Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneursohn, of Riga, the Lubawitscher Rebbe, arrived in New York yesterday, aboard the steamer “France,” for a several weeks stay in the United States.
He was greeted at quarantine by a committee of Orthodox rabbis and lay leaders from many cities and brought to New York on a special municipal boat.
Several thousand of his admirers were massed at Pier A to welcome him to New York. An escort of several hundred automobiles accompanied him to Borough Park where he will stay while in New York.
Rabbi Schneursohn who left Palestine on the eve of the occurence of the riots, seemed much depressed by the events which occurred in Palestine.
The religious position of the Jews in Russia is not as bad as generally believed outside the country, he declared, in an interview with a representative of the “Jewish Daily Bulletin. It is true that the Soviet government persecutes Jewish religious activity, but this seems to have the effect of stimulating religious belief and practice, rather than diminishing it.
“I am not a political leader,” he said, “and do not presume to make any predictions concerning the future of Jews in Russia. But I do hope that Russian Jewry will yet resume its former position as one of the leading factors in world Jewry.”
Rabbi Henry Tavel, of Cincinnati, has been elected rabbi of Temple Beth Emeth, of Wilmington, Del., and will assume his duties there this week. He succeeds the late Rabbi L. A. Mischkind.
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.
