THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
8
, THE JEWISH. , " CHRONICLE
Issued Every Friday by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company.
General Manager
ANTON KAUFMAN
Michigan's Only Jewish Publication.
$1.50 per year
Subscription in Advance
Offices 314 Peter Smith Bldg.
Phones: Cherry 3381 and 1526
RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN,
-
Editorial Contributor
The Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on subjects of inter-
est to the Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for an indorse-
ment of the views expressed by the writers.
All correspondence to insure publication must be sent in so as to
reach this office Tuesday morning o' each week.
Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit,
Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879
FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1917
Two Important Conventions
On Sunday last there convened at Baltimore in annual convention
the Federation of American Zionists and its affiliated organizations.
The program as published indicates that the meeting will be a highly
interesting one. If the reports of the first meeting, as given in the
public press, are correct, American Jewry will have real cause to
rejoice, for it seems that the convention realizing the mistake and
injustice perpetrated by some of its leaders in attempting to repudiate
the peace agreement made months ago by the advocates of the Con-
gress, are eager to set themselves on record as being desirous of living
up to the terms of that agreement. If this sentiment prevails, the
whole subject of Zionism will be eliminated from the Congress pro-
gram, a step that will go far to heal, the widening breach between the
two parties in American Israel.
Almost simultaneously there will be held in the city of Buffalo,
N. Y., the Twenty-eight Conference of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, which will be in session from Thursday, June 28th,
until the afternoon of July 4th. The program outlined suggests many
important discussions both of an academic and a practical character.
The reports to be submitted indicate a wide range of activity on the
part of the organization and prove the utter groundlessness of the
charge so frequently lightly made against the Conference, that its
work has little or no influence upon the destinies of American Jewry.
k s_
be saved only by the. rehabilitation of Jewish nationality on
tinian soil, Dr. Cohen has Won the respect and esteem of his C o . R._
ligionists. Even those who have differed from him in his interprit i -
tion of Jewish history have never questioned his absolute sincerity. I :is
letter, published in another column of this issue, and addressed t, a
colleague who had urged him to accept a place among the delegd .,;
to the Baltimore Zionistic Convention, is, therefore, highly significant.
It is by no means an indictment of Zionism. Indeed, with all the
force at his command Dr. Cohen reiterates his fealty to that can , e,
He says : "In condemning and repudiating the present adtuinistni-
tion, namely the provisional Committee for Zionist Affairs in America
and the Executive Committee of the Federation of American Zionists,
I abate no whit from my loyalty to the great cause they represent."
Dr. Cohen's indictment is of the leaders of the movement, who he
claims have misrepresented Zionism and have stooped to methods that
are wholly unworthy. Quoting as we quoted in our editorial la,t
week from Mr. Lipsky's letter, he says that in that letter, "Then , i;
neither a speck of honesty or honor." These are strong words comic
from such a man as Dr. Cohen. With his criticism of the handling
of the large financial affairs of the Zionistic organization we have no
concern, and we do not know whether it is just or not. Dr. Cohen's
letter takes on its real significance in that it tends to re-emphasize
what has been said time and time again, in that portion of the Jewish
press which has not been in sympathy with the Zionistic organization,
that Much of the opposition that has developed to Zionism in rec e nt
times has been due not so much to the inherent character of Zionism
itself, as to the methods which many leaders of the movement have
employed to force its acceptance upon the masses of the people. There
are certain phases of the Zionistic program in which every thinldii
JON' can unqualifiedly acquiesce. Eliminate the' mSie demand for the
rehabilitation of the Jewish national life in Palestine and emphasize
more and more the philanthropic and cultural aspects of Zionism, and
a united Jewry will endorse the program. Indeed, even though the
Jews who believe that Jewish destiny must spell itself out in terms
of religion and not of nationality, would not be so illiberal as to antag-
onize the opinions of those who do not agree with them, were it not
for the fact that so many leaders of the Zionistic movement have
stooped to misrepresentation of a character against which the souls
of right thinking men must rebel. Dr. Cohen's letter proves that this
feeling of antagonism is not confined to those outside the ranks of the
Zionists. His words should be read with care and consideration by
those of our co-religionists who think through Zionism to bring the
Jewish world problem'to solution. If men within their ranks of the
standing of Dr. Cohen can no longer brook the misrepresentation of
which he complains, how shall they expect Jews not in sympathy with
their program to keep silent?
The Mission to Palestine
The Mission to Egypt and the Near East, appointed with the
official sanction of our government, to investigate the condition of the
Jews in Palestine, and supplied by. the Joint Distribution Committee
with unlimited funds for relief purposes, enters upon a task of supreme
significance. That the high duties entrusted to it will be ably and
conscientiously discharged is attested by the personnel of the Com-
mission, which consists officially of Hon. Henry Morgenthau and
Professor Felix Frankfurter, who will be accompanied by Mr. E. W.
The work of these two conventions will be discussed in greater Lewin-Epstein. These men will study at close range the conditions
in Palestine as they are, and in the measure of the need they will be
detail in our next issue.
empowered to give relief.
Undoubtedly. there has been and there still exists among our
co-religionists in the holy land, suffering so great as to be indescrib-
Lansing Aids the War Relief
One by one the cities of Michigan are falling into line as helpers able. However, reports of enforced evacuation of cities and villages
in the great cause represented by the Jewish War Relief Committee. have from time to time been published in certain portions of the
The latest of these cities Lansing, which at the behest of a com- Jewish press, only to be denied in the next issue. Information that
mittee of earnest workers from Detroit, contributed last Sunday night has come to us has been garbled. But now we may fairly expect to
a goodly sum to the cause, thus doing its share to put Michigan in obtain true reports and we may be comforted in the assurance that
the front rank of the states, as Detroit has gained a place in the front moneys contributed to the relief of our Palestinian brothers will reach
ranks of the cities of the Union. It is a regrettable fact that in some them speedily and directly.
'With the relief work in Palestine amply taken care of by this
of the smaller cities of the state, as no doubt elsewhere throughout the
Commission,
another of the problems, for the solution of which the
entire country, the amounts contributed to this fund have been piti-
fully out of proportion not only to the need of our suffering brothers Jewish Congress might logically have felt itself responsible, may be
and sisters, but also to the ability of the communities themselves to taken from its program. It is entirely possible that the Commission
give. It is hoped that within the next three months every city in this will find the need in Palestine even greater than had been supposed.
state will have been so well organized that no single Jew or Jewess In that event the call upon the sympathy and the help of American
will have failed to contribute a proper share to the fund. Every city Jews will be all the stronger. But even should it develop that the
like every individual in Michigan is called upon to do its share. Let funds now being gathered will amply meet the situation in Palestine,
the cry of our brothers'in other sections of the war zone will not be
us put Michigan upon the honor roll.
alleviated. No Jew in America should feel that he has done his duty
in this crisis until he has given more than his share.
Dr. S. Solis Cohen on the Zionistic Situation
Neither the sincerity of Dr. S. Solis Cohen's orthodoxy nor his
whole-hearted fealty to the cause of Zionism, can possibly be open to
question. Always occupying a high place in the councils of the Ortho-
dox wing of American Jewry, and fervent in his faith that the Jew can