Dr. Cyrus Adler said in an interview today that he hoped to see “a chastened Jewry and a better Jewry emerge” from the present world crisis. He stressed that American Jewry would be called upon to play a role in aiding the Jews in Europe which would be much larger than at any time since the World War.
Speaking to reporters at the Jewish Theological Seminary, a week after his 75th birthday, Dr. Adler deplored the lack of moral courage in the world today. At one point, in discussing the Czechoslovakian situation, he said that “the democratic statesmen lack guts.” Asked by one reporter how he would act if he were in the position of President Edouard Benes, he replied that as one man he would say, fight Germany, but as the person responsible for the lives of the people of the nation, he would hesitate.
Touching on a great variety of subjects, Dr. Adler expressed optimism about the future of the world, which he attributed to his belief in God, called the present crisis an “aberration” like others in history, declared that the greatest result of the evian refugee conference was its moral effect, reiterated that the proposed partition of Palestine was economically unworkable and warned Jews against permitting the stream of anti-Semitic propaganda to give them an inferiority complex.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
