Vehement condemnation of the Russian Soviet religious policy, by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, pleas for church and synagogue to forget differences and stand together to defend religion, by Dr. John Haynes Holmes and Dr. Henry Howard, and a powerful attack on bills favoring the registration of aliens, by United States Senator Burton K. Wheeler, featured the fifteenth anniversary dinner of the American Jewish Congress, held Sunday evening at the Roosevelt.
Declaring that American Jews could not sit by and let the leaders of other faiths protest Soviet persecution of religious groups, for them, Dr. Wise officially voiced the protest of the American Jewish Congress.
“We are not bent upon battling with the Soviet Republic,” Dr. Wise declared, “but we shall never lay down our moral arms until the Soviet Republic ends its ruthless warfare against religion and the free and untrammelled exercise of religious rights under the Soviet Government. To the mad law of the Soviet Republic that religious organizations shall not be permitted to have juridical being, we answer: the world judgment will not forever suffer this unspeakable violation of elementary human rights.
“To those Jews who are fearful of injuring colonization and settlement work for Jews in Russia, we answer that the only course in the presence of colossal wrong is the undismayed resolve to stand up and out until justice be done and injustice righted.
“I will not barter the religious faith of the Jews of Russia for all of Russia’s acres!
“Let it be made clear by the union of Christian and Jewish sentiment throughout the world,” he continued, “that, despite the quasi diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Republic in some lands, humanity will refuse comradeship to a government which bases itself upon the most brutal denial of elementary religious rights of its people.”
Dr. Wise recounted some of the efforts made in the past by the American
Jewish Congress, especially in obtaining ratification of the Balfour Declaration by the members and the League of Nations, and reaffirmed his confidence in Great Britain.
“Imperfect and blundering as the British administration has been, through its underlings in Palestine, I continue to have belief in the integrity of the Brtiish people and their government when they know the truth,—that we are not despoilers and ravagers of Palestine, that we are not seeking to turn the Arabs out of their homes, but are seeking to create a Jewish National Homeland.”
The time has passed when Church and Synagogue can afford to stand apart, Dr. John Haynes Holmes told members of the Congress. They must stand together in a struggle for survival, forgetting differences in ritual and procedure, and united by their common doctrine and purpose.
“As I find the general problem of religion today,” Dr. Holmes stated, “I find the Christian church fighting for its life in an age obsessed with the philosophy of out and out materialism. Jewish religion is fighting for its life as well. Church and Synagogue must stand together, fighting for the same thing, for this is a godless age.
“If Church and Synagogue are to survive,” he continued, “if the greater interests of religion are to survive, if future generations are to know, not about Moses or Jesus, but about God Himself, then we must get down to the fundamentals.
“The time has gone when Church and Synagogue can stand apart. They must stand together in the struggle of the highest ideals of the prophets against the weaknesses and temptations of the weak flesh of men.”
Commenting on his trip through Palestine last summer, Dr. Holmes declared it had strengthened his fellow-feeling for the Jews, for where he had found many Christians interested only in the past and in the religious shrines, many of which, he asserted, are spurious, he found the Jews interested in the work of the present and building for the visions of the future. If Jesus were to visit the land again, he continued, the Jewish pioneer seeking to build a home, rather than the professed Christian who did nothing to prevent or abate the slaughter of defenseless Jews during the recent uprisings, would be His chosen people.
He paid eloquent tribute to Nathan Straus, Dr. Wise and Justice Louis D. Brandeis, of whom he said, “Never so much as in the last few days have I come to realize our need of such a man as Justice Brandeis.”
Senator Wheeler, speaking on the question of the registration of aliens, severely criticized the Secretary of Labor for his attempts to have such registration incorporated in the law. Declaring a registration bill had once passed the House of Representatives, only to be killed in Senate Committee, he warned that such a bill might easily be passed.
“Such a scheme, with its card indexing, photographing, and finger-printing,” the Senator declared, “is abhorrent to the spirit of every man who believes in liberty.
“Advocates of these un-American and unrepresentative measures assert they are needed to compel aliens to become Americanized. Possibly some of these men are sincere, but the surest way of bringing about real, genuine Americanism is to treat all aliens who come here in good faith to make their permanent home, as American citizens would expect to be treated; and the surest way to breed hatred and distrust of their adopted country is to treat aliens as some of them have been accustomed to be treated by the secret police of the Czar and other European despots.
“I reiterate that I am absolutely opposed to such a law and I am confident that all other forward-looking Americans will join me in resisting this or similar legislation.”
Bernard G. Richards, director of the Congress, declared that the fifteen years of the Congress’s existence will “stand out as the years during which Jewish aspirations, Jewish political demands, the old and muffled cry for justice to Israel have been incorporated into treaties, covenants and constitutions, having the sanction and the authority of the law of nations and of international agreements.”
Other speakers included Mrs. Archibald Silverman, who made a plea for cooperation in the work of the Congress; Bernard S. Deutsch, president of the Congress, who acted as toastmaster; L. M. Rabinowitz, chairman of the dinner committee, and former Congressman Nathan D. Perlman, who declared the American Jewish Congress during the coming year would study discrimination in industry and universities, would oppose recognition of Soviet Russia unless its religious policy is changed, and would seek to humanize present immigration laws.
Approximately $65,000 was raised to cover partially the budgetary expenses of the Congress during the next two years.
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