Tribute was paid to Joseph Barondess, well known New York communal leader, by 1,200 representative Jews, at a banquet given in the ballroom of the Manhattan Opera House on Monday night.
The dinner was given on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Mr. Barondess’ participation in communal work. Mr. Herman Bernstein, editor of the “Jewish Tribune,” acted as toastmaster.
Addresses were delivered by Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, Rabbi Z. H. Masliansky, David N. Mosessohn, Abraham Goldberg, Judge Julian W. Mack, Louis Lipsky, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Dr. Nathan Ratnoff and Miss Deborah Garfinkel.
The history of the Jewish community in New York in the last thirty years was reviewed and the growth of the institutions which accompanied the immigration of East European Jews, in which the guest of honor had actively participated, was depicted. Mr. Barondess delivered a short address.
Mr. Bernstein read numerous messages of felicitation, one from Reuben Brainin, from Jerusalem.
Jean Barondess, daughter of Mr. Barondess, sang. The choir of the Herzliah Hebrew Academy sang an ode dedicated to him. Others appearing in the musical program were Cantor Adolphe J. Weisgal and Professor I. Piroshnekoff.
Establishment by friends of Joseph Barondess of a fund to perpetuate his name here and in Jerusalem was announced at the dinner.
It was announced the fund will amount to $25,000, $10,000 of which is to be used to create a scholarship in the name of Mr. Barondess in the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus.
The remainder of the fund is to be used toward construction of a new building for the Herzliah Hebrew Academy for Girls, now located in an old building at No. 41 Canal Street.
Beside Mr. and Mrs. Barondess at the speakers’ table sat his mother, Mrs. Fanny Barondess, who is over 90 years old, Herman Bernstein, Nathan Bijur, Thomas W. Churchill, Lyon Cohen, Bird S. Coler, Dr. Maurice Fishberg. Alexander H. Geismar, Abraham Goldberg, Dr. George Alexander Kohut, Mrs. George Alexander Kohut. Dr. Joseph Krimsky, Solomon Lamport, Edward Lazansky, Arthur Lehman, Col. Herbert Lehman, Rev. Israel Herbert Levinthal, Louis Lipsky, Judge Julian W. Mack, Rev. Z. H. Masliansky, Israel Matz, David Mosessohn, Dr. Nehemiah Mosessohn, Mlle. Maxa Nordau, Samuel Palley, Dr. Nathan Ratnoff, Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, E. Schmerler, Rev. D. Twersky, Ludwig Vogelstein, Felix M. Warburg, Philip Wattenberg, Benjamin Winter, Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Rev. Abraham Yudelowitch.
CHURCHES ARGUE RIGHT TO RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
No instruction in religion is, in effect, instruction in irreligion, is the argument made in the brief which the Greater New York Federation of Churches and the State Sunday School Association has filed in the suit of Joseph Lewis, president of the Free-thinkers’ Society, against State Commissioner of Education, Frank P. Graves. The brief was made public by the association Monday.
The suit was brought by the Free-thinkers’ Society to obtain a mandamus to compel the Commissioner of Education to forbid the prevailing practice of excusing children from public schools for an hour or a half hour each week, at the request of their parents, to attend religious instruction at such places as they approve.
The matter was argued before Supreme Court Justice Staley in Albany on February 13, and the court allowed two weeks for an exchange of briefs and two weeks more for reply briefs.
The brief of the Federation of Churches and the Sunday School Association cites the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court holding unconstitutional, as a violation of the rights of parents, the Oregon compulsory school law, requiring all children to attend public schools. The brief argues that the right of the parents to direct the training and nurture the character of the child is one of the most inalienable liberties guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
The brief further argues that where the local school boards do permit children to pass school time in religious instruction elsewhere “there is no effort to establish either a church or a religion by law or to teach any sectarianism in the public schools.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
