Jewish Education Committee Group Confers Brotherhood Award Upon Lehman

Herbert H. Lehman, retiring Director General of UNRRA, received the annual Human Brotherhood Award of the League of Fraternal Organizations of the Jewish Education Committee at a ceremony today at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, attended by more than 1,200 Jewish leaders.

The award, previously, conferred on the late President Roosevelt, Dr. Arthur H. Hapton and Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy, cited Mr. Lehman’s long years of service as a public official, statesman, and leader in the Jewish community. It praised as achievements as head of UNRRA, declaring “that in dedicating his exceptional powers and bringing relief to those who suffer from the after-effects of the most cruel war in history, he is working to establish a community of interest among all peoples, out of which future peace must grow.”

In accepting the award, Mr. Lehman deplored the lack of faith among “men and governments,” and pleaded for a greater emphasis on religious values. “Men speak of the wonder of the survival of the Jewish people through the ages,” he said. “It has survived because Jews have held fast to the tradition that thousands of years ago, on the slope of Mount Sinai, their fathers entered into a covenant for them with the Lord, and no force could compel the Jews to abandon the tradition of that covenant. Today men may accept or reject the literal truth of that tradition, but every Jew who knows the history of Jewish faithfulness to that tradition must feel that he is an unworthy descendant of a great line unless he too remains faithful to his spiritual ideals, whatever they may be. Jewish history teaches that spiritual ideals, in a people as well as in an individual, give strength and endurance transcending material wealth or power.”