The Denver Jewish news., 1923-03-21
Precision and Sight
Conservation
AN ADDRESS AT THE ANNUAL
MEETING OF THE NATIONAL
COMMITTEE FOR THE PREVEN.
TION OF BLINDNESS.
Bv DIR. STEPHEN $. WISE.

/ yutlOn week observed Dy IHt
the Council of Jewish Women. February
| is to -.
1t happened To be my fortune 10 20
TO the Near East and Palestine this
summer My wife. children: and Il Went
10 Egypt and Palestine. Nearly ten
years ago we went for the first time
just before the beginning of the world
war. Joyous as was that pilgrimage
| in every way. and inspiring aS il all
was, we were quite unexpectedly sad
dened by one thing. namely. the enor-
nous measure of blindness in the Near
East. | have tried To convey to peo-
Pile sometimes how much of blindness
! came upon. think | do not eNag-
gerate when ] say that | came upon
more persons blind in the course of
week in Cairo and Alexandria than in
America in fifty years, outside. of
course. of institutions. Every street
offered the aspect of some blind
woman or man being led about as n
rule in n rather hapless and even
cruel fashion. In Jerusalem | came
across the same thing. | had never
understood the many illusions in the
Bible to the blind until had been in
the Near East.
want to say something truly joy
Gus to you as it was joy bringing TO
me, hut / dare say you know something
about II because you are in touch with
all the aspects of this subject the world
over. want you to share with me
this comforting thing that within ten
years between my visits there has been
an enormous. very enormous gain. l
think nothing In my days in EGYPT and
Palestine this summer brought me
quite 50 much satisfaction as to see
that ut last n dent had been made in
the prOblem-thanks to the high wis
dom of the British Administration. In
the long time of Turkish rule Of Pal
estine there was terrific amount OF
trachoma. Under British rule there
has been begun a really marvellous
handing together against trachoma.
And am very glad to say that
group of Jewish women forming the
Hadassnh society. and through the in
strumentality of the American Zionist
Medical Unit in Palestine. have made
themselves felt in battling against
this menace: need hardly tell you
about the work Of the American Red
CrOss
Now IL the far of lands of the Bible
within ten years can bring about
very obvious gain in dealing with
blindness. how much more ought we to
accomplish here in modern America
how much more effective ought we to
become in our struggle against pre-
ventablc blindness. seeing that after
all we have the resources and we have
widespread if not perfect literncy!
/ recall the way in which. for ex-
ample an Arab woman would say when
she was being taken to Ha,lassah for
treatment. If you hurt me, l will tell
my husband to hate all the Jews in
Palestine Then when she came back
again and her eyes We're better she
would say, Il will tell my husband to
love all the Jews in Palestine"
Nothing that I can say 20 YOU is new,
but the thing that has always been
quite extraordinary to me is the atti-
tude. the lOng-lasting. century-Old atti-
tude of helplessness on the part of the
world in relation to blindness. AS You
best know. little more than n half CEN
tury ago the beginning was made and
we came to see that helplessness was
hopelessness and must be banished, and
under God could he banished from the
blind. but that was only half of the
victory.
think one of the few gains of the
war-there haven't been too many as
yet-is that many of us who, hadn't
known how helpful. hopeful and Won
drous the life of the blind might be-
come were enabled to learn that ns n
result of the tragedy.
had occasion not very long ago to
speak to "A group of young people of
my own SynagOg on the problem of
prevention of blindness, though ! dealt
with 1t on the basis of industrial acci-
dents and diseases. And it seemed to
me the thing that we have got to do
in our life today is to eXtend-not so
much to vary-but to extend the mean
ing of the word "chivalry." The old
chivalry that lends itself to picturiza-
tion. that perhaps is gone. and l think
happily and blessedly. 1t was the
chivalry of the individual to the in
dividual, and the chivalry that for the
think there is n new chivalry in the
life of the world today. think the
biggest and finest thing in the world
! talay is lollnctiyn CHI li,:-col llcct ixn O