Rabbi Stephen S. Wise yesterday told about 500 members of the United Rumanian Jews of America gathered at the Astor to celebrate the organization’s twenty-fiftfcr anniversary, that one of the greatest “calamities of the J-wish people” was an attempt on their part to “Americanize themselves, divesting themselves of their cultural heritage.”
. Speaking at the afternoon session of the celebration which concluded in the evening with a banquet, Dr. Wise sounded a plea that national groups of Jews in the United States “preserve their personality and persist in observing practises of their faith.”
Dr. Wise did not assail Americanization by Jewish national groups as such, but made the point that it is of considerable importance that Jews do not forget the land of their birth especially when the latter are in trouble.
_He lauded the organization for its work in relief of other Rumanian Jews. He insisted that “if we understood that the b:st thing we could ever have done for America was to guard our identity, we would have heen the gainers.”
“All of the European groups in the United States set out to Americanize themselves, and the method they used was-©divest themselves of whatever they had brought over with them/’ said Dr. Wise. “We divorced ourselves from whatever traditions we had ‘inherited from our parents. The Irish didn’t grive up their personality, certainly the English didn’t. The Germans here preserved for many years the spirit of the fatherland. But we Jews did not do this.”
: The speaker recalled the contributions by Jews to the “treasury of the American culture”, and echoed his belief that the “best way to enrich the American tradition is by linking up our own culture with American culture.”
“By adopting American habits, we do not become Americans,” be said “We ^an be good American citizens by obeying the laws of the land and remembering that we are Jews, and helping other Jews suffering in other lands.”
.The convention passed resolutions supporting the anti-German boycott/ th? Tydings resolution which is now before the U. S. Senate committee on rules and which if passed would have the government protest against the German persecution of the Jews,and endorsing the proposal to call a world Jewish congress this year.
: Another resolution “noted with great concern the growth of Nasi groups in Rumania which culminated in :he brutal assassination of the late Premier Ion G. Duca”.
The organization called upon constituent units and members of the cody. to “aid in every way possible the fund raising drive of the American Palestine campaign.”
Telegrams of felicitation were read by Leo “Wolfson, president, from Bernard S. Deutsch, Alder-manic president and president of the American Jewish Congr-ss; Carol A. Davila, Rumanian envoy at Washington; Jacob Rosenthal, adviser of the Rumanian legation; and others. Mr. Rosenthal, ill with .a’cold, was sent a return telegram Jiy the Federation.
Speakers at the banquet were Mr. Wolf son. User Marcus, Bennett E. Slegelstein, A, D. Braham, Abraham Hirsh, Herman Speler and Charles Sonnenreich. Sandu Albu, violinist, and Mme. Olga Cristo-laveaun. soprano, entertained.
The organization was founded in 1909 as the First Ru-maner Benevolent Association and had as its purpose extending financial aid to Rumanian Jews. Support was given to the bounding of the Menorab Home for the Aged and Infirm in Brooklyn; the Jewish Home for Convalescents at Grand View on thT Hudson and other institutions. Members have been active in warring on anti-Semitism in Rumania and the United States. Officers elected for the year follow: .
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.
