(By Our Paris Correspondent)
The difficulties and problems encountered by Jewish students in European universities and the uncertainty of their future following graduation were vividly presented to the Jewish Students Congress held here.
Professor Albert Einstein, president of the World Federation of Jewish Students, summed up the situation in his message to the congress.
“The Jewish people in its two thousand years of exile and its wanderings from country to country has learned to bear the fate of being an emigrant and an alien and to avoid the defeats which threatened it both individually and as a collective organization,” Prof. Einstein declared. “We are convinced that the Jewish students of all countries will find the strength which they need to fight against all their difficulties. We know that the community of faith which unites all sections of the Jewish people and binds together the present with the past will be the source of our resistance and will give us courage for the future. This, however, does not release us from the duty of our work to-day. However difficult the position of the Jewish student may be as individual or as group, we have to fight for unrestricted admittance to the educational institutions, and to see that our suffering colleagues should be assisted to complete their studies.
“It would not matter, however, if it were only a question of difficulties,” he stated. “What depresses us most is the hopelessness of the fight. We see before our eyes the growing number of unemployed intellectuals. It is not a purely Jewish question but a general question. It assumes a more acute form, however, among us Jews. What are we fighting for day by day? Why do we take up the fight of emigrants in all university towns in Europe when at the end of our way we can only expect insecurity and unemployment? Some will answer that we have no choice and that we fight with the courage of despair. Such opinions make the position only more difficult than it actually is. And yet we believe that the need of the present will not last for ever. The relations between peoples are improving. We expect a better and a more peaceful economic future, which will give us a new epoch. Europe is returning to economic stability, which is the chief factor in this period of development. The economic upbuilding will create new forces and new possibilities of intellectual work which cannot yet be, foreseen. Every nation will, according to the capacity of its student youth, be able to serve the development of mankind.
“The Jewish people has a surplus of intellectual forces. If we take into consideration, however, our primary tasks, the building up of our National Home, and fighting against all the injustices which are committed against us, we see that our intellectual and technical forces are in comparison with other peoples not so great as they appear. There is a great deal of work to do. The Jew everywhere has to rouse respect and obtain recognition for his people. The work of individuals serves as a symbol for the entire people.
“The best method for the work before us appears to be a strong organized federation of all Jewish students throughout the world,” he recommended.
France knows no religious distinctions, M. Herriot, the Minister of Education and former Premier, told a delegation from the Jewish Students’ Congress whom he received. M. Herriot promised the delegation that the Ministry of Education and he himself would always try to assist the Jewish students in any matter in which they would approach them.
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.
