(Rabbi Tabak’s letter, the length of which prevents its publication, proves that the reports in the July 23 Bulletin were in error, and the elections in Baltimore were conducted with the greatest honesty and decorum—Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin.)
To the Editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin:
What with Wagner, Kant and Goethe, and the similarity in sound, we Ost Juden were particularly prone to identify Teutous with Titans, and consider them synonymous. But seeing how 60,000,000 of them go demented from fear of a puny group of 600,000, we came to realize that after all, they are merely Teutons.
And, as one ex-Germanophile to another: Ach Kamerad, what a Katzenjammer!
THE PARTISAN DR. KALLEN
To the Editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin.
Recently, I received a copy of the two addresses by Dr. Horace M. Kallen, the first of which, “The Struggle for Jewish Unity,” was delivered at the last session of the American Jewish Congress in Washington.
I always read what Dr. Kallen writes with profound interest because I regard him as one of the leaders of the Jewish intelligentsia in this country. I was therefore doubly shocked to read in the very opening paragraph of his address the following statement:
“Do not be misled. Israel are once more united as they have not been united since the great days when Lord Balfour made his declaration. Then under the leadership of Louis D. Brandeis, the Jews of the world secured legal guarantees and public recognition of the rights of the Jewish people as a people to equality and liberty and a homeland.”
When I read the words “do not be misled” I felt that everything thereafter would be a frank and open statement of the facts—all the facts—and that the whole truth touching the struggle of the forces making for Jewish unity would be revealed. Alas, how disappointed I was to find Dr. Kallen actually misleading, although, I hope, not deliberately so, although I confess my suspicions, knowing something of Dr. Kallen’s partisan background.
There is no one in world Jewry for whom I have higher regard than for Justice Brandeis. Would that he had seen his way clear to assume active Jewish leadership. But to make Justice Brandeis the sole and responsible source from which the Balfour Declaration sprang, and to ignore (for Dr. Kallen could not have forgotten) the role that Chaim Weizmann played, is to say the least an indication of how far partisanship blinds the eyes even of one who calls himself a philosopher and from whom intellectual integrity and a sense of objectivity in dealing with historical facts might be expected.
How, for example, would Dr. Kallen react to a statement that “Max Nordau was the father and founder of the Zionist Congress” even though it is of course true that he played a very significant role at the Zionist Congresses.
It is of course true that Dr. Weizmann had the assistance of Justice Brandeis, Stephen S. Wise, Dr. Cyrus Adler, Dr. Sokolow and the sainted Achad Aham and others who were consulted about the formulation and the wording of the historical Balfour Declaration. But no less distinguished personalities than Lord Balfour and Lloyd George have publicly credited Weizmann with initiating and heading the movement which led to the issuance of the declaration.
If Dr. Kallen wishes to retain the high regard that some of us still hold for him as a thinker, he ought to be more circumspect and not allow his partisanship to color his statements of fact to the extent that he has done so flagrantly in this instance.
Dr. Kallen owes it first to the record, then to Dr. Weizmann and finally I believe to himself to bring the statement into conformity with the historic facts.
Sincerely yours,
(signed)
Barnett R. Brickner.
MIZRACHI’S DEFENSE
To the Editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin,
On Sunday, July 23, there appeared in the Jewish Daily Bulletin a statement to the effect that the Mizrachi Organization in Baltimore did not conduct the elections of delegates to the Zionist Congress properly.
We are enclosing herewith a letter written by Israel Tabak, rabbi of the Congregation Shaarei Zion in whose synagogue the elections took place. Rabbi Tabak is a delegate of the Mizrachi to the Zionist Congress and is responsible for his statement.
These accusations were brought to the attention of the Central Shekel Board of which the undersigned is vice-president. The Central Shekel Board appointed a committee to investigate the matter and found the accusation baseless with no proof to substantiate same. The Central Shekel Board declared the elections in the above named election district legal.
In justice to the Mizrachi Organization of Baltimore we hope you will publish this statement in the next Sunday edition of the Bulletin.
With Zion’s greetings,
(signed) Harry Karp.
(Rabbi Tabak’s letter, the length of which prevents its publication, proves that the reports in the July 23 Bulletin were in error, and the elections in Baltimore were conducted with the greatest honesty and decorum—Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin.)
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.
