A stirring Passover appeal for contributions to the $3,000,000 German Jewish Relief Fund was issued yesterday by Felix M. Warburg, burg, chairman of the United Jewish Campaign. Paul Baerwald, Louis Lipsky, Morris Rothenberg and Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, co-chairman, also joined in the appeal.
Throughout the country hundreds of rabbis will devote their sermons this week end to the situation of the Jews in Germany and for the necessity of united Jewish effort to help the victims of Nazi persecution. The appeal issued two days before Passover, is a feature in the united drive of the Joint Distribution Committee and the American Palestine Campaign, which was launched last week.
Emphasizing the point that these two organizations have joined their efforts for this fund-raising campaign, the appeal called upon American Jewry to unite in meeting the tragedy that has befallen their brethren abroad, victims of Nazi oppression.
IN MIDST OF TRAGEDY
“The Passover holiday which we are about to celebrate,” the statement reads, “finds the Jewish people in the midst of the most tragic circumstances we have ever known since our forefathers left Egypt. Our commemoration of the historic Exodus from the land of bondage is touched by bitterness which is more than symbolic. The cycle of our people’s history has turned full course again, as we find a very great section of Jewry undergoing almost the same fate as was meted out to the Israelites in Egypt. The Jews in Germany are also in bo{SPAN}##{/SPAN} age, unable to free thems{SPAN}##{/SPAN} from the chains of government discrimination and persecution which binds them.
“We Jews in America, who have undertaken to raise funds through the United Jewish Appeal, for the relief and rehabilitation of the Jews in Germany and other lands and for settlement in Palestine, can observe the Passover holiday by making it possible to ease the burden under which the stricken Jews of Germany live. The problem of providing the very necessities of life to refugees, of assisting in the economic reconstruction of those living in Germany and of facilitating the settlement of Jews in Palestine, is one of the major national rehabilitation programs that have ever demanded the attention and concern of the world.”
JEWS OF AMERICA ARE UNITED
Declaring that responsibility for helping the stricken Jews in Germany rests upon the entire Jewish people, the message declared that “the Jews of America have united their forces on the eve of Passover as though in response to the demand for unity that is implicit in this great holiday.
“Passover, therefore, marks the beginning of the nation-wide effort to obtain $3,000,000. It is not too great a sum to ask even in these times, considering the immensity of the problem with which we are faced,” the message concluded.
At the same time it was announced that the Governors of three States have joined in endorsing the campaign. They are Governor Herbert H. Lehman of New York; Governor Henry Horner of Illinois, and Governor Julius L. Meier of Oregon.
“I join with all humanity in wishing you success in your great humanitarian undertaking,” Governor Horner declared in his message, which was addressed to Refugee High Commissioner James G. McDonald. “Rehabilitation of German Jews in Palestine and other lands where they may settle and again pick up in peace and harmony with their neighbors the threads of useful life is essential immediately,” he continued. “The problem is not alone a Jewish problem; it is a world tragedy.”
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