The voluntary Jewish communities of the United States and Britain, with their virtues and shortcomings, have “undoubtedly marked the starting point of Jewish emancipation,” Prof. Salo W. Baron of Columbia University, last night told a reception given here in his honor by the World Jewish Congress.
Prof. Baron, who said that the voluntary Jewish communities were a distinct development of the voluntary democracies, stated that national minority rights won by the communities of pre-war Europe had not solved the problems of the Jews in those countries. He pointed out that the Anglo-American pattern has spread to New Zealand, Latin American and South Africa.
The scholar asserted that American Jewry had to fight “step by step” for many things which were taken for granted among the Jewish communities on the Continent: the building of schools, synagogues and social institutions. This was achieved, he said, despite the fact that there was no compulsion for Jews in America to become members of the community or to pay taxes for its support.
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.
