J.D.B. News Letter

(By our Trenton correspondent)

That there is current today a revival in Jewish interest in the community is evinced by the many activities of Jewish organizations. Organizations fostering educational and welfare movements in the interest of the Jewish youth in Trenton are alert to the need for expansion to meet the demands for a growing community.

This week the tenth anniversary celebration of the founding of the Trenton Y. M. and Y. W. H. A. Community Home is being celebrated with an elaborate program of entertainment scheduled for every night in the week.

The closing of the celebration on Sunday evening will also mark the inauguration of a Maintenance and Deficit Campaign for $50,000, with which to carry on the work of the Y.M.H.A. in 1928. It is the first drive conducted by the association in four years and will terminate with a banquet on Sunday evening, January 22, with Aaron Sapiro as the principal speaker.

Noteworthy among the Jewish activities here is the planning for a new labor Lyceum by the Trenton Chapter of the Workingmen’s Circle. The new building, to be completed this year, will have an auditorium with a seating capacity for 600 persons and will also contain classrooms, meeting rooms and it is expected that a gymnasium will be added.

The Hebrew Ladies Aid Society of Trenton, the oldest Jewish charitable organization in the city, held its annual ball last night, the proceeds to be used for the furtherance of its charitable work.

Orthodox Jewry in Trenton has been organized on a more firm basis since the arrival of Rabbi Issacher Levin as head of the United Orthodox Synagogues of Trenton. These include the Congregations People of Truth, Lovers of Israel, Workers of Truth and Brothers of Israel.

The Bikur Cholim Society of Trenton, of which Mrs. Elias Watov is president, goes about its work daily, in aiding the sick and needy among Jewish families, supplementing the work done by the Ladies Aid Society. The Bikur Cholim is now planning to establish a free clinic and dispensary.

One of the most active members of the Travelers Aid Society of Trenton is a Jewish woman. She is Miss Fannie Herring, executive secretary of the organization. Two prominent members of the Aid’s board of trustees are Louis Rudner, a member of the board of directors of the Y.M.H.A.. and Mrs. Robert Wolf, who is a member of the board of directors of the Chambersburg Hospital and first president of the Trenton section, Council of Jewish women.

Other organizations functioning in the interest of the Jewish community are the Progress Club, around which the social life of the Jewish community centers; the Junior Hadassah, the Ahavas Achim Lodge, the Trenton Zion Camp, Order Sons of Zion; the Pioneer Women of Chalutzos of Palestine and a ladies auxiliary which provides for the maintenance of the Deborah Sanitorium, at Brown’s Mills, New Jersey.

The institution which is the greatest factor for welding and combining the various Jewish elements in Trenton is the Y.M. and Y.W.H.A. Community Home.

About 25 clubs are affiliated with the association for the purpose of promoting the cultural, physical, moral and social welfare of their members.

U.S. HEALTH BUREAU ORDERS INQUIRY ON MENTAL TESTS FOR JEWISH IMMIGRANTS

An investigation into the practice of the American consulate in Poland to apply mental tests to Polish Jews who seek immigration visas to the United States was ordered by the United States Health Bureau, the Hias was informed by Surgeon-General H. S. Cumming. The investigation was ordered by the Surgeon-General following the presentation of a memorandum by a Hias delegation, consisting of John L. Bernstein, B. C. Vladeck and Isidore Hershfield, in which it was pointed out that certain questions put to the prospective immigrants do not test their mentality.

The Public Health Service has begun to make a special study of the situation, the Surgeon-General informed Hias. “The study is not as yet completed,” the Surgeon-General wrote in his communication to the Hias. “This study included detailing two officers of the service, who are independently recognized as psychiatrists, to go to Warsaw and make a detailed study of the conditions existing there. These officers are due to arrive in Warsaw tomorrow, and it is probable that within the course of a month they shall have completed their study and a report shall have been received in this bureau in that connection.”

ORTHODOX UNION PREPARES TO LAUNCH EDUCATION WORK

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America will take steps to organize Orthodox Jewry throughout the country for the purposes of Jewish education, according to a statement issued by Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, president of the Union.

This action was decided upon at a meeting of the Executive Committee following the report of Dr. Moses Seidel, Superintendent of the Board of Jewish Education of Baltimore, Maryland, Chairman of the National Board of Jewish Education.

In addition to carrying on intensive propaganda for fostering Jewish religious education, it is proposed to issue uniform curricula for the various types of Jewish schools, publish text-books in Hebrew and in English, and establish a teachers registry.

It was further decided to extend the work of organizing and subsidizing Jewish religious schools in the small towns and rural communities.

Dr. David de Sola Pool, Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, is the chairman of the committee created to begin the activities among the Jewish boys and girls of the high schools.