Predicting that all Europe will go Fascist or Communist in the next decade, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland, speaking at Rodef Sholem Temple under the auspices of the men’s club, vigorously opposed the United States’ policy of leading the world peacc movement.
“We should have learned that we should not play the Messiah to other nations of the world because that is too costly,” Dr. Silver contended. “No nation has ever successfully played that role.
“We should cooperate with the nations toward an everlasting peace and economic program but we should not in the future seek the position of stage director.
ADVOCATES HUMBLER PART
“Europe is today willing to let us play that role if we are willing to pay enough, but we are not willing. We must play a humbler role in international affairs. The armies of democracy, flanked on either side by the armies of Fascism and Communism, will rise in the years to come to encompass the world because none of the achievements of the other armies justify the price that was paid.”
Nothing that has been accomplished in Russia, Italy or Germany, he stressed, “justifies the conclusion that those forms of government are more productive of social good than a democracy.”
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.
