Fifty years of helpful activity in behalf of Jewish immigrants were celebrated yesterday afternoon at the Hotel Astor on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society. Two thousand persons were present, including contributors to the society, popularly known as HIAS, and representatives of cooperating religious, labor and fraternal organizations.
Reports tracing the history of the society from its beginnings half a century ago to date were presented by high officials of HIAS, while Colonel Daniel W. MacCormack, commissioner general of immigration and naturalization, and Rudolph Reimer, commissioner of immigration at the port of New York, described the immediate situation as to prospects of increasing the influx from abroad into the United States.
TRACES HISTORY
Abraham Herman, president of HIAS, traced the growth of the Jewish population of this country through succeeding waves of immigration and told how immigrant aid work was begun in answer to the needs of “people coming to a strange land, with entirely new conditions to which they had to adjust themselves.
He said it was a source of regret that, again in 1934, the German Jewish situation occupied first place on the program of HIAS and the Jewish Colonization Association, which have joined to establish Hicem.
“Not one corner of the world, wherever there was the slightest chance of finding a home for the refugees, was left unexplored,” he reported.
PLEDGES AID
Commissioner MacCormack held out small hope of radical alteration in the current restrictive immigration laws, but pledged that all reasonable efforts to “humanize” them had his support.
Pointing to a report that, in all probability, the United States must look forward to having at least 4,000,000 unemployed even when an economic revival is achieved because of technological improvements, Colonel MacCormack said:
“In the interests of the United States, in the interests of the foreign-born already here and, finally in the interests of those wishing to come here, may I advise that your legislative committee study the problem in all its aspects before undertaking to advise changes in the present laws.”
In sharp contrast with conditions which prevailed two and three decades ago, Colonel MacCormack disclosed, only one immigrant comes to the United States today for each 4,000 persons already established in this country and, for each new immigrant, two return to their native lands.
“The great majority of the right-thinking people of the United States favor the reunion of members of separated families,” he added, “but the difficulty lies in the fact that, if this is done, the latest arrivals will demand similar treatment for their relatives who are still overseas and so on ad infinitum.”
Commissioner Reimer was warmly applauded when he said:
“The Jews know what is good —that’s why so many of you came to America.”
Rev. H. Masliansky, speaking in Yiddish, said HIAS does a holy work and called for blessings on America, the only country which “shines brightly for the Jews today.”
Harry Fischel, treasurer of HIAS, reported a deficit of $4,919.05.
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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.
