Intermountain Jewish news., 1926-09-09

''"p5iiEh'' i'-"' uy .'0'Ni
Un this extensive article, the editor
of the Jewish Year Book reviews
Jewish life and events in all its ma
jor AM minor phases throughout the
world. Mr.. Schneiderman review is
the most authoritative and complete
review of the Jewish year published,
regardless of language.-The Editor.)
INTRODUCTION
Since the close of the World War,
each year, except 1886 just passed,
has been for US Jews similar in kind
if not in degree to that which. pre-
ceded it. The War had left in its
wake, for multitudes, hardships too
grievous to describe, and had, in ad-
dition, let loose q tempest of hatred
and cruelty, a disproportionate share
of which smote the Jews in many
lands, disorganizing their community
life, and tearing away from under
their very feet the, in many cases,
already feeble foundations of their
economic existence; in one country,
Russia, even their religious beliefs
and practices were, along with those
of other sects, derided, ridiculed, and
burlesqued, and there, the very pre-
sevation of the traditions of their
faith has been and is now in jeopardy.
And just at the time when these
dire misfortunes befell, country
which had for generations justifably
prided itself upon being haven for
the oppressed and which had already
welcomed almost two millions of their
brethren, practically closed its doors.
About half the Jews of the world
found themselves in condition of
great wretchedness and profound
misery which would have been accom-
panied also by despair had it not been
for two facts of such miraculous
coincidence that they cannot but be
regarded as emanating from the
divinity which shapes our ends"
Increase in Wealth
On the other hand, the hundreds of
thousands of Jews who had come to
the United States during the preced-
ing seventy years, most of them pen
niless refugees, had grown into a
large and comparatively wealthy Jew
ish community, able and also willing
to help their brethren out of the
Slough of Despond. On the other
hand, due to the fortunes of war, a
great Government found itself so sit
uated as to be able to promise to do
everything in its power to facilitate
the establishment in Palestine, from
whose soil the Jewish people had been
exiled for almost two millenia, of
national home for the Jewish people.
Were it not for these two factors
the help of the Jewish community of
the United States, and the hope which
resides in the prospect of the exist
ence of a corner Of the earth which
would be national home-what
might not have become of the Jews
of Russia, of Poland, of Roumania, of
Austria, and of Hungary!
Hopeful Outlook
But all those who have watched the
events of the past eight years with
attention and study must have come
to the realization, with the present
writer, that the Jewish year 5685 just
closed, has differed essentially from
its seven predecessors, that it had
witnessed the beginning of turn of
the tide of misery and suffering which
had all but submerged half of the
Jews of the world, although there re-
main some Glow" countries from
which it will take longer time for
the tide to recede. The careful OBJ
server of the events of the past year
could not have failed to note (D a
hopeful trend in the Baltic Republics
and in Greece, (2) what is very like
ly to prove a permanent improvement
in the political status of the Jews of
Poland; (3) the beginning of better
times, economically at least, for a
large portion of the Jews of Russia,
and (4) more earnest and more
purposeful attitude toward the re-
habilitation of Palestine on the part