I have gone my own way, the Haham Dr. Moses Gaster said this evening in replying to the speeches delivered in tribute to him at a meeting held in honour of his 75th. birthday which occurred recently, arranged by the London Society of the Yiddish Scientific Institute in Vilna, in conjunction with several other Jewish bodies. An illuminated address in Yiddish was presented to Dr. Caster, and it was announced that the Association of Jewish Friendly Societies had decided to name a bed in his honour at its Birchington-on-Sea Convalescent Home.
Among the messages of congratulation received was one from the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.
I have done what I thought to be right, Dr. Gaster went on. I have never kowtowed, never turned to the right or to the left, and never asked what the Goy might say or what the Jew might say. Everywhere I was anxious to help our people to its own emancipation, to self-realisation, to self-deliverance.
All I have endeavoured to do has been National Jewish, Dr. Gaster said. Whether it is cultural, religious, intellectual, economic, social justice or injustice, all the manifestations of Jewish life are so many rays from one sun and if anyone wishes to fulfil that which is uppermost in life he cannot detach himself from any single one of these activities.
The Jewish people must be firm in the heritage of the past, he continued. To assimilate means to be lost. If we Jews masquerade as Englishmen, as Frenchmen, or Germans we shall always be foolish imitations.
Not to be like the others, he said, that is to keep our dignity and our self-respect. If we Jews are to live on we must continue in the example of the past. That is the religious conviction that I have tried to bring home to our people.
What could I have done without the Divine Mercy or without your support? Dr. Gaster pursued. When I came here where did I go? Not to those who looked after their own selfish interest, but to the heart of our people and they were ready to help, to stretch out their hands, to make sacrifices. With them and for them I laboured, and I suffered. It is not my merit, it is the Divine merit.
As to my Zionist work, he said, I never aspired to be a competitor to Dr. Herzl. I took it on myself to be a coadjutor. And when I disagreed I agreed to disagree. Differences have arisen but it is only natural.
We cannot all go by the same road, he observed. I may have been blind but I always liked to go my own road. Yet I have been able to live with you, work with you, suffer with you and pray with you-and some don’t pray. I never minced my words. Still I hope that if God grants me mercy I shall always be ready to give a little advice.
POSITION OF JEWS THROUGHOUT WORLD IS WORSE THAN IT HAS BEEN FOR 150 YEARS: WE JEWS HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TIMES: WE MUST BE PREPARED: MUST KEEP OUR SELF-RESPECT DIGNITY AND HONOUR AS JEWS UNTARNISHED
We are standing before very difficult times for Jewry, Dr. Gaster went on. The position of the Jews throughout the world is worse, he said, than it has been for 150 years. We Jewish people have to look forward to extremely difficult times. The economic life of the world has become more stringent, more oppressive than over. The morals of the world seem to be sapped to a greater degree than previously; bonds have been loosened, different values have appeared, or there are no values. And the position of the Jews is very critical and serious. We never know what the next day may bring. Those who have lived through the earthquake come to realise the import of the slightest tremor. We feel the tremor. We must be prepared. We must keep our self-respect, our dignity, and our honour as Jews untarnished.
This occasion, Dr. Gaster concluded, is the first time I have left my house for three months. I have taken a risk, but it was for something that happens once in 75 years. I thank you for your wonderful demonstration.
Dr. Y. Krupenia, the Chairman of the London Society of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, who presided, spoke of Dr. Gaster’s fifty years of many-sided activity for the Jewish commonweal, as scholar and as Zionist. Always a democrat, he said, the cause of the Jews of Whitechapel ever lay nearest the heart of Dr. Gaster.
Mr. Barnett Janner, D.P., said that Dr. Gaster in every shade of his life had shown himself a Jew in the truest sense. We had been prepared in season and out of season to do all he possibly could to make the world realise what Jewry was and how it should be respected. He stood out as a great figure in learning.
Mr. Morris Myer, the editor of the “Jewish Times”, spoke of Dr. Gaster’s work for Jewish rights in the days of the signing of the Constitution of Roumania, of how he had scorned self-interest and had been sent out of the country and a year later had received an important Government honour with the request, which he had refused, to return.
Referring to Dr. Gaster’s important Zionist work, he said that after Herzl Dr. Gaster was the greatest Zionist and had remained the greatest Zionist.
Dr. Gaster’s great work in bringing about the granting of the Balfour Declaration is not well known, he said. It was in his house that the terms were decided at a meeting with Sir Mark Sykes present.
Dr. Cecil Roth said that Dr. Gaster had contributed to history in more than one sense. He was not only the historian, he was a maker of history. He was a figure who he was sure would live in the annals of the Jewish people.
Comparing Dr. Gaster with Dr. Samuel Johnson, Dr. Roth said that Dr. Gaster had the same omniscient learning, the same ready eloquence, the same inexhaustable store of common-sense and that same outstanding virility of character which stands for itself at times in opposition to the world, but which must command respect. As a scholar, he said, his work will remain alive immortally.
Mr. Kleinman, the editor of the “Haolom”, the official organ of the Zionist Organisation, Mr. Mayerowitz on behalf of the Federation of Relief Organisations, Mr. Pilichowski for the Ben Uri, Mr. Michael Levy for the association of Jewish Friendly Societies, Mr. S. Dreen for the Jewish Workers’ Circle, and Mrs. Moshowitz on behalf of the O.R.T., also spoke. Mr. Elkan N. Adler was among those on the platform.
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.
