New York Topics

The Jewish Post, July 1929.*


Thirty thousand garments workers, mostly Jews, are on strike since July 3. The Manhattan district from 23rd Street to 40th Street, called the Garment Center, is the scene of daily unrest. Nothing fundamentally dangerous, to be sure. Those who have witnessed revolutionary labor struggles in other world centers, with their direct threat to society as now constituted, will be inclined to view these events as a rather mild occurrence. The fights develop, not between the State and labor as a class, but between organized labor as a social force, constructive and state-building in the fight against this social plague, [the] antisocial forces of the sweatshops on one side and the left-wingers on the other.

The sweatshop was the enemy that stood at the cradle of the Jewish labor movement a generation ago.

The individualism and the innate sense of justice of the Jewish worker waged a fierce battle against it. Due to the energy and intellect invested in the fight against this social plague, it was by and by recognized that the abolition of the sweatshop is not only in the interest of labor but perhaps more to the benefit of the State, of industry as such, and of business in general. Under the influence of these labor struggles, social legislation was placed on the statue books[, an] example of a fair and humanitarian approach toward a solution of the problems under modern conditions.

As a result of the unfortunate 1926 strike under the left-wing leadership, the ladies’ garment workers, who were in the forefront of progress, seem again to be threatened with the sweatshop menace. The war declared against it is significant in more than one direction. It certainly has the sympathy of the enlightened New York public, who think in social rather than in narrow class terms.

The appointment by Gov. Roosevelt of our Lieutenant Governor, Colonel Herbert H. Lehman, who was Chairman of Governor Smith’s board during the 1924 strike, augurs well for a speedy and just settlement. It has a particular meaning from a Jewish point of view when it is remembered that the welfare of almost 30,000 Jewish families directly affected and about as many indirectly interested, is at stake.

A housecleaning in the New York needle industry has even greater importance from a Jewish political point of view. The outstanding feature in the Jewish mass immigration to the United States during the beginning of the twentieth century was the compulsory, rapid transformation of a large number of our people from the “Luft menschen”[1] class into a healthy and productive factor in the economic fabric of American life.

Of late, alarming signs of an increasing exodus of many workers and their children into the ranks of the lower-middle classes were beginning to be noted. This fact not only tended to undo the work of the first generation of pioneers, but also to raise many weighty economic and social questions.

The elimination of the sweatshop evil and the raising of the standard [of living] in the need industry may be a step in a direction perhaps beyond the program of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union and the American Federation of Labor which lends to it its support.

* Note: this essay appears to have been edited “for style,” and thus doesn’t resemble the writer’s other essays. It also doesn’t make sense and/or makes odd, unsubstantiated claims in places, which suggests that it was hacked up so that it could fit the space that was available.

[1] Yiddish expression (“air people”) for people who have no apparent means of support.

Our New York Letter

The Sentinel, April 30, 1926.


Passengers in the subways, elevated trains and surface cars, as well as the motorists and pedestrians within the metropolitan area of Greater New York, cannot help seeing everywhere a sad-faced woman with distinctly Jewish features, who looks on them from posters and billboards. On her face is an expression of limitless pain and suffering. On her lips there is a challenging, hidden smile.

The leaders of the United Jewish Campaign, who have taken upon themselves the task of arousing the sentiment of American Jews to give in order that this suffering people may be helped, have furnished the following text to this, which is understood to be an authentic picture.

“Tired of giving? You don’t know what it is to be tired!”

One must credit the author of this poster with genuine ability and insight into human nature. It adequately describes the situation on both sides of the ocean. When the Joint Distribution Committee decided, several years ago, to discontinue its activity and persisted in going on with the liquidation of its work, it was done not on the theory that all that was ill in Jewish life in European countries had been remedied, but that American Jews had grown tired of giving. When the misery of the situation was again unfolded and focused attention, action was not undertaken before it was ascertained that American Jews, tired as they may be of giving, are, after all, American Jews. The spirit of the Philadelphia conference, despite its dramatic episodes, resting on a fundamental difference of opinion as to the outlook of Jewish life, brought out this fact.

New York is entering upon its United Jewish Campaign with a quota of $6,000,000. It is expected that the outcome will prove that New York Jewry is [in fact] not tired of giving. That it is not tired of giving for a worthy cause was also proven by the successful conclusion of the United Palestine Appeal, which sought to raise the amount of $1,500,000 in New York City for 1926.

* * *

Jewish education is again coming to the fore. On the initiative of the Zionist Organization of America, a national conference on Jewish education will take place in May. A league for Jewish Education in America is to be the outcome of the call for the conference.

Education is not a new Jewish problem. It was only a hundred years or so ago that when the question of Jewish education was discussed, it was understood to mean general education for Jews. With the setting in of the Emancipation period and its accompanying changes in Jewish life, Jewish education has come to mean just the reverse, that is, providing a specifically Jewish religious, cultural or ethical background for what is accepted to be the general standard of education, according to the standards of culture and learning in the respective countries. What a complete change these hundred years in Jewish history have wrought!

There was no difference of opinion at that time as to what comprised Jewish education. Jewish education in the United States is a name into which every group and tendency reads its own definition. To the ultra-orthodox rabbinical group, Jewish education might mean an extensive study in Talmud; to the liberal tendency it might mean religious training of the Sunday school content; to the distinctly Zionist mind, it might aim at acquaintance with modern Hebrew literature; to the less informed, it may mean the ability to recite the Bar Mitzvah prayers at the age of 13 and, of course, the accompanying “speech,” and “after 20 years,” the recital of the Aramaic Kaddish.

What the national conference on Jewish education will decide to define as Jewish education will determine its own success or failure. Should it succeed in handling the problem which affects not only the synagogue and the temple, but also the home and the status of the Jewish community, if judged from a broad viewpoint, and [if it] should succeed in directing its activities toward the provision of a Hebraic background, which is common to all the tendencies and not alien to America, it will make American Jewish history.

* * *

Interest in Jewish sport has been increased with the arrival of the soccer team of the Viennese sport club, Hakoah, and their matches with picked teams of professional players in the United States.

Jews in sport are still a novelty, although since many American Jews have taken their place[s] as leaders in American sport, this should not be so new. Nevertheless, the opinion prevails that Jews are new participators in sports.

Some time ago a well-known writer went to the extent of constructing a theory that the difference between Jew and Gentile is that the Gentile lives for the purpose of sport and play, while the Jew lives his life earnestly. This contention is not entirely based on facts or on historic conception. When the original meaning of the word “sport” is consulted, it is found to mean “amusement.” One can search the early Jewish literature from Aleph to Tav and find not a single injunction against wholesome amusement. The misleading impression that Jews are opposed to sport gained ground due to the recorded fact that the Jews opposed the athletic sports of the Greeks in Palestine during the scission between Hellenism and Judaism. This, however, was due to the fact that it was an hour of national danger. Just as the fact that many countries introduced prohibition during the war cannot be used as a basis for the argument that these countries are permanently in favor of prohibition, so it cannot be argued that the Jews are opposed to sport.

If, however, by sport is meant that the game is to be played fairly, ancient Jewish lore might provide some argument proving the existence of this conception.

The fact in the Bible that Jacob was renamed Israel, following his gallant, singlehanded fight with the unknown “man” who injured him, tells the story. Jacob was named Israel because he “fought with God.” The many references in the Bible to the Book of Yashar, always mentioned when poems concerning the life and achievements of heroes are given, is, in the opinion of many scholars, an indication of the existence of a special “Book of Heroes,” giving thus new meaning to the old name of Israel: Israel-Yashar El, or the Knight of God.

Our New York Letter

The Sentinel, November 5, 1926.


Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, arrived on his fourth visit to the United States, cheered by Zionists, received cordially and with interest by non-Zionists.

Dr. Weizmann’s visit to the United States is an event in Jewish life. It makes Zionist history and also Jewish history.

The echoes of the recent controversy between Zionists and non-Zionists in this country having subsided, the irritation caused by the friction having been appeased, the situation in Palestine being, as it is, fraught with many problems, the course of action which will be chosen by the Zionist leader is a matter of interest to Zionists and non-Zionists [alike].

Of course, the outstanding problem facing the Zionists at present is the unemployment situation and what is termed the crisis which followed in its wake. When the facts in the situation are considered, when the human side of the problem is looked upon, the matter is of deep concern not only to affiliated Zionists but to all American Jews. No doubt this will be the dominant note in the discussions and the public receptions which will be given “from now on.” It should be recalled that it was Dr. Weizmann who, months ago, before the crisis in Palestine reached its present state, with his usual courage and vision, analyzed the situation and, as it were, predicted events.

“It is true that not all of the human material which has attempted to find refuge in agriculture in Palestine was fitted for it. We take note of this certainly with regret and deep sorrow. But we have no right to close our eyes to the fact that a certain part of the new settlers will be compelled to leave their places. This happens not because those settlers don’t want to work. The contrary is true. They have shown, and are still showing, a sacred devotion to the ideal of work and the national resettlement. But there are physical and psychological obstacles over which no effort can avail.” He described the situation upon his return from Palestine in the early spring.

“We were all glad to observe the large immigration of last year and we were inclined to see in it the beginning of the redemption, a symbol and a proof of the realization of the Zionist ideal. At the same time we did not give sufficient consideration to the possibility that such an overwhelming immigration can also bring disaster, if we do not simultaneously increase in the same measure our own efforts in order to increase the capability of the country to absorb the incoming masses.”

“If we do not increase our efforts.” “If” is one of the shortest words in the dictionary, but it is like many other monosyllables – the fate of a man, of a nation, of a movement, of a country, of an ideal, depends not on the large words, but on monosyllables. The Palestine situation has exercised a tremendous appeal for Jewish public opinion in the last ten years. If there was a time when Dr. Weizmann was called upon to bring the influence of his personality to bear upon conditions, it is now when he has before him one of the most difficult situations he has ever faced. However, Dr. Weizmann, a chemist by profession has, during his Zionist work, developed a new kind of chemistry. It is the chemistry of the public mind, the secret of international success, the blending of a variety of colors into the Blue and White. His new formula in the chemistry of shaping the American Jewish public mind, to be applied to remedying the Palestine situation, is looked forward to with more than interest.

* * *

History does not belong to the popular subjects; Jewish history much less. American Jewish history is in its infancy as yet. It is not surprising, therefore, that the American Jewish Historical Society is not heard of frequently. It is a pity, however, that the facts brought out at its last annual convention in Philadelphia were not more widely broadcast. I believe that they are of interest even to those who have no particular inclination for the study of history.

American Jews were the principal backers in the development of the West. Philadelphia Jews were the prime movers in the settling of the early West and were employers of Col. George Grogham and Daniel Boone. They owed the sites of Chicago and St. Louis. So says Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, president of the society, on the basis of extensive research work in the early records of the expansion of the West. The fact that many American Jews have succeeded so well as realtors is merely a reversion to type. This is interesting and instructive. What a fine thing it would be if prominent American Jewish realtors would make it possible for the accomplishment of “their ancestry” to be more widely known! They can certainly take pride in it.

By the way, those early backers of the development of the West were in partnership with Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Robert Morris.

* * *

Dr. Chaim Tchernowitz, professor of Rabbinics at the Institute of Jewish Religion, finds fault with all three types of Jewish congregations in the United States. He is satisfied neither with Orthodoxy nor with Reform; not even with the Conservatives, who are in between. He objects particularly to the deviation from the substance of Jewish law. He cannot agree to the enthronement of the cantor, instead of the scholar. He cannot submit to the rule of the congregational president, instead of the leadership of the Rabbi. He is not attuned to the melodies sung in the present-day synagogues. He wishes that the center of Jewish life would be directed from the synagogue, the house of prayer, and return to the Beth Ha’Medrash, the house of learning.

How can all this be accomplished?

To Professor Tchernowitz it is a simple matter. He proposes that a Rabbinic Council, composed of recognized scholars, well-versed in the Jewish law and lore, be endowed with the authority to revise whatever is necessary in the Jewish religious laws in accordance with the requirements of the time. This Council would, he believes, bring about the fusion of the now disagreeing elements. A sort of “Council of Forty-Eight States” instead of the olden Council of Four States.

While some may agree with his criticism, it is difficult to see how a Rabbinic Council can remedy it.

Our New York Letter

The Sentinel, September 17, 1926.


Bialik, the Hebrew poet who received such a warm welcome from American Jews, is far away from these shores. Dispatches state that a similarly warm reception was accorded him in Paris last week. His impression of American Jewry and particularly of the Zionist public, with whom he came in closer contact, as summarized in his interview before his departure, was not very complimentary. The public, which is usually extremely sensitive to criticism, however, has its own way with poets. It was not long ago that the artist, particularly the man of Jewish letters, was a total stranger within the gates. The artist of old would have been grateful for even being noticed, be it with criticism, let alone applauded and welcomed.

But times have changed. The artists are overwhelmed with attention and the limelight of publicity. They have a hard time escaping to the seclusion so necessary for their creative work.

Perhaps it was in this sense that the American Jewish public did not deliver the “consequences” of Bialik’s criticism. Besides, Bialik, as the quintessence of the Hebraic aspiration, is entitled to ask for more and to aspire to a higher level, the level which he probably knows so well.

However, even Bialik was not entirely spared from the consequences of controversy, with which Jewish life in America was so rife during the recent heat wave. In the noise of New York metropolitan life, of public banquets and money-raising gatherings, to the accompaniment of subways, elevators and streetcars, Bialik found a moment of seclusion in which to pick up a thread of his creative genius, which has been silent for a number of years. He wrote a poem of the Great City. . . .

The great American metropolis under whose pressure of life the poem was written did not fare better at Bialik’s pen than did American Jewry.

“Yenasser Lo Chilvavo” is the name of the beautiful poem, which is the center of discussion in New York’s Hebrew literary circle.[1] The burden of the poem is the arrival and penetration of Spring through the asphalt, brick, iron and steel structure of the Great City and the perpetual superiority and beauty of the smallest blade of grass over the huge and powerful structures of modern civilization.

“Let the noise of the metropolis roar as it passes,
“Let the exploiter and exploited perish in the stench of their exploitation,
“Let the smoke of its chimneys darken the blue of the seven skies,
“Spring in its eternal law, sweet, pure and tender,
“Will come through millions of cracks and will flourish.”

Thus Bialik begins his description of Spring in the Great City.

“And I said in my heart, Nest of Satan
“The source of all mankind’s plagues, the bosom of all horrors, the city which God’s grace has despised and where God’s eye will not rest,
“Your end is the end of Sodom and Nineveh.
“When the Day will come, the Day of Judgment,
“When you will have grown very high,
“And your burden will be too heavy,
“When your yoke will become too irksome,
“You will fall to pieces
“Like a straw hut.”

Here are a few of the poet’s visions of the Great City. Those who read poetry with prosaic eyes resent these visions. “New York has not treated the poet so badly that he should predict for it the end of Nineveh,” they mutter. The lovers of poetry laugh at the resentment and are happy that New York, with its splendor and hugeness, has awakened in the Hebrew poet his harp and has brought out tones reminiscent of those of the Hebrew prophets of old.

* * *

The “national minorities” or the “minority rights” with which American Jewish leadership had much to do in the post-war days are again on the agenda. They came up for discussion in connection with the act of the seventy Turkish Jewish notables who met in what was termed a “Jewish national assembly of Turkey” to renounce the claim of Turkish Jewry to the national minority rights guaranteed to it under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne. This step of the Turkish notables was taken under the pressure of Kemal Pasha’s dictatorial government and under promise of stopping the reprisals and returning confiscated property. The right of the Turkish Jews to arrange their internal religious affairs, [and to] maintain their educational and communal organizations, is now left to the mercy of the all-powerful Kemal Pasha government.

Have the Turkish Jewish notables done well? ask some. Was it expedient? Will the deal bring beneficial results? others ask. There is confusion and misunderstanding on the subject. The other day I was surprised when an otherwise learned gentleman displayed great astonishment when he heard that Jews were fighting for minority rights. Why, he said, “minority rights,” do they fight for less rights? What is the idea of guaranteeing them minority rights?

That is the point. The minority rights were intended to prevent a situation where Jews who are citizens of East European countries would have less rights than were coming to them and less than the rights guaranteed to every American by the United States Constitution. They were written into the international peace treaties and America, as well as American Jews, had a whole lot to do with it.

It was under the influence of Wilson’s fourteen points and his theory of the self-determination of small peoples that these clauses were made a part of international law. European Jews were then grateful to the leadership of American Jews, headed by Louis Marshall, who, in Paris, worked indefatigably toward that end. It is tragic to see that now, eight years later, disappointment with the slow realization of these treaties has led to this action of [the] Turkish Jewish leaders and to a growing misunderstanding of the original intentions of these clauses. It is reassuring to again hear the voice of Louis Marshall thundering powerfully to instill confidence and self-respect in the hearts of the Jewish minorities.

“I would rather die ten thousand deaths than to show myself so lacking in manly courage as to sell my birthright of liberty and equality for temporary safety.”

His words will be heard throughout Europe.

[1] The translation from the Hebrew original into English seems to have been done by William Z. Spiegelman himself.

Our New York Letter

The Sentinel, June 4, 1926

The resignation of Al Jolson, famous Broadway comedian, from membership in the Westchester Biltmore Country Club at Rye, N.Y., is quite a bit of first-class American Jewish “social news.” Al Jolson, the son of a cantor, has never made any secret of his Jewish origin and faith. He could not, out of respect to himself, his friend and his people, remain any longer a member of the exclusive country club, which reprimanded him for bringing undesirable guests to the club, referring to Harry Richman, nightclub entertainer and proprietor, whom Mr. Jolson had brought to the Club as his guest.

“If you want it straight, I’ll tell you. Mr. Richman is undesirable for the simple reason that he is a Jew,” Mr. Jolson was told by the manager of the club when he asked the reason for the objection to Mr. Richman. On asking whether it was not known that he, too, was a Jew, Jolson was told, “Of course, but you are an exception.”

“You are an exception” has been the mask under which rabid anti-Semitism sailed everywhere. Self-respecting Jews everywhere have always refused to be accepted as an exception. This “social event,” in itself insignificant as it may be, carries a lesson to many of our golf-playing co-religionists. It also should be a reminder to those who look to Great Britain for standards and comparison.

This American Jewish “social event” coincides with the conferring upon the former Mr. Isaac Rufus and the former Alice Cohen of the title of Marquis and Marquise of Reading. The Court of St. James and the British Nordic aristocracy do not treat outstanding Jews as “exceptions.”

They could, if they sought, also find standards here. As the New York $6,000,000 drive of the United Jewish Campaign is nearing its successful conclusion, along comes John D. Rockefeller, Jr., with a $100,000 contribution “for the relief of the Jewish people in Poland and Russia.”

Are there many of these exclusive country-club members who would applaud John D. Rockefeller when he says [the following] in the letter accompanying the gift?

“In a matter of this kind, there ought to be no barriers of race or creed. Therefore, although my participation in the movement has not been solicited, I hope you will allow me to enclose herewith my check for $100,000 toward the fund, which I do with the best wishes for the successful consummation of the campaign.”

Many throughout the country will no doubt applaud the decision of the National Conference on Jewish Culture and Education which was called the Zionist Organization of America. The conference, which formed the association for Jewish Education and Culture, has succeeded in eliminating from its program those edges which would be most likely to create friction on the question of Jewish education.

In addition to its purely Zionist activities, of which the new Association makes no secret, it also intends, according to its program, to encourage Jewish educational work on a larger scale, on the need of which there seems to be no division.

There can be no objection to “fostering in American Jewish life an appreciation of Jewish cultural values; to create a better understanding of Jewish traditions and aspirations; and the cultivation and dissemination of the Hebrew language and literature.”

The fears entertained by those who are interested in religious education, in the various Sunday schools and Talmud Torahs, either of Orthodox or reform, were allayed by the fact that direct interference in the work of the various religious and educational institutions will not be attempted by the new association.

Our New York Letter

The Sentinel, October 29, 1926.
(Attributed to Z. Alroy.)

A clever New York headline writer is to be credited with the sentence “Orthodox Jews and Henry Ford Agree on One Point.”

It concerns the introduction of the five-day industrial week. From the discussions in the press and the attempts in various parts of the country to test this proposal, it appears that the five-day industrial week, although the American Federation of Labor at its recent convention in Detroit did not come out for it as fully as it might have, is within the realm of possibility. It is true Henry Ford in introducing the five-day system in his Detroit plant has, reports say, gone no further than a five-day weekly payment, but the move to shorten the working week and allow additional time to the working classes for recreation and educational development is a great step forward.

Incidentally, it is balm to the heart of Orthodox Jewry in America, which has been sighing under the burden of the problem of the observance of the Sabbath. There is a pathetic note in the statement made by Dr. Bernard Drachman, president of the Sabbath Alliance of America, when he says, “Although Mr. Ford, to our sorrow, can hardly be classed as a friend of our people, we must in justice divorce his present action from his otherwise narrow-minded policy, and trust that his example in adopting the five-day week will be followed.”

Rabbi Drachman and Henry Ford agree.

* * *

It was on the deck of the “Leviathan” that 200 American newspapermen assembled to greet Her Majesty, the Queen of Romania, in behalf of the American reading public. In the wayward light which has accompanied Queen Marie on her route from Bucharest to the Statue of Liberty, the highest point was reached at that moment. It was a conspicuous moment; it was a crucial moment.

The Queen, a guest of the American nation; the Queen, ruler of a country where not all is well, not alone with the Jews but with many other peoples. Among the many questions of the American newspaper representatives, sandwiched in between a question on her manner of eating corn on the cob and on the New York skyline, the Jewish question was hurled at her by a zealous Jewish newspaperman.

Was it right? Was it proper?

Opinion may be divided, but it is difficult to condemn the action.

That this sentiment is shared not only by American Jews, but also by American Christians, there is ample evidence. On that very day, when the Queen returned from the glorious reception accorded her by the Chief Executive and stopped at Baltimore, the 91st annual convention of the Maryland Baptists Union Association was in session there. And what did the Baptists do? They framed a set of appeals in the form of resolutions, which were submitted to the Queen. In these resolutions attention was drawn to the situation of intolerance in which Baptists and Jews in Romania find themselves.

Those who need non-Jewish support before every move can be justified have it now in the action of the Maryland Baptists. Queen Marie, who is so liberal in quickly conveying to the public her impressions of America, may also find occasion to comment on this circumstance.

Our New York Letter

The Chicago Chronicle, September 12, 1924

His Serene Highness, Nicholas Horthy de Nagybanya, Regent of Hungary, willed, on the 8th day of February, to confer upon Felix M. Warburg, the Cross of the Hungarian Red Cross Decoration. On August 29th, Louis Alexy, Hungarian Acting Consul-General in New York, presented the Insignia and Statutes of the decoration to the President of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

The President of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, decorated by Admiral Horthy?! Were the news to be made known in Hungary, the Hungarian Jews would read it with amazement.

Admiral Horthy, since the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, is quite a familiar name, but it has an unharmonious sound to Jewish ears. The amazement would be a natural one. The protector of the “awakening Magyars,” the head of a government which has to its “credit” one of the most devitalizing policies with regard to the Jewish population of Hungary, an element that was state-building and responsible for a large portion of native Hungarian commerce, industry and culture, bestowing honors upon one of the greatest Americans and Jews, Felix M. Warburg, the protector of all needy victims of the same government and many others.

Hungary has recently obtained a loan the International Monetary Market. Felix M. Warburg is the head of Kuhn, Loeb & Company. Is there any connection? Those who look for the motive of every action would form such a suspicion. Some of us are inclined to sense politics in any government will or decision. However, the decoration was granted, not [to] Felix M. Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, but to Felix M. Warburg, President of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Has the government of the “awakening Magyars” awakened to the great benefactory role which the American Joint Distribution Committee has played in all the war-stricken and devastated countries where Jews were victimized by the resurrected nations and most of all Hungary? Nothing of the kind.

American public opinion, including American Jewish public opinion, knows very little of a great action undertaken by many American organizations, including the Joint Distribution Committee, in favor of a great number of war prisoners. At the head of this great humanitarian work stood Felix M. Warburg. It is for that reason that his Serene Highness deemed it fitting to bestow distinction upon the President of the Joint Distribution Committee.

It’s a pity that so little is known of that work. I believe that a few details ought to be told now.

Those who had occasion to find themselves in the fatal years of 1914 and 1915 on the fertile plains along the Rivers Prut and Vistula, witnessing the struggle of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies, knew how great was the number of Austro-Hungarian soldiers who were “taken” prisoners. These prisoners, fortunate in the eyes of their [dead] comrades, were hurriedly shipped off into the distant and snowy plains of Siberia. Thousands were their number. The collapse of the Russian Empire, followed by the ruin of the Central Powers, the signature of the Versailles Treaty and the chaos in Russia, sealed the fate of those war prisoners. The spoils of the Russian army were abandoned in the snows of Siberia, with no one to take care of them and no one to repatriate them, doomed to death through starvation and typhus.

A portion of these prisoners were privileged. They belonged to the same Austro-Hungarian Army, but they were Czechs and the allied governments have provided means of transportation for their return to their homes or again to the front of battle. Different, however, was the lot of the nationals of Turkey, Austria-Hungary and others whose governments were unable to either take care of them at their place of exile or bring them home to their families. Thousands perished.

Echoes of this misery reached America. Fifteen American organizations with the American Red Cross and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee formed a Siberian Repatriation War Fund. This fund assumed the task of rescuing these prisoners and fulfilling the obligation which rested upon their bankrupt governments. Besides the American Red Cross, which contributed to that fund $500,000, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee headed the list of contributors with its $25,000.

Felix M. Warburg was elected Chairman of the fund and, together with Lewis L. Strauss and Capt. Rosenbluth in Siberia, performed the major portion of that tremendous task. The main beneficiaries of this American generosity were Hungarians. Not less than 8,000 Hungarian war prisoners were repatriated on a route encircling almost the globe at a cost of nearly $1,000,000, after prolonged negotiations with the various governments, with almost unbelievable efforts and difficulties.

“We have sent an ambassador of the best American ideals into Europe in the person of each of the men whom we have been privileged to help and we have left an ineradicable testimonial of American Good Faith in the troubled Far East that will be more enduring than a thousand diplomatic declarations of our honest intentions,” said Felix M. Warburg in speaking of this work.

In the person of Felix M. Warburg both American and Jewish generosity was recognized and honored by the Hungarian government.

Will this marvelous humanitarian work remain long in the memory of the “awakening Magyars”?

Our New Your Letter

The Chicago Chronicle, July 25, 1924

One of the most interesting figures in American Jewish life, perhaps not so well known to the country at large but nevertheless of dynamic influence, passed away suddenly in the City of New York.

Dr. Isaac A. Hourwich, Doctor of Philosophy, lawyer, American immigration expert, statistician and defender of labor’s rights, died at the age of 64. We are accustomed to judge men by their achievement in material wealth or by their popularity; we often overlook those scholarly, quiet workers whose efforts make a deep impression on the environment in which they live without causing much noise outside it. Brought to America by the wave of Russian Jewish immigration 34 years ago, Isaac A. Hourwich’s activities and sudden departure mark an epoch in American Jewish life. Through his work in fermenting [sic] a new life-forming period of Russian Jewish immigration, he made his contribution not only to Jewish life in America, but to America as a whole.

When the mass of mostly unskilled Russian Jewish immigrants found refuge from economic barrenness and political oppression and had to adapt themselves to their new environment, they found economic potentialities for applying their labor power, a Bill of Rights to protect their civil liberty, and charitable institutions, perhaps, to help those who were in need. To the American Jewish community of German origin must be credited the building up of great industries which created the possibilities for the new arrivals to be easily digested and assimilated in the economic system of their country. This same American Jewish community has on the other hand provided a splendid system of institutions to extend philanthropic aid to those who were either unfit for the new kind of endeavor or who were victims of the new industrial regime. It was left, however, for those intellectual leaders who followed the wave of Jewish immigration from Russia to start a movement which would remedy the evil at its root.

No matter what our attitude may be towards the doctrines of socialism as a remedy for the evils of the world, one cannot help but admit that the movement started and pursued with so much energy, idealism – perhaps exaggerated idealism – resulted in much good for the large class of immigrants. The betterment of the conditions, in this respect the introduction of organization in these ranks, the abolishment of the sweatshop system, was not only a contribution towards improvement of the situation of the Jews in America but also a contribution towards the general standard of living in America. In this movement Dr. Isaac A. Hourwich was in the lead.

Russian Jewish intellectuals of the type of Dr. Hourwich, when fleeing to America, did not bring with them a burning desire for individual liberation alone; they carried with them the care and thought of the group. In the service of the United States Government as statistician, Dr. Hourwich devoted his time not to the achievement of a personal career but to the securing of correct and enlightening figures on Jewish immigration. Immigration, especially Jewish immigration, on which opinions differ so much, always required the dissemination of correct information presented in the proper light.

Fighting for liberal immigration policies, his last days saw this country being closed to immigrants; fighting for socialism all his life and at one time reaching the heat of communism, he went to Russia, to return a convinced anti-Bolshevik.

It was a tragic figure, significant of his generation, that passed away.

Russia will for a long time hold the attention of those who have either their materialistic or idealistic interest before their eyes. Will the present regime continue in Russia, and if not what is going to happen when it falls? This question was repeatedly asked and with especial anxiety by those who are interested in the fate of a great number of Jews in the former Russian Empire. This question was asked as many time as there arrived in this country some new anti-Bolshevik mission or delegation.

A new Russian delegation has arrived, representing quite a new kind of Russia. It is “Green Russia.” M.A. Moskwinow, who is a representative of the All-Russian Peasants Association, is here in this country to advocate the support of a Green Russia, claiming to represent the Russian peasant. The Russian peasant is still the puzzling unknown quantity. Russia consists mainly of peasants. Were they to be properly organized, brought to the point of literacy, they would be the rulers of Russia. And they will some day no doubt be the rulers of Russia. What would be the attitude of this Green Russia towards Russian Jewry at that dreaded moment when one regime falls and another rises. M. Moskwinow, speaking on behalf of the Russian peasantry, advocates the ideal of a democratic Russia whose form of government should be determined by a Constituent Assembly. His statement in the general press in connection with this plan was, “To be honest, we are not anxious to include (in the Constituent Assembly) the Jew. We believe he makes trouble in Russia.”

I do not know how successful an organizer M. Moskwinow is, how many millions of peasants of the Russian steppes have already joined the banner of the future Green Russia. One thing is certain: that he knows how to get out of a bad situation. When asked for an explanation, the similarity in sound and difference in meaning of one of the words came to his rescue. M. Moskwinow says that, speaking in German to one of the American journalists, he said, “Wir haben keine Angst, die Hebraer miteinzuschliessen, denn Unruhen koennen nicht entstehen, falls die Andersstaemmigen (inorodtsi – in Russian) auf demokratischer Wahlgrundlage die moeglichkeit haben ihre nationalen Interssen zu verteidigen.”[1] The American journalist then made a “slight mistake.” He thought the German word Angst (fear) is equivalent to the English “anxious [about].” M. Moskwinow assures us that he has no fear of Jewish participation in the proposed Constituent Assembly of the future Green Russia.

From the representative of Green Russia this is not a bad explanation.

* * *

Mr. Samuel Untermyer, one of America’s most prominent lawyers, President of the Keren Hayesod, Vice President of the American Jewish Congress, and great Democrat, was “out of luck” at the recent National Democratic Convention. Already at the very start nature revolted against him. Desirous of extending a warm welcome to the Democratic delegates, he proposed giving a lawn party at his home in Yonkers. But a terrific thunderstorm prevented his acting the generous host to his guests and holders of Democratic votes. No less a storm was caused by another revolt, not the elements this time, but against the elementary right of secrecy of political advices.

Mr. Untermyer was a McAdoo man. Rumor had it a long time ago that in his McAdoo devotion he was the one to advise McAdoo to accept the support of the Ku Klux Klan, even though to dump it later. There was an inclination to treat the rumor as mere gossip. Along came the “New York World” and in its enthusiasm for Smith threw the stone into the water. It published what was apparently authentic correspondence between Mr. Untermyer’s nephew and Mr. Julius Peyser, which seemed to confirm the long-suppressed rumor. Since Mr. Untermyer denies that his nephew has any access to his political convictions and advices we may believe him. But since the advice was not effective, we need not worry about the possible consequences. The question, however, to which this incident gave rise still remains to be clarified.

The American Jewish Congress, having been anxious to have both parties take a definite stand on the Klan question, appointed a committee to wait on the Democratic convention for the purpose of pleading for an anti-Klan plank. The committee appointed by the President, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, was to include the Vice President of the American Jewish Congress, Mr. Samuel Untermyer. Mr. Untermyer, however, refused to serve on the committee and in refusing, after the revolt against secrecy was made, put forth the principle that American Jewry does not have to fight the religious intolerance and racial discrimination advocated by the Klan. Urging a purely Christian policy of non-resistance by Jews, Mr. Untermyer puts his entire trust in the Protestants in the Klan matter.

It is hard to think that this policy of non-resistance is consistent with the courageous readiness for self-defense expected of organizations like the American Jewish Congress. The Keren Hayesod, of which Mr. Untermyer is Vice President and President, respectively.

However, Mr. Untermyer agrees to disagree on this policy.

[1] Note by WJB: “We have no fear of Hebrew participation, unless riots originate among other ethnic groups (in Russian: foreigners) who defend their national interests upon democratic electoral foundations.”

Our New York Letter

Published under the title "New York Topics," The Sentinel, November 18, 1927.

Some enterprising news editor in the Middle West [of the USA] in search for the unusual made a great discovery. Upon the large American continent, populated as it is with talent and genius, he has discovered the Average American. A close scrutiny was made of the unicum and it was discovered to the surprise and amusement of the reading public that the average American is quite a normal man. The find was made in the state of Iowa. He is a small businessman. He owns his own home, drives a car, cares for his family, goes to church, is a good, congenial neighbor and is all around all right. Because of these unusual qualities he was on exhibit and all his actions, opinions and reactions to the world and its affairs were scrupulously recorded and interpreted.

To summarize his outlook not a very large vocabulary is necessary. It would range between a complacent “all right” and satisfaction with what exists.

Notwithstanding the harpings of the highbrow intellectuals if it is true that the average American is indeed what he is claimed to be in his exemplary personification, there is nothing wrong with him.

It is to be wondered that there was not an ingenious editor of a Jewish newspaper, daily or weekly, to attempt to find his counterpart in the American Jewish community. Not wishing to anticipate the finding of such a search, the following qualities might be suggested as a clue to the discovery.

The average American Jew corresponds more or less to the average American. He is a businessman, he owns his own home, drives his car, cares for his family and is a congenial neighbor.

The only difference that might exist is that he goes to synagogue at least once a year. He is not a member of many social clubs but instead has hands full and his pockets empty with the payment of all kinds of dues to charitable organizations, societies and lodges. Another difference is that he is either a “driver” or is being driven in the various consecutive drives for every imaginable good, uplifting cause.

* * *

A trial of unusual interest will take place next week in the city of Cleveland. As a preparatory step for providing the legal guns for the parties concerned theological advice on the background of the conflict was sought from the leaders of the respective branches of American Jewry in New York.

The crux of the matter on which light was sought in the depositions taken was the answer to the question: What is orthodoxy? A minority group of the Cleveland Jewish Center is responsible for instituting the suit against Rabbi Solomon Goldman, spiritual leader of the Center. The minority claims that the Rabbi, a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, has deviated from the constitution of the congregation which provides that as long as ten members will insist on the Orthodox ritual, the congregation must remain Orthodox. To prove that the Rabbi’s deviations are un-Orthodox it is first necessary to establish what Orthodoxy is. To bring out the answer to this question a great volume of questions were prepared to be submitted to the experts. Many of the questions framed by the attorneys for both sides who are, by the way, both non-Jews, contain the danger of turning this essentially necessary battle into a Jewish edition of the Dayton trial. Many of the questions and answers during the taking of the depositions brought in the entire mass of religious lore which then transferred into the secular atmosphere of a court might tend to create a kind of ridicule similar to that which attended the “monkey trial” in Dayton. When questions concerning Baalem’s Ass are asked and answered, or when the perplexing problem is presented as to whether or not kissing a bride by the officiating Rabbi is in accordance with Orthodoxy or whether the reading of this or that book on present-day social problems is or is not in accordance with Orthodoxy, the entire matter is reduced to the level of vaudeville which will certainly do no good for the dignity of Jewish religious life in the United States.

This, however, has nothing to do with the question itself. There seems to be no doubt that in the present transitory period through which American Jewry is passing, the friction between the traditional synagogue and the modernized synagogue is at its height.

Orthodoxy is generally a misnomer when Jewish religion is spoken of. It is a word new in the use of the synagogue. It came into use only after Reform Judaism made its entrance. With Reform Judaism the traditional synagogue has no quarrel. Friction of which the Cleveland case is typical is in existence and the dignified settling of the matter in the Cleveland court will have a wholesome influence and lead to a clarity which is much needed.

* * *

Life has its tragic and comic sides. Dispatches from Budapest conveyed the indignation of the highly cultured Magyar students who objected to performance of “Abie’s Irish Rose” in the Metropolitan Theatre.

The refined Magyar students objected to the play not because it did not measure up to their artistic appreciation but because they believed that “Abie’s Irish Rose” represents American Jews in too favorable a light. Here is one point where many an American Jew whose eye has grown weary for the past six years of seeing “Abie’s Irish Rose” blossom among the bright lights of Broadway agrees with the Magyar youths – but obviously not for the same reasons. “Abie’s Irish Rose” is as far from being complimentary to the Jew as it is far from the truth; it is also as far from proving the public’s knowledge of the Jew as of its artistic appreciation.

* * *

A chair for the instruction of the Yiddish language and literature will be created at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. This is another achievement which Dr. Magnes has added to his brilliant record as chancellor of the University.

The Hebraist zealots in Jerusalem and elsewhere will not, strange as it may seem, derive any too great satisfaction from the accomplishment. In the struggle for the cultural dominance among the Jewish masses, Hebrew and Yiddish have fought many a battle which was certainly injurious to both. The renaissance of Hebrew is of too recent a date to have instilled in its followers the feeling of security which is necessary for a proper appreciation of the academic necessities of an institution like the Hebrew University, which must unfold its activity in an impartial, scientific and serene atmosphere.

Hotheaded Hebraists will visualize an attack of the Yiddishists on the Hebrew integrity of the Scopus institution. Dr. Magnes, however, has to be complimented on the achievement which will bring renown to the university as it will do much good for the prestige of the vernacular of a large section of the Jewish people and as it will furnish new living material for the study of Jewish life and institutions.

Dr. David Shapiro, publisher of “The Day,” and his associates on that New York Yiddish newspaper who are responsible for the idea and its execution by establishing a $100,000 fund, the income of which will secure the maintenance of this department, have made a valuable contribution both to the Hebrew University and to the study of Jewish literature.

Our New York Letter

Chicago Chronicle, September 26, 1924

The Skehinah Wanderers – as early as 1,700 years ago one of the Jewish chroniclers recorded with both pride and resignation the wandering of the Skehinah to and from ten successive centers.

What is the Skehinah? Every generation has had its own Skehinah, representing in the final analysis the genius of the nation. Since the Kabbalah, beginning with the twelfth century, became deeply rooted in the Jewish mind, the Skehinah grew into a conception of the all-embracing, supreme intelligence of the universe. So it happened that the Skehinah was not satisfied with ten changes of its center: it continuously accompanied the Jewish people in their wanderings. Jerusalem, supplanted by Baghdad, Baghdad by Cordoba, followed by Montpelier, Wurms, Lublin, Vilna and again the German Jewish communities.

If Skehinah is to be taken as the expression of the thing which is peculiar to the Jews, it is nothing but the study of the nation’s genius, the search into the past, the understanding of its literature.

German Jewry has to its credit the creation of a modern system of Jewish research, the clarification of the darkest corners in Jewish history, the rendering accessible of the sources of old inspiration. It produced men like Geiger, Zunz and Jost, who laid the foundation for the Wissenschaft des Judenthum. It is owing to the scientific efforts of German Jewry that the monumental building of Jewish history could be erected and that the romance of Jewish transformations and adaptations could be retold in a precise manner. Much criticism has been voiced against those who occupy themselves with historical research and confine their interest wholly to the past. However, no real understanding of present-day Jewish life and no possibility for a continuation of Jewish thought is imaginable if this work is neglected.

It would seem that in the last few years this has stopped. The war, with its attending impoverishment, uprooted the old established Jewish centers. Scientific research into Jewish learning stopped; publications of this nature were suspended.

The Skehinah of Jewish research has now landed in America through Cincinnati. It should be sincerely welcomed by American Jews.

The first Hebrew Union College annual, containing many valuable contributions towards Jewish lore and philosophy, has appeared under the editorship of David Philopson, K. Kohler, Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Julian Morgenstern, David Neumark and William Rosenau. The nature of the newly issued annual cannot better be expressed than in the words of the chairman of the board of editors: “It offers convincing testimony to the universality of Jewish learning. Here all diversions of opinion and party merge in the friendly fellowship of true scholarly endeavor, and all geographical and national lines are obliterated.”

Indeed they are.

* * *

Both reform and orthodox seem to be determined to make rapid steps in the advancement of American Judaism.

The Rabbi Isaak Elchanan Seminary, a strictly orthodox rabbinical seminary, now located on the East Side of New York, with very poor accommodations, has bought a site for the erection of a modern college building for its students. It is stated that the Seminary intends to construct a building which will be large enough to accommodate 1,000 students, with classrooms, study rooms, an auditorium, a senior high school, a library and a dormitory. There will also be a campus with playgrounds. This should be encouraged. A Yeshiva with a campus and playgrounds adapted to the tastes and aspirations of American Jewish youth is a promising innovation.

Perhaps the time is not distant when the prediction of many close observers of Jewish life in America will come true. American Jews are perhaps approaching the period when, besides dollars for the material relief of distressed communities, it will send to other Jewish communities spiritual encouragement and highly learned leaders as well.

Our New York Letter

The Chicago Chronicle, December 26, 1924

The American press carried the names of four Jewish men who passed away within a fortnight: Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor; Julius Kahn, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House of Representatives; August Belmont, millionaire subway builder and sportsman; Dr. David Neumark, Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati; and a fifth, a stranger within our gates, Rabbi Isaac Friedman, exalted king of the Sadagora court.

That August Belmont, although not a Jew in name was a Jew in origin, is known. When the provisions of his will, disposing of a fortune of from twenty to forty million dollars were made public, it was clear that his interest in racing surpassed all other interests. No sum of any considerable importance was bequeathed by him to any public fund.

The line of demarcation between the Schoenberg family, from which he descended, and the Rothschild family, whom his father represented in America, is distinctly drawn by the provisions of this will.

The sportsmanship of August Belmont was much spoken of in the metropolitan press. The sportsmanship of Rabbi Isaac Friedman is less known. A few paragraphs on the subject will be of interest.

A drama of deep human concern came to a tragic conclusion with the death on East Broadway of the young Sadagora Rabbi.

In the history of the Hassidic movement, the name “Rabbi of Sadagora” is an outstanding one.

Hassidism, originally a movement of the common people with many elements of revolutionary attempt and protest against the stagnation of form and contents in Jewish life of the eighteenth century, based its conception on simplicity of life and insisted on once again introducing enthusiasm and love into Jewish life. God has to be worshipped not in fear of punishment, but in admiration of his majesty, out of love for the Creator, out of the feeling of nearness of the omnipotent and omnipresent Supreme Power.

Insisting on freedom of social intercourse, on real fellowship and brotherhood and joint, joyous worship, Hassidism, at the time, introduced the cult of the leader, the power of personality. The struggle which the leaders of the Hassidic movement had with the old established Rabbinical authorities soon brought about with the Hassidic leaders a drastic change: they drifted from simplicity to asceticism.

Israel Ryschiner, grandfather of Rabbi Isaac Friedman, and descendent of the founders of the Hassidic movement, then revolutionized Hassidic life. Asceticism is not necessary for gaining happiness in this world, or nearness to the omnipotent power. Luxury is conducive to joy, joy is the state of mind necessary for real nearness to God, was the theory he introduced into practice.

A palace, surpassing the castles of the Russian and Polish nobility in the vicinity, was erected in Ryschin, a little town in Podol. A court in royal grandeur was maintained. When the “Ryschiner” had to journey, a courtage of sixteen horses was employed, a luxury enjoyed by only the richest landowners and nobility in Imperial Russia. The period being the time immediately after the French Revolution, the Russian Government, in fear of a revolutionary movement, sensed danger in the “royal behavior” of the Hassidic Rabbi. Arrested, released and again arrested, the royal Rabbi succeeded in transferring his court and establishing his grandeur in Sadagora, then Austria.

Sadagora, a small town, was soon famous as the seat of the Sadagora Court. The fate of many Jewish communities in Galicia and the provinces near the Austro-Russian frontier was dependent upon the orders of the Sadagora “court.” Attacks of great intensity were made against the prestige and power of the Sadagora Hassidic ruler, but Sadagora remained in power. In fact Sadagora, on the death of Rabbi Israel, branched out into several sections, growing with the number of descendants of the dynasty. The World War checked this unique development of Hassidic royalty.

Ten years after Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia, the Rabbi of Sadagora dies on East Broadway in poverty, and congregations seek arbitration before a Rabbinical court as to which should be permitted to bury him, so that a number of high-priced graves might be reserved.

Our New York Letter

Chicago Chronicle, July 11, 1924

Unobserved, a date of great historical importance has been inscribed in the history of American Jewry. On the first of July the new quota law, based on the 1890 census, reducing the possibility for Jewish immigration to the United States to almost nothing, went into effect. After the stormy protest meetings, pleading committees, individual appeals and aroused public sentiment, there came a lull. With one stroke of the pen, history was made.

A period of thirty years of Jewish immigration to the New World, averaging about 100,000 yearly, has come to a close. It can safely be said that this period will be recorded as the most remarkable and outstanding in the age-old and complex process of Jewish transformation. Upon the thin layer of the original Spanish and German Jewish settlers in the United States have come layers of Jews from all corners of the world, merging slowly into one American Jewish community, creating new forms of Jewish life, opening new avenues of Jewish thought and even making new Jewish customs and traditions.

What course will American Jewry take now that its reservoir of vitality has been cut off? This question has been correctly answered by one who has seriously thought on the matter. While the new change is to be regretted, there is no reason for despairing. American Jewry has already developed a sufficiently strong element of spiritual leadership and communal responsibility to assure its further inner growth.

Jewish history has seen the development of a distinct Arabian-Jewish type, succeeded by a Spanish-Jewish type, which has in turn been transformed into English-Jewish, French-Jewish, German-Jewish, Polish-Jewish and Russian-Jewish types. Jewish history is now preparing for the emergence of the distinct American-Jewish type.

* * *

That there is no need for worrying over the future of American Jewry is also the belief of the champion of the doctrines of our Bible, the always-original democrat, William Jennings Bryan.

While the Democratic Convention, in the City of New York, was floundering between the deep sea of innumerable ballots and the evil spirit of the Ku Klux Klan, inspiration came to it from that ancient source of salvation, the Bible. Are the progressive and democratic elements of America to come out in an open fight against the hooded knights of religious prejudice and racial discrimination, endangering perhaps the outcome of the presidential campaign, or are they to compromise? The forces of American democracy were split into two distinct halves. These halves must be welded together again. How can it be done? Who can do it? It was William Jennings Bryan who then pleaded:

“The Jews do not need this resolution. They have Moses. They have Elijah. They have Elisha, who was able to draw back the curtain and show upon the mountain tops an invisible host greater than a thousand Ku Klux Klans.”

And so it happened that the spirit of Moses, Elisha and Elijah rested upon a woman, who decided the outcome; it was recorded that the resolution against the Ku Klux Klan, condemning it by name, was lost by a majority of less than one vote, cast by a woman delegate.

* * *

That the spirit of Moses, Elijah and Elisha will be perpetuated – and again through the efforts of the women – can be safely predicted when we forget for a while the noise and fanfare of the political conventions and stop to listen to another kind of convention.

I have in mind the convention of the Jewish women’s organization of America, Hadassah, which has just opened in Pittsburgh. 17,000 Jewish women are quietly organized for the carrying on of a splendid humanitarian and Jewish work. The organization, under the able leadership of Miss Henrietta Szold has, in the last year, gained over 5,000 new members, an increase of almost 50% over its previous membership. For its special work, aside from the contributions that its members make to various Jewish communal undertakings, the organization has been able to collect $250,000 during the last year.

The organization has to its credit the remarkable progress in sanitary conditions in Palestine, and the curative and preventive work among the inhabitants of that country. It intends, according to the plans outlined by its president, to assume even greater responsibility. Its immediate intention is to help maintain the newly proposed hospital in Tiberias. Another and more distant plan is to take over the entire medical work in Palestine.

Surely the spirit of Moses, Elijah and Elisha rests with the work and efforts of this unique Jewish women’s organization.

Our New York Letter

Chicago Chronicle, April 18, 1924.

Welcome the Swastika!

It has crossed the ocean and has been permitted to land at Ellis Island without any difficulties. Was it admitted in the quota? In excess of the quota? Or, perhaps, above the quota? Do not ask. It is a real Nordic [saga], and has hurried its arrival in expectation of a generous welcome present in the form of the 1890 census. It has even gained considerable publicity for itself. In Europe it is quite famous, but, perhaps, you do not know what the Swastika looks like, and what it stands for? Its pedigree, therefore, must be given to the best of our knowledge.

Scholars are in doubt whether the cross as a religious symbol originated on the Golgotha. Some claim its origin was in Persia; others that it was in India. Whichever claim is correct, Jewish history has grown accustomed, since the time of the Gregories and the Crusades, up to the present time of modern “Christian Socialists,” to see all kinds of anti-Semitic movements find shelter under the sign of the cross. It has been, indeed, the tragic-comism [sic] of Jewish, as well as of Christian history, that all anti-Semitic movements should be directed under a sign upon which a Jew was supposed to have suffered and died.

However, the blonde nature of Nordic races, which for generations have “suffered” under the yoke of Jewish moral teachings – although diluted and modified – has broken out in revolt. A primal revolution is taking place and attempts are being made to dejudaize the New Testament. At this time when in the churches the cry of “Down with Jesus the Jew” can be heard, the German anti-Semites have found conditions ripe to make their radical change.

They have taken from the prehistoric archives the old Pagan – not exactly Nordic – sign of the Swastika, two hooks crossing each other, and have made it the emblem of the anti-Semitic movement.

The first to introduce the Swastika was the Fascist army of Hitler and Ludendorff. This sign was to be used as the symbol of those who had taken upon their shoulders the task of saving Germany from the Jewish influence. In a short time the Swastika became so popular that it began to be used as a new kind of jewelry. Monarchists, aristocratic ladies and anti-Semites wore, as adornment, gold, silver and bejeweled Swastikas, demonstrating that they were really Nordics and absolutely free from anything Jewish. The Swastika became the “bogeyman” for Jews and Republicans alike. At the houses of Republicans and Jews in Central Europe, where formerly the old-time cross could be discovered as a warning and threatening sign, can now be found the new symbol of terror – the Swastika.

With the sign of the Swastika on its cover, there has appeared a twenty-page booklet, many thousand copies of which have been circulated. The booklet contains a plan “to make peace prevail in the world.” The author, Ernst Goerner, probably, an American-German, submitted this plan to the Bok Peace Award Committee with full expectation of receiving its prize of $100,000. The Bok Committee did not consider this plan the best, however, and the disgruntled author now raves at the Committee, claiming that it is no more than a Jewish contrivance to win America for the League of Nations idea, in order that the “Jewish Treaty of Versailles” may be maintained. You, probably, would think that this [person] is a crank. You would misjudge. He has a well-known program – the program of the Swastika.

“The cause for the world’s unrest is the fact that during the time of the war Russia, Germany, Austria, England, France and America were represented, not by Aryans and Nordics, but by Jews. The trouble with the Versailles Treaty is the same: the nations and states were not represented, but misrepresented by the Jews, especially [in] America, which was misrepresented by Colonel House, the evil spirit of President Wilson, ‘The all-powerful Jew at Versailles.’ He was not the representative of the United States, but of world Jewry. It is possible to make peace prevail in the world only when the nations will understand and consent:

“That men of another race have grown fat, rich and enormously powerful through this war, have taken the places and enriched themselves at the expense of those who were honestly fighting – that those men of another race have usurped the governmental power of the nations of the Aryan people and in the fact have enslaved and tyrannized them and enforced a most brutal policy of starvation.

“That each and every nation participating in the discussion shall consent, promise and bind itself, to have in all their affairs, internal and external, only men of their own kind, only men of the Aryan race, and to withdraw and eliminate, without exception, all men of non-Aryan races and all those who have even a minimum of non-Aryan blood. Also all those of the Aryan race who have intermarried with non-Aryan blood and those who are economically or socially under non-Aryan influence shall be called non-Aryan.

“That where a country is dominated by non-Aryan influences as is the case in Germany and Russia, then Aryan representatives shall be approached instead of non-Aryan official government.

“The ‘Plan’ having been either approved by the U.S. Senate or the Aryan public of this country, shall be submitted to the different governments or ‘TRUE REPRESENTATIVES’ of the several nations.”

Together with the new symbol of the Swastika, America has been granted a new name, Usania (U.S. ania). The booklet is being circulated by an organization which calls itself the Nordic-Aryan Federation of Usania, and its headquarters are in Portland, Ore., and Milwaukee, Wis. An investigation has revealed that this Nordic-Aryan Federation of America is a German-American organization which publishes also a monthly German journal, under the same name in Portland.

Who has imported the Swastika into America? How great is the danger, if any? Is there going to be a putsch made in its name? Who is backing this movement – supporting it?

Concerning the author, Ernst Goerner, we are in a position to say as much as he himself has been willing to tell. During the war he was persona non grata with the Wilson Administration, on account of his pro-German propaganda. The government even started proceedings to annul his citizenship.

When we read over his program for the approaching presidential elections, giving twelve reasons why the future president must be a “man racially conscious,” a “successful businessman,” and one “who would not sell himself for money and to the Jews,” it becomes evident that, if in the ancient and medieval times all roads used to lead to Rome, they lead now, under the sign of the Nordic Swastika, to Detroit.

Our New York Letter

The Sentinel, April 29, 1927.

On May 2 a national conference of Orthodox Jewish congregations in the United States and Canada will be opened in New York City. The initiative in calling this conference came from the Yeshiva Building Fund, the organization which has raised over two million dollars for the erection of a Yeshiva college to house in eight magnificent buildings the Yeshiva, named after Rabbi Isaac Elchanan, for the training of Orthodox rabbis, and a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The step was taken in connection with the festive ceremonies on the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone for the first group of buildings of the Yeshiva on May 1.

These festivities are a significant event in American Jewish life and indicate a tremendous change in the component elements of the Jewish community. It was not long ago that the terms “Orthodox,” “immigrant,” and “poor Jew” were considered synonymous. Now, in every Jewish community in this land there are considerable groups of Orthodox Jews whose capacity for leadership in economic, civil and cultural life is admitted. When the leaders of this movement decided to use the occasion when Orthodox leaders will meet for the ceremonies attending the laying of the cornerstone, for an attempt to unite Orthodox congregations into a national body, it is an effort which has to be followed with arresting interest. Word has gone abroad that this effort may result in the creation of an opposition of Orthodox Jews to the so-called “rule” of the liberal element in American Jewry.

Whether the fight between Orthodox and Reform will be renewed under present conditions is highly doubtful. The days of the early conflicts are, it seems, gone, never to return. The liberal movement has had a long time to prove its worth and it can now be judged not in the heated atmosphere of fanaticism on one side and revolt on the other, but in the light of historic facts, achievements or failures.

Whatever one’s view may be on Orthodox Judaism under present-day conditions, the fact remains that there is a vast number of Orthodox Jewish congregations, with a membership not accurately recorded, which are continuing Orthodox traditions. Whether the trend common to these congregations is one of militancy, as claimed by some of their leaders, or one of passive resistance to all assaults of changing times, a feature characteristic of Judaism in past ages, is a matter which cannot be determined with any measure of accuracy.

The claim has been made that there are between two and three thousand Orthodox Jewish congregations on the North American continent. When these groups are united and express their will with regard to things Jewish, what will this Will be? It is a matter which leaves room for interesting speculative thought. The fact is that, according to the latest figures, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, representing the Reform congregations in the United States, has a membership of 279 congregations which have in turn an individual membership of 53,960 people. The United Synagogue of America, which represents the so-called Conservative trend in American Judaism, has a membership, it is stated, of 226 congregations with a total membership of about 33,000. The union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, an organization started about 30 years ago, but whose development has been rather slow, also has a membership of 150 congregations. This leaves a margin of several thousand congregations, unaffiliated with one another and unorganized, each group confined to the interest of its local importance and totally unguided in matters of national interest and significance, such as Jewish education.

To endeavor to organize these bodies is a herculean task. It is perhaps an attempt to move a slumbering giant. Those of the Yeshiva College Building Fund who have undertaken it deserve praise for their courage and vision.

The proceedings and decisions of this conference ought to be watched with abiding interest by all who take an active part in the life of the Jewish communities throughout the country.

Our New York Letter

The Australian Jewish Herald, February 26, 1925.

The fact that the crossword puzzle, which requires at least a fair knowledge of spelling and something approaching an average intelligence, became so popular is in itself a great puzzle which could be explained only by the wizards of American newspaperdom. This puzzle is particularly difficult of solution when one remembers the result of the intelligence tests during the War.

Those who look at every matter for its Jewish angle were not disappointed also in the crossword puzzle problem, which, thanks to the epidemic nature of the puzzle, crossed the ocean, where it was discovered that the crossword puzzle was originally a Jewish invention made by none other than our old acquaintance, Abraham Ibn Ezra, poet, astrologist, world trotter and epigramist.

However, here there is another puzzle which awaits solution. Why it was necessary for the crossword puzzle to travel across the ocean to find its Hebrew origin is really difficult to explain. Why America, with its great number of rabbis, Jewish journalists, scholars, having among its treasures the best Jewish libraries and manuscripts, could not find the Hebrew origin of the [crossword] puzzle is to be wondered at.

A superficial knowledge of medieval Hebrew literature, nay, even a knowledge only of the prayer book for the High Holidays, would indicate that the form of crossword puzzling was quite familiar in Hebrew literature and liturgy.

As a matter of fact, the majority of the special hymns and songs for the principal holidays have a crossword puzzle, at least one way down. The first letter of every line is always to be connected with the following letter from the beginning to the end of the song or hymn, and preserves a complete record of the name, surname and city of the author. The main evidence for the existence of the first Hebrew Paiton, Eliezer Ha-Kalir, was preserved chiefly through this cross-wording of his few and beautiful hymns.

In fact, most of the Hebrew poetry written in Spain during the Hispano-Jewish Golden Epoch was based, similarly to the Arabic poetry of that time, not so much on rhythm as on the number of letters contained in the verse, coupled with cross-wording at the beginning of the line. The Cabalistic literature developed subsequently had a particular fondness for the playing with words, and it claimed that the entire universe was merely the result of a combination of certain letters. The playing with letters went so far that the belief was held that with certain new combination of letters, [whole] worlds – spiritual and material – could be made and destroyed. Many a letter-enthusiast, it is reported, fasted for years in order to be privileged to learn some mysterious combination of 72 letters expressing the name of the Omnipotent Power.

The Notarikon (the Hebrew development of the Latin “Notaricum”) and the Gematrioth were another, much earlier and much more serious manifestation of the crossword fad.

It does not, however, seem too safe to go into the history of cross-wording and letter puzzles, as is evidenced by the fact that the brilliant crossword puzzles of the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries were not altogether appreciated even in the prayer books, and it took some scholar from overseas to bring to the attention of American Jews the Hebrew origin of the almighty Crossword Puzzle.

* * * 

Lord Robert Cecil, British statesman, champion of the League of Nations idea, winner of the Wilson Peace Prize of 25,000 dollars, in an address at the Hotel Astor, relating the achievements of the League of Nations, credited it with the securing of rights for national minorities in Eastern Europe. That the protection of the rights of minorities should be taken into consideration and cared for after the conclusion of a war is not a new international practice. The latest precedent which existed before the War in this regard was Article 44 of the Treaty with Romania signed at the Berlin Congress. In this Article, Romania had pledged itself to secure citizenship rights to its Jewish population, but it never fulfilled its pledge.

The commonly called “national minority treaties,” in the actual text of the supplement to the Versailles Peace Treaty, speaking of the national minorities in the various countries, resorted rather to a long term. In the treaties, the national minorities are described as “religious, language, and cultural minorities,” [which is] rather a vague and diplomatic term for such a burning question as the national-minorities-question represents in the various countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

In this regard, the League of Nations has really an achievement to its credit. As to the execution of rights, it seems that it has not gone any further than the Berlin Congress. The situation of the Ruthenian-Lithuanian minority in Poland, and the discrimination “enjoyed” by the Jewish minorities in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania is, just because of this achievement, a constant challenge to the League of Nations.

Our New York Letter

Jewish Transcript, August 22, 1924.

What has been an engaging problem to the authorities in the various embarkation ports, to government officials and to relief organizations – the problem of the stranded refugees who were granted visa to be admitted to America but were detained not of their own fault – found no expression, so far, in any official record of the State Department or even the Labor Department. The authorities upon whom the refugees have placed their trust and as a result of that trust have disposed of their property, left their homes and started journeying with the encouraging hope of finally reaching their opportunity in the land of opportunities, lost track of these originally hopeful emigrants in the moment of their despair. Commissioner General of Immigration Husband has made the statement of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that outside of newspaper reports, the immigration authorities of the United States have no official record as to the number of American visa holders classified as “stranded refugees.” Will the lack of record, however, solve the problem and remove the responsibility?

That the authorities who have issued these visas and encouraged the hopes of these refugees have to some extent a responsibility towards them is indicated by the fact that the State Department has issued instructions through the Consuls abroad to give preference in the issuing of new visas to those stranded refugees who hold previous visas. There is, however, very little salvation in this instruction of the State Department. The quotas according to the new law for the eastern European countries, from where the majority of the refugees come are, as known, very limited. Out of this meager quota only a half of each quota can be allotted for preference to the stranded refugees, in as much as the other half of these quotas are to be reserved for a certain class of near relatives of American citizens and agricultural laborers which has gained by preference by the provisions of the very same immigration law. Besides, according to the same law only 10% of the annual quota could be admitted monthly. Even those refugees who would prove to belong to the “preferred stock” would have to continue in their trying and exhausting position of anticipation. What is then to happen to these eleven thousand stranded immigrants toward whom a certain measure of responsibility has already been admitted?

Congress at its very last session, before adjourning, passed the resolution which will remain in the immigration annals as an act of human mercy, to admit those who have already embarked for the United States and would become victims of the new law when they would see land again. Will Congress take up and deliberate in the same spirit on the question of these stranded refugees when it convenes?

* * *

General Plutarco Elias Calles, President-elect of Mexico, leader of the Mexican working classes, influenced by an organization which would correspond more to the tendencies of a labor party than to an extremely socialistic party, left a cheerful message during his stay in new York before his departure for Europe.

When he assumes the reins of the government in Mexico, he stated he would be prepared to ask his government to grant a large tract of arable land to Jewish settlers, with proper facilities and concessions. The Mexican solution of the Jewish immigration problem is not a new proposal. It has been taken up, discussed and even abandoned already two years ago. However, Mexico is the typical land of changes and the sudden arrival in power of what is termed to be a Mexican Labor Party may offer some new aspect to the problem. General Plutarco Elias Calles is not only interested in Jewish colonization work in Mexico, he has also a “good eye for business.” According to the interviewer of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Mexican President-elect stated that Mexico under a labor regime, where a system of cooperative guilds could provide employment for tens of thousands of Jews in various branches of industry offers a great possibility.

“It would be at the same time,” the President stated, “a distinct benefit to Mexico to manufacture within its own boundaries many articles and products which it is compelled today to import from other countries. A sum in the neighborhood of $2,000,000 could give a start to this movement and furnish employment possibilities for Jewish immigrants, a start which is similar to the beginning of the large Jewish industries in the United States.”

An invitation to Jewish industrial workers with an allowance for a possible drifting of a certain percentage into individual enterprises is a new and sensible proposition. It ought to be taken up and first of all thoroughly investigated. The nearness of Mexico to the large American Jewish community, with its possible connections and credit facilities, would no doubt present an incentive to the home-seeking class of Jewish workers and artisans in the devastated regions of at-present economic barrenness.

Here I think the work of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith carried on in Mexico in recent years could offer good material for the forming of a sound judgment on the matter. Just recently this benevolent Order appropriated a sum of $20,000 for the purpose of establishing a branch office in Mexico City and the enlargement of the activities [there]. Those who have experience in that country will have to be consulted first.

* * *

Hans Herzl, the little son of his great father, after a week’s search in the populous metropolitan city of London, came out from his hiding place. In a letter to the London Daily Telegraph he confirms the sad news which was reported about him.

“It is true that I was baptized into the Christian Church on July 20 in Vienna,” Hans writes.

But Hans is resentful. He denies the correctness of all the other particulars reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. What could be incorrect, since his principal incorrectness was unfortunately correctly reported?

It is incorrect that his action was a result of a mental depression? But was it ever recorded that anyone else under similar circumstances admitted his mental depression? You certainly would not expect Hans to admit that! Necessarily this must be left to the judgment of those who know more about it.

If you will search through the pages of the histories of all peoples, you will not find the names of great men’s sons being as brilliant as their fathers. We do not know anything of the sons Moses, Maimonides, Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, Luther, Spinoza, Copernicus or Newton. The majority of great men had no sons. Those who were born did not live up to their names. It seems as if nature takes a rest for a few generations after it has exerted itself at the heights of genius.

How painful it is, however, to recollect the [following] entry in Herzl’s diary: “June 10, 1904, was the 7th birthday of my Hans. I make a date out of the birthday of my good Hans. May he, healthy and happy, grow to be a strong Man and continue my work!”

Our New York Letter

The Chicago Chronicle, August 8, 1924.

Metropolitan newspapers told American readers of an importance piece of work that was finished in Jewish life. The announcement was made that the American Jewish Relief Committee, under the leadership of Louis Marshall, Cyrus L. Sulzberger and Felix M. Warburg, would close its activities on Thursday, July 31st, 4 o’clock in the afternoon, with a record of hundreds of thousands of lives saved, more than 4,000,000 children fed and clothed and the distribution of close to 1,000,000 tons of food in Central Europe – and a total of $63,137,562 raised for that purpose.

This event was given wide publicity in the press. As usual, publicity writers are inclined to exaggerate, so it was claimed that the sum of $63,137,562 was raised by the American Relief Committee, and that the credit for this tremendous achievement of American Jewry, in the work of reconstructing Jewish life in the war-stricken countries, was due to Henry H. Rosenfelt, now affiliated with the La Follette campaign.

Mr. Rosenfelt, in a communication to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, wished to make the following corrections:

1. That he did not personally raise the tremendous sum as stated in the press report; that he having been the National Director of the American Jewish Relief Committee for four years, is in a position to know that it is Mr. Jacob Billikopf to whom credit is due for organizing the great work.

2. That the American Jewish Relief Committee has not finally closed; that only its campaign for money had closed, but that the collection of unpaid pledges will still go on at the offices of the Joint Distribution Committee, 64 Water Street.

These corrections are certainly well taken. There is, however, another correction which ought to be made and which, then overlooked, lessens the significance of the great period in American Jewish life that is apparently coming to an end.

The closing of the campaign for funds for the American Jewish Relief Committee, as officially announced, and the final liquidation of the activities of the Joint Distribution Committee, in Europe, mark the quiet end of an heroic demonstration of self-sacrificing generosity and big-hearted giving on the part of the American Jewish community. It is a romantic chapter that will gloriously be inscribed in the annals, not only of American Jewry, but of America as a whole. It is since the day when a group of immigrant Jews, by their social status and adherence to tradition, belonging to none other than the orthodox group, assembled in an East Side meeting room, a few months after the outbreak of the World War, that this romance was been woven.

The longer the war continued – and at first it was expected that it would not last more than three months – and the greater the misery among the Jews in the war-stricken countries of Europe, the greater grew the spirit of generosity and the ranks of those who felt the responsibility of coming to the aid of the suffering. It was originally the orthodox Central Relief Committee which was organized. There was then organized the American Jewish Relief Committee. These two were followed by the People’s Relief Committee, composed of such Jewish elements as were usually in principle opposed to any benevolent or philanthropic action. It was through the cooperation of all these three committees – and due recognition must be given to the dominant role of the American Jewish Relief Committee – that the sum of over $63,000,000 was raised and disbursed by their Joint Distribution Committee.

When the epoch-making donation of $1,000,000 of Julius Rosenwald to that fund was under touching circumstances announced, it was President Wilson who stated, “Your donation, while it furnishes inspiration, puts on us an obligation.”

The $1,000,000 donation of Rosenwald certainly introduced a new style, not only in Jewish America, but in American war-relief activities. This inspiration, no doubt, served as a constant reminder to American Jews of their obligation to their brethren in war-stricken Europe. The obligation was honorably fulfilled. Over $63,000,000 was raised and efficiently spent. The prestige of American Jewry, and with it of America, was elevated to an incomparable height.

But this effort did more than raise millions of dollars. It awakened a feeling of responsibility, created Jewish communal leadership in the remote hamlets of America, brought the Jewish social service, in the person of Jacob Billikopf, to its present prominent place in Jewish communal life, generated enthusiasm and laid a basis for a real united American Jewish community.

It is announced that the work of collecting money for war-relief activities will stop. Will the enthusiasm and communal responsibility created in the course of this work end?

* * *

The wheel of Jewish history is turning with its hub seemingly placed in Palestine. In addition to the Bedouin tribe, which has made an application for permission to return to Judaism, there has appeared another group, which has made a similar application to the Chief Rabbinate of Palestine. This application is reminiscent of a tragic period and gives food for thought to those who are accustomed to thinking in historical terms.

A group of Maranos, the descendents of Jews in Portugal and Spain who were compelled by the Inquisition of Torquemada, Ferdinand and Isabella to embrace Christianity, desire now to return to Judaism. A number of these Maranos are experienced farmers in Portugal, and there is an intention to help their settlements in the land of Palestine. It seems as though the Biblical prediction of the return of the “scattered of Israel” is beginning to be realized. However, the Chief Rabbinate has decided not to take any definite steps concerning the application of the Bedouins and the Maranos before consulting the national Jewish organizations, and before a thorough investigation is made from the standpoint of Jewish law.

In a conversation with the writer of these lines, Rabbi A. J. Kook, Chief Rabbi of Palestine, who is now visiting the United States – [and] the one who is to decide the matter – had many doubts on the matter. With regard to the Bedouins, who are considered by reason of their language as Arabs, it is a very delicate political question. Unless sufficient historical proof is found establishing the Hebrew origin of this wandering tribe, the incorporation of the tribe as a group, with deeply rooted beliefs and modes of life of its own, into the growing Jewish body of Palestine is hardly to be recommended. It is different with the Maranos, who are, undoubtedly, of Jewish origin. But here again there are obstacles from the standpoint of Jewish law. Jewish law, particularly concerning marriages and divorces, represents a highly accentuated tendency towards legalism. Any shortcoming in the observance of the marriage and divorce laws are a grave transgression on the principles of traditional Judaism. In some cases the offspring of such marriages are under a question mark, which makes their incorporation into the Jewish religious community an impossibility. And these Maranos, though they clung tragically to the faith of their fathers, inwardly could not obviously be very particular.