World Press Digest

The Jewish Current News, an American publication for schools, commenting on the birthday anniversaries of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington this month, says:

Both in the days of Washington and in the days of Lincoln there were Jews in this country who proved most helpful to these men. Nine Jews of Philadelphia were among the patriots who signed the Non-Importation resolutions against England in 1765. Quite a number of Jews served in Washington’s Army. Although there were only a mere handful of Jews in the country then, the War records show that four Jews were Lieutenant Colonels, three were Majors and six were Captains. Not only did the Jews serve in the Army but a number of them gave large sums of money to carry on the War for freedom. The man who gave the largest amount was Haym Solomon. Another Jew who was one of the Revolutionary patriots who gave of his wealth in order to assure the success of the War, was Isaac Moses. Both Haym Solomon and Isaac Moses belong to the small group of Jews then living in America who were greatly interested in the future of the Republic and gave fully of their means to further its progress.

In the days of Lincoln, the Jews took an equally important part in the affairs of the land. During the Civil War there were Jews in the army of the Confederacy as well as in the army of the United States. The vast majority of the Jewish people, however, were against slavery, and when the Civil War was over, the Jews of the South, no less than the Jews of the North, were full of admiration for Lincoln.

CHRISTIAN ORGAN DISCUSSES CONGRESS

The Christian Century, in an editorial entitled “American Jewry in Debate,” says:

The current bone of contention is the proposal to hold a Jewish world congress. This is a project dear to the heart of Dr. Stephen S. Wise, and supported with all the vigor of that famous orator. Dr. Wise believes that a permanent world congress of representative Jews would be able to bring effective pressure to bear on governments to protect the rights of Jewish minorities, now threatened in many parts of Europe and destroyed in Germany.

Against Dr. Wise are ranged such a body as the American Jewish Committee, such an organ as the American Hebrew, and many of the most distinguished individual Jews in the United States. This group argues that a world congress would lend verisimilitude to the prophecies of those who foresee the formation of a Jewish superstate, and would play into the hands of troublemakers such as disseminate the forged “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

Without wanting to be drawn too deeply into a question which the Jews of America will have to settle for themselves, we nevertheless must admit that the arguments against the wisdom of Dr. Wise’s proposal seem to us very weighty. And we are sure that Dr. Wise was mistaken when, in the ardor of defending his proposal for a world Jewish organization, he told his New York congregation that the differences between Jew and gentile “are ethnical, inevitable and eternal.”

PALESTINE ARTIST WRITES OF MUSEUM

How art is being fostered in Palestine is told by Nahum Gutman, a Palestine artist, in the Zionist Record of Johannesburg. Mr. Gutman, writing of the Tel Aviv museum, says:

The Museum is indeed a help and inspiration to the painters of the Yishub. It gives us a proper place wherein to hold our exhibitions. Before the foundation of the Museum, we really had no place at all for such exhibitions, which were consequently very make-shift. But now that we have the Museum we are able to hold exhibitions easily, and at very small expense. In the season we have one exhibition every couple of weeks, representing the work of a different local artist, and every encouragement is offered for laymen and students to attend. In this direction I can really say that the Museum does magnificient work.

“The Museum was founded by Mr. Meier Dizengoff, the veteran Mayor of Tel Aviv. After the death of his wife, he gave his house for the purpose of the Museum, and the movement to establish it was set afoot by a Foundation Committee consisting of Dizengoff, Bialik, Maurice Levin, S. Benzion, Dr. Zlotschifsty and myself. Our aim was to found in Tel Aviv a collection of internationally famous works of art; to provide facilities for the artistic education of our fellow citizens; and to assist, in whatever manner possible, local artists in their work.

URGES COOPERATION ON POLISH PROBLEM

A suggestion that American and British Jewry get together for a great movement to help the Jews of Poland as well as of Germany is made in the London Jewish Chronicle The paper says editorially:

The Polish problem has assumed such dimensions that only a heart of stone could remain unmoved by it. We do not forget that we have before us the grave problem of the German as well as the Polish Jews. Has not the time come for the combination of the two in a new rescue campaign? No single Jewry by itself can hope to make any deep impression on the vast difficulties they present.

Certainly it seems vain for small organizations in this country, which have hitherto, with much public spirit, concerned themselves with Poland, to expect the results which they no doubt desire. There seems only one course in the present distressing emergency. Let the Jews of the British Empire and American Jewry get together in a great movement for the succor of their brethren both in Germany and Poland. They are the two communities upon whom the chief reliance must be placed. Such a step would lift what we may call our appeal methods and policies on to a new plane, and perhaps revive waning public interest. There is scant time to lose.