(By Our Berlin Correspondent)
How a noted German politician and publicist was converted from anti-Semitism was described here in an address on “How I Was Converted from Anti-Semitism.” delivered before the Sholom Aleichem Jewish Cultural Club, by Helmuth von Gerlach, at one time a leader of the anti-Semitic Christian Socialist party who is today using his efforts to show the Jew-hating elements in Germany their mistake.
“How was it;” Herr von Gerlach asked, “that in my youth I had served the anti-Semitic movement? I had not been an anti-Semite by conviction.” he said, “but by instinct, as was natural in the son of an estate-owner of noble family, who had never been in contact with Jews. By accident I had as a student in Geneva, Leipzig and Berlin come into close touch with the leaders of the Christian Socialists, such as Stoecker, Rector Ahlwardt and others. It was not so much their anti-Semitism as their social ideas which had attracted me, with the result that I had become their ### sentative in the press and the ### of their party organ. I had looked forward to the return of the old Christian communities in which there would be no place for the Jewish spirit. which my leaders had told me was exclusively materialist.”
His conversion, he explained, had been gradual. He had found jealousy and envy among his leaders. He had found immorality among the men who were leading a movement to defend German morality against the supposed immorality of the Jews. At the same time he had become acquainted with a number of noble-minded Jews who had shown him by their lives the falseness of the anti-Semitic assertions about the character of the Jews. He had learned to know the American Jewish philanthropist. Charles L. Hallgarten, who had spent his vast fortune on social work, Dr. Leo Arons, a martyr of Socialism, Paul Singer who had given his fortune for the support of his persecuted Socialist comrades and the strengthening of the movement, Edouard Bernstein and others. He had studied the question and had found that the Jews had not taken up commerce and middlemen work by choice but because they had in most countries been shut out from productive activity. Travelling in other countries he had seen how the Jewish masses were not capitalists but hardworking men–artisans chiefly. but also factory workers, dock workers, peasants, etc.
“For years now.” Herr von Gerlach concluded, “my like work has been to fight anti-Semitism, not because I am in love with the Jews, for no people stands higher than any other people, but because I want to save the German people from being misled by catchwords which would make them see the source of all their misfortunes in the Jews and would prevent them from realizing the true causes of their misery. I am not ashamed of having been at one time an anti-Semite. It would have been a matter to be ashamed of if I had shut my eyes to facts and had continued to be an anti-Semite. I am now trying to show their mistake to others who hold views like those I once held.”
A luncheon was given at the Hotel Astorry the Jerusalem Synagogue and Ceatre Fund, which is seeking to erect in Jorusalem a synagogue that will at the same tune be a community centre.
The sum to be raised is $500,000, of which the women of New York have pledged $### and the Brooklyn women $20,000. A gift approximating $20,000 was announced at the uncheon. Mr. and Mrs. S. Singer are giving to the fund an estate at Tanners###. N. Y., consisting of buildings and ten acres of Fund.
The guests of honor at the lunchean were Mrs. Samuel Spiegel. National Chairman of the Woman’s Division of the fund: Mrs. Facob Schwartz. Mrs. A. Slomka. Mrs. Sol Rosenbloom of Pittsburgh and Rabbi I. H. Levinthal.
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.
