(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
Acclaim for Charles A. Lindbergh as America’s hero and Clarence D. Chamberlin and Charles A. Levine was voiced in resolutions enthusiastically adopted at the forty-first annual convention of the Independent Order Brith Abraham which opened its sessions at Convention Hail yesterday.
The resolution hailing Lindbergh read:
“The Independent Order Brith Abraham in convention duly assembled at Saraloga, N. Y. on Sunday, June 12th, 1927, greets and acclaims America’s son and hero. Col. Charles A. Lindbergh and joins with the rest of the nation in paying to this fearless and daring proncer flier across the Atlantic its glowing tribute of unbounded admiration for his marvelous achievement and glorious contribution to science and world progress and conveys to him and his dear mother heartiest felicitations and all good wishes for every honor, joy and happiness they so richly merit.”
Chamberlin and Levine were congratulated for their heroic flight in the following resolution:
“The Independent Order Brith Abraham in convention assembled at Saratoga, N. Y. this 12th day of June 1927, in common with the rest of the world hails the extraordinary achievement of Clarence Chamberlin and Charles Levine and warmly and beartily congratulates them upon their historic and heroic flight across the Atlantic and extends to them and their dear ones every good wish for success and happiness in life.”
The Jewish situation in Eastern Europe, the upbuilding of Palestine as the Jewish National Home and the effect of the Immigration Law on Jewish fraternal organizations in America were the three principal questions discussed at the first session. Eight hundred and twenty-one delegates representing 456 lodges are attending the sessions.
Messages from President Coolidge and Governor Smith were read by Judge Hartman at the opening session. Clarence Knapp, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, presented the key of the city to the Grand Master of the Order. In addressing the convention session the Mayor said, “The Jewish people were the first to appreciate the curative values of the springs of our city. They are largely responsible for the growth of our resort and for its development.”
The entire morning session was devoted to the question of Jewish rights in East European countries and the situation in Palestine.
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in his address on Jewish rights which lasted over an hour, criticized those American Jewish leaders who are opposed to open fight against violations of the rights guaranteed to the Jewish population. “The policy of those leaders would never have improved the Jewish situation in Roumania as did our vigorous public protests,” Dr. Wise declared. “When wrong is done to our brethren it is our duty to cry out and by that awake the conscience of the nations. With our open fight against anti-Jewish excesses in Roumania, we reached the point where not only the Jews of America, but also the Christian world voiced its protest.”
Praising the role played by the Independent Order Brith Abraham in the protests against Roumania, Dr. Wise stated that when the delegation appeared before Secretary of State Kellogg. they were promised that the State Department would do everything to help the Jewish situation in Roumania. “If things are better in Roumania than they were before, it is only because we protest openly,” Dr. Wise declared.
Speaking on the forthcoming conference on Jewish rights Dr. Wise said: “Those who are opposed to the conference are afraid that it may be misinterpreted to be an international Jewish conspiracy, but this is not going to be an international Jewish congress. It will only be a conference on Jewish rights in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. If we Jews will be afraid to do the right things because people may misunderstand, then let us better quit. There is no reason to think we will be suspected of an international conspiracy just because we stand up with demands to give us the rights we are entitled to,” he declared.
Dr. Wise announced that the conference on Jewish rights would be held in Zurich instead of Geneva as previously scheduled.
Touching upon the crisis in Palestine Dr. Wise bitterly criticized those who exaggerated the gravity of the situation. “It is true.” he said, “that Palestine is now undergoing a grave crisis, but the situation is not as critical as it is put forth by people who are far from being interested in the welfare of Palestine. We who are interested are not afraid. We believe in the Jewish Agency uniting all groups in American Jewry for the support of the Palestine upbuilding work,” Dr. Wise concluded.
A resolution of hope in the recovery of Nathan Straus from his recent illness was adopted.
Judge Jacob Panken addressed the conference in the name of the Ort, Dr. S. Margoshes of “The Day” and John Bernstein of the Hias welcomed the conference.
“We Jews don’t want to be tolerated, we want to be respected,” Judge Panken stated in his address. “We demand not tolerance but rights and such rights we can get only by reconstructing and rehabilitating Jewish life in the countries where Jews are living, as the Ort is now doing,” he declared.
Judge Hartman stated that he will not be a candidate for reelection. Judge Leon Sanders, Max Silverstein and Congressman Nathan Perlman were named as possible candidates.
Plans for the formation of a $10,000,000 transatlantic air traffic corporation, which would span the ocean with airplanes and possibly Zeppelins, covering the distance between America and Europe in less than forty hours, were announced by Charles A. Levine at the American Embassy in Berlin.
“We hope to be able to begin service within a year,” he said.
The announcement was made following a conference with Lufibansa officials and which, Levine said, had been preceded by conferences with leaders in France and England.
Chamberlin and Levine postponed their vienna flight because of engine trouble.
The Moscow Air Department has sent Clarence Chamberlin, through the Soviet envoy at Berlin, an invitation to visit Moscow.
What is believed to be the largest real estate deal on record. involving a transfer of $9.000.000. was closed when the United Cigar Stores Corporation and Irving I. Lewine purchased the block front on Eighth Avenue, between Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Streets, New York, from Irwin S. and Henry L Chanin.
The decrease in the membership of the Kuklux Klan was caused by a weeding out of undesirables, a representative of the national organization asserted in an address Saturday night at a meeting in a field near Brooklyn, a suburb of Baltimore, Md.
Among the 1.000 graduates who were awarded degrees at the commencement exercises of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., 133 were Jewish.
Seventy-three Jewish students were among the 500 at Syracuse University who received degrees.
Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May will be installed as an honorary member of the Iota Thets Law Fraternity at the annual beefsteak dinner of the organization at the Knickerbocker Grill, Manhattan, Tuesday evening. The fratemity is the oldest Jewish legal fraternity in the East.
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