The State Department at Washington, through William Phillips, Under Secretary, is giving its careful attention to the situation created by Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany, according to Dr. Samuel Schulman, chairman of the special committee of the Synagogue Council of America, who yesterday revealed the nature of a correspondence carried on between his organization and the U. S. Government during the last two months.
The special committee, appointed by State Senator Albert Wald, president of the Synagogue Council of America, and consisting of Dr Samuel Schulman, chairman; Ben Altheimer, Bernard Drachman, S Herbert Golden, Herbert S. Gold stein, Mordecai M. Kaplan, Isaac Landman, Elias Margolis, D. De Sola Pool, Abram Simon and Elias Solomon, sent a letter on May 18 to President Roosevelt.
In the letter President Roosevelt was asked to “heed the cry of our hearts and the prayer of every Jew in this land and to do in an impressive way whatever you think wise and effective in order to bring home to the imagination of the German people the great wrong which is being done in the endeavor to disfranchise, to exclude from citizenship, and to exclude from normal participation in the opportunities of living six hundred thousand Germans of Jewish faith.”
The letter continued: “We hope that you, with your wisdom and with your love of your fellow men and with your recognition of what Jews in this, our land, have done to prove the worthy citizenship of men and women of Jewish faith, will choose the best means of exerting the influence of your great office and of the great leadership in the world with which Providence has blessed you so that you will speak a message of glad tidings to the world, consoling and encouraging not only the Jews of America who are grieved and sorely distressed beyond words, but every Jewish heart in the world.”
On May 29 William Phillips wrote for the Secreatry of State as follows: “Please be assured that careful note has been taken of the contents of your letter and its enclosure, and that this Department is giving the entire situation the most careful and attentive consideration with a view to being helpful in every way it properly can.”
The Synagogue Council of America, with offices in the Congregation Emanu-el, 3 East 65th Street, is affiliated with the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Rabbinical Council of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and United Synagogue of America.
Officers of the Synagogue Council of America are: Albert Wald, chairman; Dr. Samuel Schulman, vice-chairman; Rabbi Elias Margolis, vice-chairman; Ben Altheimer, treasurer; Dr. Israel Goldstein, secretary, and Rabbi J. B. Pollak, secretary to the board.
At the conference of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in Chicago last Monday, Ludwig Vogelstein, of New York, chairman of the Union’s executive board, proposed that the Synagogue Council of America be made the organization to represent the opinion of American Jews, at home or abroad, on all questions affecting Jewish rights.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
