JEWS IN GERMANY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 130, 5 June 1933, Page 7

JEWS IN GERMANY

APPEAL' TO CHUEGHES

MEETING IN WHITECHAPEL

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, April 6. An emergency committee on the German Jewish situation has been formed in London to invite all the churches to unit "in an effective protest against the anti-Jewish discrimination which is a plank in the platform of Nazi policy." Lord Mount Templa haa accepted the presidency, and the members consist of persons prominently associated with synagogue life and with the Board of Deputies. Tho committee is entirely non-political and nonparty. , . A great mass meeting was held on Saturday night at the Art Gallery, Whitechapel, when the hall was packed and hundreds were turned away. Lord Mount Temple, wh6 presided, said he- thought it would be in accord with the Balfour Declaration to opea the gates of Palestine as wide as possible to suffering German Jewry. It .was impossible for them, as human beings and as Christian men and women to look on in silence while an.important section of Germany's population was gravely threatened in its very existence, he said. Their love for'peace and respect for the great German nation prompted them to raise their yoica against the oppression of the Jewish population of Germany, just because it was Jewish, and against the acts of a people which rejected the rudiments ot equality and righteousness, and pursued the course of hate and persecution. MESSAGE FEOM METHODISTS. Dr. Scott Lidgett, of tho Methodist' Church, wrote: — ' "All branches of the Christian' Church share with the Jewish community the horror at all civil violence, and especially against outbreaks of such violence against any particular race or class of the community. 1 am1, sura that I am speaking the mhid of the Methodist1 Church in particular when I: express the hope that steps may prompt*. ly be taken in Germany to prevent any;, such outbreaks for the future." Dr. Bernard Homa, president of < the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, explained in an interview prior to the meeting that they deprecate any; attempt to engender a feeling of antagonism1 towarda the new German regime. "Our sole grievance,?' he said, "is with, those who have made antiSemitism part of their political philosophy. •'■■.. 1 "Jews have no w.ar with Germany or with German people. We pay tribute to the great contribution which German culture has. made towards world progress, but we cannot forget.that German Jewry has played its'adequate part in that direction. ..'.,•' -■"We are prepared to accept the assurance of the German Government that physical violence against the Jewi has now ceased. We believe that the ultimate responsibility for such excesses as have occurred falls on those who for years have been conducting an anti-Semitic, campaign.

CAREFULLY-PLANNED POLICY.

"Our protest is directed against titat part of the Nazi political programme which for the, past ten years has proclaimed that the Jews must be deprived of the rights of citizenship, or semiofficial positions. This latter programme had already become effective throughout Germany before the indignation of world Jewry found expression. It is futile, therefore, for the German Government to contend that the economic boycott which it has officially instituted is a retaliation for the spontaneous protests of Jews all over the world, or that it is anything but the deliberate fulfilment or a care^ fully-planned policy. "We feel convinced," he added t "that we represent the feelings of all who have, the cause of freedom of conscience at heart when we appeal to tb« sense of justice of the British nation, which has always been the symbol of religious liberty, to arouse public opinion and world consciousness on behalf of the rights of German Jewry to religious freedom and political and economic equality."

CHIEF RABBI'S i PROTEST.

The Chief Babbi, the Very Bey. J. H. Hertz, has written to "The Times": "The official boycott is over, but the ruthless elimination of the German Jew from the public, the professional, and the social life of his native land continues unabated. Neither achievement, nor position, nor lifetime of service is of any avail against summary dismissal. Hosts of professional menphysicians, Judges, lawyers, civil; servants, teachers, journalists, musicians, aetois —are thus being robbed of .their livelihood, and are doomed in heartbreaking numbers to sink into indigence. Alongside of this deprivation of civic rights, there is an unbelievable trampling under foot of the human dignity of every Jew and Jewess in that land. Thus, in the Nazi Press, and by means of every form of Government propaganda, Jews are constantly branded as 'traitors' to their Fatherland—though no fewer than 12,000 German Jews laid down their lives for their country in the Great War. "Days of bitter trial have thus com* over German Jewry. It is bearing them with courage and dignity, firmly trusting that the countrymen of Goethe and Kant will accord it complete rehabilitation of civic equality and Teligioui freedom. At any rate the struggle by every legitimate spiritual weapon, for such complete rehabilitation, cannot vbe shirked by a population that has lived for over 1500 years on German soil 'and has added renown to the German name in every field of human cndavour. _ - "All good men and true," the Chief Babbi concludes, "will wish speedy fulfilment to the hopes of German Jewry. It will mean the triumph of the forcei of Justice and Liberty in the Germany of today and tomorrow.' *