American Jewry must not entertain the hope that conditions in Germany will be eased for the Jews of that country, Sol Hurok, Jewish American impresario, who returned yesterday on the French liner Ile de France from his annual trip to Europe in search of talent, warned. Mr. Hurok, who spent the last three months in France, Great Britain and Switzerland, declared that he had been in close touch with influential Germans, both Jews and Gentiles, absent from Germany on brief vacations, where they were not afraid to talk, and that they had been altogether pessimistic about the general and Jewish positions in Germany.
Germans had warned him, Mr. Hurok said, that although there may be a suppression of open incitement against the Jews, nontheless the Jewish position in Germany was worse than ever today with no prospect of improvement. Mr. Hurok praised the boycott of Germany as the most effective weapon with which to fight Germany, and declared that the loss of trade to Germany had been catastrophic, despite all attempts of the Nazis to cover up the matter. The boycott, according to Mr. Hurok, was very effective in Europe, particularly Great Britain and France.
He particularly urged the necessity of boycotting all artists who have accepted engagements in Nazi Germany. It was outrageous, he declared, that artists should sing in Germany for Nazi audiences and then come to the United States where a good part of their audiences consisted of Jews.
NAMES CHALIAPIN AS OFFENDER
Among the offending artists Mr. Hurok named Alexander Kipnis, Frieda Leider, Melchior and Feodor Chaliapin, who, he declared, not only sang for the Nazis, but afterwards were presented to Adolf Hitler.
Among the attractions booked for American appearances by Mr. Hurok during his European tour were the Monte Carlo Ballet Russe, Wiener Saengerknaben, Bronislaw Huerman, Poldi Mildner and Sorel Abramovitch and her partner Grogge, famous dancers of the Berlin Opera, who were exiled by the Nazis and who are now in Palestine.
Also on the Ile de France were Mayor and Mrs. M. C. Ellenstein of Newark, who returned from a meeting of the International Union of Municipalities, which was held in Lyons, France, July 18-22. Mayor Ellenstein was one of three official American delegates appointed by President Roosevelt. Since the other two delegates, Mayor Angelo Rossi of San Francisco and Mayor S. T. Walmsely of New Orleans were unable to go, Mayor Ellenstein was the only official American representative. He was the only Jew among 300 delegates representing thirty-two countries and the first Jewish mayor to have attended a conference of the organization.
Mayor Ellenstein told of a dramatic scene which occurred during a banquet given the delegates by the Mayor of Lyons, former Premier Edouard Herriot. Mayor Ellenstein presented the City of Lyons with two silk flags, the gift of the City of Paterson, and turning to the German delegates, remarked, “these flags were made by free workers, in a free country where freedom and tolerance reign.” The Germans sat there quietly while the entire group including the French statesman vigorously applauded Newark’s Jewish mayor.
Also on the Ile de France were Captain Jefferson Davis Cohen, Baron Nicholas de Gunzburg, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Schwartz and Mr. and Mrs. Herman Kupper.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
