The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-10
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

who had tales of German outraSeS to relate. It was dark picture.
 But there Is strip running through
 Europe from the Gulf of Riga on the north to tho Black sea on the south,
 that is red with Jewish blood, salt with { Jewish tears, and fertilized with Jewish
 bones, that cries out to high heaven for
 relief.
 1 I do not know why the Jews have been So silent about their miserics, un- less it is because that through the cen turies they have been trained into sub
 misslveness and learned to bear inhu- manities as a part of their worldly lot. The persecution of the Jew has been a 1 blot on the banner of Christianity 1 Tho shot fired in Bosnia brought sor-
 row to mankind, but upon no people in all the world was such a grief placed as upon the Jew who caught between the combatants was trampled under foot and left bleeding and prostrate, with none to comfort or to succor. The lot of the Jew has been the tragedy of the war. 
 l The Jew in Europe lifted blood-stained hands to his more fortunate kin in America, and the great heart of Israel 1 in this land of freedom and opportu- nlty is today reaching hands across the
 seas to lift up the broken and to carry | relief to the homeless and food to the starving. I saw the heartbeat of the | ps~ ,,r1,r r|1,1 do nit and I saw rich and poor go deep down into their pockets to get money to re- l lieve their unfortunate people, who to all earthly eyes seem forgotten of God. The Jew is a poor beggar. He will | give to every ones need, and then give again to supply the need of his own
 race. When word came from the Jewish | relief committee, with headquarters at | New York, that sum of $10,000,0o0 must be raised, and that Birmingham was ex- pected to raise s2o,oO0 of the amount. the l Jews of the city quietly set about rais- 1 ing it without calling upon their Gentle friends, although they had joined with them in aiding the Young Mems Chris- tian association and all other enter prises.
 I Thursday night T had three things wanted to do. I wanted to hear the great English statesman, Nelson, lecture ! to hear Dean Johnson talk on efficiency at the banquet at the Tutwiler. wanted to hear pr. Edward Calisch speak on the plight of the Jews in the war zone. I knew all of the men were great speakers with worth while messages So far as they were concerned. each had a particular appeal to me.
 I saw couldn't decide between them, so began to think of the audiences. I knew at the Tutwiler Dr. Johnson would was aware that MT. Nelson would at tract cultivated lot of representative people felt, however, that the crowd which would gather to ns- ten to pr. Calisch were men and women, my friends, who were un- der the shadow of a great sor-
 row, and chose to go and sit with them, and let my heart beat against
 theirs. Glad I am that I did so, for no one who was present can ever feel
 about the cry from the Jews of Europe
 without having great yearning to
 still it.
 It was a solemn hour. Temple Elm
 manu-El was filled with Jewish men
 and women who were drawn together
 with the one consuming desire to rise
 to the occasion and do their full part
 toward their unfortunate race. The service was opened with prayer by Rabbi
 Mendelsohn, of Knesseth Israel syna-
 gogue, that touched every heart. A song,
 or rather Psalm, sung by Owen Giles
 pie, lifted the congregation out of the twentieth century and set them back in Old Testament times when suffering Is-
 rael was in exile and forsaken. The words went home and the plaintive mel ody wet the eyes of many.
 Then arose Ike Adler the chairman of the local committee and made a brief buf effective statement about the cam-
 paign. He then called on M. Joseph to
 preside over the meeting. Senator Un- derwood, then introduced by him, made an unusually strong and illuminat- ting talk about the way America Was forced into war, and being in, must Twin it, not only for self, but for man. kind. He made telling point by say ing that no citizens In the United States had more vital interest in helping to win than did the Jews, for America was their land of opportunity, and that if democracy was beaten the iron heel of autocracy would once more fall upon them.
 In sympathetic and personal way Dr. Newfield presented pr. Calisch of Richmond. The visiting Rabbi is a man of the world, a scholar, an author of note and an orator. His glowing trib- utes to America, the flag, the President, and the constitution, were beautiful, but lit was only as the wrongs and miser- ies of his people in the battle zone in
 Europe got hold of him that he swept his audience until they hung on bis
 every word. It was no mere oratorical clap-trap that was moving them, but 1 he was making them visualize condi- tions as they are abroad.
 1 And what awful pictures he threw across the scene until for very pity I enl4 +l,,t <ln,,