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 resignation of Al Jolson, the famous Broadway comedian, from the Westchester-Biltmore Country Club, because of anti-Jewish discrimination in that organization, is lauded in the Jewish press.

“Al Jolson deserves no little credit for having had the courage to appear in his ‘own color’ in defending the Jewish name, which he regards as no less precious than his reputation as an artist,” declares Jacob Fishman, in the “Jewish Morning Journal” (May 21).

“It is gratifying to see that a Jew who paints his face black for dollars and cents has preserved the purity of his Jewish heart and acted as a proud Jew,” Mr. Fishman observes.

The “Day” writes in a similar tone. “The Jewish pride and self-respect in Al Jolson prompted him,” it says, “to do the right thing when he resigned from the club on being told that Jews were not welcome there, although an ‘exception’ was made in his case.

“No Jew,” the paper further remarks, “can feel himself at ease in a society which bars its doors to Jews, and certainly no proud Jew will permit fraternization with him by those who insult the entire Jewish people.”

A SUGGESTION TO THE JEWISH “WOULD BE” COLLEGE MEN

The tendency of the Jewish “would-be” college men to ignore the less well known colleges of America and go only to the greater universities, such as Harvard, which of recent years have been suspected of anti-Jewish discrimination, is deplored by the “American Israelite.”

“It may not be amiss to say a few words to the ‘would be’ college men,” the paper writes in its issue of May 20. “They might be asked: ‘What is your object in wanting to go to college, is it for an education, or only for having the label of a college man or for making desirable social contacts?’ If going to college is not primarily for the purpose of getting an education, it is hardly worth four years of sacrifice. If, however, the object is to obtain an education, it is not at all necessary to go to one of the greater universities, such as Harvard or Yale, where there may be some question as to discrimination.

“There are a number of other universities where just as thorough an education can be obtained, such as the Universities of Michigan, Chicago. Wisconsin, Illinois, Cincinnati, and a score or more of great institutions of learning even if less well known. The really earnest students can get as much and as solid an education at any one of these as at Harvard or Yale and probably meet with a great deal more of cordiality from their fellow-students.”