Now–editorial Notes

A Meeting of representatives of orthodox, conservative and reform Jewish religious groups was held on Sunday under the auspices of the Synagogue Council of America, for the purpose of demanding “that the conflicting Jewish organizations of America immediately submerge all personal issues and petty misunderstandings “and that a single representative body be created to speak in the name of American Israel.

A message from Dr. David de Sola Pool, rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, sharply criticized present Jewish leadership. At the request of Rabbi Louis I. Newman, of Congregation Rodeph Sholom, the meeting went into executive session. Two resolutions were drafted which were not made public, and no announcement was made when the next meeting would be held.

The rabbis disagreed. For the sake of peace they postponed their attempt to create unity in American Jewish leadership. Our spiritual leaders have as many divisions in their ranks as our lay leaders have. Unity can be attained by careful preparation and organization, but first of all there must be sincere and unselfish will to unite in the face of the most awful tragedy that has befallen the Jewish people. American Jewry needs unity–unity in planning with foresight and in acting with courage, dignity, wisdom and responsibility in this dark hour of Israel’s crisis.

JEWISH ARTISTS

The Hitler government is continuing to eliminate from the German theatre the Jewish artists and the Jewish directors who had elevated German dramatic art in the eyes of the world. Most of them had been forced out during the past year. Now comes word that the theatres owned by Max Reinhardt are no longer his, and that his brother-in-law, Herman Rosenberg, who represented him in Berlin, has been dismissed, together with other former associates of Reinhardt. Thus the German theatre is being “purified” in truly “Aryan” spirit. Art must make way for Nazi propaganda.

At the same time the English film, “Catherine the Great,” in which Elizabeth Bergner, the great German Jewish actress, is playing the leading role, has been suppressed. The recent premiere was the occasion of a demonstration by Nazi rowdies and storm troopers. The billposters featuring her photographs were pelted with eggs and stones by the Hitlerites who kept shouting, “We want no Jewish films nor Jewish actresses.” The film has been withdrawn, by order of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Enlightement and Propaganda.

Hitlerist Germany is successfully ridding herself of all that had made Germany great in the past. German Kultur is being driven out or suppressed. The Nazi “Aryans” are trying hard to stamp out real culture, which they detest and fear above all else.