A distinguished audience of 9,000 Jews and Gentiles filled Olympia Hall last night to witness the initial performance of “The Romance of a People,” and gave the pageant an enthusiastic reception.
Opening ceremonies were marked by five brief addresses, with Herman Bernstein, editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin, the guest speaker. Reviewing the fundamentals of civilization as embodied in Jewish history, Mr. Bernstein declared.
“The lessons of America now are needed more than ever before in a world seething with unrest and preparation for war. Americans should guard against attempts to introduce alien prejudices. The most effective answer to dictatorships is more and better democracy, for only that which unites and makes for sympathetic understanding must be encouraged. Demagogues who incite religious and racial warfare are the enemies of the entire human race. To save the world from a purple testament of bleeding war we should rededicate ourselves to a testament of peace, for if civilization fails war will destroy democracy.”
Telegrams from President Roosevelt and Alfred E. Smith, commending the pageant’s educational and inspirational values, were read. Other speakers included the Rev. Frederic Siedenburg, president of Detroit University, who hailed the pageant as an aesthetic story with an appeal to all; Kurt Peiser, executive director of the Jewish Welfare Federation and local director of the pageant; Dr. Leo M. Franklin of Temple Beth-El; Rev. William W. Pickett, congregationalist minister, and Meyer W. Weisgal.
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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.
