SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AMERICAN JEWISH …

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THEAMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE

OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEOFFICERS

PRESIDENT, LOUIS MARSHALLVICE PRESIDENTS /CYRUSADLERVICE-PRESIDENTS ^ J U U U S R 0SENWALD

TREASURER, ISAAC M. ULLMAN

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

CYRUS ADLER (1925) Chairman Philadelphia, Pa.JAMES BECKER (1925) Chicago, 111.LEO M. BROWN (1926) Mobile, Ala.ABEL DAVIS (1926) Chicago, 111.ABRAM I. ELKUS (1925) New York, N. Y.PAUL L. FEISS (1927) Cleveland, O.ELI FRANK (1925) Baltimore, Md.FELIX FULD (1927) Newark, N. J.ALBERT D. LASKER (1925) Chicago, 111.IRVING LEHMAN (1926) New York, N. Y.LOUIS MARSHALL (1926) New York, N. Y.A. C. RATSHESKY (1926) * Boston, Mass.MILTON J. ROSENAU (1926) Boston, Mass.JULIUS ROSENWALD (1927) Chicago, 111.HORACE STERN (1927) Philadelphia, Pa.OSCAR S. STRAUS (1927) New York, N. Y.LEWIS L. STRAUSS, Jr. (1927) New York, N.Y.CYRUS L. SULZBERGER (1927) New York, N. Y.ISAAC M. ULLMAN (1926) New Haven, Conn.A. LEO WEIL (1925) Pittsburgh, Pa.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY

HARRY SCHNEIDERMAN, 171 Madison Ave., N. E. Cor. 33rd St.,New York City.

Cable Address, "WISHCOM, New York."

604 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK

MEMBERS AND DISTRICTS

Dist. I: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina. 4 mem-bers: Simon Benjamin, Jacksonville, Fla. (1926); Leonard Haas,Atlanta, Ga. (1927); Lionel Weil, Goldsboro, N. C. (1926); AugustKohn, Columbia, S. C. (1928).

Dist. II: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee. 3 members: Moses V.Joseph, Birmingham, Ala. (1928); Levi Rothenberg, Meridian, Miss.(1925); Nathan Cohn, Nashville, Tenn. (1928).

Dist. I l l : Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas. 6members; Max Heller, New Orleans, La. (1924); Ivan Grunsfeld, Albu-querque, N. Mex. (1928); Marion M. Travis, Tulsa, Okla. (1927); J.K. Hexter, Dallas, Tex. (1923); Isaac H. Kempner, Galveston, Tex.(1926).

Dist. IV: Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri. 6 members: Chas.Jacobson, Little Rock, Ark. (1924); C. D. Spivak, Denver, Colo. (1928);Henry Wallenstein, Wichita, Kan. (1928); Simon Binswanger, St.Joseph, Mo. (1927); Aaron Waldheim, St. Louis, Mo. (1926).

Dist. V: California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington. 8members: Louis M. Cole, Los Angeles, Cal.(1928); Max C. Sloss, SanFrancisco, Cal. (1926); Ben Selling, Portland, Ore. (1927); DanielAlexander, Salt Lake City, Utah (1928): Emanuel Rosenberg, Seattle,Wash. (1924).

Dist. VI: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, NorthDakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming. 13 members: David A.Brown, Detroit, Mich. (1926); Henry M. Butzel, Detroit, Mich. (1924);Meyer S. May, Grand Rapids, Mich. (1926); Joseph H. Schaneld,Minneapolis, Minn. (1925); Isaac Summerfield, St. Paul, Minn.(1927); Victor Rosewater, Omaha, Neb. (1924); D. M. Naftalin, Fargo,N. Dak. (1924); David B. Eisendrath, Racine, Wis. (1928); Nat.Stone, Milwaukee, Wis. (1927).

Dist. VII: Illinois. 8 members: A. G. Becker (1928); James Davis(1924); M. E. Greenebaum (1928); B. Horwich (1927); Julian W.Mack (1928); Julius Rosenwald (1925); Joseph Stolz (1924), Chicago,111.; W. B. Woolner, Peoria, III. (1926).

Dist. VIII: Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, l i members:Samuel E. Rauh, Indianapolis, Ind. (1925); Sol. S. Kiser, Indianapolis,

REPORT OF AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE 605

Ind. (1924); Isaac W.Bernheim,Louisville, Ky. (1927); David Philipson,Cincinnati, O. (1924); Edward M. Baker, Cleveland, O. (1928); PaulL. Feiss, Cleveland, O. (1927); D. A. Heubsch, Cleveland, O. (1926);Sigmond Sanger, Toledo, O. (1928); Otto Kaufman, Youngstown, O.(1924); Louis Horkheimer, Wheeling, W. Va. (1925).

Dist. IX: City of Philadelphia. 6 members: Cyrus Adler (1928);Wm. Gerstley (1924); Ephraim Lederer (1927); B. L. Levinthal (1925);M. Rosenbaum (1925); Morris Wolf, (1928).

Dist. X: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia. 6members: David Snellenburg, Wilmington, Del. (1924); Fulton Bry-lawski, Washington, D. C. (1925); Jacob H. Hollander, Baltimore, Md.(1925); Julius Levy, Baltimore, Md. (1926); Siegmund B. Sonneborn,Baltimore, Md. (1925); E. N. Calisch, Richmond, Va. (1927).

Dist. XI: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,Rhode Island, Vermont. 20 members: Louis M. Raffel, Waterbury,Conn. (1927); Isaac M. Ullman, New Haven, Conn. (1926); IsidoreWise, Hartford, Conn. (1925); Philip N. Bernstein, Waterbury, Conn.(1925); Nestor Dreyfus, New London, Conn. (1926); Gordon F. Gallert,Augusta, Me. (1926); Jacob Asher, Worcester, Mass. (1926); Louis Baer,Boston, Mass. (1924); David A. Ellis, Boston, Mass. (1928); Lewis Gold-berg, Boston, Mass. (1928); Henry Lasker, Springfield, Mass. (1927);David A. Lourie, Boston, Mass. (1926); A. C. Ratshesky, Boston, Mass.(1927); Felix Vorenberg, Boston, Mass. (1924); Chas. Wineapple, Salem,Mass. (1925); A. Hartman, Haverhill, Mass. (1925); Benjamin England,Pittsfield, Mass. (1927); Edward M. Chase, Manchester, N. H. (1924);Archibald Silverman, Providence, R. I. (1925); Barnett Frank, Bur-lington, Vt. (1926).

Dist. XII : New York City. 31 members: Isaac Allen (1926);Benjamin Altheimer (1924); Herman Bernstein (1926); Nathan Bijur(1925); David M. Bressler (1928); Elias A. Cohen (1927); Abram I.Elkus (1925); H. G. Enelow (1925); William Fischman (1925) ;Lee K-Frankel (1928); Henry M. Goldfogle (1924); Maurice H. Harris (1928);Max J. Kohler (1924); Jacob Kohn (1926); Irving Lehman (1927);Adolph Lewisohn (1925); William Liebermann (1924); Judah L. Magnes(1925); Louis Marshall (1925); Alexander Marx (1926); Edgar J. Nathan(1928); A. E. Rothstein (1926); S. Rottenberg (1924); Bernard Semel(1924); Joseph Silverman (1927); I. M. Stettenheim (1927); Oscar S.


Straus (1924); Lewis L. Strauss, Jr. (1927); Cyrus L. Sulzberger (1926);Israel Unferberg (1928); Felix M. Warburg (1928).

Dipt. XIII : New York (exclusive of the City). 8 members: Morti-mer Adler, Rochester (1924); Simon Fleischmann, Buffalo (1925);Louis J. Kopald, Buffalo (1926); Benjamin Stolz, Syracuse (1924);Frederic Ullman, Buffalo (1928); Eugene Warner, Buffalo (1927);Horace J. Wolf, Rochester (1928).

Dist. XIV: New Jersey and Pennsylvania (exclusive of Philadelphia),17 members: Milton M. Adler, Newark, N. J. (1927); Isaac Alpern,Perth Amboy, N. J. (1927); A. J. Dimond, East Orange, N. J. (1928);Sigmund Eisner, Red Bank, N. J. (1928); Felix Fuld, Newark. N. J.(1924); David Holzner, Trenton, N. J. (1925); Frederick Jay, Newark,N. J. (1928); Wm. Newcorn, Plainfield, N. J. (1924); Joseph B. Perskie,Atlantic City, N. J. (1926); Lewis Straus, Newark, N. J. (1927); IsaacW. Frank, Pittsburgh, Pa. (1927); William Harris, Allentown, Pa.(1925); A. L. Luria, Reading, Pa. (1928); Isaiah Scheeline, Altoona,Pa. (1924); Isador Sobel, Erie, Pa. (1926) A. J. Sunstein, Pittsburgh,Pa. (1927); A. Leo Weil, Pittsburgh, Pa. (1924).

Members-at-Large for 1924: Louis E. Kirstein, Milton J. Rosenau,Boston, Mass.; James Becker, Abel Davis, Albert D. Lasker, JacobM. Loeb, Chicago, 111.; S. Marcus Fechheimer, Cincinnati, O.; HenrySachs, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Jules E. Mastbaum, Horace Stern,Philadelphia, Pa.; Louis Witt, St. Louis, Mo.; Herbert Friedenwald,Frederick W. Wile, Washington, D. C ; Leo M. Brown, Mobile, Ala.;Eli Frank, Baltimore, Md.

DELEGATES FROM NATIONAL JEWISH ORGANIZATIONSAMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, A. S. W. Rosenbach; COUNCIL

OF JEWISH WOMEN, Miss Rose Brenner and Mrs. Harry Sternberger;HADASSAH, Miss Alice L. Seligsberg; HEBREW SHELTERING AND IM-

MIGRANT AID SOCIETY OF AMERICA, John L. Bernstein, Harry Fischel,Leon Kamaiky, Jacob Massel, and Leon Sanders; INDEPENDENT ORDER

BRITH SHOLOM, Sol. C. Kraus and Martin O. Levy; INDEPENDENT

ORDER FREE SONS OF ISRAEL, Solon J. Liebeskind; INDEPENDENT

WESTERN STAR ORDER, Max Levy; NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF JEWISH

SOCIAL WORK, Fred. M. Butzel; ORDER BRITH ABRAHAM, JohnAffenkraut, Leon B. Ginsburg and Morris M. Green; ORDER OF THE


UNITED HEBREW BROTHERS, Meyer Greenberg; PROGRESSIVE ORDER

OF THE WEST, Samuel Epstein; RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY OF THE JEWISH

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, Mordecai M. Kaplan; UNITED SYNAGOGUE

OF AMERICA, Samuel C. Lamport; WOMEN'S LEAGUE OF THE UNITED

SYNAGOGUE OF AMERICA, Mrs. Charles I. Hoffman.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

November 18, 1923

The Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the American Jew-ish Committee was held at the Hotel Astor, New YorkCity, on Sunday, November 18, 1923. Louis Marshall,Esq., presided, and the following members were present:DISTRICT

I. Lionel Weil, Goldsboro.II. Moses V. Joseph, Birmingham.

VI. Victor Rosewater, Omaha; Nat Stone, Milwaukee.VII. Bernard Horwich, Julian W. Mack, Julius Rosen-

wald, of Chicago.IX. Cyrus Adler, William Gerstley, Ephraim Lederer,

Morris Rosenbaum of Philadelphia.X. Edward N. Calisch, Richmond; Sigmund B. Sonne-

born, Baltimore.XL Jacob Asher, Worcester; Edward M. Chase, Man-

chester; Henry Lasker, Springfield; ArchibaldSilverman, Providence; A. C. Ratshesky, FelixVorenberg, Boston; Isidore Wise, Hartford.

XII. Herman Bernstein, Nathan Bijur, David M. Bress-ler, Elias A. Cohen, William Fischman, Lee K.Frankel, Maurice H. Harris, Isidore Hershfield,Max J. Kohler, Jacob Kohn, William Lieber-mann, Louis Marshall, Alexander Marx, EdgarJ. Nathan, I. M. Stettenheim, Oscar S. Straus,Lewis L. Strauss, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, IsraelUnterberg, Felix M.uWarburg, of New York City.


XIII. Benjamin Stolz, Syracuse.XIV. Milton M. Adler, Felix Fuld and Frederick Jay,

Newark; A. J. Dimond, East Orange; AlexanderKaufman, Elizabeth; William Newcorn, Plain-field; Isaac W. Frank, Pittsburgh; A. Leo Weil,Pittsburgh.

Members-At-Large: Horace Stern, Herbert Friedenwald.Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America:

John L. Bernstein, Harry Fischel, Leon Kamaiky andJacob Massel, New York City.

Independent Order Free Sons of Israel: Solon J. Liebes-kind, New York City.

Order Brith Abraham: Leon B. Ginsburg and MorrisM. Green, New York City.

Women's League of the United Synagogue of America:Mrs. Charles I. Hoffman, Newark, N. J.

APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES

The President appointed the following Committees: OnNominations—Messrs. Nathan Bijur and Benjamin Stolz;On Auditing the Accounts of the Treasurer—Isaac W.Frank and Elias A. Cohen; On Press—Ephraim Ledererand Herman Bernstein; Tellers—Edward M. Chase andWilliam Liebermann.

PRESENTATION OF ANNUAL REPORT

The Executive Committee presented its report for thepast year. Upon motion, the report was received andordered printed.


ELECTIONS

The Committee on Nominations made the followingrecommendations:

For Officers:President: Louis Marshall.Vice-Presidents: Cyrus Adler and Julius Rosenwald.Treasurer: Isaac M. Ullman.For Members of the Executive Committee to serve

for one year from January 1, 1924:James BeckerEli Frank

For Members of the Executive Committee to serve fortwo years from January 1, 1924:

Leo M. BrownAbel DavisMilton J. Rosenau

For Members of the Executive Committee to serve forthree years from January 1, 1924:

Paul L. Feiss Oscar S. StrausFelix Fuld Horace SternJulius Rosenwald Lewis L. Strauss

Cyrus L. Sulzberger

For District Representatives, to fill expired terms orvacancies:DISTRICT

I. August Kohn, Columbia, S. C , to succeed MontagueTriest, for term expiring 1928.

II. Nathan Cohn, Nashville, Tenn., to be re-electedfor term expiring 1928.


III. J. K. Hexter, Dallas, Texas, to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928.

IV. C. D. Spivak, Denver, Colo., to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928.

V. Louis M. Cole, Los Angeles, Cal., and DanielAlexander, Salt Lake City, Utah, to be re-electedfor terms expiring 1928.

VI. Joseph H. Schanfeld, Minneapolis, Minn., to fillexisting vacancy, for term expiring 1925, andDavid B. Eisendrath, Racine, Wis., to fill ex-isting vacancy, for term expiring 1928.

VII. A. G. Becker, M. E. Greenebaum and Julian W.Mack, of Chicago, 111., to be re-elected for termsexpiring 1928.

VIII. Edward M. Baker, Cleveland, 0., and SigmundSanger, Toledo, 0., to be re-elected for termsexpiring 1928.

IX. Cyrus Adler, Philadelphia, Pa., to be re-electedfor term expiring 1928, and Morris Wolf, tofill vacancy, for term expiring 1928.

XI. David A. Ellis and Lewis Goldberg, of Boston,Mass., to be re-elected for terms expiring 1928;Nestor Dreyfus, New London, Conn., to fillexisting vacancy, for term expiring 1926; GordonF. Gallert, Augusta, Me., to fill existing vacancy,for term expiring 1926, and Barnett Frank,Burlington, Vt., to fill existing vacancy, for termexpiring 1926.

XII. David M. Bressler, Lee K. Frankel, Maurice H.Harris, Edgar J. Nathan, Israel Unterberg and


Felix M. Warburg, of New York City, to bere-elected for terms expiring 1928.

XIII. Horace J. Wolf, Rochester, N. Y., to be re-electedfor term expiring 1928, and Frederic Ullman,Buffalo, N. Y., to fill existing vacancy, for termexpiring 1928.

XIV. A. J. Dimond, East Orange, N. J., Sigmund Eisner,Red Bank, N. J., and Frederick Jay, Newark,N. J., to be re-elected for term expiring 1928;A. L. Luria, Reading, Pa., to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928, and William Harris, Allen-town, Pa., to fill existing vacancy, for term ex-piring 1925.

There being no other nominations, the Assistant Sec-retary was requested to cast one ballot for the nomineesof the Committee on Nominations, which he did, and an-nounced the election of the several nominees.

REPORT OF TELLERS

The tellers reported that they had canvassed the ballotscast for District Members in Districts II, III, IV, andXIV and that the following received a plurality of thevotes cast:DISTRICT

II. Moses V. Joseph, Birmingham, Ala.III. Ivan Grunsfeld, Albuquerque, New Mexico.IV. Henry Wallenstein, Wichita, Kansas.

XIV. A. J. Sunstein, Pittsburgh, Pa.The Committee on Auditing the Accounts of the Treasur-

er reported that it had duly audited these accounts andfound them to be correct.


DEPORTATION OF IMMIGRANTS

Mr. John L. Bernstein called attention to the fact thata large number of immigrants are now being held atEllis Island, N. Y., for deportation to the countries fromwhich they came, on the ground that they are in excess ofthe national quotas, and that in many cases the deporta-tion of these immigrants would entail considerable hardshipand suffering. Mr. Bernstein suggested that the Committeeendeavor to take steps to make suitable representations,to the President of the United States with a view to hav-ing such immigrants temporarily admitted under bond,subject to the ratification of such action by suitablelegislation by Congress. Upon motion, the subject wasreferred to the Executive Committee with power to takesuch steps as may be deemed advisable.

Upon motion, the meeting adjourned.

HARRY SCHNEIDERMAN,

A ssistant Secretary

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

To THE MEMBERS OF THE

AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE:

Before submitting a summary of the matters whichengaged its attention during the past year, your Execu-tive Committee deems it fitting to refer to the lamenteddeath of one of the founders and, for the first six yearsof its existence, the President of this Committee,—MayerSulzberger, who died on April 20, 1923. Your Execu-tive Committee gave expression, all too inadequate, of


its sense of bereavement, in the following resolution adop-ted at its meeting on May 27, 1923:

The American Jewish Committee mourns the deathof MAYER SULZBERGER, President of the Committeefrom its organization in 1906 until 1912, and a mem-ber of the Executive Committee until the time ofhis death.

Judge SULZBERGER was passionately devoted to therights of man. He loved justice and hated oppres-sion and persecution wherever manifested. It wasbut natural that he should be deeply moved by theinhumanity with which his co-religionists were treatedin various parts of the world. As a young man hewas interested in the work of the Board of Delegatesof American Israelites and when a new agency wasrequired to defend the rights of the Jews and tosecure for them equality before the law he heartilyjoined in the movement.

He presided over the conferences which broughtthis Committee into existence and upon its organiza-tion he reluctantly yielded to the unanimous senti-ment which made him its President, this being theonly national organization of which he ever acceptedthe presidency. He was most energetic in fulfillingthe duties of the office and took many steps in be-half of his oppressed brethren in many lands. Mostnoteworthy was his presentation of the condition ofthe Jews in Russia and of the inequality sufferedby American Jews in advocacy of the resolution in-troduced in Congress to abrogate the Treaty of 1832with Russia under which the Russian Government


claimed the right to withhold its visa from passportsissued by our Government to American citizens ofthe Jewish faith. His argument before the Com-mittee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Repre-sentatives was a masterpiece, disclosing intimateknowledge of European diplomacy and exhibitingdeep feeling.

It is not within the province of this Committee torecord the manifold activities of Judge SULZBERGER

during his long and useful career. He was an emi-nent lawyer and jurist; a distinguished scholar andpromoter of Jewish learning; a great citizen of theCommonwealth of Pennsylvania and of the UnitedStates. He repeatedly declined high office both fromthe State and from the Federal Government; yet henever wearied in aiding movements for the publicgood. He gave himself whole-heartedly to all causesfor the betterment of his fellow-citizens and devotedhimself untiringly to the welfare of the Jews hereand abroad. He was at once wise in counsel andforceful in action; entirely devoid of personal am-bition and free from all thought of self.

The American Jewish Committee has been singu-larly honored by his leadership and his unfailinginterest in all of its activities, and can find no moreworthy method of cherishing his memory than bystriving to live up to the high ideals which he ex-emplified and to perpetuate them.

On May 30th your Committee joined with the rep-resentatives of other bodies in a memorial meeting heldin Philadelphia at which addresses were delivered by the


Honorable Roland Morris, Dr. Solomon Solis Cohen, andthe President, Mr. Louis Marshall.

Death has deprived our organization of Samuel Dorf,another loyal friend, a member of the Committee andof the Executive Committee since 1909. Your Com-mittee adopted the following tribute to the memory ofMr. Dorf who died on February 25, 1923:

The Executive Committee of the American JewishCommittee profoundly laments the death of theircolleague, SAMUEL DORF, of New York City, amember of the Committee and of its Executive Com-mittee since 1909. He was faithful in his attend-ance at meetings of the Committee, helpful in itsdeliberations, and a loyal worker in carrying outits decisions. A popular leader for an entire genera-tion of a great Jewish fraternal order, he was yeta man of great modesty, and never sought to claimfor his views any special precedence or importancebecause of the great influence he wielded. He wasalways ready and willing to exert the full weightof this influence in support of any public causes,Jewish as well as non-Jewish, which promoted theideals and upheld the principles of America. He willlong be remembered for his energy, fidelity and loyalty.

Two members of the General Committee have also beentaken from us, Charles Eisenman, of Cleveland, Ohio, amember-at-large, who died on March 9, 1923, and AlfredBenjamin, of Kansas City, a District Representative, whodied on July 18, 1923. The following minutes respect-ing these deceased members were adopted by the Execu-tive Committee:


It is with deep sorrow that the Executive Com-mittee of the American Jewish Committee has learnedof the untimely death of CHARLES EISENMAN, ofCleveland, Ohio, a member of the General Committee.A man of many fine qualities and of personal charm,he was noted for his devotion to the public welfareand as a power for good not only in his own community,but wherever he came in contact with State andNational movements. He was especially loyal tothe cause of Jewish philanthropy and to our faith.In his passing a great void will be left in our ranks.

The Executive Committee of the American JewishCommittee has learned with great regret of the deathof ALFRED BENJAMIN, of Kansas City, Mo., a mem-ber of the General Committee. Mr. BENJAMIN al-ways responded to whatever calls were made uponhim for advice and assistance in connection with thework of this Committee and was ever ready in hissupport of forward movements in his own com-munity in which he was beloved and esteemed. TheCommittee has lost a sincere and generous supporterand a loyal friend.

The most important of the matters to which your Ex-ecutive Committee gave consideration during the pastyear will now be reported.

A. DOMESTIC MATTERSi. ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA

Save for a few exceptions, the past year like that pre-ceding it, witnessed a continuing decline of the anti-Jewish propaganda, so foreign to the spirit of our coun-


try, which was sought to be transplanted to its soil fromabroad, five years ago. One of the exceptional instancesreferred to was the issuance first in the form of magazinearticles later gathered in book form of what was pretendedto be a scientific study of the Jews in America,—butwhat was in reality a worthless mixture of garbled history,spurious anthropology and reckless assertions to supporta virulent attack upon the Jews of Eastern Europe whowere characterized as being a mixed racial stock inferiorto that of the Jews of Western Europe, and of whom itwas asserted, "as candidates for assimilation these Jews,as they land at Ellis Island, are about as promising as asimilarly inflowing stream of Hindus or Syrian Druses."

That these sensational articles were being publishedwith an eye toward the possible increase in the circula-tion of the World's Work, by which they were sponsored,was made evident by the nature of the circular lettersand newspaper advertisements which accompanied theirappearance. When this publicity came to the attentionof your President he entered the following courteous re-monstrance, believing that the publishers, Messrs. Double-day, Page and Company, were not cognizant of the stepsthat had been taken to exploit the Jews for commercialpurposes:

January 26, 1923.Gentlemen:

My attention has been called to a circular letterissued by you, bearing date January 11, 1923. Ithoroughly appreciate that in issuing it you had notthe slightest desire to intimate any but a friendlyinterest in the Jews of this country. Nevertheless,


on re-reading the first paragraph of the circular, Icannot escape an unpleasant sensation. It suggests,what I am convinced is not intended to be intimated,that there is an increase of ill-feeling against theJews in this country, that there is a sentiment which,though it cannot be proven, is to the effect that theJews are organized for the overthrow of other races,and that they are planning world dominance.

I have found that just such forms of expressionconstitute the most subtle method of conveying falseimpressions and of creating a state of mind whichstimulates misconceptions and misunderstandings. Ofcourse, nobody can prove that the Jews are orga-nized for the overthrow of other races or that theyare planning world dominance. It is not true. It isa monstrous conception. To say, however, that itcannot be proven, but that at the same time peoplefeel that such is the case, is tantamount to a declara-tion that the negative should be proven by those whoquestion the statement. According to this methodof reasoning, if one says " I cannot prove it, but peoplefeel that Mr. Jones is a thief," Mr. Jones has im-posed upon him the burden of proving that he isnot a thief; otherwise people will continure to feelthat, although it cannot be proven that he is, he isnevertheless a thief.

The idea that the Jews are organized for the over-throw of other races and for world dominance, wassought to be established by the so-called Proto-cols of the Wise Men of Zion. Fortunately it hasbeen demonstrated that that document was a clumsy


forgery. And yet responsible publishers in thiscountry were not averse to issuing this palpable fab-rication over their imprint.

It is needless for me to say that I have not theslightest suspicion that you are seeking to intimatethat what you have said people feel (which is nottrue of the vast majority of the American people)is true, but the way in which you have expressedyourself would lead even intelligent men and womento believe that there is some mysterious basis for thefeeling.

I therefore most earnestly request the recalling ofthese circulars and the substitution for them of an-other which cannot possibly be misinterpreted.

Very cordially yours,

Louis MARSHALL,

President, American Jewish Committee.

Doubleday, Page & Company,Garden City, New York.

This letter, addressed to the publishers, brought thefollowing unsatisfactory reply from the author of thecircular letter complained of:

January 29, 1923.

Mr. Louis Marshall, President,American Jewish Committee,New York City, N. Y.Dear Sir:

Acknowledging your letter of January 26th, youare entirely correct in your assumption that it was


not our intention to malign the Jews or engage incontroversy and if you will read the opening para-graph of Mr. Hendrick's article in the Decemberissue of The World's Work, I am sure that you willget our point of view.

The current issue concludes this series. Therewill be no more circulars descriptive of it distributed.

Very sincerely yours,[Signature illegiblel

Mgr. Circulation Dept.

In the meantime, other articles had appeared and theseries had been advertised in the daily press in a sensationalmanner. Your President thereupon addressed the follow-ing letter to the head of the publishing firm:

February 8, 1923.Dear Sir:

I am enclosing a copy of a letter which I recentlywrote to your company regarding a circular issuedby it under date of January 11, 1923. In reply Ireceived an answer from your Circulation Man-ager which was quite unsatisfactory. He indicatedthat you were no longer using the circular. Themischief, however, had been done. For that reasonI deem it to be my duty to lay these facts beforeyou, in order that you may do whatever is in yourpower to alleviate the situation. I am quite surethat you would not personally approve of the cir-culation by your house of a document which containsthe insinuations with which this circular bristles.

I also find another circular issued by The World's


Work, of which your company is the publisher, whichI regard as objectionable. It relates to Mr. Hendrick'sarticle entitled "The Jews in America," and treatsthe Jew as if he were a deleterious germ. You adver-tise a wave of anti-Semitism as "sweeping over theworld since the ending of the World War," and saythat it has apparently reached the United States.By hypnotic suggestion you are thus helping tostimulate the very thing that the anti-Semites areseeking to accomplish, by giving them the adver-tising which is the breath of their nostrils. Yousay that it is not surprising " t h a t anti-Semitismshould prevail in Russia, Germany, France, indeed inthe whole continent of Europe." Tha t would indi-cate to the average reader that you are intimatingthat there must be a cause for anti-Semitism in thosecountries. You likewise state that Congress haspassed and the President has signed an immigrationlaw chiefly intended to restrict the entrance of Jewsfrom Eastern Europe. There is no justification forthat statement, as to which you say that " i t is justas well to be frank about the matter ." The immi-gration law to which you refer was general in itsterms and related to all immigrants. Its chief pur-pose was, not to restrict the entrance of Jews fromEastern Europe, but to limit immigration likely tocome to this country from any part of Europe.

In the same circular, after referring to the dread-ful fact that every day in their lives your readers"have some contact with Jews, often unknowingly,"and that Jews intermarry and change their religion,


you add "yet we still think of them as Jews: Jewsfirst, and musicians, Americans, Episcopalians orwhat not, secondarily." Evidently this is intendedto reflect upon the Jews. It occurs to me, however,that it may reflect upon those to whom you referas "we". Would it not perhaps be just as importantto analyze their state of mind and their stigmata,rather than to specialize upon the Jews?

Such reflections as you have made upon the Jewsmay possibly increase the circulation of your maga-zine, but you will permit me to say that I do notregard the methods employed as worthy of a firmwhich had in its membership the late Walter H.Page.

On some future occasion I may express my viewswith regard to the articles written by Mr. Hendrickon "The Jews in America." For the present I re-frain from doing so, because I desire to confine my-self to the two circulars which I have discussed.

You will, of course, understand that I am notwriting in any spirit of hostility, but solely in theinterest of justice and fair play and in the hope ofstimulating peace and good-will among men by theremoval of the stumbling blocks created by appealsto passion, prejudice, hatred and suspicion againstany part of the population of our country.

Very truly yours,

(signed) Louis MARSHALL



Frank N. Doubleday, Esq.,President, Doubleday, Page & Company,

120 West 32nd Street, New York City.

The foregoing communication brought only a curt re-ply, to which your President responded with the fol-lowing:

February 21, 1923.Dear Sir:

I am in receipt of your of the 12th instant, in answerto my letter of the 8th concerning a circularletter issued by your company in which, as I soughtto point out, reflections were made upon the Jewswhich I regarded as unjustified and injurious to goodorder. You answer that you do not feel competentto discuss the subject and that if you attempted todo so "we would get nowhere." You thereforebrush aside what I have said and ask to be excusedfrom going into details.

In writing to you I did so in the belief that, as thehead of an important publishing house, you recog-nized the fact that you were exercising an office ofgreat responsibility; that the literature which youwere disseminating and, especially, the circularswhich you were issuing for the purpose of promotingyour business were intended for public consumptionand that you appreciated the dangers that might lurkin publications of utterances that might arouse racialand religious hatreds and animosities. Apparently,however, I have been mistaken.

The cavalier manner in which you seek to dismiss


my courteous communication on a subject of vitalimportance, tends to show that you recognize no re-sponsibility, and that the only thing that interestsyou is the sale of your goods. It is the same stateof mind which prompts some merchants to sell adul-terated wares, however, deleterious they may be;which leads some druggists to sell dangerous nar-cotics to those who have formed the habit of usingthem, or to stimulate such a habit. I had entertaineda different opinion of you and your house.

I have before me an advertisement which TheWorld's Work has recently published in various news-papers, which, in great headlines, asks: "Is thePolish Jew a Menace?" and with some lack of mod-esty it is asserted that all New York is arguing aboutMr. Hendrick's article bearing that name. Here,again there is evidence that you are proceeding en-tirely on "commercial" lines, without the slightestsense of responsibility.

Since writing to you I have read Mr. Hendrick'sarticle which you are thus advertising and withevery desire to exercise self-restraint I state, and amready to take the responsibility for what I am say-ing, that it is a dangerous and mischievous produc-tion and that it is unfair and bristles with falsehoods.It inflicts a grave injustice upon a large body of in-dustrious and conscientious men and women whomit either maliciously or ignorantly maligns. Forsome of the statements which it contains there isabsolutely no excuse, because I happen to know, that,before he wrote these articles he was informed au-


thoritatively that the facts were just contrary ofwhat he asserts them to be. Selecting at randomtwo sentences from page 368 of the article we read:

"He [the Orthodox Jew of Poland] treats hiswomankind in a way that suggests his Asiatic origin.'Thank God I am not a dog, a woman, or a Christian,'is the prayer of thanksgiving with which he beginshis day."

It is absolutely untrue that the Polish Jew treatshis womankind in the manner in which Mr. Hen-drick suggests. Those who know can tell him thatin the Orthodox Jewish household woman reigns su-preme and is respected and honored by every mem-ber of the family. The alleged prayer is an in-famous misrepresentation. The Orthodox Jewnever prayed in the sense in which Mr. Hendricksuggests. The Orthodox Jew thanks God that he isnot a woman for just one reason, not because hecondemned woman, but because the obligation to per-form various religious functions was imposed uponman, and he thanks God because he has the privilegeof performing those functions. He never gave thanksthat he was not a Christian. His thanks were givenbecause he was not created a heathen, a prayer in whichdoubtless millions of Christians daily unite, otherwisethey would not be so concerned, as they appear tobe, in the conversion of the heathen to Christianity.Mr. Hendrick was told all this before he wrote thatarticle. What is, therefore, to be inferred from thefact that he has ventured to publish these strictures?

This is but one of many illustrations of statements,


calculated to place the Polish and Russian Jews ofAmerica in a false light, with which the article abounds.But apparently you are not interested in what be-comes of the dynamite that you are distributing.It is a matter of indifference to you whether it re-sults in lasting injury to your fellow-man. Itis evident that the business end of your enterprise isthe only thing that gives you concern. You ab-solve yourself from considering the higher and moreimportant phases, by saying that you do not feelcompetent to discuss them. I am quite sure thatMr. Page would not have taken such a position.

Very truly yours,(Signed) Louis MARSHALL,


F. N. Doubleday, Esq,President, Doubleday, Page & Co.,

Garden City, New York.When, several months later, the articles, retaining in

substance the glaring errors which had been called to theattention of the publishers, were published in book formwith a "jacket" on which were printed the rhetoricalquestions: "Are the Polish Jews a Menace?" and "Withtheir un-American creed will they ever be absorbed intothe American commonwealth?", your President was againmoved to remonstrate in the following terms:

June 23, 1923.Dear Sir:

Although my letters addressed to you on January26th, February 8th and February 21st, 1923, called


your attention to a number of circulars and adver-tisements issued by your firm relating to a series ofarticles published in the World's Work written byMr. Burton J. Hendrick and entitled "The Jews inAmerica," and in which I tried to show that theycontained covert charges against the Jews whichwere absolutely false and which were certain to bemischievous, the only answer which I have thus farreceived from you has been a statement that you donot feel competent to discuss the subject and that ifyou attempted to do so "we would get nowhere."My letters were couched in courteous terms. Theysought to prove to you, as they would to any fair-minded man, how unwarranted your insinuationswere, and to demonstrate the injustice done to alarge body of industrious and conscientious men andwomen who were maliciously or ignorantly maligned.

Instead of being deterred from continuing yourobjectionable methods of advertising these articles,you have just published them in book form, and toaggravate the offense against good taste and de-cency the jacket in which the book is sold, referringto the Polish Jews of this country, contains thisquery: "With their un-American creed, will theyever be absorbed into the American commonwealth?"

This interrogation emanates from the publishers.It is intended to bait the hook with which to catchgudgeons. It is Iago-like in its sinfulness and in itspurpose to inspire the feeling of hatred among thosewho harken to your words.

What do you mean when you refer to their "un-


American creed?" How long is it that, under ourform of government one citizen may hold up tocontumely the creed of another, or question hisliberty of conscience or the free exercise and en-joyment of religious profession and worship? Ihave carefully read the book to ascertain what thereis in the creed of the Polish Jew that is un-Ameri-can, and I find that it is that the Orthodox Jew ofEastern Europe regards Saturday as his Sabbath,while American industry recognizes Sunday as theday of rest; that he is perhaps the most prayerfulperson in the world; that he accompanies practicallyevery act with a fixed ritual; that almost every hourof the day has its religious observances; that he is inalmost continuous communion with the Almighty;that he observes his dietary laws, and that in theslaughtering of cattle for consumption he likewiseobserves an ancient tradition which prohibits himfrom eating blood; that he reads newspapers printedin Hebrew characters, and that on religious holidayshis children absent themselves from school in orderto observe the tenets of their faith.

Conceding the charges to be true, that these peopleobserve the principles laid down in the Old Testa-ment and in the Talmud, that they regard their re-ligion as a part of their lives, that they are in con-stant communion with their Creator, is it becom-ing in those who have always regarded the Puri-tans as the backbone of the American Common-wealth, as the men and the women who have im-parted to it high ideals and noble concepts, to cast


obloquy upon the Orthodox Jew for evincing thevery spirit which made the Puritan so powerful aninstrument in the shaping of the American Common-wealth? If this creed of the Orthodox Jew is un-American, then it will become necessary for all of usto revise our estimate of those whom in the past wehave regarded as the paragons of good citizenship.

But there is a further count in the indictmentframed by Mr. Hendrick, one to which I have re-ferred in one of my previous letters to you. Speak-ing of the Orthodox Jew, he says: "He treats hiswomankind in a way that suggests his Asiatic origin.'Thank God I am not a woman, thank God I amnot a Goy,' is the prayer of thanksgiving with whichhe begins his day." And with a pretense of learn-ing which he does not possess, in a footnote thispundit informs us that the world "Goy" is Hebrewfor non-Jew and that it is translated as "gentile,""stranger," or—in a free sense—"Christian." WhatMr. Hendrick seeks to insinuate is, that the Ortho-dox Jew is a brute toward womankind and that hehas a hatred of Christians.

Let me demonstrate to you, or to any other fair-minded person, what a venomous and wilful mis-representation this is. The Daily Prayer Book ofthe Orthodox Jew, of which Mr. Hendrick was awarewhen he wrote his article, shows beyond the possi-bility of misconception how the Orthodox Jew be-gins his day. At the beginning of the morning ser-vice which he recites, he reads the following excerptfrom the Talmud: "These are the things, the fruits


of which man enjoys in this world, while the stockremains for him for the world to come: viz., honor-ing father and mother, the practice of charity, timelyattendance at the house of study, morning and even-ing, hospitality to wayfarers, visiting the sick, dower-ing the bride, attending the dead to the grave, de-votion in prayer, and making peace between manand his fellow; but the study of the Law is equalto them all." This is followed by the so-calledblessings which are recited by the devout OrthodoxJew. The first of them, which has been so malig-nantly misstated, reads: "Blessed art Thou, O Lordour God, King of the Universe, who hast not mademe a heathen."

The original Hebrew does not contain the word"Goy." It speaks of the "Nochri"—the accuratetranslation of which is "a heathen." So long asour Christian friends maintain their foreign mis-sions for the purpose of converting the heathen totheir faith, I do not assume that it is for them tofind fault with one who thanks God that he hasnot been made a heathen.

The next subject of thanks is that he who offersthe prayer has not been made a bondman, and theOrthodox man gives thanks that he has not beenmade a woman, while the woman gives thanks thatshe has been made according to the will of God.Those who understand the Jewish point of viewcannot fail to appreciate that the prayer of the manis based upon the idea that he has imposed uponhim the obligation to perform various religious duties,


and he gives thanks because he has been accordedthe privilege of performing those duties. I t is quitepossible that there are those who do not regard theperformance of a religious duty, or even a civic duty,as a sacred obligation. The Orthodox Jew does notshare that point of view. Far from treating woman-kind as inferior to man, the Jewess has in Orthodoxfamilies always occupied the post of honor. Nobodycan read the Old Testament without being impressedwith the thought that Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah,Miriam, Hannah, Esther and Ruth were regardedas on an equality with the patriarchs and the sons ofIsrael.

Let me pursue my statement as to the contentsof the morning prayer which you would have yourcustomers regard as an un-American creed. Theprayer of thanks continues by blessing God for open-ing the eyes of the blind, for clothing the naked,for loosing them that are bound, for raising upthem that are bowed down, for spreading forththe earth above the waters, for supplying every want,for making firm the steps of man, for girding Israelwith might and crowning it with glory, for givingstrength to the weary, and for removing sleep fromthe eyes and slumber from the eye-lids. And theAlmighty is then asked " t o make us all familiarwith Thy Law and to make us cleave to Thy Com-mandments." And He is then importuned " t o leadus not into the power of sin, or of transgression oriniquity, or of temptation, or of scorn; to let not theevil inclination have sway over us, to keep us far


from a bad man and a bad companion, to make uscleave to the good inclination and good works, tosubdue our inclination so that it may submit itselfunto Him," and "to let us obtain this day and everyday grace, favor and mercy in Thine eyes and inthe eyes of all who behold is; and bestow lovingkindness upon us."

Do you believe in your heart that a people whichfor more than twenty centuries has directed theseprayers to the God of the Universe are entertainingan un-American creed? Do you really doubt thatmen and women endowed with these ideals can beabsorbed into the American commonwealth? Doyou believe that the fact that you submit yourself tobe incompetent to discuss this subject can be lookedupon by any honest or enlightened man even asa palliation for the criminal libel to which you havegiven circulation, and with no other motive thanthat, regardless of consequences, you may put moneyin your purse? I can pray even for such as you.May the Almighty in His great mercy forgive you!

Yours truly, v

(Signed) Louis MARSHALL,

F. N. Doubleday, Esq.,Garden City, New York.

To this the publishers made no reply. Apparentlythey are contented with the financial return which theyhave derived from the humiliating sale of their honorand from the stain which they have affixed upon theirreputation.


Recently, the same publishers have begun the printingin their magazine of a- new series of articles bearing thesuggestive title, "The Immigration Peril," by one Gino C.Speranza, a son of Italian immigrants, who, the editorsassert, "clearly diagnoses the must serious disease of theAmerican body politic and suggests practical remedies."The thesis of these articles is that " t he most serious dis-ease of the American body politic" appears to be tha t theinflux of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europeis tending to destroy the national homogeneity and thatinstead of becoming Americanized these immigrants areso to speak de-Americanizing our democracy, the basisof which was already established in 1790 as "distinctlyAnglo-Saxon" and "distinctly Christian and specificallyProtestant."

The "practical remedies" which the author of thesearticles is likely to suggest are foreshadowed by the fol-lowing statement of the editor: "Good immigration lawsare those that admit the largest number of NorthwesternEuropeans. Bad immigration laws are those that per-mit an indiscriminate influx from Eastern and Mediterra-nean Europe."

The writer pretends to see as evidence of the pres-ence in America of " huge masses of non-American-mindedindividuals," the existence of newspapers printed inforeign languages and the use of languages other thanEnglish in Divine Worship; he instances as an obviousfault of the American immigration policy that "duringfive y e a r s . . . enough Jews passed through Ellis Islandto outnumber all the communicants of the Protestantchurches in Greater New York;" he refers to the rise


of what he calls the "Jewish vote" in New York, say-ing that "from a humility that was almost abject, yearsago when Jews were few in number and weak in leader-ship, they have developed to a point where they are themost self-assertive element in the political life of the city."

As a member of the New York State ImmigrationCommission appointed by Governor Hughes in 1908,and of which your President was the Chairman, Mr.Speranza expressed entirely opposite views. Then whileacting under the obligation of his oath of office, he joinedin praise of the immigrants who had come to this countryand looked upon them as valuable economic and spiritualassets and approved of the measures that were recommendedto protect them from exploitation. He now alleges that"long study, observation, and thought have whollychanged my (his) views." What can have occurredin the interval to produce so striking a change? Dur-ing six years of that period far more immigrants returnedto their native lands than arrived in this country, withoutreferring to those who went abroad in the armies of therepublic to fight the battles of democracy.

Your Committee has also remonstrated with the En-cyclopedia Britannica Corporation for the gross unfair-ness of the treatment of the Polish-Jewish question inthe article on Poland in Volume 32, one of the three"new volumes" covering the decade 1910-1920, and pub-lished in 1922. The discussion of recent Polish-Jewishrelations is one-sided and oblivious of the facts. It isin effect a defense of the attitude of the extreme anti-Semites in Poland. The writer of the article, as is clearlydemonstrated by the text, relied altogether upon the


report of a single individual, one Captain Peter Wright,who could not possibly have spoken with authority be-cause at the most he had been in Poland only threemonths, and that at a time when post-war turmoil andconfusion were prevalent and when blind partisanshipwas at its worst. The admirable diary of Captain ArthurGoodhart, who sojourned in Poland during this period,as a dispassionate observer in the service of our Govern-ment, convincingly establishes the injustice and thelibellous character of the article. Unfortunately, thisgreat error in an important work of reference upon whichmany rely was not and in all probability could not havebeen discovered before the volumes were published anddistributed, and, therefore, no adequate correction has thusfar been found practicable. The subject was, however,taken up with the publishers, by your Committee withthe view of mitigating the evil, but thus far no satisfac-tory result has been accomplished.

As usual, the Committee has kept informed of otherattempts to spread ill-feeling against Jews and wheneverit has been considered helpful, the attention of writersand publishers of this kind of literature has been directedto its significance and gravity. Your Committee is happyto report that there has been a decided recession in thenumber of such attempts, even though the DearbornIndependent occasionally reverts to its pet obsession, andthe Dearborn Publishing Company is continuing in Americathe circulation in pamphlet form of the libellous anti-Jewish articles which have appeared in its columns fromtime to time. Translations of these pamphlets in variousEuropean languages have also been widely circulated


in those countries where anti-Semitism is at its worst,with whose funds, is not positively known, though itmay be surmised. What a noble contribution to litera-ture, to world peace and to the cause of humanity!

2. THE "JEWISH VOTE"

On October 14th last, in the course of an address tothe American Jewish Congress, Mr. Israel Zangwill, theeminent author and publicist said:

"All religious bodies have organizations for pro-tection and self-expression, with annual congressesunder whatever n a m e . . . . Every spiritual move-ment must in fact touch the political both by itsconcrete incarnation, and by its objects. .. .So longas the political ends sought are within the State,and not subversive of it, it is the positive duty ofthe religious body to seek political ends. . . .If thereis no Jewish vote today—and by a Jewish vote, I donot mean a vote for Jews—it is a disgrace, not apolicy to be commended. If Jews will neither usetheir vote to protect themselves nor to express theirethical conceptions, then they do but cumber theground."

This was widely interpreted in the press and by theAmerican public as meaning that occasion may arise whenit would be advisable for Jews to vote as a body. Con-vinced of the fallacy as well as of the inherent dangerlurking in such a doctrine and that the spread of the ideathat Jews held to it would lead to serious misunderstand-ing of their true attitude, your President regarded it as


his duty to disavow the imputation by means of the fol-lowing statement issued to the press:

"My attention has been called to a statementmade by Mr. Zangwill in his address at CarnegieHall on October 14, 1923, which has been made thesubject of editorial comment by the ChristianScience Monitor. I disagree totally with Mr. Zang-will 's intimation that the Jews of this country shouldunite for political action, or that there should besuch a thing as a Jewish vote in the United States.The thought cannot be tolerated that the citizens ofthis country shall form racial or religious groups inthe exercise of their civic and political functions.The citizens of the United States constitute onepeople and there can be no divergent interests amongthem so far as government is concerned. Foryears the leaders of Jewish thought in this countryhave with emphasis decried the intimation, ema-nating from those who do not understand the geniusof American institutions, that recognition shouldbe given to an Irish, a German, a Jewish, or a Britishvote. In like manner, the idea that there shouldbe a Jewish Republican or a Jewish Democratic,or an Irish Republican or an Irish Democratic,political club has been justly deprecated. It is theglory of our country that before the law all men areequal, that every member of the state owes unquali-fied loyalty to it, that its laws must be free fromdiscrimination, and apply equally to all citizens.Hence every citizen, regardless of origin, creed orcolor, is equally bound to observe the laws that are


enacted by the Congress and by the State Legisla-tures, as interpreted by the courts. It is, therefore,inconceivable that a government of laws and not ofmen, such as ours is, can exist if the electorate isdivided and sub-divided into a multitude of seg-ments or blocs, each considering merely its ownspecial interests. I am confident that there^. is nopart of the population of this country which wouldwith greater determination oppose such an idea ofpolitical segregation as the Jews. For centuriestheir ancestors in foreign lands suffered from theconsequences of an enforced segregation of this char-acter, and they would not be so fatuous as to createvoluntarily a condition which in effect would es-tablish an American ghetto. Our fellow-citizensneed not fear that Mr. Zangwill's views on this sub-ject are shared by the Jews of the United States.The spontaneous protest which they have voiced issufficient evidence of that fact."

3. THE KU KLUX KLAN

For several years past, the Executive Committee hasobserved and studied the organization and the activitiesof the Ku Klux Klan, one of the tenets of which is thatNegroes, Jews and Catholics are not now and can neverbecome "one hundred per cent American." Hithertothe committee has not deemed it consonant with a propersense of dignity to notice the propaganda of this organ-ization and has consistently advised other Jewish or-ganizations to take the same attitude, because of theconviction that, inasmuch as the Ku Klux Klan pretends


to be an organization of Protestant Christian citizens,it was the duty of the American people as a whole andof the Protestant churches in particular to counteractthe mischiefs sought to be wrought by the Ku Klux Klan.This attitude was recently publicly formulated by yourPresident when he was requested by the New York Worldto make a statement on the subject, on the occasion ofthe first detailed official announcement made by the"Imperial Wizard" of the Klan with regard to its attitudetoward Negroes, Jews and Catholics. The statementof Mr. Marshall follows:

"Hitherto I have regarded the Ku Klux Klanmovement as so utterly ridiculous as to be undeserv-ing of serious consideration. Now.that the ImperialWizard has openly defined its program, it may per-haps be permissible to comment upon it. In sub-stance it is, that the right to live in this country isto be confined to those who are white and Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Negroes are to be excludedbecause of their color, although their African an-cestors were forcibly brought to this country inshackles, by Anglo-Saxon slave-dealers. They maybe Protestant, and yet the ten millions of them bornin this country, whose forebears had no choice as totheir coming here, must disappear. The Jews aregiven notice to quit, because it is said that 'patriot-ism as the Anglo-Saxon feels it is to them impos-sible.' Yet they have served in all the armies of theRepublic, have contributed liberally to the supportof the Government, have known how to live and todie for the country, and have participated in its


moral, intellectual, industrial and commercial ad-vancement. It is difficult to know what Anglo-Saxonpatriotism means. The Irish, the Scotch, the French,the Scandinavians, the Italians, must be excluded,because they are not Anglo-Saxons; and yet it hasbeen generally believed that they are intensely patri-otic. The recorded history of the Jews is an inspir-ing narrative of unrivaled patriotism. Without de-tracting from the patriotism of a large part of so-called Anglo-Saxons those of other origins haveequally proven their loyalty to this country, and noneto a greater degree that the Jew. He certainly, incommon with all good citizens, reveres the Consti-tution of the United States, loves the institutions ofthis country, and feels a deep sense of gratitude forthe rights which have been accorded to him here.The Imperial Wizard, however, preaches a violationof the Constitution. Apparently he is seeking toimpose a religious test, to establish Protestantism asthe State religion; to prohibit the free exercise ofany other religion; to abridge the privileges and im-munities of citizens of the United States, to deny tothose within its jurisdiction the equal protection ofthe laws, to nullify the Thirteenth and FifteenthAmendments. Does this represent 'patriotism' asthe Anglo-Saxon feels it? To me it sounds sus-piciously like treason against the Republic.

Roman and Greek Catholics are likewise to beexcluded from American life, because they are of afaith different from that approved by the ImperialWizard and his masked cohorts. Although Catho-


lies were the first settlers in our territory, althoughthey are white, and many of them of what is classi-fied as Anglo-Saxon blood, yet, because they cannotmeet the religious test sought to be imposed uponthem, their name is anathema. I t matters not howconscientious they are in the performance of all oftheir civic duties, how high their standard of moraland ethical conduct, how ready they have been andare to make sacrifices for the land which they love,yet, because they are 'other-minded,' and do notfit into the Procrustean bed of the Ku Klux Klan,they are condemned to exile.

To do more than to state the proposition is toquestion the honor and the integrity of the Americanpeople. It is not for the Negro or the Jew or theCatholic to join issue with any organization that en-tertains such abominable theories. I t is for theAmerican people as a whole, it is for the Protestantchurches, as many of them have spontaneously done,to repudiate doctrines so iniquitous in their conse-quences. It is an insult to those of our citizens whoare loyal to the fundamental principles of our Gov-ernment to contemplate that a dogma of so mon-strous a nature can be regarded by them otherwisethan with detestation and contempt. I have suchconfidence in their sense of justice and fairness andin their genuine patriotism, that I feel it to be en-tirely appropriate to resume my former att i tude ofindifference toward the Ku Klux Klan and all itsworks."


4. "ISRAEL UND DIE VOELKER"

About a year ago, the late Doctor Joseph Bloch ofVienna, a noted publicist in the former Austro-Hun-garian Empire, in the Parliament of which he servedwith distinction for seventeen years, published a bookentitled "Israel und die Voelker, nach Juedischer Lehre."Doctor Bloch wrote this book in compliance with thesuggestion made to him twenty years before by DoctorAdolph Jellinek who, referring to Bloch as "the Herculesof the anti-Semitic Augean stables," pointed out the needof a scholarly work to meet the requirements of Jewsand non-Jews, especially those unfamiliar with Jewishreligious literature, who might have occasion to haveaccessible a ready answer to anti-Semitic libels, manyof which are based on perverted translations or misinter-pretations of passages in the Talmud, Zohar, ShulhanAruk and other sources. Doctor Bloch's book is a com-plete compendium of the various accusations from timeto time directed against the Jewish people and suppliesa most thorough antidote, demonstrating their falsity andthe malice which permeates these vicious concoctions.The basis of his work is found in the authoritative opin-ions rendered, in the course of a judicial investigation,by two distinguished Christian scholars designated asofficial experts by an Austrian tribunal, Professor Dr.Theodor Noeldecke of the University of Strasburg andDr. August Wuensche of Dresden.

Your Committee purchased five hundred copies of thework for presentation to leading public libraries and tothe collections of the principal colleges, universities and


theological schools in the United States. An Englishtranslation of the book is to be published shortly.

5. Tin-; AMERICAN PEACE AWARD

Your Committee has been invited to be represented inthe Co-operating Council of national organizations inconnection with the prize offered by Mr. Edward Bokfor " the best practicable plan by which the United Statesmay co-operate with other nations to achieve and preservethe peace of the world." The terms of the award havebeen distributed to all our members and contributors,and the Committee will also co-operate in giving the widestpossible circulation to the winning plan and in securingby means of a referendum the expression of the viewsof as many citizens as possible regarding it.

6. IMMIGRATION

The existing immigration law restricting the number ofimmigrants from any one country to three percentumof the natives of that country in the United States atthe time of the 1910 census, is to remain in force untilJune 30, 1924, according to the policy which prevailedin Congress in the spring of 1922. Aside from the factthat the law is unscientific and arbitrary, it places uponimmigrants the burden of keeping informed of the stateof the quotas allowed to each country so as to avoid thetragic consequences of arriving here after the monthlyor the annual quotas have been exhausted even thoughat the time of their embarkation they held passportsbearing the visa of American consular officers and looked


upon their documents as a guarantee of the right to enterif otherwise admissible under the law. Unfortunatelyit frequently happens that at the moment of landing thequotas have been exhausted, often but a fraction of anhour and in one instance only the fraction of a minutebefore, with the result that many otherwise admissiblealiens are denied entrance and are sent back whence theycame, where their reception is often problematical. Thequota law also leads to a rush of immigrants at the be-ginning of each month, and during the early months ofthe year, making the administration of the law difficultand creating congestion at receiving stations, resultingin such unfavorable conditions there as to call forthcriticism from many observers.

All these difficulties and injustices came into publicnotice during the past year, largely because the dearth ofman-power in many industries focussed attention uponthe immigration question, and especially its economicaspects. All who have studied the subject from an in-dustrial angle concur in the conclusion that a percentumrestriction law is altogether arbitrary, and such importantorganizations as the United States Chamber of Commerceand the National Association of American Manufacturershave urged the adoption of a more flexible law, as onesubserving the best interests of the country.

Doctrinaire restrictionists, however, are satisfied thatthe quota law has achieved the result desired by them,namely, the restriction of immigration in general, and thelimitation of the number of immigrants from Southernand Eastern Europe in particular. Having succeeded inprocuring the enactment of the present law they are now


preparing to go further and arc: contemplating a reductionof the norm from three to two percentum, and of estab-lishing as the basis, not the census of 1920 nor that of1910, but that of 1890, simply because according to thelatter a much smaller number of residents in the UnitedStates is shown to have come from Southern and EasternEurope. By the same token the statistics of 1790 mightprove even more agreeable to those whose wish it is, tomake of this a nation of mythical "nordics," whatever theymay be. There has also been agitation for the enact-ment of a law requiring the registering of aliens, involv-ing periodic appearances before Government officials,the payment of special fees until such aliens become na-turalized citizens, the most serious difficulties in changingtheir places of residences and constant police espionage.The ostensible purpose of this proposed measure is to pre-pare these aliens for citizenship by affording them edu-cational opportunities, which judging from experiencewill be entirely negligible, but its practical effect will beto introduce in the United States a bureaucratic systemof passports and of Government surveillance with alltheir implications and which are conducive to oppressionand extortion and which, it is unnecessary to add, areutterly abhorrent to the principle of personal liberty uponwhich the Republic has hitherto rested.

These proposals vividly reveal the vice of arbitraryrestrictive measures, and justify the atti tude of this Com-mittee during the past seventeen years in constantly op-posing what it believes to be the evils of the policy ofrestrictive immigration based on any theory other than theexclusion of those mentally, morally and physically unfit


and of those opposed to organized government. Qinceadmitted, the extremes to which a general restrictivepolicy may be carried cannot be foreseen. The enteringwedge was the literacy test. After its enactment, it wasnot difficult for those who pretend to look upon immigra-tion in, and of itself to be obnoxious, to secure the passageof the present quota law. Now, there is serious ad-vocacy of a lower percentage rate, of alien registration,of examinations abroad, of the selection of immigrants,and of other like schemes, all looking to the exclusion ofnewcomers and all unmistakably opposed to the historicpolicy under which our country grew from strength tostrength and became happy and prosperous.

In the past we have welcomed the immigrant. Wehave made it possible to enlist him in the developmentof our resources and in the creation of our great indus-tries, in the construction of our railroads and of our vastpublic works; to bring into our citizenship men andwomen of admirable qualities, who have known how to liveand to make every sacrifice of love and devotion for thecountry of their adoption. Most of the measures nowbeing proposed cast an undeserved slur upon our for-eign-born citizens. They are virtually told that they aremen and women of inferior race, that they are not as-similable, that they are undesirable, that even thoughthey be citizens and have faithfully performed the dutiesof citizenship they are not wanted. The gross injusticeof this attitude is aggravated by the fact that the mostchauvinistic of the restrictionists have either themselvesimmigrated to this country or their parents came here asimmigrants. This is an unfortunate manifestation of a


spirit of arrogance, of selfishness and of racial prejudicethat bodes ill for the future if it is at all encouraged. Ittends to destroy that feeling of brotherhood and of equalitywhich in the past constituted so valuable a force in the crea-tion of that sense of unity and harmony of which Americahas hitherto been the embodiment

7. T H E BUREAU OF JEWISH SOCIAL RESEARCH

The arrangement entered into in 1919 under which thisCommittee has been contributing toward the supportof the Bureau of Jewish Social Research, which has un-dertaken to do the statistical and information work,formerly conducted in the office of the Committee's ownBureau of Statistics has been continued during the pastyear. The Summary of Events of Jewish Interest, pub-lication of which began in September, 1921, has been ap-pearing regularly since then and has come to be highlyregarded as an accurate and faithful record of the mostimportant items of news of Jewish interest appearingin the press of almost every country.

Much of the statistical material published in Volume25 of the American Jewish Year Book was compiledby this Bureau, under the direction of Dr. H. S. Linfield,in charge of its Department of Information and Statistics.

8. THE AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK '

The current volume of this publication, number twenty-five of the series, all but nine of which were compiledunder the supervision of your Committee in conjunc-tion with the Jewish Publication Society, was preparedunder the editorship of the assistant-secretary of your


Committee. This volume contains five special featuresof interest. These are (I) an article by Miss HannahLondon on Portraits of Jews of Early American Painters,throwing interesting light on the position of honor and use-fulness occupied by many Jews in the Colonial periodof American history, and showing that our brethrenin those days were among those who gave encourage-ment to the development of the fine arts in the earlyyears of our national existence; (2) the address on the Jew-ish method of slaughtering animals delivered by Dr.Moses Hyamson, on behalf of this Committee beforethe Forty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Hu-mane Association, at St. Paul, Minnesota, which wasreported upon at our meeting a year ago; (3) an articleby Dr. Israel Davidson on Kol Nidre, the ancient prayer,whose origin is shrouded in mystery, and which has beenthe occasion of much misunderstanding and misrepresen-tation; (4) an article by Dr. Benjamin Harrow on nineJews who have won Nobel prizes; and (5) a classifiedlist of standard books in English on Jewish subjects,compiled by Mr. I. George Dobsevage. It also containsa translation of the Responsum by Professor Louis Ginz-berg to the question as to whether unfermented wine maybe used in Jewish ceremonies.

It may be noted, in connection with Dr. Hyamson'sarticle on Shehitah that it was reprinted and widely dis-tributed by the Board of Deputies of British Jews inthe early months of the present year when attacks weremade upon the Jewish method of slaughtering animalsand legislation was introduced in Parliament which mighthave led to the prohibition of the Shehitah.


B. CONDITIONS OF JEWS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES

There has been but little change except for the betterin the condition of our brethren overseas, during the pastyear. Various facts indicating the trend of events willbe briefly enumerated. In a general way, it may be saidthat there has been a steady improvement except inGermany where an alarming increase in anti-Jewish agi-tation has taken place.

i. AMI-JEWISH AGITATION

While there has not been any appreciable decline inagitation against Jews in the few countries where it isstill prevalent, yet there has not been any notable increasein its virulence or spread, save as already said, in Germany.The wave of anti-Semitism which swept through the uni-versities of Central and Southern Europe during thefall and winter of 1922, and which for some time appearedto be assuming disquieting proportions has since recededconsiderably. In Germany, agitators who were inevery case affiliated with the reactionary parties whichare seeking to overthrow the Republican Government andto re-establish a monarchy, continued their attempts tolay at the door of the Jews responsibility for Germany'sunhappy situation, without the slightest shred of justifica-tion, charging them with having conspired to ruin theFatherland, and with having brought upon it all its pres-ent ills. In view of the fact that they constitute scarcelyone per cent of the population and that reliable statis-tics have shown that practically every able-bodied Jewwas under arms during the war, in which over 80,000


of the aggregate Jewish population of 600,000 saw ser-vice at the front, 12,000 laying down their lives in thestruggle, while 35,000 were decorated and 23,000 pro-moted, the wicked untruthfulness of this charge is atonce revealed. And yet the Deutschvoelkische FreiheitsPartei has demanded that the Jews be subjected to spe-cial laws as aliens and that they be prohibited from ac-quiring real property. Bavarian anti-Semites have urgedthe internment of Jews and the seizure of men of promi-nence to be held as hostages, until the Allied forced shallevacuate the Rhineland. The notorious Count Reventlowhas even made the fantastic proposal that the communistsin Germany unite with the "nationalists" in order to over-throw the government and to set up a new order whichshall be purely German, which means anti-Jewish. Inspite of the high cost of paper and printing, a mass ofincendiary literature of a most hateful, lurid and inflam-matory character has been published and circulated andeven bank-notes have had anti-Jewish inscriptions im-printed upon or affixed to them. In Upper Silesia andin Bavaria, Jews have been attacked in the streets, and inthe latter state, which is the hot-bed of Kaiserism andthe habitat of the "grey shirts" of Hitler, Jews who arenot native born citizens of the state, even though theymay be citizens of the Reich have been summarily ex-pelled. Recently this anti-Jewish propaganda has beendeliberately spread among the working classes and theattempt has been shamelessly made, in spite of its ab-surdity, to link up the Jews with the Ruhr occupationsand with the decline in the value of the mark, when inreality it has led to their financial ruin.


True to Russian precedents, the Jew has been madethe scapegoat for the evils brought upon Germany bythe monarchists, and, not unlike the result of Russiantactics, the German agitation recently culminated in ariot in the Jewish quarter of Berlin, in the course of whichshops were gutted, homes looted, and acts of personalviolence committed. Reports of this shameful occur-rence agree in stating that it was not a spontaneous out-burst, but that groups of agitators incited crowds ofthe disgruntled unemployed to vent their wrath in attack-ing the Jews.

It appears that the civil and military authorities weretaken by surprise by the outbreak and that considerabletime elapsed before they mastered the situation. It isunderstood that the Berlin Government is taking stepsto pursue the instigators, and that an investigation hasbeen begun with a view to indemnifying the injured, butthe sad fact remains that the German capital has witnessedso disgraceful an outrage against civilization.

That the mass of the German people do not sympathizewith the anti-Semitic agitation has just been shown by theludicrous degringolade of what will go down into historyas the "Beer-Hall Revolution," staged by the arch-monar-chists and irreconcilable anti-Semites Hitler and Luden-dorff. The situation is not free from alarm. Events willbe anxiously watched.

The recrudescence of hyper-nationalism to which thisagitation is largely traceable, was also responsible forthe anti-Jewish outbreak in the German University atPrague where so-called deiilschnational students de-manded the resignation of the rector, a Jew, on the


alleged ground that his appointment was a stain uponthe "true German character" of the University. Inas-much as 38 per cent of the students were Jews and asmany of the Christian students refused to join the ex-treme nationalists, the agitation of the latter gained littleheadway in Czecho-Slovakia, where the governmentmaintained a firm stand. But this outbreak led to dis-orders in the universities of other countries, where de-mands were made by the Christian students for the ex-clusion or the restriction of the enrolment of Jews. Thisagitation spread to Austria, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania,and Roumania. In the latter country, the disorders wereintense and led to such outbreaks of violence that thegovernment was compelled to order the temporary clos-ing of the universities in a number of centers, to the detri-ment, incidentally, of the Jewish students who compriseda large part of the student bodies there. It is only inRoumania that the student agitation appears to have hadany lasting influence. The Constitution accords equalityto all citizens, irrespective of race or creed, but there aremany local officials who are permitting discriminationagainst Jewish students by resorting to administrativesubterfuges, such as the requirement of a perfect knowl-edge of the Roumanian language for admission. In Aus-tria, the faculty of the Vienna Technicum has set up anorm of ten per cent for foreign Jews.

The financial necessities of Hungary appear to havedictated an attempt at a modification of the "Christianpolicy" of the government with the result that somewhatfirmer steps have been taken to suppress anti-Jewishagitation, but the numerus clausus for Jewish students re-


mains in force, the Parliament having decided in Januarylast, by a vote of 83 to 38 against the repeal of this law.

In Poland, the proposal for a percentage restriction ofLhu enrolment of Jews, was supported by the government,but clue to the protest of liberal public opinion in Polishacademic circles, but more especially in France, wherethe League for the Rights of Man vigorously condemnedthe suggestion, it is likely that such a measure will notbe enacted, although here too the Minister of Educationis attempting to achieve the same result by indirection.

The iniquitous idea of an economic boycott, which wasso ardently advocated in Poland by Roman Dmowski,now Minister for Foreign Affairs in that country, ap-pears to have spread to other parts, and during the pastyear there was agitation for it in Latvia, Danzig, Austria,Bukowina, and in parts of Germany. In several coun-tries, notably Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Roumania,complaints of government discrimination against Jews inthe civil service have been heard and the charge of theillegal requisitioning of synagogues and other institu-tional buildings by local Polish officials has also been made.

There were no pogroms in Europe during the pastyear, although cases of the physical maltreatment of Jewswere not rare. Anti-Jewish disorders occurred in Warsaw-following the execution of a Roman Catholic churchdignitary by the Russian government, while in Roumaniarioting occurred during the consideration by Parliamentof the new constitution in which in accordance with hertreaty obligation, Roumania guarantees civil and politicalequality to all citizens. The Jewish press charged thatthese manifestations were inspired by those elements


which desired to create the impression that public opinionwas opposed to the emancipation of the Jews. Sporadicriots occurred also in Hungary and in Austria.

It would be not only a grievous error but also a greatinjustice to the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe toassume that these intermittent outbreaks and manifesta-tions of hatred, are due to the natural play of cause andeffect. To quote the words of Dr. Paul Nathan, theveteran German-Jewish leader: "Anti-Semitism with usis an artificial product; it is a means for keeping reactionalive and to lead it to victory. . . . Reaction in Europewhen thrown on its own resources is quite feeble....At a time when universal, direct, and secret suffrage isthe rule in practically every country, it is unable to at-tract and hold the masses. How could it be otherwise,when the reactionary classes seek control of the peoplein order to exploit them economically?. . . The onlyway, therefore, in which the reactionary elements canattain political power, the only way in which they cansecure popular support is to deceive the people as totheir true interests, by embarking upon a gigantic schemeof deluding and misleading the populace, and that isexactly what they seek to accomplish by Jew-baiting."

There is sound basis for the hope that with the cessa-tion of present unsettled economic conditions, the reac-tionary agitators who, in order to promote their cause,endeavor to make the Jews the scapegoat for these condi-tions, will not have even the sma'l following which theyhave at this moment. All efforts, therefore, which tendto restore normal economic conditions in the world willindirectly lead to the reduction and disappearance of


racial and religious animosities in genera], and anti-Semitism in particular.

2. T H E PERSECUTION OF RELIGION IN RUSSIA

Along with the rest of the population of Russia, theJews have continued to suffer from attempts on the partof the Communists, to suppress religious observances,although the anti-religious agitation appears to haveassumed a somewhat milder and less insolent characterthan formerly. Whereas then the burlesquing of religiousrites was openly indulged in by the Communists duringthe Jewish festivals and at Easter and Christmas, open-air demonstrations have been frowned upon during thepast year, although Jewish communists continued to holdforth in the courtyards of synagogues and in the streets.In addition many churches and synagogues were con-fiscated by the government and were c'osed or trans-formed into centers for Communist propaganda.

The most serious blow against religion, however, wasthe promulgation of the decree of August 3, 1922, whichprohibits the teaching of religion in schools to childrenunder eighteen years of age. Pursuant to it local Sovietshave ordered the closing of hedarim (Jewish elementaryschools) and yeshivoth (seminaries). The decree of theOdessa Soviet is typical. It is in substance: "All Jewishschools in Odessa which have a religious character arehereby suppressed. It is forbidden to give religious in-struction to persons under eighteen years. In teachingHebrew, it is forbidden to make use of the Hebrew Bibleor other religious books." The closing of the hedarimwas accompanied by the arrest of main- rabbis, sextons,


teachers, etc., most of them on the charge of violatingthe decree against religious instruction.

These reprehensible measures to suppress all religions,culminated in the trial last March of a Roman Catholicbishop and sixteen priests on the alleged charge of resist-ing the execution of the decree for the separation of Churchand State. This trial was followed by the execution ofthe Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Church inRussia. That the Communists have begun to realizethe egregious folly of their action is indicated by the re-cent decree of the Soviet of the Caucasus Republic for-bidding the commission of acts which might violate thereligious sensibilities of believers, and interference withreligious observance. During the recent Jewish highholidays, the Jewish communists abstained from streetdemonstrations. The Soviet Government of White Russiarecently issued a decree permitting the re-opening ofhedarim ane talmud toroth, with the proviso that a hedarmust not have more than six pupils and that two-thirdsof the school time must be devoted to secular studies.

In this connection it should be borne in mind thatwhile the laws against the teaching of the young andsuch actions as the confiscation of synagogues have seri-ously affected Jewish religious life in Russia, the bur-lesquing of the Jewish ritual and ceremonials has hadbut little effect because of the fact that of the three andone-half million Jews in Russia only about 4,000 are mem-bers of the Communist party which numbers a total ofover 450,000. Furthermore, not all the Jewish com-munists have so debased themselves as publicly to hold

6.S8 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK

up to ridicule the religion fof which their fathers livedand died.

3. EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS

Development of educational facilities has followed thegeneral trend toward modernization noted in last year'sreview. A large proportion of Jewish children in East-ern Europe as well as in other parts of the world attendpublic schools. The number of Jewish technical schoolsis slowly increasing, while the ratio of Jews in the higherinstitutions of learning continues to be proportionatelyhigher than the ratio of the Jewish to the total popu-lation, except in Hungary, where the numerus claususis in force. A great deal of the educational progressamong the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe is trace-able to the encouragement of and the funds contributedby the Jews of the United States, administered by theJoint Distribution Committee.

4. POLITICAL CONDITIONS

During the past year the political conditions of theJews in Eastern Europe has become more satisfactory,but few complaints of the infraction of their rights as areligious minority having been noted. The status ofJews who are natives of parts of the former Austro-Hun-garian empire, but who now live in Austria and desireto become citizens of that country remains unsettled,Austria persisting in her unfair interpretation of the re-levant clause in her treaty with the Allied Powers.

The right to use Yiddish has been interfered with inPoland, where it is prohibited in telegraphic communica-


tions. In Roumania steps were taken to make Roumanianthe language of instruction in all schools including Jew-ish schools. Poland, Latvia and Roumania have alsoattempted in other ways to discourage the establishemetand the maintenance of Jewish schools. Poland andRoumania appear to have embarked on a policy of at-tempting the rapid and forced obliteration of the racial,religious and linguistic minorities.

All these matters are receiving the attention of thepolitical representatives of the Jewish populations in theParliaments of their respective countries.

5. PALESTINE

The past year saw no change in the status of the Jewsin Palestine. Pressure upon the British government toabandon the policy laid down in the Balfour Declarationand in the Mandate of encouraging the development of aJewish center in Palestine, continued to meet with failure.Although this agitation has militated against maximumJewish progress, notable advances have been made.

The recent census showed a total population of 755,600,of whom 590,000 are Muslims, 84,000 are Jews, and 73,000are Christians. While constituting 11 per cent of thetotal population of the country, the Jews comprise 25per cent of the urban population and are in the majorityin Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed, and have a pluralityin Jaffa. About one-eighth of the land under cultivationis being worked by Jews. Part of the project of PinchasRuthenberg for generating hydraulic electric power hasbeen successfully completed, and progress has been madein various industrial enterprises, while educational facilities


have increased, and sanitary conditions have improvedto a considerable extent.

ORGANIZATION MATTERS

1. MEETINGS

Your Committee has held meetings on the followingdates: December 10, 1922, and February 4th, March 11th,May 27th, and November 17th, 1923.

2. MEMBERSHIP

Your Committee begs leave to report that the followinggentlemen, who were elected to membership at your lastannual meeting, have agreed to serve:

District I. Simon Benjamin, Jacksonville, Fla.;Leonard Haas, Atlanta, Ga.

Moses V. Joseph, Birmingham, Ala.Marion M. Travis, Tulsa, Okla.Simon Binswanger, St. Joseph, Mo. ;Louis

Witt, St. Louis, MoBen Selling, Portland, Ore.Isaac Summerfield, St. Paul, Minn.; Nat

Stone, Milwaukee, \Yis.; D. M. Naf-talin, Fargo, N. Dak.

B. Horwich, Chicago, 111.Paul L. Feiss, D. A. Heubsch, Cleveland,

O.; Sol. S. Kiser, Indianapolis, Ind.;Isaac W. Bernheim, Louisville, Ky.

District IX. Ephraim Lederer, Philadelphia, Pa.

DistrictDistrictDistrict

DistrictDistrict

DistrictDistrict

IIIIIIV

YVI

VIIVIII.


District X. Edward N. Calisch, Richmond, Va.District XI. Benjamin England, Pittsfield, Mass.;. A.

Hartman, Haverhill, Mass.; Chas.Wineapple, Salem, Mass.; Philip N.Bernstein, Waterbury, Conn.; Archi-bald Silverman, Providence, R. I.;Louis M. Raffel, Waterbury, Conn.;Henry Lasker, Springfield, Mass.; A.C. Ratshesky, Boston, Mass.; EdwardM. Chase, Manchester, N. H.

District XT I. Isaac Allen, Benjamin Altheimer, Her-man Bernstein, Nathan Bijur, DavidM. Bressler, Elias A. Cohen, Abram I.Elkus, H. G. Enelow, William Fisch-man, Lee K. Frankel, Henry M. Gol'd-fogle, Maurice Harris, Max J. Kohler,Jacob Kohn, Irving Lehman, AdolphLewisohn, William Liebermann, JudahL. Magnes, Alexander Marx, Edgar J.Nathan, A. F. Rothstein, S. Rotten-berg, Bernard Semel, Joseph Silver-man, I. M. Stettenheim, Oscar S.Straus, Lewis L. Strauss, Cyrus L.Sulzberger, Israel Unterberg, Felix M.Warburg, all of New York City.

District XIII. Eugene Warner, Buffalo, N. Y.District XIV. Frederick Jay, Newark, N. J.; Milton M.

Adler, Newark, N. J.; Isaac Alpern,Perth Amboy, N. J.; Lewis Straus,Newark, N. J.; Isaac W. Frank, Pitts-burgh, Pa.


At Large. Abel

The tcDistrictDistrict

District

District

District

District

District

DistrictDistrict

District

rms ofI.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VII.

VIII.

IX.XI.

XII.

District XIII.District XIV.

Davis, S. Marcus Fechheimer, HerbertFriedenwald, Louis E. Kirstein, AlbertD. Lasker, Jacob M. Loeb, Jules E.Mastbaum, Henry Sachs, Horace Stern,Frederick W. Wile, and Louis Witt,

the following members expire this year:Montague Triest, Charleston.Moses V. Joseph, Birmingham; Nathan

Cohn, Nashville.Ivan Grunsfeld, Albuquerque, J. K.

Hexter, Dallas.C. D. Spivak, Denver; Henry Wallen-

stein, Wichita.Louis E. Cole, Los Angeles; Daniel

Alexander, Salt Lake City.A. G. Becker, Chicago; M. E. Greene-

baum, Chicago; Julian W. Mack,Chicago.

Edward M. Baker, Cleveland; SigmondSanger, Toledo.

Cyrus Adler, Philadelphia.David A. Ellis, Boston; Lewis Goldberg,

Boston.David M. Bressler, Lee K. Frankel,

Maurice H. Harris, Edgar J. Nathan,Israel Unterberg, and Felix M. War-burg, of New York City.

Horace J. Wolf, Rochester.A. J. Dimond, East Orange; Sigmund

Efsner, Red Bank; Frederick Jay,Newark; A. L. Luria, Reading.


You will recall that amendments to the By-Laws wereadopted which made provision for the nomination andelection of District Representatives by the persons desig-nated as Sustaining Members, who contribute annuallyto the funds of the Committee the sum of five dollarsor over. In accordance with this provision the Presidentappointed the following Nominating Committee whichwas asked to make nominations for Representatives tosucceed those members whose terms expire today andwherever vacancies exist:

Leonard Haas, Atlanta.Nathan Cohn, Nashville.Rabbi Max Heller, New Orleans.Charles Jacobson, Little Rock.M. C. Sloss, San Francisco.Henry M. Butzel, Detroit.James Davis, Chicago.David Philipson, Cincinnati.William Gerstley, Philadelphia.Fulton Brylawski, Washington.Isaac M. Ullman, New Haven.C. L. Sulzberger, New York City (Chair-

man).Simon Fleischmann, Buffalo.Felix Fuld, Newark.

Following is a list of the nominees suggested by thisCommittee, and who agreed to serve if elected:District I. August Kohn, Columbia, S. C , to suc-

ceed Montague Triest of Charleston,S. C , for term expiring 1928.

DistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrictDistrict

DistrictDistrict

I.II.

III.IV.V.

VI.VII.

VIII.IX.X.

XI.XII.

XIII.XIV.

6*4 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK

District

District

District

District

II.

I I I .

IV.

VI.

District VII.

District VIII.

District IX.

District XI.

Moses V. Joseph, Birmingham, andNathan Cohn, Nashville to be re-elected for term expiring 1928.

Ivan Grunsfeld, Albuquerque, and J. K.Hexter, Dallas, to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928.

C. D. Spivak, Denver, and Henry Wall-enstein, Wichita, to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928.

Joseph H. Schanfeld, St. Paul, to fillexisting vacancy in the State of Min-nesota; David Eisendrath, Racine, tofill existing vacancy in the State ofWisconsin.

A. G. Becker, M. E. Greenebaum, andJulian W. Mack, Chicago, to be re-elected for term expiring 1928.

Edward M. Baker, Cleveland, and Sig-mond Sanger, Toledo, to be re-electedfor term expiring 1928.

Morris Wolf, Philadelphia, to fill exist-ing vacancy in Philadelphia, caused bythe death of Mayer Sulzberger; CyrusAdler, Philadelphia, to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928.

Nestor Dreyfus, New London, to fillexisting vacancy in the State of Con-necticut; Gordon F. Gallert, Augusta,to fill existing vacancy in the State ofMaine; Barnett Frank, Burlington, tofill existing vacancy in the State of


Vermont; David A. Ellis and LewisGoldberg, Boston, to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928.

District XII. David M. Bressler, Lee K. Frankel,Maurice H. Harris, Edgar J. Nathan,Israel Unterberg abd Felix M. War-burg, New York City, to be re-electedfor term expiring 1928.

District XIII. Frederic Ullman, Buffalo, to fill existingvacancy in the State of New York (ex-clusive of New York City), Horace J.Wolf, Rochester, to be re-elected forterm expiring 1928.

District XIV. Irvin F. Lehman, Pittsburgh, and Wil-liam Harris, Allentown, to fill existingvacancy in the State of Pennsylvania(exclusive of Philadelphia); A. J.Dimond, East Orange; Sigmund Eis-ner, Red Bank; Frederick Jay, New-ark, and A. L. Luria, Reading, to bere-elected for term expiring 1928.

These nominations were submitted to the SustainingMembers who were asked to make independent nomina-tions if they chose to do so. The list of independent nomineeswho agreed to serve if elected follows:District II. Leon Schwarz, Mobile, Ala., to succeed

Moses V. Joseph, whose term expirestoday.

District III. Max Nordhaus, Albuquerque, N. Mex.,to succeed Ivan Grunsfeld, whoseterm expires today.

666 AMERICAN' JEWISH YEAR BOOK

District IV. Chas. H. Friedberg, Leavenworth, Kans.,to succeed Henry Wallenstein, whoseterm expires today.

District XIY. A J. Sunsiein, Pittsburgh, Pa., to fillexisting vacancy in Pennsylvania.

In tho->e districts where there were both Official andIndependent nominations, ballots were prepared whichwill be canvassed today and the results reported by thetellers appointed by the President, in accordance with theprovisions of the By-Laws

Successors are to be chosen at this meeting to the fol-lowing members of the Executive Committee, whoseterms expire on January 1, 1924: Samuel Dorf (De-ceased), Felix Fuld, Julius Rosenwald, Horace Stern,Oscar S Straus, and Cyrus L. Sulzberger.

Since the last Annual Meeting, the Executive Com-mittee has added to its membership Messrs Abel Davisof Chicago, Paul L. Feiss of Cleveland, and Lewis L.Strauss, of New York City.

Your Committee recommends the election of the followingto membership at large: Abel Davis, Chicago; S MarcusFechheimer, Cincinnati; Herbert Friedenwald, Washington;Louis K. Kirstein, Boston; Albert D. Lasker, Chicago; JacobM Loeb, Chicago; Jules E. Mastbaum, Philadelphia; HenrySachs, Colorado Springs; Horace Stern, Philadelphia; Fred-erick \Y. Wile, Washington; James Becker, Chicago; Eli(rank, Baltimore; Milton J. Rosenau, Boston; Leo M.Brown, Mobile, and Louis Witt, St. Louis

3. FINANCES

A statement of receipts from the various districts follows:


District TerritoryI. Florida, Georgia, North

Carolina, South Carolina.II. Alabama, Mississippi, Ten-

nesseeIII. Arizona, Louisiana, New

Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas.IV. Arkansas, Colorado, Kan-

sas, MissouriV. California, Idaho, Nevada,

Oregon, Utah, Wash-ington

VI. Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota,Montana, Nebraska, X.Dakota, South Dakota,Wisconsin, Wyoming. . .

VII. IllinoisYIII. Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio.

West Virginia • •IX. City of PhiladelphiaX. Delaware, District of Col-

umbia, Maryland, Vir-ginia . . . .

XI. Connecticut, Maine, Massa-chusetts, New Hampshire,Rhode Island, Vermont..

XII. New York CityXIII. New York (exclusive of

the City)XIV. New Jersey, Pennsylvania

(exclusive of Phila.) . . . .Canada

ContributionsContributions Received forReceived for CurrentFiscal Year Fiscal Year

Ended

627.00

715.503,023.50

1,192.002,271.50

955.50

EndedOct. 31, 1922 Oct. 31,1923

$228.50 $288.00

431.00 202.00

490.50 595.50

856.50 883.00

827.00

709.504,156.00

1,584.002,340.50

886.50

9,

1,

$22,

893177

726

229

817

.50

.00

.00

.00

.00

19

1

$26

,099.50,831.29

872.00

,862.5010.00

,147.29


The report of the auditor of the Committee's accountsfollows:

November 9, 1923.

THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE,

171 Madison Avenue,New York City.GENTLEMEN:

In accordance with your instructions, I have examined the booksand accounts of the American Jewish Committee for the fiscal yearfrom November 1, 1922, to October 31, 1923.

The results of this work are presented in the accompanying Exhibits,as follows:

EXHIBIT "A"—Balance Sheet, as at October 31, 1923.

EXHIBIT "B"—Statement of Income & Expenses, FiscalYear ended October 31, 1923.

The cash on hand was verified by actual count, the cash in depositwith the Fifth National Bank and Chatham & Phoenix NationalBank was confirmed by direct correspondence with the respectivebanks and cash receipts and disbursements were verified with voucherssubmitted.

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the Balance Sheet, marked Exhibit "A",and the accompanying Statement of Income and Expenses, markedExhibit " B , " are in agreement with the books, and in my opinion,are properly drawn so as to reflect the true financial condition of theCommittee as at October 31, 1923, and its activities for the fiscalyear then ended.

Respectfully submitted,

M. PARMET,

Certified Public Accountant.


BALANCE SHEET AS AT OCTOBER 31, 1923

Exhibit " A "

AssetsCASH ON DEPOSIT:

Fifth National Bank $8,915.10Chatham & Phoenix National Bank 1,209.20

Total Cash on Deposit $10,124.30CASH ON HAND:

Petty Cash Fund 50.00Undeposited Funds 102.85

Total Cash on Hand 152.85Furniture and Fixtures 3,783.00Less Reserve for Depreciation 932.53

Net. Book Value 2,850.47BOOKS AND PRINTED MATTER ON HAND (as

submitted):Stationery and Printing 120.00Autobiography of Jacob H. Schiff. 233.97"A Jewish Chaplain in France"Postage

Total Inventories 406. 85PREPAID CHARGES:

Rent of OfficeStorage of Office RecordsInsurance Unexpired

Total Prepaid Charges 208.05

50.2.

175.24.

8.

0088

007530

TOTAL ASSETS $13,742.52

LIABILITIES

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE:

Due for Printing Sixteenth Annual Report $889.00


GENERAL FUND SURPLUS

Balance- November 1, 1922 11,201.44Add:

Excess of Income over Expenses forFiscal Year ended October 31, 1923, asper Exhibit " B " 1,652.08

GENERAL FUND SIRPLUS-October 31, 1923 $12,853.52

STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSESFOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED OCTOBER 31, 1923

Exhibit " B "

IncomeINCOME FROM MEMBERS:

Sustaining Members S25.425.29INCOME FROM OTHER SOURCES:

Contributing Members. . . . 722.00

Total Income from Members $26,147.29INCOME FROM OTHER SOURCES:

Interest on Bank Balances. 154.55Sale of Furniture — Office

of War Records 85.00

Total Income from Other Sources 239.55

TOTAL INCOME $26,386.84EXPENSES

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE:

Salaries:Secretarial and

Official $8,188.00Temporary Help 601.30

$8,789.30Rent of Office 2,100.00Postage 394.96


Printing & Mailing SixteenthAnnual ReportStationery and Printing . . .Telephone and Telegraph . .ClippingsBooks and PeriodicalsTransportationSixteenth Annual Meeting.Auditing and LegalRental of Safe Deposit. . . .Office ExpenseRepairing and Maintaining

Office EquipmentInsuranceStorage and Cartage of Office

RecordsMiscellaneous Expenses... .Depreciation of Furniture

and FixturesTOTAL INCOME—(carried Forward)

Translation ServiceLegislative Reporting ServicePostage " Israel und die

Voelker"

969.00448.90179.32430.502.S4.55<>4.00

350.20110.0030.0046.83

119.327.32

216.002S0.15

378.30S26.386.84

300.00120.00

97.75

TOTAL OPERATION & MAINTEN-

ANCE EXPENSE $15,716.40

EXPENDITURES FOR OTHER PURPOSES:

Appropriations to Bureau ofJewish Social Research 8,500.01

Editorial Expenses in Connec-tion with The AmericanJewish Year Book 518.35

TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOR OTHER PURPOSES $9,018.36

TOTAL EXPENSES - $24,734.76

EXCESS OF INCOME OVER EXPENSES-EXHIBIT " A " $1,652.08


In closing this report, your Executive Committee begsleave to call your attention to the fact that on severaloccasions it has been unable to undertake matters of im-portance because of the lack of funds. The facts pre-sented in the first part of this report serve to show thatfor a number of years to come, this Committee will haveabundant occasion to render useful service in pursuit ofits objects. To do so adequately and effectively requiresthe co-operation of the public not only by means of itsmoral support but also with reasonable financial assistance

Respectfully submitted,

T H E EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AMERICAN JEWISH …

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