The Bulletin’s Day Book

B. C. Vladeck, general manager of the Jewish Daily Forward, is one of the five appointees of Mayor La Guardia to the Municipal Housing Board. Mayor La Guardia’s choice will be well-received by the Jewish public. Mr. Vladeck enjoys the esteem of many circles outside his party friends. A speaker of wit, charm and effectiveness, he is sincerely devoted to many communal efforts besides those of his party. He is a trustee of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, leader of the Ort, and a member of the board of directors of the Joint Distribution Committee. He is a militant Socialist, highly regarded by everybody because of his sober judgment and fairness of approach. Mr. Vladeck is one of the forward-looking men, free of marrow conceptions.

I am reminded by Mr. Shertok’s refusal to take the oath on the Torah, of a similar incident which occured twenty-two years ago in Vienna. Adolph Boehm, president of the Zionist Organization of Austria, at the time refused, upon the bith of a son, to have him undergo the usual rites. This caused excitement which shook the Zionist organization throughout the country to it very foundations. Public meetings were held in every part of the country, discussing Boehm’s action and calling for his resignation. The Jewish press devoted page after page to the question. Kurt Blumenfeld, then secretary of the World Zionist Executive, now one of the outstanding leaders of the German Zionist Federation, rushed from Berlin to Vienna in order to placate the excited Zionist heads. TheMizrachi threatened secession unless Boehm resigned. I recall a meeting of a Zionist Student Society in which the Boehm issue was heatedly debated for hours. A painful silence ensued when Enginer Ernst Freund, son of the famous Professor Sigmund Freund, rose and quietly informed the gathering that his father had the same convictions as Mr. to whether he was still welcome as a member of the organization. The majority adcanced the view that religion and nationhood are an inseparable unity, while others felt that a Zionist might even adopt the Christian faith and still remain a member of the Jewish nation and Zionist organization.

Mr. Shertok, who has given rise to a similar discussion is, in spite of his youth, considered one of teh ablest Zionist leaders. He is a man of unusual charm, liked even by his opponents. He took over Dr. Arlosoroff’s work following the Zionist Congress in Prague.

Crude Nazi propaganda seems to give way to subtle and more dangerous efforts. An endeavor is made to create the impression that the Hitler government is changing its anti-Semitic policies. The anti-boycott appeal of Wilhelm Fric, Minister of the assertion, is cited to prove this assertion. It is claimed that it is the intention of the government gradually to relax in its anti-Semitic tendencies.

It would be idle to surmise that the lawyers physicians who have been eliminated have any chance whatever to be reinstated or that the boycott fo Jewish merchants has weakened to any considerable extent. As long as a man like the will-known Nazi leader, Julius Streicher, is permitted to turn out pu blications of unspeakably vile nature, there is little hope that anti-boycott decress will prove effective.

Only recently, Kube, one of the prominent Nazi leaders, indulged in a vehement tirade against German Jewry. Hitler obviously follows a Janus policy; while pursuing a ruthless anti-Semitic policy, he is anxious to regain for Germany foreign confidence and prestige. Whenever a particularly outtrageous case is brought to his attention, he turns, as Chancellor, to the official, Sternly rebuking him and declaring “You have gone too far!” The next moment, Hitler, as Chief of the Nazi Parry, turns around to whisper into the ear of his followers: “Next time, you better be more careful.”