News of the plight of 3,000,000 Jews in Poland were brought by Menashe Unger, young Yiddish writer who arrived in New York on the S.S Kosciusko.
Unger, who is the son of the Zhabner Rebbe of Galicia, a member of the Rapshitz dynasty, told of work he has in preparation on the history of the Chassidic movement, its leading figures and its holy rabbis.
The political situation of the Polish Jews is growing worse from day to day, Unger said. The new anti-Semitic party, NARA, is active, and has come out in full strength against the Jews. Just where they obtain funds for their activities is a mystery, he said.
The economic situation is virtually unbearable, especially in the border regions and the small towns, Unger said. The various income sources are being closed to Jews and artisans are being barred from their trades. The young people are despondent. Eager for productive activity, they have no opportunity to engage in it. There are now in Poland 50,000 Chalutzim ready to leave for Palestine at a moment’s notice, Unger said.
CULTURAL WORKERS PERSISTENT
But despite the terrible economic plight the efforts to spread culture among the Jewish population are going ahead persistently, the visitor reported.
The schools conducted by the Zisho (Central Yiddish Schools Organization) are in great difficulty. Both students and teachers frequently go hungry and make great sacrifices to the cause of Jewish education. The same is true of the Tarbuth Hebrew schools.
There are no publishing houses for Yiddish books because the depression has put a stop to book sales and such books as appear are published at the expense of the author himself. The theatre is having a hard time, but the Yiddish actors continue at their performances and stagecraft, getting only minimum compensation. The press plays an important role in cultural work and there are now twelve daily Yiddish newspapers in Warsaw and 500various other publications throughout the country.
LOAN FUNDS GREAT AID
The various relief activities carried on by the Joint Distribution Committee, the ORT and various other organizations engaged in healing the ailing Jewish community have brought much help, Unger said. Loan funds, known as the C.K.B., were established with the help of the Joint and received a government subsidy of 100,000 zloty. The C.K.B. is under the management of Isaac Gitterman and Isaac Borenstein, statistician and economist.
The organization has about 20,000,000 zloty at its disposal. It has established some 800 funds throughout the country. It has also prevailed upon the government to permit entry duty-free to packages sent Polish Jews by their relatives in other countries. This means much to the impoverished polish Jewish population.
WORKED IN PALESTINE
About Palestine, where he spent several years, Menashe Unger had a number of interesting things to relate. While there he was a member of the Yiddish writers’ league and of the Achduth-Hapoalim, an organization formed to create Jewish-Arab solidarity.
When the talk turned to the question of Yiddish in Palestine, ###nger said that in his opinion Yiddish was not in rivalry with Hebrew there. Jews recognized Hebrew as the national language, he said, but they also like Yiddish Unger believes that in Palestine Yiddish should have at least the same rights and be tolerated in the same fashion as are the other minority languages, such as German. He believes that a Zionist newspaper should be printed with a Yiddish supplement for the Jews who have just come from Eastern Europe, in the same way as the recent German arrivals have been permitted to publish a newspaper in German. Unger believes that such a newspaper in Yiddish would help the East European Jews acclimate themselves to the land.
In Palestine Unger attended the Hebrew University and studied cabala under Professor Shalom. While there he began the extensive encyclopedia on Chassidism and the holy rabbis which he hopes to publish in Hebrew and in Yiddish. He has already collected more than 300 volumes on the subject. The encyclopedia will contain the biographical and bibliographical material on the various rabbis who figured in the history of Chassidism, from its beginnings until the year 1914. The contribution of each to Chassidic philosophy will be but a part of the valuable date to be included in the compendium.
Unger has come to America in the hope that he will find much important material for his work in the library of the Schechter Seminary. He plans to remain here two months, in which time he will also study the life of the Jewish labor masses and report on it to Unser Express, the Haint and Literarische Bletter in Poland. At the same time he will endeavor to explain the life of Polish Jews to those of this country.
Unger made his literary debut in 1924 in the Folks-Shtimme and the Wilno Tog. Among his worked are “The Immigration of chassidim to Eretz Israel”; “On the History of Meah Shearim” in Jerusalem, a bibliography of the Yiddish press in Palestine (to be printed shortly in the IWC Bletter, publication of the Yiddish Scientific Institute); a manuscript novel called “The Downfall of a chassisic Dynasty,” and a book of stories, some of which have appeared in the Menorah Journal.
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.
