The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-09-10
By MOE. LEVY.

.
estate Chairman Virginia Drive. Ma
tionaI Jewish War Relief Campaign.)
Norfolk. September 9.-The great
war has written a new and tragic
chapter in the history of the Jewish
race
Side by side with the forty years
in the wilderness. the captivity in
Babylon, the fall of Jerusalem, and the
prosecutions of, the medieval ages.
worth Jewry has set down the dates
of new era Of horror. 1t covers the
years from 1914 to the present, and
has not yet come to an end This
latest chapter in the long series Of
Jewish annihilation Of the ancient race
than anything that has gone before.
AS the mills of the Gods We're slow
~ grinding out the long years OF tho
great conflict, the Jews were caught
remorselcssly between the upper and
neither millstones, Situated for the
most part in tho warning countries de-
pendent for their living upon work
that the war soon stopped, driven from
their homes first by the soldiers of
former Austria Hungary, then by the
Russians, then by the Germans, then
by the Russians agaft,, the past five
years have been all but n death blow
to the children OF 1sreal. 1t Is hard
for the American imagination to pic
ture the general devast alton that war
has wrought among this people. Here
are some astounding facts that show
the significance of the present situa-
ton.
There are some $4,000, 900 jews in
the world. OF them all, 10 per. cent
live in the war swept countries. These
have been without exception affected
by the loss of all they had in the
cessation of their business, more often
by the loss OF al lthey had in the
world. Fully 100000 Jews in Pol
and. Czecho- Slovakia. former Austria
Hungary, Russia. I,ithuania. Rumania,
Palestine, Siberia, the Balkans. and
the Orient. are today entirely Deepen
dent upon outside aid. Roughly three
Jews out, OF every four In the world
today are at least temporarily without
work. or are penniiess, ar homeless.
or starving. or sick. or all Of these
Further than this, at least 5000 600
Jews men, women and children---about
as many people as live in Greater
New York--daily stand in the bread
lines or get their only food OF the
day from American Jewish relief
sources. from milk stations. or at hos
pitfalls or even In the fields where
tIobSAnuS ot lnefu are lINliiE WIN no
other roof than the sky. Moreover.
100000 children in Poland alone. and
"a proportionate number in other coun-
tries would starve next week If Amer
lea should suddenly cease sending aid.
Thousands of homeless youngsters are
sleeping on the streets. and 1t is prac-
tically impossible to get a child into
one OF the overlooking and hard
pressed orphanages in any of these
lands
There is no more thrilling or drama
tic story TO follow in the wake Of the
war than that OF the heroic efforts of
American Jews to save their brothers
and sisters abroad from destruction.
There are in America not quite g.
500. 600 Jews Upon these people, old
and young the wall street maguate
and the peanut vender, the Fifth ave
nue. lady and East Side Sadie. the
orthodox Jew OF the old school and
the social reformer, has fallen the
burden of saving almost whole race.
Rich and poor. orthodox and reform
cd, old school and new school, they
are all working together to the end
that Jewry may not perish.
II was early In the world war that
the plight OF their people became a
topic of great interest to American
Jews in mansions and tenements. syna-
gogues and labor meetings, offices
and swea tshops. Almost overnight
hack In the then three Polands. multi
tudes woke up homeless and penniless.
The Russian armies marched into East
T russia and Galicia, the Austrian
troops into Serbia In their wake they
left legion OF Jewish fugitives. some
of whom have been homeless ever
since.
Palestine. the ancient home OF the
Jews. was turned into a land OF star
walton. 1t was quite cut off from Eu-
rope. and the market on which it had
always relied for the sale OF its pro-
duce. The first cry for help came to
the Jews in America from Palestine
Need $4,000 to save thousands in
Palestine from immediate starvation"
cabled the Hon. Henry Morgenthau.
then ambassador to Turkey, to Louis
Marshall and Jacob Fl. Schiff. and
through them to the Jews Of America
back in the early war days
The money was cabled at once. But
almost before 1t had been sent, ap-
peals began to pour in from every one
of the warning countries. Antwerp
was full OF refugee Jews at the point
of starvation, who had fed there early
in the war. Thousands of Jews, who
had been ousted from Vienna, Prague
and Budapest and other cities were
without homes or food. All over east
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