Einstein Praises Jewish Spirit of Sacrifice

In a talking picture made for the opening of the annual campaign of the Philadelphia Federation of Jewish Charities, to take place next Sunday evening, Prof. Einstein analyzes the sacrificial spirit of the Jews, that has kept them together, he feels, through centuries.

The minimum quota for the campaign is $1,500,000.

Proffl Einstein said, “Most national groups have preserved themselves by establishing States and by conquering territory and defending them, arms in hand.

“Even the Jewish people in the Bible era established its existence on this basis. The Jews would long ago have been destroyed, like all the other nations of that time, if they had not discovered and maintained a more solid basis for their existence.

“This new basis was the moral law and the cherishing of the tradition based on this law.

“In the moral tradition of the Jewish people, the spirit of self-sacrifice and mutual aid occupies the first place. Had it not been for this tradition there would be no Jews in existence now.

“So long as this tradition continues to be transmitted solicitously from generation to generation, the opposition to us cannot do us any harm. The fairest quality of Jewish charity is the fact that it does not stop at the bounds of our own people, but in many cases, rebounds to the advantage of the poor and oppressed of other races.

“Benefactions are not regarded by good Jews as a sacrifice on the part of the giver, but as a benefit to the donor himself. Among non-Jews, too, this conception is far more alive in the United States than in Europe.

“So long as we ourselves may cherish the happy feeling that our tradition gives animation to lofty values, we Jews all over the world will not cease to feel our solidarity, and we shall continue to exist as a community spread all over the world. In this sense benefactions are a blessing to the giver.”