J. D. B. News Letter

(By our Budapest Correspondent)

Hungarian Jewry needs to maintain contact with Jewry abroad, Deputy Paul Sandor writes in an article appearing in the Jewish weekly, “Egyenloeseg” here. “We must maintain contact with the Jews abroad,” he says. “The coming of the anti-Semitic regime stimulated the interest of foreign Jewry in our affairs. The Numerus Clausus intensified this interest, and I gratefully acknowledge the great and noble aid which the foreign Jewish bodies, above all the Alliance Israelite in Paris, gave our student youth abroad. In 1925 the Hungarian Jewish Congress repudiated the interference of our Jewish brethren abroad in the Numerus Clausus question.

“Our gesture was received with respect, the interests of our fatherland being what we had in mind. To day the situation is such that the three organizations of Hungarian Jewry, the Neolog, Orthodox, and Status Quo, must form a joint committee in order to maintain contact with foreign Jewry. History shows that hitherto we have utilized our foreign relations exclusively for our Hungarian fatherland.

“We know,” Deputy Sandor proceeds, “that foreign Jewry does not constitute a united body. In each country there are clashes in Jewry between parties and movements. These internal conflicts principally affect the questions of Zionism and Palestine. The forces for Zionism in the various countries are the Zionist Federations and the forces fighting against Zionism are the Deutsch-Oesterreichische Union in Austria, the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith in Germany, the Alliance Israelite in France, and the League of British Jews in England. In America, so far as I know there is outside the official Zionist Organization no Jewish body which stands on Jewish national ground. In this respect we must proceed with extreme caution. If we make concessions to the Jewish national point of view, we shall lose the sympathies of those great organizations of Jews abroad, which I have mentioned. But since Hungarian Jewry in the mass does not stand on Jewish national but on the Hungarian national ground, such a possibility is very remote.

“Coming now to the question of whether we should support the so called neutral Palestine work, I can only say that so long as there is no of improvement in the economic condition of Hungarian Jewry, it is out of the question. Only when our duty to wards our own people has been done will it become possible to assist those outside our frontiers.

“I should welcome the formation of a committee or organization along these lines.” Deputy Sandor concludes. “This body would be entitled to represent the whole of Hungarian Jewry officially in regard to foreign opinion. I am painfully aware that in cases where foreign Jewry seeks to come into contact with us, we have no forum before which it can make itself heard. If they address themselves to the Israelite Chancellory, the Orthodox Chancellory does not hear. If they speak to the Orthodox, then the Status Quo Chancellory does not hear. All three parties must join together, so that we should be able to establish a unified official foreign orientation for Hungarian Jewry, to benefit in the first place our Hungarian nation and secondly because we do not wish to he isolated in respect to foreign Jewry,” he concludes.

Congregation Ahaval Sholom, Portland, Ore., will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary beginning with Friday evening. December 7 to Sunday evening, December 9.

Congregation Ahavai Sholom was organized in 1868. It is a Conservative Congregation. Rabbi Herbert Parzen is the spiritual leader.

The laying of the cornerstone of the Beth El Educational Center, now being constructed by Temple Beth El. Milwaukee. Wisconsin, took place on Sunday afternoon, October 14.

Dr. Arthur S. Beale, minister of the Grand Avenue Congregational Church was one of the speakers. A unique part of the progra was the raising of the American and Zionist flags presented to the Educational Center by Henry Eder.

Rabbi Philip Kleinman, rabbi of Temple Beth SI, performed the ceremony of laying the coraerstone.