The 37th biennial convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which began its business sessions today, heard messages from President Roosevelt and Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King of Canada stressing the need of strengthening religion and pledging a fight for a more tolerant world.
The President’s message voiced “hearty greetings to the representatives of Jewish congregation who are meeting to strengthen the work of religion.”
“The world is in great need of the Word of God at this particular time,” he said. “Our civilization, whose most precious product is democracy, is based primarily upon the Law of God and will be renewed and strengthened only by adherence to that Law.”
The Canadian Prime Minister, whose message was transmitted through Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath of Toronto, declared the Canadian Government “is now engaged in a tremendous struggle to maintain not alone a democratic world, but also an international order guided and inspired by the moral and spiritual principles which are the common birthright of Christianity and Judaism.”
He asserted the Jews were “the first to feel the full pressure of the neo-pagan onslaught, and whose adherents in Europe have been submitted to a series of persecutions almost unbelievable in their extent and in their character, which constitutes one of the blackest pages of human history.”
“The people of Canada are not unmindful of these sufferings, nor of the great debt which the Christian churches of the Dominion and of the entire world owe to the seers and prophets of Israel,” he said. “We Canadians do more than extend to our Jewish friends our sympathy. We also pledge that in this war Canada will carry on, confident in the trust, friendship and support of the people of America, until the day of victory comes and, in a more tolerant world, every man will find it possible to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, to dwell under his own vine and fig-tree and none shall make them afraid.”
Robert L. Goldman, in his presidential message to the convention this morning, asserted that “in this day and generation, religion is the most important cause to which the Jew can give his attention.” He declared that “only the synagogue speaks a language that America can understand, the language of religious freedom.”
Summarizing the work of the union, Goldman said Hebrew Union College in the past 66 years graduated 442 rabbis; the union maintains 300 congregational schools and sells 70,000 books annually.
Rabbi George Zepin, secretary of the union, elaborated on Goldman’s report by stating Hebrew Union College had graduated and placed 13 new rabbis; seven new books were issued and 65,000 volumes distributed making a total of more than 1,000,000 volumes in the past 20 years.
Roger W. Straus, chairman of the UAHC’s Committee on Cooperation and co-chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, reported that “anti-Semitism is more and more recognized as an instrument in Trojan horse tactics used to divide a people.” He noted an increasing number of interfaith speakers at church meetings and conventions and increasing cooperation of educational organizations.
At the ninth biennial convention of the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods, President Albert F. Mecklenburger, Chicago, reported: “Twenty clubs have been organized or become newly affiliated since our last biennial convention in Cincinnati in January, 1939. This is the largest number in any similar period since the earliest days of the National Federation.” There are now 130 clubs.
The importance of expanding Jewish education, since “democratic leaders can only be effective when their co-workers constitute an educated group,” was stressed by Miss Jane Evans, Cincinnati, executive director of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, reporting to the 14th biennial assembly of the organization. She said 10 new groups joined the federation in the past year.
Mrs. Leon L. Watters, New York, president of the Sisterhoods, in her annual message, recommended as a new project the building by 1943 of a new home for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. “This project would indeed forever prove our answering allegiance to religion as the foundation of personal, national and international life,” she said.
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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.
