New York Campaign for $150,000 for Union Launched at Dinner to David Brown

A dinner in honor of David A. Brown as a testimonial for his services in behalf of Reform Judaism was given Sunday night at the Hotel Roosevelt. Presidents and trustees of Reform congregations, rabbis and laymen were among the 500 guests who paid tribute to Mr. Brown as chairman of the Board of Finance of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

An appeal to Jewish laymen to support the activities of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations issued by Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Henry Morgenthau, Adolph S. Ochs, and Ludwig Vogelstein, chairman of the Executive Board of the Union, was made public in booklet form at the dinner. The appeal calls upon Reform Jews in New York to contribute $150,000 annually toward the Union’s budget of $513,000.

Louis Marshall, who addressed the gathering, chided New York Reform Jews for the deficit which the Union of American Hebrew Congregations has faced. Mr. Marshall told of his reverence since childhood for Isaac M. Wise, the founder of American Reform Judaism and of the Union, and said:

“It is strange to learn that the Jews of the United States in reform congregations have been so derelict in their duty as to let this great organization languish. The remedy for such a situation, to my mind, is that Reform Judaism in the United States needs reforming. It needs a realization of what its duties are.”

Ludwig Vogelstein, in the opening address at the dinner, paid tribute to Mr. Brown. He told of the efforts made by Mr. Brown to raise adequate finances for the work of the Union, and of the difficulties he encountered because of the seeming lack of interest of Jews in contributing to work which has as its purpose the Jewish educational development of the Jewish people.

“We Jews are a peculiar people,” Mr. Vogelstein said. “We are rady to make sacrifices for our brethren in the most distant countries to preserve their lives and health, care for their children and orphans-but when we appeal to the mind rather than to the heart, when we ask for money for education for our own children here in America, we preach to deaf ears.”

“There is a great and crying need in this country not for less Judaism but for more Judaism,” said Mr. Brown in his address. “The lack of enough religious training is in farge measure responsible for many of the great problems which face us. Wherever we have Jewish delinquents or criminals in large number you can rest assured that there has been no Jewish religious training nor background. I see in Jewish religious education, whether liberal, conservative or orchodox, the building of a resistant force so that when the test comes-and it comes to every one-this force can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as the case may be.

“Not 33 per cent. of our Jewish children are receiving a Jewish education. That is a dangerous situation.”

Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, of the Central Synagogue, declared that the object of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations is to mobilize American Jewry for Judaism. “Disorganized Jewry,” he said, “is a misfortune to itself and a threat to humanity. It is like an army which has been demobilized, throwing its soldiers upon the countryside. To throw three million and more Jews into American life, as an unspiritual rabble, would be as unfair to America as it would be indecent on the part of our Jewish leaders. Israel is a great cause: it has the present right, as it has always had the ability to claim distinguished service.”

Mcier Steinbrink, president of the Eighth Avenue Temple, and president of the Association of Reform Congregations of Greater New York, presided. He made a strong plea to the Jews of Greater New York to give liberally to the Union and aid it in its efforts to develop a growing Jewish laity in this country.

Adolph S. Ochs, in his address, reviewed the work of the Hebrew Union College and told of the efforts being made by a committee of which he is head to raise $5.000,000 as an endowment for the institution.

The dinner was arranged by a special committee composed of: Ben Altheimer, David M. Bressler, Lee K. Frankl, Colonel M. Friedsam, Philip J. Goodhart, Daniel Guggenheim, Max J. Kohler, Hon. Samson Lachman, Col. Herbert H. Lehman, Hon. Irving Lehman, Elliott Levy, Adolph Lewisohn, Henry Morgenthau, Adolph S. Ochs, Hon. Joseph M. Proskauer, Roger W. Straus, Arthur H. Sulzberger, Henry M. Toch, Ludwig Vogelstein, Charles E. Bloch, Sigmund Cahn, Edward R. Cohn. Arthur Eckstein, Morris Einsin, Louis Fleischman, Jacob Friedman, Jr., David Garfinkle. Hon. Henry M. Goldfogle, John G. Greenburgh, P. Irving Grinberg, Adolph Lautman, Leon Levin, P. H. Lustig, Morris A. Magner, Louis Marshall, Samuel Rosenthal. Joseph Rosenzweig, Philip C. Samuels, Max L. Schallek, Adolph Steiner. John F. Stern, Meier Steinbrink, Beniamin Veit, Sidney Worms and Meyer Yondorf.

At the close of the dinner Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May offered a resolution which virtually pledged the attainment of New York’s quota in the $513,000 campaign.