American Public Opinion Looks Askance at Spectacle
Declaring that the anti-Semitic student riots in Hungary do not make a good impression upon American public opinion, the New York Times in an editorial entitled “Jew-Baiting at Budapest,” strongly censured the Hungarian authorities for tolerating this state of affairs and urged the leaders of Hungary who disapproved of the riots to raise their voices against them.
“Hungary is loudest among the casualty nations of the war in proclaiming her wrongs before the forum of world opinion,” the Times writes. “Her plea for sympathy is certainly not helped by anti-Jewish riots in her universities and colleges. It would be, comparatively speaking, a comfort to think that the Budapest campus pogroms are primarily an ebullition of the same boyish spirits which find expression on Morningside Heights in tearing down grand stands for bonfires. But outbreaks of anti-Semitism are not isolated incidents in Hungary. They are, apparently, the normal expression of a prevailing national temper. Student riots are part of the mood which finds expression in banning Hungary’s leading playwright from the stage of the National Theatre and in the avowed aims of powerful political leaders. In the hard days which the war has brought on the Magyar people the one thing that would seem to be most needful is internal peace. If Hungary is to win her way back to what she considers her proper place, she needs all the educated leadership she can get, Instead, the eyes of too many of her leaders are turned to the past. The memories of defeat are invoked and mobilized in search of a scapegoat. The universities, instead of being employed as instruments of national regeneration, are in danger of being turned into arenas of racial and religious hate.
“No doubt there are leaders of the Hungarian people who disapprove of the Swastika riots or even view them with dismay. It is their duty, then, to make that fact plain to the outside world. American public opinion, which has taken pride in the work that one. American, Jeremiah Smith, has done for the economic revival of Hungary under the auspices of the League of Nations, will not be pleasantly affected by the latest incidents.
“The problem is one that affected, in varying degree, many of the new nationalities in Central Europe American sentiment for ‘self-determination’ cooled off perceptibly when it was shown that ‘unredeemed’ nationalities were not above denying redemption to others. Oppressed nationalities, once freed, have shown a pretty talent for oppression on their own account. A great deal should be allowed for war psychology, for the rush of the wine of freedom to heads long bent under the yoke for the inevitable trials and nervous exasperations connected with nation-building or rebuilding. But nearly ten years after the armistice is a fairly long time Hungary might imitate the example of other post-war nationalities in the matter of substituting self-control for neurosis.”
Elrection of the temple for the Agudath B’nai Israel Congregation Lorain Chio. will be started within ## days it was announced by ## Shiff one of the members of the building committee.
The Aguduth B’nai Israel congregation represents a merger of the three former Dorain Jewish organization, Aguduth ## Beth Israel and B’nai B’rith, which joined 18 months ago.
The new building is to be located in the downtown district. It is estimated that the new temple will cost $75,000.
Harry Berman is chairman of the building committee Albert Deutsch and Shiff are the other two members.
Community Thanksgiving services were held under the auspices of several religious organizations at Temple. Israel. Far Rockawar. The institutions represented were the Temple Israel. First Reformed Church. St. John’s Episcopal Church, the Russell Sage Memorial Church and Congregation Shaaray ##.
Rabbi Isaac Landman the Rev-Henry C. ### the Rev. William A. Sparks the Rev. Dr. J. Milton Thompson and Rabbi Norman S## participated in the services.
The Congregation Shearith Israel. Jackson wille., Ela., has inaugurated a drive for funds for the construction of a new synagogue J. Safer is president of the congregation. The sum of $18,700 was pledged at the meeting ## the drive.
The will of George McCarthy of Br## Mass a Catholic contains a request of $?,000 to the Beth Israel Hospital Boston. Gifts were made to twenty charities including Catholic Procestant and ?wish.
UNTERMYER URGES FORD TO WITHDRAW HIS ‘INTERNATIONAL JEW’ FROM SALE
The insistence of Theodor Fritsch, German translator and publisher of Henry Ford’s book, “The International Jew,” that he has not yet received Henry Ford’s letter ordering him to withdraw the book, as reported in a Jewish Jewish Telegraphic Agency despatch from Germany, caused Samuel Untermyer to renew the demand for the withdrawal of the book.
In a letter which he, as counsel for Herman Bernstein, wrote to Clifford B. Longley of Detroit, general counsel of the Ford Motor Company, Mr. Untermyer recalled that Mr. Ford’s agreement to stop the sale of the book had been a main reason for Mr. Bernstein’s consent to dropping his $200,000 libel suit against the automobile manufacturer.
The letter after referring to a letter sent to the Leipsig publishers by Mr. Ford, continues:
“We shall expect Mr. Ford to compel them to desist, and I am sure he will, if necessary, seek to do so. The publications continue to do incalculable harm, principally because of the use of his name in connection with the sale of the book.
“I learn also that the book is being sold in other parts or the world and am hoping that everything within am hoping that everything within reason will be done to put an end to its publication and to assure the complete withdrawal of the book from circulation.
“I had supposed that in the performance of the agreement Mr. Ford would have, immediately after our settlement in July last, communicated with the various publishers continuing these unbelievably infamous libels upon the Jewish race, requiring them to cease selling the book and to surrender the unsold copies, and am rather disappointed that this was not promptly done.”
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
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.