The Denver Jewish news., 1919-07-16
Scholom Asch Says
Jews Are Starving
YIDDISH WRITER DESCRIBES
CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA,

uania, painted a heartrending picture
of starvation and destitution to an AT
dience that packed the auditorium OF
Cooper Union, New York. While the
speaker, who delivered his address in
Iiddish, intimated that he had shock
ing evidence ofipogroms, he said that
he would present it to special CONF
mittee for later action, and would con-
fine himself to the problem of relief
One Of the outstanding needs of the
hour, he asserted. was that the United
States Government cooperate with the
Jews in America in opening up n
channel Of communication so that the
Jews In Lthuania might send per-
sonal word Of their plight to their
relatives here and in return receive
direct aid
The meeting was held under the
auspices Of the Jewish Peoples Relief
Committee. Abraham Fucker, nlai-
ager Of the committee. presented Alex.
Kahn us chairman, who in turn intro
duced Mr.. Asch. At tile conclusion
of Mr.. Asch's report Mr.. Kahn pre-
sented to Felix warburg. chairman of
the Joint Distribution Committee. OF
which the Jewish Peoples Relief Com
Inittee Is u part, a check for $250OOo
as one of the periodical donations Of
the Peoples Committee to the Joint
II.
given four months ago, and $1,000 900
more is pledged before the end Of
the year. Others present in an Of
ficial capacity were DIR. Judah T..
Magnes, Albert Lucas, Arthur Lehman
md representatives of all the Jewish
dailies and weeklies.
In opening his address alr. Asch de-
clared that he could give the Jewish
people present only a hundredth part
Of what he had seen, and, that he could
only feebly transmit to them the cries !
of anguish that went up from those on
the other side who were stretching out
their hands for aid He emphasized
the fact that they We're stretching
them out TO the very people in the
audience, for he had the addresses Of
hundreds who had relatives living not
far away from where the meeting was
being held.
I'm Holland today" the speaker said.
'there are thousands of Jews in cor,
.cntration camps. The Dutch did their
best to keep out of their country the
refugees from the East, who wished
to use Holland as gateway to !\neri-
Gu, but despite their best efforts the
pressure was so great that many, many
Jews filtered thru. In many cases
they were women with husbands In
America, and children win fathers In
this country. hut they were not allow
cd to come over.
.'Lithuania has suffered compara-
lively more than any other province
of former Russia. The expulsion Of
the Jews ut the very beginning of the
war was not soon to be forgotten. ami
according to the Jews themselves, 1t
was more terrible than when they were
driven out. Of Spain more than 4oO
years ago Hundreds of thousands OF
Jews had to leave their homes within
twenty-five hours. They had lived
there for hundreds of years, and in
one day and one night they were up
rooted, not only the healthy. but the
sick. The beds had to be carried out
Of the hospitals with their sick occu-
! pants, and when they died they had
10 be left on the road without burial
When the Russians stopped fighting,
so to 70 per cent. of the Jews returned
to the site of their homes. In the
smaller towns the percentage wns even
smaller. The rest of them are in Rus
sia, Siberia and heaven knows where.
Thousands have perished of hunger
cold and disease. Those that got back
found their property destroyed. stores
entered, homes devastated. In the In
terval between the departure OF the
Russians and the arrival of the Ger
mans, the local Christian population
took advantage of the Jews anu car
ried away all their property. Even
furniture, bedding, doors and windows
were stolen Wooden houses were TAX
en- apart and carted off. Homes we're
practically erased.
"The hunger In Kovno was hides
cribable, and l am talking OF only
few weeks ago. when ! was there 10
see it. The fear Of pogroms, wh,ch
has made the population panicky