“On several occasions this summer our attention was called to advertisements of summer resort hotels which contained the statements to the effect that Jews were not wanted as guests or that the place was ‘exclusively for Gentiles,'” writes the “Jewish Cronicle” of Kansas City, Mo. “Well, we used to get all boiled up over these ‘insults,’ and we used to vent our reactions in expressions dynamic and indignant, but in this the summer of 1928 we just don’t seem to be able spontaneously to work up much feeling over these incidents. The reason is obvious. They don’t mean anything any more.
“No Jew is harmed in any way by these hotels. For every one summer resort hotel that doesn’t care for Jewish patronage there are a hundred others that make tremendous effort to solicit it. Any Jewish citizen of this state that wants to spend any of his hard earned money away from home will find no trouble in getting rid of it in the finest summer hotels in the land. It is no secret that Jews are the most liberal and the most foolish spenders at these resort places. Why any resort keeper would want to frown on this kind of easy money we don’t understand, but we have an idea that when a resort advertises that it doesn’t want Jews its motive is not so much one of religious or racial hatred as it is one of revenge and resentment at the fact that the Jewish easy marks did not flock in droves to that particular locus of summer larcency. Now, be that as it may, just what ought we to do about these insulting anti-Semitic places? The simple solution to this ‘Jewish problem’ is–Just don’t patronize them, that’s all!”
“The Jewish Record” of San Antonio, Texas writes:
“Almost overnight the Rio Grande Valley has assumed a Jewish-consciousness. Only a few years ago, there were just a few Jewish families living in this section south of San Antonio. These families were scattered among the dozen or so thriving cities which go to make the urban Valley. Whether or not these residents felt an inward desire for an organized Jewry, cannot be ascertained; but certainly, in those days, such a thing was almost impossible.
“But the fertility and beauty of the Rio Grande Valley, which is a veritable winter paradise, suddenly became widely known, and among those who entered the comparatively new country to aid in its development were numerous Jews from Texas and other parts of the country.
“The rapidity with which a congregation was affected, once there were sufficient Jewish families in the Valley, is a credit to the fervor with which the organizers regard their religion. Shortly after the organization of Congregation Beth Israel, which is unique in that its members reside in several cities, some of which are sixty miles apart, a rabbi was secured. And now plans are going forward for the early erection of a house of worship in Mercedes.
“The establishment of this congregation has evoked threefold consciousness: It has made the Jews of the Valley, especially the older residents who had fallen into a religious lethargy, conscious of their religion; it has made the non-Jewish people in the Valley conscious of the religious interests of their Jewish neighbors; and, because the uniqueness of such a congregation in which the members travel to a centrally-located city for spiritual worship has attracted national attention in the Jewish press, it has made the Jews of the country as a whole conscious of the Rio Grande Valley.
A memorial fund is being raised in London, to commemorate the work of Simon Sherman, the head of the League of Nations Union Education Department, who lost his life recently while boating at Oxford during the session of the League of Nations Union Summer School, which he had organized there. It has not yet been decided what form the memorial will take.
Henry Morgenthau, former Ambassador to Turkey and recently appointed Vice Chairman of the Democratic Finance Committee, returned to New York on the steamer Belpenland. Mr. Morgenthau will take an active part in Governor Smith’s campaign.
An eighteen year old Jewish boy was one of three who made an unsuccessful attempt to stowaway on Commander Byrd’s ship, the City of New York, when it left for its South Pole expedition.
Jack Solowitz of 336 Dumont Avenue. Brooklyn was transferred to the Scout off Tompkinsville, S. I., after Commander Byrd declined permission for the lad to become a member of his Antarctic crew because of his slight build.
“I had visited the ship several times before,” Solowitz said, ” and had chosen my hiding place carefully. It was dark, narrow and crowded with supplies. It was such a good hiding place, unfortunately, that the other boys chose it also.”
“I left home Friday night, taking some winter underwear and an overcoat, for I wanted to be prepared for the Antarctic weather.”
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.
