Rabbis’ Board Condemns City Lottery Plan

A resolution condemning the proposed municipal lottery was adopted yesterday at a meeting of the Board of Jewish Ministers held at Congress House, 50 West Sixty-eighth street. The Board empowered its representative, Dr. David de Sola Pool, rabbi of the Spanish and Portugese Synagogue, to appear before the public hearing this Thursday and make known to Mayor F. H. LaGuardia the sentiments of the organization.

Dr. H. P. Mendes, rabbi emeritus of the Spanish and Portugese Synagogue, reported that he had discovered a letter from the Secretary of State in President Martin Van Buren’s administration in which the United States officially protested anti-Jewish demonstrations in Damascus. This letter, for some unknown reason, has not appeared within the past year or so in discussions of past precedents when the United States government publicly made an appeal for the Jews.

The letter is considered especially significant today because the Damascus riots were based on the ancient blood ritual libel and presents a situation in part analogous to the present day when Julius Streicher, through his Der Stuermer, is attempting to incite further anti-Jewish feeling in Germany through reiteration of these same falsehoods.

Mrs. Stephen S. Wise, wife of the rabbi, appealed to the members of the Board to ask their congregations to support the work of Congress House in caring for German-Jewish children until their parents are established. Congress House, she said, maintains a home in Katonah, Westchester, for this purpose.

Mrs. Vixman, executive secretary of Young Judaea, appealed to the rabbis to assist in the development of club leaders for the Young Judaea groups. The Board will take steps to cooperate.