“Intelligent and open minded non-Jews must learn to realize that the truth about the Jew can better be learned from the testimony of Jewish literature than from the irresponsible utterances of those who seek to harm the Jewish people,” Richard C. Cabot, professor emeritus of social ethics at Harvard University told a large gathering assembled at the Central branch of the Boston Public Library tonight, formally opening the local celebration of National Jewish Book Week.
The speaker pointed out that “it was Hebraic mortar that created many of the ideals of Americanism and the early traditions and principles upon which this nation was founded had their origin in the fundamental principles that made Israel a great people.”
Rabbi Louis M. Epstein, an outstanding scholar in the American rabbinate, paid high tribute to the contributions and personality of Moses Maimonides, pointing to the medieval scholar as “the greatest Jewish thinker of all time.”
Miss Fanny Goldstein of the Boston Public Library, through whose energy Jewish Book Week has developed to its present status, emphasized that the observance is not only to popularize Jewish book knowledge among Jews but to stress to non-Jewish friends the importance of Hebrew literature and ideals in the development of world civilization.
Lee M. Friedman, Boston attorney and possessor of an outstanding collection of old and rare books, who is serving as chairman of the local Jewish Book Week committee, presided. Greetings were brought by Orlando C. Davis, chief librarian of the circulation division of the library here.
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.
