[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.-Editor.]
The meeting last Sunday at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, arranged by the American Christian Committee for Jewish Relief, has found wide comment in the press, which hails it as an event of vast significance, symbolizing an era of new relations between Christians and Jews and greatly furthering the work of good will and understanding.
The “Day”, dwelling especially on the fact that this meeting was the first of its kind ever to be held in a Cathedral, observes: “Cathedral gatherings played an important role in the life of the Jews in the past, but they were always sources of fear, causes for suspicion that from these sanctuaries of the Christian church new clouds were about to issue forth upon the Jewish horizon. But now, for the first time, noble and sincere words have been spoken about the Jews in a Cathedral, words which should re-echo in every corner of the globe….
“Of course, this is only the beginning,” the “Day” says further. “These sentiments have yet to permeate the wide masses and become a part of their every day life. But it is a good beginning and a practical one. The road, though a long one, has now been opened and the first step to the long hoped-for goal, has been taken.”
What makes the Sunday gathering significant, the “Jewish Daily News” writes, “is the fact that it comes at a time when so much hatred against the foreign-born and against Jews has made itself felt right here at home. It is natural that real Americans of the type of Generals Pershing and O’Ryan should revolt against the degradation of America by the fostering of intolerance and the creation of a spirit of animosity between citizen and citizen.”
The N. Y. “Sun” terms the meeting “epochal,” adding: “Bishop Manning gave it this character when, in announcing its purpose, he said that so far as he knew it was the first meeting ever held in any Christian cathedral specifically in behalf of the Jewish people. The gathering was described as a ‘mass meeting’; such it was in reality, and held with the inspiring purpose of furnishing aid to ameliorate the suffering and poverty of the Jews of Europe.”
The very fact, observes the “Times,” that Catholic and Protestant came together with the Jew in support of this cause “must have an effect that will reach across Europe to the Urals and be felt especially in the land where above all others the spirit which was shown in this meeting should have the fullest expression.
“What this event signifies is not alone food for the starving, relief for physical suffering, saving the lives of children; it proclaims on the part of our foremost citizens and churches of all denominations a freedom from the prejudice which has followed a race for centuries. The words which Dr. Cadman spoke as a message to the world from the “mother church,” as he called it, will be gratefully heard wherever that race feeling still lingers; and with that message will also be heard the stirring sympathetic words of the two great soldiers, General Pershing, of Methodist bringing up, and General O’Ryan, one of the foremost laymen of the Catholic Church in America.”
The “World” comments as follows: “Outside of a church building, under ordinary secular auspices, there would have been nothing unusual in the effort to raise money for the relief of suffering men and women of another faith. Outside of the churches Americans are quite used to helping men regardless of race, creed or nationality. They did not think it unusually significant that a Protestant like Mr. Hoover should help a Roman Catholic nation in Belgium or a Greek Orthodox people in Russia. As laymen, as ordinary human being, that seemed the most natural thing in the world. But that Protestants, Catholics and Jews should go together to a Protestant Cathedral on an errand of mercy is unusually significant, is sensational news, even today, A. D. 1926.”
The “Telegram” says
“If Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson-sturdy advocates of the separation of Church and state-were alive they would be glad to find this demonstration of the fact that religion is never so strong as when it is left to do its work in its own way.”
HABIMA THEATRE PLAYERS RELEASED FROM ELLIS ISLAND
The thirty-three players of the Habima, Moscow Art Theatre, and seven technical assistants were released from Ellis Island without bond, following a hearing before the Board of Special Inquiry Tuesday afternoon.
The Habima arrived in this country on Monday for a tour of twelve weeks and will make its first appearance next Monday night at the Mansfield Theatre, West 47th Street, in “The Dybbuk.” Other plays in their repertoire are “Jacob’s Dream”, “The Golem”, and “The Deluge.”
Leading social service agencies of New York were represented at a conference at the National Farm School, Doylestown, Pa., which had as its object the development of a plan for guiding a proportion of city boys and girls of limited or no means, away from the overcrowded industrial centers into agricultural careers.
Among the urban social agencies represented were the Y. M. C. A., Boy and Girl Scouts, the Heckscher Foundation of New York, the Chrystie Street Boys’ Club of New York, the Catholic Big Brothers, and the Young Women’s Hebrew Association. With the coming expansion of the school, to be made possible by the $5,000,000 fund now being raised by the National Farm School Expansion Project, many social service agencies in Cleveland, Chicago and other cities will be called upon to help the work of selecting applicants for enrollment.
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.
