RABBI JOSEPH ZEITLIN, Temple Anssche Chesed, West End avenue and One Hundredth street-“Centuries ago the ritual murder charges against the Jews were created for one purpose alone-that was to eke out whatever money or wealth the Jew might have. The originator of the charge knew without doubt that there was not the slightest iota of truth in the accusation.
“Today in Nazi Land, the ritual murder charge is far more vehement and brutal than ever before in human history. Through the medium of ‘Der Stuermer’ published by the German arch Jewbaiter, Julius Streicher of Nuremberg, the Jew is accused of crimes of which he is absolutely innocent, because the accuser is anxious to incite the mobs towards pogroms and massacre. Dare civilized humanity still remain silent in the face of such barbarism?
“It is the solemn duty of nations of the world to lend a helping hand to the unfortunate oppressed ones in Germany. Justice must live.”
RABBI LOUIS I. NEWMAN, Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 West Eighty-third street-“Dr. Isaac Israeli performed the greatest deed of Jewish heroism in our times. In 1929 when the Arabs attacked the colony at Beer Tuvia, they raised a white flag of truce, besought the aid of Dr. Israeli, whom they had known as a friend, and welcomed him in their ranks to dress the wounds of their stricken. But when he returned to the lines of his fellow-Jews, they shot him down in cold blood. This act of friendship for misguided non-Jews is one of the great deeds of courage among Jews of our times.
“Close by its side stands the episode in which Harold Wiener, the Orientalist, played the martyr’s role. Outside the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem when the Arabs were marauding and massacring, he encountered a troop of them. Believing that because of his knowledge of Arabia, he could pacify them, he went toward them. They asked him: ‘Are you a Jew?’ and when he answered in the affirmative, they slew him with their daggers.
“The story of Captain Trumpeldor at Methullah, fighting on behalf of the assailed colony more than ten years ago, is another vallant narrative in the annals of modern Jewish martyrs. Many are the stories of splendid fortitude and bravery which mark the record of modern Palestine.”
RABBI WILLIAM F. ROSENBLUM, Temple Israel, 210 West Ninety-first street-“There are men in black whose lives are equally as challenging as the lives of the men in white. Someone has written a prize play about doctors. Someone should write a play about ministers, the doctors of the soul. They, too, spend long years in preparation for their work of service to humanity, they too sacrifice romance and opportunities for wealth and power, they too have their choice to make between serving the people who support them and serving the larger causes of justice and of truth.
“A rabbi’s study, for example, is not as intensely dramatic as a hospital operating room. There are no glamorously white clad figures, no bright incandescents, no awe-inspiring equipment; but over a minister’s desk many a shattered life has been rebuilt, many an error has been averted, many a spiritual operation has been performed. Ministers, too, have to be on call at all hours. They attend the people from birth through death and to them too comes the challenge ‘Aren’t you a man of God? Why can’t you work this one miracle for us?”
RABBI ISRAEL GOLDSTEIN, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Eighty-eighth street west of Broadway-“Undiscriminating charity harms more than it helps. Because of the all too ready response of men and women to hand a coin to any mendicant who approaches them, street begging has become a substantial industry.
“Recent investigation has shown that the great majority of mendicants are professional beggars, alcoholics, drug addicts and afflicted with social diseases. The city is constantly assuring us that city institutions are prepared to cope with this problem and that there is no necessity for private attention to it.
“The aims given by an undiscriminating public are responsible for keeping these dregs of humanity on the streets. The sums which they collect would support a large number of our most deserving institutions.
“Seeing the amount of unintelligent giving that is going on, one wonders whether the donors are not giving expression to their vanity impulse rather than to their charity impulse. The real test of intelligent giving is a willingness to take the trouble to investigate the merits of the applicant.”
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.
