War Time Record of Jewish Chaplains Lauded at U.A.H.C. Conference

Tribute to the war-time record of American Jewish chaplains was paid here tonight by Major General Luther D. Millie, Army Chief of Chaplains, and Rear Admiral William N. Thomas, Navy Chief of Chaplains, at a banquet which highlighted the 39th Biennial Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. One hundred and forty-six Jewish Reform chaplains received citations commemorating their activities on all fronts during the war.

Principal speaker at the dinner was Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, who said that from now on “the accent must be placed not on philanthropy but on Jewish education–youth and adult–upon scholarship, academies and the proper training of spiritual leaders, teachers, community leaders and social workers and upon writers, books and all the creative efforts of the mind.”

Dr. Zalman Grinberg, chairman of the Central Committee for Liberated Jews in Germany, who is returning to Munich next week, told the 1,500 persons assembled at the dinner, that what the displaced Jews in Europe need now is “political help.” He said that “more than 98 percent of the remaining 100,000 Jews in Germany wish to go to Palestine. If we do not have a maximum contribution by American Jewry in our political struggle,” Dr. Grinberg said, “we feel that there will be a new great tragedy in Europe. Unless the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe are permitted to go to Palestine without delay there will be both acts of desperation and the beginnings of a march on Palestine.”