Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

The controversy between the Joint Distribution Committee and the Zionists has no point, declares the “Day” (July 8), as it has only proved that there is no inherent incompatibility between the work of Palestine reconstruction and the colonization work in Russia.

“Although,” says the paper, “harsh words have been spoken on both sides, the Zionists admit that the attack was directed only against the propaganda connected with the Russian colonization work, not against the colonization itself, while the Joint Distribution Committee declares clearly and openly that its arrows are directed only against Zionist leaders, not against Zionism.

“Thus, the controversy assumes a purely organizational character, which has nothing to do with a conflict of ideas.”

The paper further expresses its conviction that both sides are wrong, for the following reasons:

“The J. D. C. is wrong when it accuses the Zionists in America of indifference to the Jewish sufferers in Eastern Europe and of attempting to sabotage the relief campaign. And surely it is an injustice when the J.D. C. employs against the Zionist leaders such terms as ‘irresponsible politicians’ and ‘false prophets.’

“Likewise wrong is the accusation of the Zionist Organization against the J. D. C. in which it is emphasized that the Russian colonization plan has become the center of all anti-Zionist forces. Even if this were true it would not justify the Zionist leaders in laying the guilt to the J. D. C., unless it had first been proven that the J. D. C. had helped to cement the anti-Zionist front.”

The “Day” concludes with the warning that unless the controversy is ended and friendly relations reestablished the Jewish public in America will be alienated both from the Palestine work and from the Russian colonization work.

SOCIAL ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE UNITED STATES

The surprise expressed recently by Alexander Samuel Lyle, British member of Parliament, in an interview with the “Jewish Daily Bulletin,” at the social anti-Semitism which he found in the United States and which, he declared, is not to be seen in England, is the subject of editorial comment by the “Jewish Times” of Baltimore.

Writing in its issue of July 2, the paper observes:

“It is interesting to note that leaders of social life in this country who will not include Jews in their invitatons to their affairs will, when they go to England, accept invitations from Jewish social leaders and will also be happy to extend them to the same Jews.

“We would be perfectly satisfied to let the non-Jews huddle to themselves in their social affairs but when this discrimination is extended to include hotels in popular summer resorts to the extent that it makes a real problem for self-respecting cultured Jews to find accommodations, then it is time to protest. It is astonishing when one considers the type of Gentile who objects to the presence of Jews in the same hotel. We know of a specific case where a prominent Jew was travelling with his family in the Adirondacks and his wife was taken ill. He had the utmost difficulty in securing accommodations in one of the finer hotels. Of course that sort of thing is provincialism gone wild. Men and women who are really cultured would not employ such methods in order to strengthen their social position. But it is unfortunate that such a condition exists, for in many instances it works a definite hardship.”