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Wise, Kirstein Broadcast Plea for Victims of Aggression in Europe

September 29, 1941
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Strengthening of unity in our own land and bringing help to the victims of aggression overseas without helping aggressor nations were linked as two major tasks in support of democracy here and throughout the world, in a special High Holiday program presented by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee today over a coast-to-coast Mutual Broadcasting System network. The High Holiday messages were delivered by Dr. Jonah B. Wise, vice chairman of the J.D.C. and Louis E. Kirstein of Boston, member of the Board of Directors of the J.D.C. Rabbi Wise spoke from New York, Mr. Kirstein from Boston.

Urging all Jews who observe the fast of the Day of Atonement to “help freely those who have been forced into ignominious slavery,” Rabbi Wise said: “We ask them to contribute from their plenty or from their little, so that thousands and thousands of men and women may be redeemed from the tortures which Nazi Germany has decreed shall be their portion on this earth. Man is not asked to fast to save his soul; he is asked to make sacrifices to assure himself he has a soul.”

Mr. Kirstein, asserting that “we must sustain the hopes” of the silent millions overseas, pointed out that “if they give up, democracy is lost in the Old World, and we here will find ourselves isolated, standing alone against an armed and ruthless conqueror.”

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