The Reader’s Forum

The editors reserve the right to excerpt all letters exceeding 500 words in length. All letters must bear the name and address of the writer, although not necessarily for publication.

August 30, 1934

To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:

I read Mr. Seidman’s short and none too polite letter commenting on my lines.

I notice that he does not attempt to disprove anything I have said by facts, but that he apparently believes that the criticism of Dr. Wise is “high treason”—in the Reich of the Kaiser they would have called it “Majestactsbeleidigung.”

This rather puzzles me because I did not believe we Jews have reached the stage where a leader has been elevated beyond sincere criticism and that disciple of Dr. Wise should so far forget his so-called democracy as to scorn the opinion of a Jew—because he is an “obscure individual.”

Leo Wolfstein.

PROTESTS ‘MUD-SLINGING’

August 30, 1934.

To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:

I am not ordinarily a “letter-to-the-editor” writer, but the comment of Mr. Livingston on an earlier letter by Mr. Wolfstein prompts me to take my pen in hand. As I remember, Mr. Wolfstein’s letter concerned itself mainly with this point: that Dr. Wise was being unwise in diverting energy from the fight against Nazism to an internal fight against The American Jewish Committee.

I had followed the reports of the World Congress very closely. There was no mistaking the newspaper reports to the effect that the Conference gave rise to a great deal of inner turmoil and disagreement. It is further recalled that The American Jewish Committee statement was solely to the effect that it and other important Jewish organizations did not participate in the Conference. The Conference orators strove mightily to convey the impression that they spoke in the name of all the Jews in the world.

Mr. Wolfstein’s letter reproached Dr. Wise for calling for unity with an attack upon important Jewish organizations. And what does Mr. Livingston say to that? He digs up the old, terribly trite accusations against the German Jews. It is against this mud-slinging that I must protest. Is it not possible to keep the level of debate on the question of the World Jewish Congress above the befuddling demagoguery in which Mr. Livingston indulges? I know it is characteristic of certain public misleaders, but it appeals to me that the Jews are deserving of a better fate at the hands of their leaders than the German people receive at the hands of Dr. Goebbels.

(signed) N. Pine.

1201 Avenue K,

Brooklyn, N. Y.