WE HAVE MADE HISTORY
and HAVE GIVEN LIFE

By EDWARD M. M. WARBURG

Honorary Chairman, United Jewish Appeal
Following his meeting at the home of C. William Sucher with a hundred
Detroit communal workers 'under the Allied Jewish Campaign Chairmanship of Max
M. Fisher and the pre-campaign chairmanship of. Paul Zuckerman, Mr. Warburg, in
a message to the Detroit Jewish community. congratulated Detroit on its advance
progress .in behalf of the drive, and wrote this statement, in which he reviews and
expands his comments at the January 29th meeting.
accepted the mission. We obeyed the com-
We came to Mr. Sucher's home to meet
mand and those who have .given us the
and to take counsel and to deliberate with
mission and the command responded again
each other. We heard the reports, we spoke
and again by giving us the weapons and
aloud. We shared our fears and our doubts
the ammunition for this particular battle.
and our hopes, and you announced your
Each year we came to them, as we are
conclusions.
coming to them again in 1958. Each time
And so when we left it was to embark
with our plan of battle. We have presented
upon another campaign, to return to our
it to them as our budget, with the brave
homes and offices, to tell others, as we
words and the sad, with danger spots
have so often told them, of what needs to
marked out in the crisis areas, with charts
be done, what we have undertaken to do.
and graphs and statistics and tables and
But look! This is not another campaign.
accounting sheets which show the cost of
It is the beginning of the twentieth year,
landing a ship to Haifa, and a meal for
the twentieth successive year, in which we
2,000 Hungarian refugees in Vienna, and
speak and act as the United Jewish Appeal
even a pair of shoes for a little girl in
—and it is', thus a moment when we may
Casablanca and a gallon of water in the
soberly appraise ourselves and the mean-
Negev.
ing of what we have done.
But the truth is that each year we have
Let me record a few facts—and they
adopted not one budget, but two. For there
are very few. I think all of us note with
was the other budget, about which there
pride that in the nineteen years of our ex-
was no need to speak. There was a budget
istence, we have raised and used more than
in which no costs were asked, or given, no
one billion dollars. With this sum we have
charts or graphs needed. For—let us face
aided more than 2,600,000 men, women and
it—each year in our hearts we adopt again
children. We have brought 1,300,000 to
the budget of 1938 and Auschwitz.
safety in free lands. We have brought
It is a budget without limit; and yet,
1,000,000 of them to Palestine and Israel
not once in all these years of our existence
alone.
has the American Jewish community failed
But as we pause to take stock of our-
to meet it.
selves, and how we came to be here, it is
And so every year we are able to adopt
not enough to pronounce the figures,
a budget for the needs we know exist—
though they are great and notable, and
and know too that if disaster strikes, if
we may speak them with pride. There is
there is an emergency, a new exodus, we
more.
shall be able to cope with that too.
How do we appraise ourselves? What
And the reason that in our hearts we
names shall we give ourselves? It seems
each year accept once more the budget
strange: we insignificant individuals —
for 1938 is that we are determined that it
haven't we become through the UJA,
shall never be 1938 again in the world.
through identification with Israel and
It is clear—because of us, because of
through your Detroit Allied Jewish Cam-
American Jewry, no Jew overseas need
paign, haven't we become givers of life?
die for lack of medicine, for lack of food
Haven't we become makers of history?
or clothing or a roof over his head. And
None of us in our own estimation of our-
because of Israel—and because of us—no
selves ever thought of ourselves in that
Jew need be condemned to homelessness
role, but isn't it a fact?_:.
and extermination. I have said that we are
THINK OF REFUGEES
Givers of Life. I think we are also Makers
Think of the world. as It was in 1938.
of History.
Think of the world of Hitler, of Dachau
and Auschwitz, of closed borders and refu-
A CHANGING WORLD
gees fleeing into nowhere. Think of these,
For .most of us it is perhaps difficult
and then look at our world today, and re-
to appreciate just how much the world
call how we came to be here.
has changed .in the nineteen years of
Remember the pitiful remnant of Eu-
UJA'S existence. Let me put it this way:
ropean Jewry which emerged from the con-
Many of us have children, or perhaps
centration camps and the forest hideouts
grandchildren, to whom- Adolph Hitler is
after World War II — but remember also
in the same category as the Spanish In-
that this remnant was saved and returned
quisition, a thing of evil, but of the evil
to life.
past and of history . . . By the same token,
Remember the terrible camps into
there are the youngsters who never knew
which they were herded, and where they
a time when there was not a State of
were kept, and given the name "DP" —
Israel.
but remember also that today the word
The mission which the UJA accepted,
"DP" has passed into history, and that
in the days of its founding, was a humani-
those who were once DP's are now build-
tarian one, a mission of mercy. But the
ers and artisans and men of worth.
accomplishment of that mission has helped
Remember the "illegals" and Cyprus
change the face of the world.
and the interment camps and Aliyah Beth
Let me ask that revealing question and
—and remember that at the end of that
leave it to you to answer. What would
long and weary road there stands that ex-
Israel be like—if it existed at allwithout
traordinary accomplishment — Israel.
the existence of the United Jewish Appeal?
I don't think I need remind you that
We have taken hundreds of thousands
Israel stands not only at the end of this
of men, women and children and moved
road but at the end of many roads. There
them to safety, to new homes. We have
is the road which began in Yemen and be-
taken the entire Jewish communities of
came the "Magic Carpet" airlift. There
Yemen, of Bulgaria, of Libya and of other
was the road which began in Eastern
countries and we have brought them to
Europe, and the other which began in a
Israel—where would these be now? Would
mountain village of Morocco, and the roads
they still live?
from Egypt and Hungary. and the roads
In Europe, in North Africa and other
from despotism and tyranny and anti-
Moslem areas our help has kept alive
Semitism and harassment everywhere.
Jewish communities that might have dis-
Remember the hungry—and that we
integrated and disappeared, has kept them
fed them. Remember the sick and the
alive to remain where they are or to move
wounded—and that we healed them. Re-
on to Israel and other havens. But what
member the weary and the helpless—and
if there were no UJA? In ten years, Israel
-that it was we who gave them shelter and
has been able to accept, and to welcome,
comfort and a vision of the future.
a million newcomers. But, without UJA,
GIVERS OF LIFE
how many?
Yes, we were givers of life. The world
We are Makers of History, and we
of 1938 was a world of despair, a world in
shall continue to be.
which there was suffering and death every-
In fulfilling our purpose we have
where—and even more to come. There
molded and changed the face of the earth,
were indeed the voices of protest, the
we have helped to transform its peoples.
voices of humanity and of friendship—but
And in my opinion, the changes we
they were few and strangely muted.
have wrought have helped to make the
It was in this dark moment of history
world a better place, not only for its Jews,
that the United Jewish Appeal was born—
but for all mankind.
of
our
anguish
and
our
helplessness,
out
I think it is important, too, to note
the child of our determination and anger.
that in the changing, not the least of the
And in these dark days we were given
changes have been those which we have
a mission, a command; brief and without
achieved upon ourselves, upon the Jewish
qualification.
•• community of the United States. Before
;4
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the appearance of the UJA upon the scene,
it seems to me that we were a community
divided and splintered, a community in
which there were forces dividing us along
many lines, into small and disputing
groups.
Into this community came the UJA,
drawing its support, its leadership and its
strength from all sections of American
Jewry. Into this community came the UJA,
not as the only organization in Jewish
Life, but unique: as the one organization
which is universal, which does not com-
pete with others for the loyalties and
support of the American Jewish .corn-
munity.
Certainly it is not my intention to say
that all the divisions among us have been
eliminated. On the contrary — UJA has
shown that despite the continued existence
of these differences it is possible for all
segments of American Jewry to work in
harmony for a common purpose.
This has had one additional -result: in
many communities it was a simple and
logical step, once .you had established a
united campaign for overseas needs, to take
the accompanying step. And this step was
to agree to• the totality of needs, local,
national and overseas, and the organization
of a single, unified campaign by your
Jewish. Welfare Federation.

THE COMING-OF-AGE

If I may say so, I think that this
.process, which in Detroit is implemented
through your Allied Jewish Campaign, is
in effect the coming-of-age of the Ameri-
can Jewish community ; its achievement of
maturity.
We have grown not only because we are
the Makers of History, not only because
we are the Givers of Life. It is because
in the process of our giving we have come
to be the Receivers of Life. We have be-
come. the Receivers because what we have
given to UJA has been more than money,
more than time, more than energies and
even devotion.
Each year, each month, each day of
these past 19 years we have given to UJA
a little bit of ourselves.
And because of this the little girl whoM
I saw on a kibbutz was a part of me. And
the man in Vienna, carrying all he owned
on his back, and his eyes set on a vision
that I could see was also a part of me.
And the girl who once had trachoma, but
whose eyes now see clearly enough as she
sits—with dignity—before a sewing ma-
chine in a school in Casablanca. And all
of them—the refugees and the kibbutznicks,
the aged and the orphans, the builders and
the helpless—truly are of my heart and
yours. I am grateful.
They have given me a meaning for
UJA. And the meaning is not the 2,600,000
we have helped. The Meaning is an old
man's warm handshake, the meaning is a
little girl's smile, the meaning is a blind
mother's tears. This meaning I recall to
you in this, our moment of dedication.
For if I see clearly what is in my heart
—and in yours—it is this: wherever there
are Jews hungry, there we must be.
Wherever they are in need, there we

must go.

We need give each other no pledges.
We need ask no vows. We nonetheless go
forth with our mission clear and the goal
before us. We who have given life to
hundreds of thousands will give more. We
who have made history will make more.
We who have helped to change the world
will change it even more. We have chosen.
We have been chosen. We are dedicated.
Out of their need, out of their anguish,
they have cried out to us. At the Sucher
home one hundred of your leaders gave
evidence that we shall not let them down.
I know we shall give our total and final
answer in 1958 just as clearly as we have
given it in all the years we have worked
together for the common good.