooms with a main auditorium of 1,2000 seating capacity, will be provided.

Nashville, Tenn., will be the meeting place of the Fifth Biennial convention of the National Council of Junior Sections, of the National Council of Jewish Women, according to a statement issued by Mrs. Leonard B. Schloss, Chairman of the Department of Junior Auxiliaries of the National Council of Jewish Women. This convention will be held next fall. Preparations for it have been inaugurated by committees which have been named by Miss May R. Freedman, president of the National Council of Junior Sections.

Mrs. Schloss also announced that the Board of Managers of the National Council of Jewish Women has made an appropriation for a scholarship, toward a total of $1,800, which has been jointly subscribed by the National Senior and Junior Council bodies. This scholarship will be made available to a young woman, for a course that shall prepare her for the rural program of the National Council of Jewish Women. This scholarship will be known as the Hannah G. Solomon Scholarship.