European events of the past forty-eight hours are encouraging not only to Jewry but to all humanity in the struggle against chauvinism and hatred, Samuel Charles Lamport, noted Jewish leader, today told the National Council of Young Israel Organizations at the final session here of its twenty-second anniversary convention.
“It looks as though Hitler got cold spaghetti in Rome,” Mr. Lamport, New York cotton converter, a regional arbitrator for the National Labor Board and a veteran of diplomatic missions abroad, informed the more than 500 delegates representing all parts of the United States.
“Goering’s storm troopers are threatening to turn,” he said. “If there should be an upheaval and the German peoples come to their senses, it may mean saving the world from another and more devastating war.”
Mr. Lamport, who is prominent in the Brown University Club and a member of the Palestine Economic Council and numerous other Jewish organizations, proceeded to deliver a pungent description of the Hitler regime and striking contrasts to the Italian dictatorship.
“It is a trinity of swindling, sadism and savagery,” he declared, speaking of the Nazi government. “Mussolini is a different type, an idealist, loving humanity and ambitious for his country to progress by peaceful means. Hitler is a racketeer Mussolini a statesman.”
Reciting his observations on a European tour last year for the agricultural adjustment administration, Lamport declared that “if this cancer which Hitler is spreading over Europe is not cut out, that continent will be a place only for people who seek to gouge and tear until another war wipes out half its population.”
YOUTH HAS VITAL PART
In the crisis today, Mr. Lamport held that Young Israel has a vital part to play, “because old Israel had a thorough understanding and tried experience in the living under a code.”
“Our code,” he said, “has been the ten commandments, and the NRA in its finest and noblest aspirations cannot improve on them.”
In resolution passed at the closing session today at the Hotel Breakers, the Council pledged itself to continue the fight for its brethren in Germany. The work of the American Jewish Congress and its calling a world congress were endorsed.
Plans were made to continue the Council’s campaign for passage of laws in New York State to enable those who observe the Jewish sabbath on Saturday to carry on work and business on Sunday.
Another resolution protested the death sentence imposed upon Abraham Stavsky in Palestine for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff.
Requests were formulated by the Council to the New York City Board of Education, suggesting that the opening of schools be postponed to September 12 to avoid conflict with the religious holidays that fall on the two preceding days.
ROOSEVELT LAUDS COUNCIL
Devout religious services and addresses on the need for more sincere observance of Jewish ethics and traditions marked the convention opening on Friday.
A special prayer for the welfare of the government and the continued good health of President Roosevelt and Vice-President Garner, offered before the sacred Ark, opened the services.
President Roosevelt sent this encouragement to the assembly:
“I am glad to extend my greeting to the members of the Council of Young Israel and Young Israel Synagogue organizations on the occasion of your annual convention.
“The constructive program, the effectuation of which is your supreme purpose, helpful to your membership and the community in every phase of it, will prove a spur to increased activity and more intense devotion. Such a movement cannot fail to achieve the success it deserves and merits.
“Thirty branches active in as many communities and subject to the direction of the Central Council of Young Israel denote thirty agencies devoted to the promotion of the public good. What an encouraging and inspiring example they afford of willingness to sacrifice their time and energies in fostering those higher ideals inherited from the transcendant civilization of Israel. The place these noble ideals find in present-day life is an iindication of their imperishability.
“Cordially yours,
“Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
