Twenty Thousand Jews Live in Scandinavian Countries

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

A graphic picture of Jewish life in the Scandinavian countries was given by the Chief Rabbi of Stockholm, Dr. M. Ehrenpreis, who has been called to the Chief Rabbinate of Greece, in an interview with the representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, during his stay here on his return trip from Athens to Stockholm.

Dr. Ehrenpreis, who was Chief Rabbi of Stockholm for many years, said that there was an intense Jewish activity in Scandinavia. The Jewish Literary Society of Stockholm (Joediska Literatur Samfundet) was issuing, under his editorship, a series of publications in the Swedish language which would constitute a standard library of Jewish knowledge and belles-lettres. Seven volumes have already appeared. One of these, “New Hebrew Lyrics,” contains poems by Bialik and twelve other Hebrew poets. Two volumes of “The History of the Jews in Sweden” by Prof. Elbogen, have been published.

The Jewish youth organizations are very active. “The Israelite,” the organ of the Scandinavian Jewish youth organizations, appears in Stockholm in the three languages of the Scandinavian countries. Lectures and educational courses are being given under their auspices all over the country. There is also a Jewish Academic Club of which Jewish scholars of considerable prominence in Swedish academic life were members.

Jewish educational, religious and synagogic life is developing favorably, Dr. Ehrenpreis continued. In Helsingfors, the capital of Finland, there is a Jewish secondary school which provides a Hebrew education. Not long ago Dr. Ehrenpreis attended the consecration of a very beautiful synagogue in Trondhejm, Norway, where there are sixty Jewish families. This is the most northern Jewish community in the world. Several of the most prominent personages in Norwegian public life were present at the ceremony.

The four Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, Dr. Ehrenpreis said, have 20,000 Jews. There is no sign of any anti-Semitic movement. There was some agitation against the Jewish ritual method of slaughtering animals, but it had nothing to do with anti-Semitism, being entirely concerned with the movement for humane slaughtering, he said. A new law is now being prepared in Sweden on the slaughtering question, and the Jews are making efforts to uphold the schechita. There was no prohibition of schechita in Norway.

With regard to the reports circulating some time ago that the Nobel Prize Committee was considering the award of the Nobel Prize to Bialik, whose poems were translated into Swedish by Dr. Ehrenpreis in collaboration with a young Jewish poet in Sweden, Dr. Ehrenpreis pointed out that the Nobel Prize Committee makes its awards purely on territorial lines. Dr. Ehrenpreis thought that present-day conditions were such that the Hebrew University could be taken into consideration in regard to the submission of Jewish candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

LORD SWAYTHLING ARRIVES IN NEW YORK

Lord Swaythling, the former president of the Federation of London Synagogues, accompanied by Lady Swaythling and their daughter, Joyce Montagu, arrived in New York on the Olympic yesterday.

When interviewed by a representative of the “Jewish Daily Bulletin,” Lord Swaythling expressed his hope that the $15,000,000 United Jewish Campaign will be successfully completed. He added that British Jews are endeavoring to raise a fund for the Jewish war victins in Russia. Lord Swaythling is treasurer of the fund.

Asked for his opinion as to the expansion of the Jewish Agency to include non-Zionists, Lord Swaythling declared that he is not a Zionst.

“I do not agree with Dr. Weizmann. Dr. Weizmann is at present helping the British government and I. as a loyal subject. am with him in this. However. I think that the Balfour Declaration, treating the Jews as a nation which does not exist, has done much harm to Jews in other countries. Judaism to me is only a religion,” Lord Swaythling declared.

Lady Swaythling, who appealed to President Coolidge last year for the admission to the United States of Jewish refugees stranded in England, stated that the situation of the refugees is still deplorable.

LUCIUS N. LITTAUER WILL GIVE $10,000 YEARLY FOR PREVENTION OF PNEUMONIA

Lucius N. Littauer. former member of Congress, who recently established a chair for Jewish philosophy and literature at Harvard University. has made a gift of $10,000 a year to New York University, to be used in study of the prevention and cure of pneumonia. Mr. Littauer’s wife died of that disease about two years ago.

The fund will be available to promote research work on pneumonia not only at New York University but in the city laboratories, according to Dr. William H. Park. director of the Laboratories of the Department of Health. The gift has been designated as the “Lucius N. Littauer Fund for Studies in the Prevention and Cure of Pneumonia.”