New-York tribune., 1906-12-10
SCHIFF AVERTS PANIC.
ROSTRUM BREAKS DOWN.
Rush of Jezcs to Greet DR.. Le5cin
OUerLOads Platform at Dmland's.

What might have been serious panic was
narrowly averted in Durands Riding Academy
last night, when part of audience of six
thousand Jews rushed forward TO shake hands
with Dr. Shmaryahu Levin. a Jewish member
CT the Russian Douma. thereby causing about
twenty-five feet of the platform to collapse No
one was injured in the accident but had 1t not
been for the cOolness Of Jacob Schiff who pre-
sided a the meeting and luckily did not 20
down with the fifty more who sank through
the floor in heap, there would have been a rush
for the doors in which many persons might have
been seriously injured.
The meeting. which was probably the largest
gathering OF Jews evet soea 90 thit clsv, va
held IN honor of DR.. levin. who spoke on "The
Position of the Jews In Russia" The doors of
Durland's which were opened at > O'Clock. were
closed an hour later. as every one of the five
thousand seats in the body of the auditorium
had been filed. Before the meeting opened at s
o'clock, four thousand more persons had gath
cred outside the doors.
Mrs. S Rabinowtz, wife of the we'll known
Russian jew writer. Shoem AIeichem. became
hysterical when she thought her husband had
gone down in the crash. She recovered how
ever, when she found he had not been hurt
on the platform were many prominent Jews
In opening the meeting Mr.. Schiff said in part:
longer. 1t is country of the arstocracy 1t
has often been said that the persecution of Jews
will never cease until they have ceased to be
revolutionary, but say to you and to the agents
Of the Russian gOVernment-for | do not doubt
that some of them in this audience-that
the Jews are not revoutionists from choice hut
because of the red Russian government. | have
not heard of Jews being revolutionists i'm
France, Germany, England or in these pleasant
United States ! have always been convinced
that in a country which is really his country
the Jew is really the best citizen in the land.
The advice l would give to the Russian gov.
ernment is to give the Jew the right of Citi-
Zenship, and whereas to-day they call him
curse, they will then call him d blessing.
have found in the last two years that the Rus
sian government did not want to carry out any
Of it's promises to the Jews. They make promises
only because they need money and they think
that the Jewish bankers and other bankers will
be appeased by promises. Any banker who to-
day will give money to the Russian government
commits crime against humanity. l have said
TO my friends in Europe and my financial friends
here that if the Russian ministry wants to get
the regard of Jews it must remove the pale of
settlement. Give the Jew the right TO go where
he pleases in Russia and the Russian question
VIII be solved
Judge Cyrus L. Sulzberger. of Philadelphia
was loudly cheered when he said we welcome
this guest who is struggling for liberty lie:
him take back to his imperial master the picture
of million Jews who, arriving here from Rus
sia. despoiled of their goods and almost of their
this nation"
The Rev DR. ]. L. Magnes, rabbi of Temple
EMANUEL also spoke. but it not until DR.
Levin was introduced that the audience was
aroused. They cheered for more
than minute, and waved the blue and white
flag Of the Jewish Zonists in a frenzy of excite
ment-
Dr. Levin who does not speak or understand
English. started to talk in German. but was soon
stopped by cries that he speak in Yiddish He
acceded to the demand
At first he had the audience convused by his
Jokes. and then held them spebound by his
serious eIoGuence He outlined the history of
the Jewish massacres. since they began in 1882.
and declared they not spontaneous upris-
ings but carefully planned by the government
He said that whenever there was any trouble
in the country, they always sought 10 relieve
their feelings by turning on the Jew. The sou-
,ior Of the trouble, he said, must come from
the Douma and not from the government.
He appealed to the Jews here To help their
hratbren in Russia by keeping the world in
formed of the atrocities and by sending fnan-
o,o1 assistance He said he thought that aside
4ror, the Jewish problem, the wretched condl- |
tto, If the common people in Russia might well
bacome an international question when twenty
,,,,Ilion of the peasants We're starving