Vice-President Charles C. Curtis heads the list of notable Americans who have issued statements of congratulations through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Jewish Daily Bulletin to President Thomas Masaryk of Czechoslovakia, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, March 7.
Among the others whose statements have been obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Jewish Daily Bulletin are Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University; Prof. Felix Frankfurter, of Harvard; Felix M. Warburg, Prof. R. A. Seligman of Columbia, and Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Dr. Cyrus Adler:
“The astounding career of President Masaryk is one of the romances of our day. Blacksmith, teacher, philosopher, historian, legislator, champion of human rights, wise statesman, he has won the undying gratitude of the people of Czechoslovakia and of all men of fair and liberal mind. We Jews are especially appreciative of the earnest fight he made against the false accusation of ritual murder in the Hilsner case. More recently, when life was being made intolerable, even impossible, to Jewish students in East European universities, he let it be known that they would be welcome in the universities of the Republic over which he presides.
“From out of the welter of the World War, Masaryk emerged as the most righteous figure in Europe and it is not inappropriate to point out that this country is the happiest and most prosperous of all the new or enlarged states. May God grant him many years.”
Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler:
“The eightieth birthday of President Masaryk of the Republic of Czechoslovakia is an occasion for congratulation and rejoicing. He is one of the outstanding personalities of this century and one of the great figures that have come into world view since the Great War. His thorough grasp of the fundamental principles of political and social philosophy, his high patriotic devotion and his broad and catholic temper and sympathy have already united to make him an effective and successful leader of a great people.”
Alfred M. Cohen:
“I recall with infinite delight an incident of my visit to the B’nai B’rith Lodges in Prague in the Summer of 1927. Hundreds of members assembled in their meeting place to greet the President of the Order. It was a gala event. I was escorted to a place reserved for me and as I stood facing the presiding officer I looked into the face of a portrait hung on the wall just behind me, the frame of which was wreathed in smilax. I asked one at my side whose portrait it was and the answer came, ‘Our beloved President Masaryk.’ I was thrilled with this well deserved token of love and loyalty and when in the course of an address later on, delivered in a language only partially familiar to most of my hearer, I referred to the gracious compliment paid by the Lodges to the Republic’s President, the entire assemblage arose as one man in approval of my sentiments.
“I had been informed ere I entered Czechoslovakia concerning the character of the man who occupied its highest office, and but for his absence from home during the few days of my stay, I should have had the honor and privilege of meeting him and of saying in behalf of the Jewry of twenty lands, that they rest under great obligations to him for the justice and the righteousness of his administration of his nation’s affairs—an administration which recognizes no distinction between man and man because of religious differences, and I should have thanked him for what he had done for the Jew long before the high office which he now distinguishes was even thought of. His defense of the Jew against an aged baseless charge, in the face of the bitter antagonism of the masses was the signally courageous act of one who places justice above popular clamor. I should have wished him length of days with added opportunities for humane service, with happiness for himself all the while.
“And now that he has reached his four score birthday, on behalf of four score thousands Sons of the Covenant in all parts of the world, I congratulate him and wish that he may round out a century in usefulness and in joy.”
Prof. Felix Frankfurter:
“Romance makes a personal appeal, and the story of President Masaryk’s life is more thrilling than any fairy tale. But his significance by far transcends the romantic appeal. He symbolizes the triumphs of the human spirit at its very best. For here is a man who has carried into the world of politics the ideals of civilization which he preached as a philosopher and as a teacher. No statesman of Europe has been more truly a European and not merely a nationalist. No statesman of the world has more consistently carried into practice the precepts of a common brotherhood. President Masaryk symbolizes the truth that ideals are the most practical realities.”
Vladimir Jabotinsky:
“Somehow, I cannot think of President Masaryk without thinking of a period which, to me, is the noblest of all history: the nineteenth century. It was a period of humanity’s awakening to the value of certain great principles: freedom, democracy, nationality, right versus might…. I stop this enumeration, for all these words have since fallen into discredit and are being sneered at, so what is the use of giving more food for sneers? Yet I must confess that I, for one, still believe in the absolute virtue of the nineteenth century’s ‘naive imaginings’ and still feel more at home when sitting at the feet of its great teachers than when listening to the vulgarized and cheapened Nietzscheanism of our own day.
“The nineteenth century has produced teachers whose main force was their belief that right, not might, is the main force in history. Even when strongly Nationalist, they were—as one of them, Garibaldi, has been described—’knights of all humanity.’ Gladstone belonged to that period, and Woodrow Wilson, and our own Herzl; and Masaryk is one of them.
“Yet Masaryk is not only an exponent of that belief in right’s victory; he is a living proof that the belief is true. Well I remember those days before the War when many even of his compatriots, while advising him, considered him too ‘naive,’ too detached from the stern realities of live ever to achieve anything tangible. He did achieve, though: he has proved that dreams based on right come true if there are minds and energies that will them to come true; he has proved that the mysterious unseen forces shaping history ultimately somehow converge to the point where right triumphs against iniquitous might and David slays Goliath; and he has also proved that a ‘mere philosopher,’ if he has a human heart, is the best ruler a nation can wish for. What a lesson, that man!”
Louis E. Kirstein:
“I am happy to pay my slight tribute to President Thomas Garrique Masaryk, distinguished scholar, statesman, and humanitarian. Indeed, he belongs among the great Immortals, the great liberators of mankind. In many ways, he reminds one of our own Abraham Lincoln. Starting life as a poor, humble wage earner, he rose by his own efforts to eminence in scholarship and in statesmanship. In his own country, he early became the articulate leader of the submerged masses, braving exile and imprisonment to secure for them political and economic freedom. He visited the major countries of the world, and personally agitated for the independence of his people. His genius as a military leader was displayed in the well-known Czechoslovakian army, which he organized in Russia in 1917. Coming to the United States in 1918, he established a close friendship of sympathy on the part of the United States with the cause of independence for both Czechoslovakia and Jugo-Slavia.
“As president of his country, he has set a mark for other nations in initiating liberal and progressive legislation in both the agrarian and in the industrial fields. As Jews, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. As far back as 1899, he stood out fearlessly against the superstition manifested in the socalled “ritual murder trial” of Hilsner. From that day until now, he has helped the Jewish cause whenever called upon and frequently on his own initiative. Today Czechoslovakia stands out as one of these few countries in Europe to which Jews may come without fear of persecution and with the assurance that economic and civil rights will be accorded them on the same basis as other peoples. May many more years of distinguished humanitarian service be vouchsafed to President Masaryk!”
Louis Lipsky:
“The liberals of the world join in extending felicitations to President Masaryk on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. It was he who proposed injecting into the terms of peace arising out of the World War, the recognition of the rights of the smaller nationalities. He had given the greater part of his life to fighting for the cultural and political freedom of his people. With great tact and perseverance he brought that principle into the realm of practical affairs. It was an easy step to move from the point of recognizing the rights of the smaller nationalities into the realm of the rights of a nationality deprived of its territorial integrity. Thus Masaryk was a Zionist from the beginning.
“Through the contributions of his pen, and the utterances of his voice, the recognition of the rights of the smaller nationalities was made a part of the proceedings of the Peace Conference, and the republics of Czechoslovakia and Poland, among others, were set up. As an inevitable corollary, the Peace Conference also approved of the minority rights clauses, which were proposed to protect smaller nationalities congregated in territory in which another nationality was the dominating factor. Included within the smaller nationalities, not actually territorially located, were the Jewish people, and to the ideal represented by the Balfour Declaration, Masaryk gave his unqualified and splendid support.
“Always a friend of the Jews, incapable of harboring racial or national prejudices, Masaryk must be included in that brilliant coterie of statesmen who saw the Balfour Declaration through its transformation into the Mandate. His noble personality was engaged from the first moment in the cause of the Jewish people. Jews the world over join the liberal world in extending best wishes to him on his eightieth birthday.”
James Marshall:
“It is a great privilege to be able to congratulate on his eightieth birthday one who, in a world gone mad with Dictators, still retains his faith in democracy and freedom.”
Isadore D. Morrison:
“The eightieth birthday of Thomas Carrigue Masaryk serves to recall the important contribution which the founder and President of Czechoslovakia has made to modern civilization. President Masaryk is an unique figure, in that while interested in reestablishing his own small people, he has nevertheless taken a keen interest in the reestablishment of the Jews as a nation. On the surface, this would seem to be a natural sympathy, but it is a paradox, when one examines the history of post-war Europe and sees that the nationalism of the small peoples of Europe has been so intense as to shut out sympathy for the national longings of the Jews.
“As philosopher and statesman, President Masaryk has earned the esteem of those far more capable than I to estimate his contribution. As an intense nationalist of his own country, he understood and appreciated the motives and idealism that underly the Zionist cause. As a friend of the Jewish people, he has earned for himself a place comparable to that won by Lord Balfour, General Smuts and Lord Robert Cecil. He will be accounted among the great friends of Israel.”
David Philipson:
“All hail to the visioning statesman who has made his native land the light spot of post-war continental Europe. During his sojourn in the United States he imbibed the American spirit and upon his rise to the loftiest place in the new Czechoslovakian republic he and his co-workers embodied this spirit in the democratic institutions which have made his name resplendent among latter-day personalities. President Masaryk proves the truth of the Shakespearean epigram that there is a soul of good in things evil, for out of that greatest of evils, the World War, has emerged his inestimable service for his people, for freedom and for humanity.”
James Rosenberg:
“The Jews of the world owe a special debt of gratitude to President Masaryk for his life-long defense of the liberties and rights of the Jews. In defending these he has on more than one occasion jeopardized his own career and even his life.
“It is with a good deal of pleasure that I add these words to the chorus of praise and jubilation that will greet this notable statesman on the occasion of his having rounded out four score years.”
Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman:
“It is with the greatest pleasure that I comply with the invitation of the editor to say a few congratulatory words about President Masaryk. As an old colleague of Mr. Masaryk I have followed his remarkable career with admiration and pride—admiration for the qualities that he has displayed and pride in that an academic instructor could achieve such outstanding success.
“It was my pleasure last Summer at Carlsbad to lunch with my old friend and to discuss with him some of the great problems with which he is dealing. I marvel at his eternal youth and robust vigor and I hope that he may look forward to at least another decade of active work.”
Lewis L. Strauss:
“The eightieth birthday of President Masaryk affords an occasion for rejoicing to all men of goodwill. As Father of the Czechoslovak Republic, he has guided the destinies of his fellow countrymen for more than a decade, and has moulded a nation, prosperous, progressive and liberal. Confronted with the same problem of minorities which remains an unsolved source of friction in other new states, he applied the principles of Jefferson and Lincoln and the problem evaporated.
“An infallible barometer of the social and material level within a country is the happiness of its citizens of the Jewish faith. President Masaryk’s industrious and thrifty country is free from the oppression and inhumanity that has darkened earlier days in other lands. The civilized world unites in testimony to his wisdom and experience and in wishing him many more useful years.”
Felix M. Warburg:
“On the occasion of the eightieth birthday of President Masaryk, the world may well unite in a tribute of admiration for the great qualities of a nation builder. Out of the welter of the world war, he brought forth a new state and welded its diverse populations into a patriotic and homogeneous entity.
“There is no Jewish problem in Czhechoslovakia for the reason that President Masaryk has followed the paths of his historical prototypes in this country, and Religious Freedom and Equality before the laws were written large into the Magna Charta of his people. The Jewish people throughout the world, and all lovers of liberty and peace, wish him many more useful years, to the end that his ripe experience and judgment may continue to be employed for the general good.”
Stephen S. Wise:
“President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia is one of the great figures upon the world’s stage in our time. He ranks with the greatest and the wisest of the statesmen in our generation. I shall always rejoice in the circumstance that the first address in the Free Synagogue Pulpit was made by Professor Masaryk of the University of Prague in the Fall of 1907, at the little synagogue building in West 81st Street. I had invited him, not only because of his distinction as a teacher of philosophy and as publicist, but because of his courage and generosity in risking all and losing all, save honor and a future, in order to defend the Jewish people against the aspersion of the blood-ritual accusation. His voluntary championship of Hilsner of Polna was the more noble because of the degenerate character of the de-
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.
