Nobody cares about orphans?
The President of the United States, Postmaster General James Farley, Governor Herbert Lehman, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the most celebrated jurists in the largest city in the world, and the largest city in the world, and the greatest stars on Broadway paid tribute to the motherless and fatherless tots living at the Israel Orphan Asylum.
The occasion for honoring the orphans came last Saturday at the annual benefit show for the orphanage held at Madison Square Garden under the direction of Judge Gustave Hartman, whose interest in social work and particularly in the Israel Orphan Asylum extends over a period of decades.
President Roosevelt, who, as governor of New York had appeared at the annual benefit, commended the work of the Israel Orphan Asylum in a letter which was read before 22,000 persons who filled the Garden to capacity. Other distinguished citizens were gathered around the stage in one of the most celebrated audiences ever seen at the Garden.
HARTMAN’S WORK PRAISED
In honoring the orphans, Governor Lehman said in part, “The care of our orphans constitutes one of our greatest responsibilities. Upon our treatment of motherless and fatherless youngsters depends largely the answer to the question as to whether they will grow up to be good, constructive citizens or whether they will become liabilities on the hands of the state.”
The Mayor, the Postmaster General, Samuel Seabury and others, made brief speeches from the platform, where they extolled the work of Judge Hartman in building good citizens.
More than one hundred stars of the screen, stage and radio appeared in many numbers. The entire cast of the Ziegfeld Follies and Roberta attended. They expressed themselves as being glad to perform for the benefit of the orphans.
The response of the people of the city (the affair was a sell-out before the show started), the eagerness of high government officials to cooperate, and the good will with which popular stars performed indicates, it would seem, that the orphans are not entirely uncared for.
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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.
