Safeguarding the Jewish Sabbath: Chief Rabbi Hertz in Geneva for League of Nations Calendar Reform M

The decisive meeting of the Conference on Communications and Transit under the auspices of the League of Nations, which is opening here to-morrow to settle the question of calendar reform, may give an opportunity to the representatives of various Jewish Communities who have been invited to attend as observers, to state the Jewish case against the introduction of the Blank Day, which would have the effect of displacing the Sabbath. No definite decision has yet been adopted on this matter, the J.T.A. representative learns at the League of Nations Secretariat, because the final decision rests with the conference itself, but it is very probable that the Jewish observers will be enabled to make brief statements, presenting the Jewish view against any tampering with God’s Sabbath Law.

Chief Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz, the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Committee on Calendar Reform, who has already been in Geneva for some days, will represent the Committee as observer at the Conference, and Mr. Elkan N. Adler, Mr. Philip S. Henry, and Mr. Arthur le Vine will represent the American League for Safeguarding the Fixity of the Sabbath.

Chief Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz, who has been seeing various people here and holding consultations on the question, told the J.T.A. representative here that he will present resolutions of protest against any interference with the fixity of the Sabbath on behalf of thousands of Jewish communities in all countries where there are Jews living.

In addition, a petition will be presented, bearing the signatures of a number of outstanding Jews all over the world, in order to refute the suggestions which have frequently been made that the Jewish opposition to the Blank Day project is confined to a small body of orthodox Rabbis. The signatures include those of Mr. Nahum Sokolov, President of the Jewish Agency and the Zionist World Organisation; Baron Edmondds Rothschild; Professor Silvain Levi, President of the Alliance Israelite Universelle; Dr. Cyrus Adler, Chairman of the American Jewish Committee; Mr. Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of America; Mr. Herbert H. Lehman, Lieut.-Governor of New York State; Mr. O. E. d’Avigdor Goldsmid, President of the Board of Jewish Deputies; Mr. Lionel de Rothschild, President of the United Synagogue; Dr. J. L. Magnes, Chancellor of the Hebrew University; Mr. Ch. N. Bialik, the Hebrew poet laureate; Senator van den Bergh, Herr Oscar Wassermann, and many other Jewish lay leaders in Germany, Holland, Italy, and other countries.