The Denver Jewish news., 1919-02-05
World Jewry At The
Parting OF The Ways
A REVIEW OF THE TWELFTH AN
NUAL REPORT OF THE ANlERI-
CAN JEWISH COMMITTEE.


A clear survey of what the situa-
!, tiOn of the Jews was ut the moment
when the war closed is given in its
| Twelfth annual report just issued by
the American Jewish committee. The
report gives more than this to the
reader who is inclined to he analytical
it gives IA view of the world Jewry
of the past, a glimpse into the strug-
| giles of the Jewry Of modern times.
and n hope for the future welfare of
| the Jewish brotherhood of the world.
The present status of world Jcwry
| is typificd by the condition of the
Jews of America. What were their
aspirations and hopes when the war
broke out? At that time. the commit
tee pledged to the Government of our
beloved country and to its flag their
''unstinting and wholc-heartcd sup
port and it dedicated ITO the per
petuatiOn of American ideals and in
! .stitutions. to the maintenance of the
honor of our country and the prcscr-
vation of the principles for which it
SthnuS. our lives, our poSSeSsioliS, anu
those we hold most dear"
These We're the aspirations Of all the
Jewish people OF America, and, it is
safe to say, also of the British En-
pire. France, Belgium and Italy. Altho
we know very little about the Jews
i of Germany. we can believe that they.
too, bore themselves as part and par
eel of the German people in their un-
fortunate. misguided and hopeless
career. and that upon them must he
cast part of whatever praise or blame.
the Judgement of history will deal ont
to the Teutonic adyenturers.
The Jews of America aspire to full
est citizenship, TO complete recogni-
tion as political social. civil. and
economic equals with their co-citizens
They must therefore he vigilnnt and
guard against any attempts to infringe
upon their rights and against any re
crudcscence of the medieval persecu-
tion aid discrimination which. if per-
niitted to go on unhindered, must i'll
evitably result in the loss OF those
cherished rights which it has taken
the Jews of the Occidental world CEN
turics to acquire. 1t is to perform
this office of watchmnn, of sentinel
over our precious American inherit
ance that the american Jewish com
mittcc aspircs. and in the performance
of that duty which it has taken upon
itself, the committee had II very busy
year i'm 1918
The Committee had many cases of
discrimination called to its attention.
Just ten of these are given in some
detail. There were Government coli
tractors who. in advertising for car
pcntcrs to work in building camps for
the War Department, wanted only
Christians: there was the disgraceful
Manual for Medical Advisory board
which uttered the ages-old slnndcr
that. the foreign born. especially
Jews, are more apt to malinser than
the native born;" then, we have an
office of the L. $. Shipping Board adj
vertising for a file clerk, IA Christ
ian:" the Liberty Loan committee of
the New York district did something
similar; the Governor of Iowa issued
proclamation forbidding the use of
any language other than English in
public. private, denomiiiationl or 9th
er schools. in conyerSa tionS in public
places. on. trains and over the tele-
phone. in public addresses. and in
public places OF religious worship: II
case of hazing in a State Nautical
school in which two Jewish boys were
maltreatcd in an ''unbclicvably cruel
and shameful manner" also had the
attention of the committee; Red
Cross official also offended in an eN-
cess of zeal for pure Amcricanism"
forgetting that the Americans are II
purely foreign people. The recital
concludes with the story of an officer
in the army who preferred not to have
any Jews upon his staff"
But the committee did not rest sat
isfied with these corrective or cura-
tive measures 1t also engaged upon
gigantic constructive task, the i'm
portance of which few can now ap-
preciatc. We pledged our lives, our
possessions and those we hold most
dear. to the end that Liberty shall not
perish from the earth" Did we keep
our pledge?
The report says that we did, and
that we may say that we did with the
conviction born of knowledge" 1t goes
on to tell us of its investigation of the
extent of the active participation OF
the Jews of America in the war: ii
tells us how ii went to work to or
.rnniaa, an affi1.. fl.,. thi.. lnlnr