Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, proposed today the formation of “one great organization of service to Jews who stand in need of all that their brother-Jews in lands that are free may do for them.”
In a Yom Kippur message, Dr. Wise urged “that instead of a number of agencies dealing with Jewish self-defense loosely and unvitally coordinated, and no more than coordinated during the past year under the aegis of the General Jewish Council, these shall over the period of the war be united.”
“Every manner of excuse may be offered for postponing the union of Jewish forces,” he said. “In the end it will be found that timidity in the face of public opinion and pride in organizational integrity stand in the way of such union. As for the fear of moving non-Jews to imagine that Jews are united in self-defense, I am more fearful lest non-Jews hold us in contempt for our failure to stand together in defense of our fellow-Jews who are doubly and trebly wronged not by the victorious enemies of Poland but by the brutal Nazi regime which singles them out for wrong and massacre.”
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.