Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.-Editor.]

The question of the Wise controversy has, in the eyes of the orthodox “Jewish Daily News,” not been solved by the action of the Zionist and Palestine Appeal. Executives which rejected Dr. Wise’s resignation.

“The vote last Sunday at the Pennsylvania Hotel,” declares the paper, “has settled the question of Dr. Wise’s resignation in so far as the Zionist Executive and the Palestine Appeal are concerned, but it has not, of course, settled the question for orthodox Jewry, or, more correctly, for Jewry in general.”

The paper contends that the Wise question went ‘beyond the limits of the Zionist organization … it was a question which touched the principles of Judaism, of religious Judaism, it touched our faith, the honor of our faith,” and urges that despite the overwhelming majority of votes cast for Wise at the Zionist and Palestine Appeal Executive meetings, “the vast majority of Jews in America are opposed to Wise’s further leadership in Jewish affairs since his Carnegie Hail sermon.”

In conclusion, the “Jewish Daily News” reiterates its former stand on the matter in the following words:

“We do not alter even one word, not even one letter, of what we said about Wise and that he must not remain the leader of the Palestine Appeal. We are proud that we took the only stand which Jews who are loyal to their faith, who have respect for Judaism, can and must take. We always stood, we stand now and will continue to stand for the principles of Judaism and the honor of the Jewish faith against those who desecrate it.”

THE REVOLT OF THE CONNECTICUT KLANSMEN

The withdrawal of 600 members from the Ku Klux Klan in Connecticut would be more gratifying if the reason given were more impressive, declares the New York “Evening World.”

“The revolt is over methods, not principles,” the paper is convinced, explaining:

“It appears that the revolt in Connecticut is because of the ‘greed’ of the leaders of the organization ‘in Georgia.’ ‘It has become a travesty on patriotism and a blasphemous caricature professing Protestantism’ and ‘is not only anti-Catholic and anti-Jew but absolutely un-American.’ Such the conclusions of the disgruntled members.

“There is nothing here to indicate that these erstwhile members have concluded that an organization based on racial and religious intolerance is ‘a slimy serpent that threatens the very life of the Nation.’ They evidently still feel that the organization could be ‘anti-Catholic’and ‘anti-Jew’ and still not be ‘anti-American.’ The same confusion as to what constitutes Americanism, the same ignorance of American history which led them into the sheeted brotherhood persists. They are shocked, not because of the professed principles of the Klan, but on account of the mercenary character it has assumed. There has been no conversion-nothing but a revolt because the leaders of the organization are thinking too much of making money out of it instead of dedicating themselves whole-heartedly to the noble work of religious and racial persecution.”

Half of the $5,000 quota for Charleston, S. C. in the United Palestine Appeal was raised at a meeting Sunday night. Jacob Goldman is chairman of the district campaign Samuel Rittenburg presided at the meeting. Rabbi Edward Israel of Baltimore made the appeal.