The overwhelming majority of outstanding personalities of Jewish origin throughout the world, in all fields of endeavor, are not only willing but eager to be identified publicly as Jews, according to a report by Harry Schneiderman, chairman of the editorial board of the first “Who’s Who in World Jewry,” which will be published here this month.
In gathering the 11,000 biographies of prominent living Jews from all parts of the world, Mr. Schneiderman said, the editorial board had to sift through thousands upon thousands of names suggested by organizations, scholarly institutions and cooperating committees in the U. S. and overseas. These suggestions were narrowed down to the individuals deemed appropriate for inclusion in the volume because of their achievements in government, science, the arts, business, scholarship, civic welfare, entertainment or other fields, and each individual was contacted to biographical details.
“Except in a few, scattered instances, no individual asked that his name be omitted from our compilation of the world’s leading Jews, ” Mr. Schneiderman declared. “On the contrary, most candidates for inclusion expressed great interest in being listed along with the contemporaries as outstanding Jews of our times.”
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