The true conception of charity is more alive in the United States than in Europe, in the opinion of Professor Albert Einstein, who so declared in a message yesterday from his home in Princeton, N. J., to Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May, president of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities.
“The recognition that possessions are not a privilege but a trust must always remain alive among us,” wrote Professor Einstein, and “among non-Jews. too, this conception is far more alive here than abroad.”
Professor Einstein in his message urged that support be given the $500,000 twenty-fifth anniversary campaign which the Brooklyn Federation is now conducting to meet the 1934 budget requirements of the twenty-five affiliated societies.
WRITES OF CHARITY
“I have been requested,” wrote Professor Einstein, “to give a message in relation to Jewish charity, and especially concerning federations, or community chests, organized in communities throughout the country in aid of distressed Jews, and the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities, which is observing its twenty-fifth anniversary with a campaign to meet appeals for aid through its twenty-five constituent societies.”
The statement continued:
“The spirit of mutual aid and self-sacrifice occupy first place in the moral tradition of the Jewish people. Had it not been for this tradition, there would be no Jews in existence now, and so long as this tradition continues to be transmitted solicitously from generation to generation, the hatred opposing us cannot do us any harm.
“The fairest quality of Jewish charity is the fact that it does not stop at the bounds of our own people, but in many cases rebounds to the advantage of the poor and oppressed of other races. Bene-factions are not regarded by good Jews as a sacrifice on the part of the giver, but as a benefit to the donor himself. The recognition that possessions are not a privilege but a trust must always remain alive among us. Among non-Jews, too, this conception is far more alive in the United States than in Europe.
“Most peoples have preserved themselves by establishing States and by conquering and defending territory by force of arms. Even the Jewish people in the Bible era established existence on this basis. The Jews would long ago have been destroyed, like all other nations, if they had not discovered and maintained a more solid basis for their existence. This new basis was the moral law and the cherishing of tradition based on this law.
“So long as we ourselves may cherish the happy feeling that our tradition gives animation to lofty values, we Jews all over the world will not cease to feel our solidarity, and we shall continue to exist as a community even if spread all over the world. In this sense, benefactions are a blessing to the giver.”
County Judge Algeron I. Nova, chairman of the Federation’s $500,000 campaign, has called the first report meeting of the drive to be held next Tuesday night, April 17, at 6:30 o’clock, at the Unity Club, Bedford avenue and Dean street, Brooklyn, the meeting to be preceded by dinner. Representatives of the ninety-odd trade and professional groups in the Trade and Membership Council, money-raising organization of the Federation, will make reports at the meeting as to funds they have obtained thus far. Nearly one thousand volunteer solicitors are canvassing for contributions, and this number is expected to be largely augmented is the next few weeks, it was stated by Samuel Salzman, chairman of the Council.
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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.
