Digest of World Press Opinion

The Jewish problem in the Saar is attracting wide attention in the world press. The Daily Herald of London states:

Hitler fears a heavy anti-Nazi vote when the plebiscite takes place next January. Thanks to the vigorous agitation led by Max Braun, the Socialist leader, the poll for remaining under the League of Nations will be a formidable one.

To the Socialists, the Communists and the Jews, who have every reason for opposing the return to the Reich, have been added latterly the Catholics.

They number some 70 per cent of the population, and they have been increasingly estranged from the Nazis by the persecution of their co-religionists in Germany.

ZIONISM DISCUSSED BY REFORM ORGAN

The views of American Reform Jewry with regard {SPAN}#o{/SPAN} Palestine are outlined in an editorial appearing in the Reform Advocate, a Chicago publication. The editorial states:

There are still some good Jews who, despite all the admissions on the part of the Zionist organizations that all Jews have now become Zionists, will not let themselves be entangled in a political and national solution for the Jewish people in Palestine—the homeland. These good Jews will make a distinction between Zionism and Palestinism. They will come to the support of the settlements in Palestine and they will willingly grant that the presence of the possibilities in Palestine for the reception of German Jews has been a veritable Godsend to the men and women who have found it possible to make their way there.

They are willing to praise the efforts of the Jews already in Palestine to make the newcomers feel at home. They thrill with the reading of the news items as they appear, for example, in the Juedische Rundschau telling of the way in which the young people of Palestine greet the boat loads of children, sing them songs and take them to their settlements. And they are inclined to be impatient with the small and long delayed effort of American Jewry to make similar arrangement for German Jewish children in this country, even within the framework of the immigration restrictions of the United States.

ASKS FOR SUPPORT IN KASHRUTH FIGHT

The Jewish Forum, a New York orthodox publication, comments on the kashruth fight as follows:

Every one feels that it is time something drastic were done to bring order into the chaotic state of kashruth in New York City. The action by the rabbis, therefore, in declaring a city-wide “issur,” forbidding Jews from buying any and all poultry until the regulations will be complied with that will place the control of kashruth in the hands of competent rabbis should be fully supported by all sincere Jews.

Dozens of years ago, efforts were made to acquire control of the situation with reference to kashruth, but to no avail. It is regrettable that ever since no effort has been made to use systematic methods to obtain the desired results. If, in all that time, a definite plan had been formulated for educational experimentation in at least one section of the city, perhaps coercive measures would not have become necessary. Such measures, at best, are but temporary until some loopholes are found to evade the restrictions. It becomes much more difficult to evade the law, religious or civil, when the cooperation of the public generally is enlisted in its enforcement.

MENACE OF FASCISM AWAKENS JEWRY

The Department of Education of Hebrew Union College is pursuing a program of war on those old-time curricula which dominated religious schools for the past generation. The new objective is the orientation of the child in his temporary society.

Explaining why this change is necessary, Harold K. Goldstein outlines the following reasons in the Hebrew Union College Monthly:

First, because the Hitler persecution and the menace of fascism have brought about a reluctance in Jewish life. Loyalties that lay dormant almost to the point of death have been awakened. As a consequence, we will deal with people who are more sensitive to the Jewish problem, who are not apathetic, and need but small motivation to follow wherever we will lead. The material is here. We need only the artisan who knows the form and possesses the skill. We have neither. We have given neither a positive philosophy nor an art with which to practice.

Second, because the breakdown of capitalism has made Jewry more sympathetic to social reform, we are given a challenging opportunity to prosper the teachings of Reform Judaism. The latter claims a mission. Well, we today can fight for the concretization of this mission as never before, for there are ears that will hear us and hands that will work with us. But again we have not been taught. We do not know what techniques a minority group like ours should follow in the pursuit of its mission.

NAZI TACTICS HURT PLEBISCITE CHANCES

The London News Chronicle commenting on the Saar. declares:

Herr Hitler compared those who were opposed to the return of the Saar to Germany as Judases, and pointed out that, despite Judas, Christianity triumphed.

This blasphemous comparison of Nazism with Christianity is hardly the way best calculated to reassure the many Roman Catholics in the Saar who are known to be apprehensive about rejoining the Reich. Nor is the insult to Jewry implied in the reference to Judas likely to mollify the Jewish element.

Herr Hitler has failed in his efforts to win over Austria: he needs the Saar desperately for the sake of his prestige. The Saar is German and very likely he will get it, but speeches like that of yesterday are hardly likely to help him.