destiny of the individual, although we are living at a time when individualistic worth is trampled under foot by racialism.”
Dr. Heinrich Stern, who spoke for the large German Jewish delegation, expressed his pride in the presence of the German group and pointed out that Germany was the birthplace of liberal Judaism.
Rabbi Wolff of Dresden, Germany, said in his greeting to the conference that a denial that there existed a characteristic Jewish type would be a sin against life, but making it a fetish would be against the meaning of life. He declared that Jews throughout their history had been embedded among the peoples of the world. We affirm the historical right of the Jews to live in the land where we were born and amid the culture which formed us, remaining Jews because we believe in our particular Jewish life.”
UNDUE RISE IN PERSECUTION
Rabbi Morris Lazaron of Baltimore described how three successive waves of Jewish emigration to the United States had brought some 4,000,000 Jews from all corners of the world. He stated that most American Jews were not affiliated officially with the liberal movement in Judaism, but the group numbered several hundred thousand.
Rabbi Jacob Singer of Chicago, outlining the misfortunes of the Jews, concluded that they had increased disproportionately in an age of upheavals. “We see what happens in a world which is losing its moral foundations,” he declared. “By virtue of our spiritual heritage and by virtue of the long tragic Jewish experience, we must lead as the servant of humanity,” Rabbi Singer maintained.
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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.
