Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 19, 1941 Page: 4 of 6
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4
THE JEWISH HERALD-VOICE
June 19, 1941
Syrian ...
iConttniNd from p«|» 1I
stream of refugee* moved north-
ward to Syria. The Yiahuv was
not then what it is today. But
already the large number of Jews
living in Palestine had high
standards of living. Confronted
with the misery in Damascus and
the other Syrian cities, they were
shocked.
They were equally distressed by
the isolation of the Syrian-Jewish
communities. The fame brought
to the country by the “Damascus
affair" in 1840 was a thing of the
far past. All contact with Jews
in the rest of the world had long
•.ince been lost. The efforts of
the Alliance Israelite Universelle
had made only small inroads into
the general uneducated state of
the Jewish communities. Hebrew
was an almost unknown tongue.
The Syrian Jews held fast to their
Sephardic ritual, but there was
little of enlightenment in their
lives.
Under the impact of the visitors
from Palestine a change occurred.
The standard of living was raised.
Prostitution was eliminated. After
the war was over and Syria had
become a Fr^pch Mandate the
work of the Alliance Israelite
Universe!!* was supplemented by
great activity of the B'nai B'rith,
working from a center in Con-
stantinople. However, even to-
day. the level of life of Syrian
Jewry is still far below that of
the Jews in Palestine. Today,
approximately one person in five
speaks Hebrew, which is a great
advance over the status twenty
years ago The whole tone of ex-
istence shows the effects of the
nearby Yishuv. But the sus-
picions of British influence shown
by the French and the propa-
ganda spread among the Arab
populations of both countries pre-
vented the healthier Yishuv at-
mosphere from permeating the
Syrian background as thoroughly
as it could have done.
Perhaps the next few years
will bring less interference and
more benefits to the Syrian Jews.
There are now almost 25,000 of
them — approximately 10,000 in
Aleppo. 10.000 in Damascus, and
about 3.500 in Beirut. The popu-
lation is predominantly Sephardic.
But for all their comparative
remoteness from twentieth-cen-
tury development the Jews of
Syria have a long history behind
them. Abraham came from Syria.
David ruled Damascus, so that
Syria was part of the first politi-
cal Jewish kingdom. In the three
thousand years that have passed
since then, the mountains of
Syria and its Mediterranean
shores have seen conquerors and
conquered sweep back and forth
in an interchange of influence.
Through them all the Jews held
on. as they usually do. Through
the crusades and under Arab
rule, the community remained
what it was. growing more and
more isolated, but never separat-
ing from its own Jewish back-
ground. In the 12th century the
traveler Benjamin of Tudela
found Jews in all the principal
cities. Later some contact with
the Jews of the Far East parti-
cularly those of Cochin, China,
was established. Many Jewish
cholars flourished in Syria dur-
ing the late Middle Ages and the
early modem period.
But the “Damascus affair,” in
.940. brought Syria into world af-
fairs. and—oddly enough—united
world Jewry for the first time on
hehalf of a single community. In
February. 1840, a Capuchin friar
tisappeared. He was known to
have quarreled with a Turkish
muleteer who had threatened to
kill him. But the Jews, whose
quarter he had visited the day
before, were accused of a blood
ritpal murder
Arrests, even of children, tor-
ture and confessions extorted un-
der barbaric circumstances, fol-
lowed. Adolphe Cremieux in
France and Moses Montefiore and
Baron James de Rothschild in En-
gland headed a movement of pro-
test which som) reached Jewish
communities everywhere Funds
were raised for the suffering Da-
mascus Jews. Finally, through the
intervention of the British and
Austrian consuls, the affair was
cleared up. Montefiore and Crem-
ieux obtained a firman from the
Sultan which barred further
Boxing Show For Greek Relief
MITSOS CRIPPOS
A boxing show to help Greek
refugees and war sufferers will
be held June 24 at the city au-
ditorium under auspices of the
Greek-American Progressive As-
sociation, Lodge No. 81.
In the main event Mitsos Crisp-
pos of New York, sensational
Greek fighter, will meet Irish
Eddie McGeever, popular Scran-
ton battler, who has appeared in
Houston on numerous occasions.
They will fight 10 rounds at 140
pounds.
James Prappas, popular presi-
dent of the Greek-American Pro-
gressive Association, announced
that tickets will be sold at his
place of business as well as 150
other Greek business establish-
ments. He says that all proceeds
will be sent to EuxSfee for Greek
refugees and war sufferers who
have put up a heroic stand in be-
half of democracy.
charges of ritual murder against
the Jews.
Out of this first unity grew the
Alliance Israelite Universelle —
and, in fact, all other co-opera-
tive Jewish undertakings.
Once again, in 1860, quarrels
between Egyptian Christians and
the Mohammedan Druses were
deflected to the Jewish quarter of
Damascus. And again Monte-
fiore, and Cremieux and Pereire
in France, collaborated in exon-
erating the Jews who had been
falsely arrested. One of them,
however, had died in prison.
Syrian Jewry has therefore
played an odd role in Jewish his-
tory. Without having contributed
actively to the processes of eman-
cipation and collaboration, it yet
provided the cause for the most
important developments of the
past century of Jewish life. The
armies that have moved into
Syria from Palestine bring to
the Jews of that country, in a
sense, the accumulated interest
on what they have produced for
others. They have endured an
uncommon amount of oppression
and restraint of which the Nazi
threat was only the last of a
series. Freed from this, they
will perhaps be freed finally from
their other handicaps.
Jewish Social . . .
(Continued from page 1)
of the National Refugee Service,
presiding. Henry Monsky, Pre-
sident of B’nai B’rith, and Frank
L. Weil, President of the Jewish
Welfare Board, two agencies as-
sisting in the defense situation,
reviewed the obligations facing
the Jewish community.
The Conference adopted the
following resolutions:
“In this trying period of em-
ergency confronting the people
of this country, the Jewish So-
cial and Communal Workers of
America, in concert with all our
fellow citizens, pledge their full
and unremitting support to the
effort to develop and sustain the
spirit of national unity upon
which the future of our free in-
stitutions and way of life de-
pends.
“The Conference extends its
greetings and admiration to those
philanthropic institutions and the
social workers and communal
leaders on their roles—who, in
the face of seemingly insuperable
difficulties, continue to serve the
physical and spiritual needs of
the Jewish communities in the
areas dominated by the Nazis.
“This Conference expresses its
sympathies to those living in
Europe under the present trying
and intolerable conditions and
hopes for their speedy liberation
from the oppressions of the dic-
tatorships and the horror of war.
“The Conference extends to the
Jewish community of Palestine its
sense of high acknowledgement
for the courage and the heroic
spirit with which it is facing the
threat of Nazi invasion. This
Conference voices the earnest
hope that the Holy Land be spared
the horrors of violence and war.”
The Conference was dominated
throughout by a recognition of
the new functions that face the
Jewish community as a result of
the emergency. Concern for the
selectees, for labor conditions, for
social welfare standards, for re-
tention of the gains in Jewish
education was exhibited by the
assembled social-work and educa-
tion leaders.
Mr. Chipkin is the first educa-
REFUGEES AIDING
CHILE PROGRESS
New York—Jewish refugees are
r playing an important role in the
growing industrialization of Chile,
according to Dr. Margarete Berent
in an article in the latest issue cf
the ORT Economic Bulletin. In
addition. Dr. Berent writes, suc-
cessful agricultural projects are
bemg operated by Jews.
In another article, Dr. David
Lvovitch, vice president of the
World ORT Union, tells how
trainees and artisans in ORT
schools and workshops behind the
ghetto walls of Warsaw and in
the refugee camps in France are
manufacturing clothes, shoes and
other necessities for their fellow-
Jews.
Some 2,000 per.ons are employ-
ed on 45 precis in Warsaw, ac-
cording to the latest report, says
TV. l vovitch in an article prais-
ing “the remarkable and courage-
ous” efforts of the city's Jewish
community to “save Jewish dig-
nity and lives.”
Other articles in the Bulletin,
i--ued through the American ORT
Federation, 212 Fifth Avenue,
New York, are:
“Economic Reconstruction of
French Jewry,” by Prof. William
Oualid, president of the Central
Board, World ORT Union; “The
Plight of German Jewry,” Erich
Max Simon; “The Jews in Soviet
Russia,” Jacob Lestschinsky; “Ex-
perience of Settlers in Brazil,”
Heinrich Kaplan and Max Her-
mann Maier.
Jerusalem—An 18-month odys-
sey that took them practically
around the globe was completed
today by ten immigrant families
of Polish-Jewish refugees when
they arrived in Eretz Israel at
long last after having traveled
across Lithuania. Russia, Japan
and India.
tor ever elected to head the Na-
tional Conference of Social Wel-
fare. He is a former Vice Presi-
dent of the Social Work Group,
and was one of the founders and
early presidents of the National
Council for Jewish Education. He
succeeds Dr. Maurice Taylor, Di-
rector of the Federation of the
Jewish Philanthropies of Pitts-
burgh.
FULL AND PARTIAL
SCHOLARSHIPS AT
YESHIVA COLLEGE
New York—Yeshiva College, the
only College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences under Jewish auspice",
which dedicates its energies to the
preparation of selected groups r f
Jewish young men, who desire to
be educated liberally as well as
Jewishly is now accepting appli-
cations for admission for the Fall
Semester.
Yeshiva College is, by design,
» a small college, so that it may al-
ways maintain that close personal
contact between the Faculty —
a group cf men of high scholastic
attainment, selected for both
scholarship and their ability to
teach—and students, which stim-
ulates thought and helps to build
character. This also enables every
student to participate in the ex-
tra-curricular activities which
provide fully for the students’ in-
terests and proclivities.
In addition to the regular aca-
denvc courses which are similar
ir, quality and kind to those of-
fered in the select smaller liberal
arts colleges in the country, Ye-
shiva College conducts as an in-
tegral part of its program, courses
in Jewish studies:—Bible: Hebrew
Language and Literature: and
Jewish History, Ethics and Phil-
osophy, and Sociology. These
courses, which are required of all
students in addition to their Tal-
mudic studies pursued either in
the Yeshiva or in the Teachers
Institute, are allowed credit to-
ward the Bachelor of Arts and
Bachelor of Science degrees.
Yeshiva College is housed in
three buildings located at Amster-
dam Avenue, 186th and 187th Sts.,
on Washington Heights, the high-
est ground of Manhattan Island,
New York City. These were com-
pleted in 1928 at a cost of $2,500,-
000 and are completely equipped
with lecture, recitation, and con-
ference rooms, thoroughly mod-
ern laboratories, libraries, music,
art and social rooms, an auditor-
ium, gymnasium, and a students’
home with accommodations for
over 200 resident students.
For information, students should
communicate with Prof. Jacob I.,
Hartstein, Registrar of Yeshiva
College, at Amsterdam Avenue
and 186th Street, New York City.
"Vote to Promote"—
MARTIN DIES
to the
U. S. SENATE
WHERE HE CAN
CONTINUE HIS
SPLENDID WORK
WITH GREATER
POWERS
KEEP AMERICA FOR AMERICANS OF EVERY
RACE OR CREED
DIES has served as member of some of the Major Committees
of the House.
HE is author of the first Farm Monetary Bill
HE secured ammendments that helped improve immigration
laws.
HE is author of the Roosevelt Administration Silver Legislation.
HE is author of Dies' Resolution to investigate Un-American
Activities.
Organizations like the Nazi Silver Shirt Legion were destroyed
by Dies' Exposure of them.
(Adv. Paid for by Friends of Martin Dies)
!
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White, D. H. Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 13, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 19, 1941, newspaper, June 19, 1941; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1102654/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .