Editor, The Jewish Daily Bulletin:
In Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver’s article in your issue of March 11, there is the following statement: "We have no Jewish college or university of our own in this country such as practically every other religious group has."
Many a reader must have asked himself the question: Is it possible that Rabbi Silver never heard of the Yeshiva College in New York City? Yet this institution has been in existence since 1928. The Yeshiya College offers its ever growing student body a full schedule in the liberal arts and sciences, as any other ordinary college does. In the faculty of the college there is a number of scholars who have gained wide recognition by the academic world for work done in their respective fields. It even publishes a magazine, "Scripta Mathematica," edited by Yekuthiel Ginsburg, professor of mathematics at the Yeshiva College. Two commencements have already been held, and among the honorary alumni is also Governor Herbert Lehman.
One wonders whether Rabbi Silver has ignored the Yeshiva College intentionally, or was just ignorant of its existence. In either ease he has committed a wrong against the institution and the readers of The Jewish Daily Bulletin, and owes them therefore a public apology.
AARON M. MARGALITH, Instructor of Political Science at the Yeshiva College.
New York City.
"UNITY AMONG RABBIS"
Editor, The Jewish Daily Bulletin:
Your editorial "Unity Among Rabbis" stirs a layman to comment. This talk of unity attained "by careful preparation and organization" is only a new form of idol worship. Dr. Mordecai Kaplan is far more correct when he deplores the "lack of true leadership," for without it nothing is possible. So far the year of "awful tragedy," to use your words, has been wholly unproductive in leadership and constructive policy.
The confusion in Jewish life is not the result of sharp differences between organizations, nor does it spring from divisions in the ranks of either the rabbis or the laity. Its cause is the complete lack of a policy adequate to the situation. Great occasion demands great deeds, and courageous measures. If these were forthcoming the overwhelming mass of Jews would respond, even though a tangible minority would still debate "who won the battle of Waterloo."
Leaders and organizations are wedded to their muddled melioristic methodology. A. little here, a little there. Some are more keen and others less interested in "dramatic self-expression." Some more interested in this, and others in that. There has been no serious opposition to any or all forms of conventional fumbling, merely some minor rivalry in the art of "stadlonouth," which has not affected the totality of affairs even by a hair’s breadth. It is of serious consequence that all these efforts, all of them well meant, have had no effect on the "awful tragedy," and offer no prospect of improvement.
Unity will achieve nothing, if there is no end to achieve, and no policy adequate to the situation.
The cold truth is that Hitlerism, which is neither a personal nor an individual concept, is persistently and organically destroying the Jews in Germany. All the messages of leniency, out of which so many hopes are conjured, prove to be only breathing spells. In this respect Dr. Felix A. Theilhaber’s mathematical demonstration of when German Jewry will cease to exist, based on the attitude of the Jews in Germany in matters of intermarriage, conversion, etc., indicates that though the remedy they chose proved a failure, these Jews have for decades understood that anti-Semitism is a positive organic factor, and not a political freak in Germany. That fact must be faced. The more so that it is perfectly clear that anti-Semitism, in its active aggressive form, has made considerable headway during the last year in every country, except, I believe, in Italy.
These inimical forces are molding Jewish life, both physical existence and mental outlooks. The average Jew may not be able either to express or explain this thought, but he feels the truth of it; it is affecting his life; it is consciously and clearly defining the prospects of his children. He is not chasing unity, what he is seeking is action to which he and others can untimely respond. The word "Achdus" is being thrown at us though it had the power to ward off evil. Actually it is used as a soporific. Let us be united. About what? About being united. And then?
Where there is no direction, how shall all of us pursue one road?
JACOB de HAAS.
New York City.
LAW FRATERNITY HOST TO STARS OF THE STAGE
Noted Broadway celebrities will attend a tea dansant and bridge which will be given by the Alpha Chapter of Iota Theta Law Fraternity on April 15, at the Hotel Waldorf Astoria.
BENNELT-MARCH
Upon completion of "The Firebrand," the first of a series of pictures which Constance Bennett and Fredric March are making for the Joseph M. Schenck-Darryl F. Zanuck 20th Century Picture Company, those two stars will begin preparations for their next picture, based on the novel, "Half Angel," by Fanny Heaslip Lea. "The Firebrand" is directed by Gregory LaCava. Both pictures are to be released by United Artists.
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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.
