Warburg Appeals for Substantial Aid

When Felix M. Warburg stepped to the platform to deliver his speech, he was greeted with cheers. Over $30,000,000, Mr. Warburg said, have been given by the Jews of America since 1914 for the relief of the war and pogrom suffering Jews of Eastern Europe. But though the war ended ten years ago, Europe is still in a state of turmoil, readjustment and reconstruction, he said, and the work of the Joint Distribution Committee must be continued there.

“If we are to realize our ambitions and bring reconstruction and help to suffering, struggling Jewry, and enable it to regain its footing, so that our people overseas may become self-dependent, self-supporting, self-respecting; if at the same time we desire to bring substantial aid to the work that must proceed in Palestine for the upbuilding of the Holy Land, naturally, the amount which will need to be expended will have to be larger substantially than that which has independently been raised by the Joint Distribution Committee itself for the work in Europe,” declared Mr. Warburg.

During 1924 and 1925 no new campaigns for money-raising in this country were undertaken, he continued. It was in the fall of 1925 that plans were made for the inauguration of a new campaign—the United Jewish Campaign—for a period of three years. Actually, the funds raised in the United Jewish Campaign under the leadership of David A. Brown totaled over $15,000,000, and has been made to cover the activities of the Joint Distribution Committee abroad for four years, commencing with 1926 and ending with 1929.

“The sympathy of the Jews of this country,” said Mr. Warburg, “has reached out to alleviate the conditions of Jews in no less than 46 countries and territories.”

Referring to the beginnings of the Russian colonization efforts by the Joint Distribution Committee, Mr. Warburg said:

“It was not easy to persuade us that an effort such as the Agro-Joint land settlement project was desirable, that it was promising, that it was sane, and Dr. Rosen had to persuade such clear thinking logical minds as that of the late Louis Marshall whom we miss so sadly today, that the efforts in the land settlement work were wise and, what is more, the only really promising way to keep thousands and hundreds of thousands of people alive and self-supporting. I remember distinctly that we subjected the plan to the sharpest and keenest scrutiny; that we weighed doubt after doubt; that we considered objection after objection. I recall that it was said that within a few months the type of government would change; that revolutions would pass; that our efforts would be wiped out. We weighed these considerations. We have brought comfort to more than 3 million Jews of Russia during the regime of the Czar, during the period of Miliukov, of Kerensky and of the Soviet. Our position there is that of a faithful nurse. The patient is sick, the doctor prescribes. It is not for us to argue or discuss the treatment which is prescribed by the doctor, but to show a humane, a kindly, a sympathetic spirit, and to help the patient over the period during which tender care is needed. That such care is needed, everyone vouches for. Let us not join those who are strong in philosophy and weak in execution, even though at the risk that some of our work in the medical field and social work and in financial aid may not completely save the situation. It will be more than heartless to be deaf to the pleas of those who need our aid, or to assume a ‘holier than thou’ attitude. It is that principle which should prevail throughout this campaign which we are now inaugurating.”

Referring to the Arab disturbances last August in Palestine, Mr. Warburg praised the courage shown by Palestinian Jews during that period. With regard to the question of reconstruction work in Palestine, as well as relief work elsewhere, Mr. Warburg said that the wishes and hopes of the people themselves who live there should guide relief workers in all their activities.

“Even if the doors of this country were not closed to them, thousands of Jews would prefer today to move to Palestine than to come even to this country,” declared Mr. Warburg. “Let us go out and help them to live up to their ideals. It is they who sacrifice everything. It is we who are expected to sacrifice merely a few pleasures, a few luxuries, not really a deprivation, but an opportunity which may afford us the satisfaction that we have done something of which we and our children may well be proud.”