The Royal Commission of inquiry, which arrived here yesterday from Palestine, will probably not publish its report “for some time” owing to the huge amount of evidence, according to a statement by Lord Peel, the chairman.
The National Council of Jewish Federation and Welfare Funds closed its fourth annual assembly with a dinner tonight after hearing an announcement that as a result of its efforts an agreement had been reached between the Joint Distribution Committee and the United Palestine Appeal.
William J. Shroder, president, told the 600 delegates at the opening session last night that the agreement provides that they recommend to local welfare funds allotment of money on the basis of 60 per cent to the J.D.C. and 40 per cent to the U.P.A.
Among those on the speakers’ list during the day and at the dinner were Felix M. Warburg, Judge Samuel I. Rosenman and Dr. Joseph Rosen, director of the Agro-Joint.
Mr. Shroder and other officers were re-elected and William Rosenwald, Philadelphia, added as vice-president. New members of the board elected are: George Backer, New York; Edward M. Baker, Cleveland; Herbert Mallinson, Dallas; Edward J. Schanfarber, Columbus; Mr. Shroder, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, Cleveland; Joseph Willen, New York; Morris Wolf, Philadelphia and Solomon Lowenstein, New York. The remaining board members continue in office except that Irwin Bettman, St. Louis, replaced Leo Fuller, who resigned.
At this afternoon’s session, presided over by Mrs. Alice Liveright, Philadelphia, delegates heard reports on the preliminary institutes by Mr. Willen and Harry Greenstein. H.L. Lurie, executive director of the council, reported that the council now has 95 members in 79 cities, Mrs. Sigmund Herzog, Cleveland, Henry Wineman, Detroit and Sidney N. Weitz, Cleveland, also spoke this morning.
Morris Rothenberg, chairman of the Zionist Organization of America’s administrative committee, said that welfare funds and federations could develop into a new and desirable form of Kehilla. Concerning overseas causes he said that “the support the council members give to the upbuilding of Palestine hold deep implications for the enrichment of Jewish life.”
George Backer, chairman of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, advanced the view that Jewish institutions would eventually disappear, except in the religious field, as the Jewish community merged into the whole American community. On the other hand, Mr. Rothenberg supported the principle of intensified Jewish communalism, warning of cultural decay among the Jews.
Mr. Backer declared that the American theory of government “invalidate the old principle of Judaism as a force other than religious.” He warned that a person taking Judaism as a way of life “is not attempting to further the American experiment in democracy and must be considered as having dismissed American culture as a desirable possibility.”
“The liberal must regard the existence of all Jewish institutions which do not follow the accepted pattern of American tradition as merely expediences which must be carried on so long as a need exists for them, he said. “But there must be an ultimate goal the hope that these institutions may disappear into their parallel participants in the general field.”
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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.
