The dinner held on February 22, as part of the campaign to raise funds for the Commercial Road Talmud Torah, in which the late Lord Melchett took deep interest, was the occasion of messages and speeches by some of the most prominent personalities in Britain.
The purpose of the Fund is to raise an endowment for the Talmud Torah as a memorial to the late Lord Melchett.
The Prince of Wales sent a message to the dinner saying that he was glad that it had been decided to endow the Talmud Torah with which the late Lord Melchett had been so closely associated.
The present Lord Melchett’s speech was listened to with great interest, and it was generally agreed that it was a further manifestation, if such were needed, of the closeness with which he now identifies himself with Jewish affairs.
In the course of his address, he said, “When one looks at the history of our people and the struggles with which they have been faced, one is amazed at the results that have been achieved and the position which we now hold, difficult as it is. I think if anybody was to sit down and sketch out quite briefly the history of the Jewish people in the last 2,500 years, they would finish up by saying that there are only three possible results of such a history: (1) the total degeneration of a people who had lived through such times; (2) their total extermination; (3) their total assimilation. None of these things, none of these three possibilities has been proved.
“On the contrary, at the present moment, Jews are throughout the world, in spite of the most appalling difficulties which they have faced for a long time, undergoing a process of regeneration.
“I have had the opportunity of seeing some evidence of that in the countries which I have recently visited, and I was enormously struck by the earnestness, enthusiasm, the idealism of the younger generation.
“I was enormously struck by the importance of maintaining in its pure and its truest form the teachings of the Law and the Prophets, upon which our contribution to civilization is based. It is very inspiring to live in a generation which is taking part in a national regeneration, that seems on the face of it so impossible, seems on the face of it so incredible, and yet if you are prepared to open your eyes, prepared to recognize it, is in fact and in reality taking place, not because any possibility is made for it to take place, not because anything is made easy, but be-
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