Chicago Sidelights

Chicago was completely a Jewish city in the week just ended. An estimated crowd of 50,000 Jews poured into the city by rail, air, boat and automobile for Jewish Day, the Zionist convention, the B’nai B’rith district number 6 convention and a host of other Jewish affairs.

One of the interesting sidelights in connection with the Jewish demonstration was the intensive treatment of Jewish news by the Chicago press with the rich goal of Jewish circulation in #ind.

After two of the city’s papers had carried every Jewish event in great detail, headlining on the first page developments in presenting the pageant, in the Zionist convention and other affairs, a third paper stepped in and sponsored a second performance of the spectacular pageant for the benefit of the general public.

Zionist leaders were no little surprised and somewhat embarrassed to find the news of their discussions headlined in the local press alongside news of the London Economic Conference.

Every move of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, noted world Zionist leader, was the signal for rapid attack by a battery of photographers, As a result, Dr. Weizmann’s Leninesque features confronted Chicago readers from the pages of their favorite newspapers for many days.

The festive spirit, combined with the heat, added an hour’s delay to the customary tardiness in calling sessions of the Zionist convention to order. The heat did not wilt the customary ardor of the lobby and corridor debaters who raised and settled the Jewish problem and the questions facing the convention with an undiminished energy, certainty and conviction.

You can believe this or not, but it happened and this correspondent was one of the number approached who had to decline the invitation because of his duties. An earnest young man was unable to obtain a “minyon” Tuesday evening although he approached a half hundred men in the Palmer House lobby where the Zionist convention was held.