The foremost Jewish religious bodies and spiritual leaders in the country today congratulated the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on its twenty-fifth anniversary which is now being celebrated. The importance of the JTA to the Jewish cause was emphasized in all the congratulatory messages.
Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Synagogue Council of America, which includes all national congregational and rabbinical organizations of the country, wrote: “On the occasion of your twenty-fifth anniversary permit me, on behalf of the Synagogue Council of America, to congratulate you upon the excellent record of service which has accumulated to your credit during this quarter of a century. The past twenty-five years have been crucial and excruciating years for the Jewish people the world over. Yours has been the valuable, nay invaluable function of being the eyes and ears, observing and reporting events and trends on a far-flung front affecting the Jewish people. American Jewry, which will be called upon to shoulder huge responsibility for Jewish communities abroad during the war and after, will continue to need the services of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. More power to you.”
Dr. James G. Heller, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, said in his message: “For many years I have used and appreciated the material on Jewish news of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. It has proved and continues to prove a great service in keeping our own people informed as to the furious pace of events and in giving a veracious picture of the conditions of Jewish life.”
Rabbi I. Rosenberg, president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, stated: “Please accept my heartiest congratulations on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. May the Almighty help you to continue your valuable work of distributing information concerning our people, with more vigor. A service like yours is now indispensable, and we wish you great success in the future.”
Dr. Soloma Goldman, outstanding figure in the American Zionist movement and spiritual leader of the Anshe Emet synagogue in Chicago, said in his message: “The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has rendered indispensable, inestimable and invaluable service to American Jewry particularly and to world Jewry generally. At a distance of a quarter of a century, it is difficult to imagine how we did our work without it. I dare say that our thinking must have been quite provincial. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has broadened our Jewish horizons and has made it possible for us to think and act not only on the basis of sentiment and conjecture but with knowledge and understanding.”
Dr. David de Sola Pool, in his greeting declared: “The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has proved itself to be a uniquely valuable instrumentality for gathering and recording the sheer facts about Jewish life from far and wide. With the end of the war, the world have to settle down to re-fashioning itself along the lines of democratic freedom and justice. Then the vast mass of stark facts which the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has collected and put on record will be indispensable in setting forth the claims of the Jewish people.”
Rabbi Leo Jung of the Jewish Center, New York, stated: “But for the painstaking and reliable effort of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency we should be entirely confused in these terribly complex and unhappy times. Permit me to express my profound appreciation of your services and my fervent hopes for your continued success. Israel as well as our non-Jewish brethren are vitally in need of a reliable interpreter of the various aspects of Jewish life in our day.”
A message of blessing was also received from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi I. Schneersohn. In congratulating the JTA on its “important and praiseworthy work,” the Lubavitcher Rebbe expresses the hope that the Jewish Telegraphic Agency will soon be “the surveyor of cheerful news from our Jewish brethren in all parts of the world.”
Dr. Jacob Rosenheim, president of the Agudas Israel World Organization, said in his message. “Reasonable management in public Jewish affairs is scarcely imaginable today without the constant help of your news services. The objectivity and impartiality of your reports is specially to be acknowledged. I hope that you will continue and develop your work during the next twenty-five years and that you will be able to serve the Jewish cause in future peaceful times, spreading good Jewish news all over the world.” A similar message was also received from Rabbi B.W. Hendles, executive director of the Agudas Israel of America.
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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.
