PROBLEM OF THE JEW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23393, 7 January 1938, Page 2

PROBLEM OF THE JEW

“The Jew in the World To-day" was the subject of an address by Mr Neville Laski, K.C., president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, at a luncheon given by the Industrial Christian Fellowship at the Central Hall, Westminster. The Bishop of Bristol, Dr C. S. Woodward, presided. Mr Laski emphasised the part, the Jew had played as a citizen. In Britain, he said, Jewish subscribers to King Edward’s Hospital Fund had contributed nearly £1,000,000. Wherever the Jew was allowed to live his own life—in Holland, France, Austria, and even in Germany—there were few charities or institutions that had not at one time or another benefited largely through the generosity of the Jew. .The political record of the Jew was one of which he could be proud, but the world in which the Jew lived to-day was in a parlous state. In Germany conditions had no parallel except in medieval times. The Jew in Poland lived in a state of economic destitution, and the problem was even more heartbreaking in that it could not be solved by emigration. The Jew had no concern with politcal matters, but only with the ordinary rights of humanity. The problem of the Jew to-day was how to combat antisemitism, and it was not a struggle which the Jew should be allowed to fight alone. It concerned the whole body politic.