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The Southern Israelite
JEIVISH BELGIUM
By SYLVAN RUSS
MURTIASHAW
SHOE REPAIR
SHOP
vv
1221 Main St. Tel. S700
COLUMBIA, S. C.
NICKS
SHOE SHINING
and
HAT CLEANING PARLOR
vv
1206 Main St. Tel. 6074
COLUMBIA, S. C.
♦ ♦
Announcing!
HAMMACK’S
DRUG STORE
-8-
J. S. Hammack, Pres. U Treas.
'‘You Will Find It Here"
911 Gervais Phone 8825
COLUMBIA, S. C.
♦ ♦
BLUE BIRD
Trucking Corporation
CONVEYORS OF FINK
FURNITURE
— BONDED —
Local and Long Distance
Hauling
White Drivers Only
2008 Taylor Tel. 8921
COLUMBIA, S. C.
COLUMBIA
BROKERAGE &
STORAGE CO.
Household Goods Storage
BONDED WAREHOUSE
831 Gervais Tel. 8133
COLUMBIA. S. C.
M. MATTHEWS
SYSTEM
James \V. Matthews, Owner
High Grade Groceries
Store No. 1—1732 Main St. Ph. 8211
Store No. 2—2715 Divine St. Ph. 9528
COLUMBIA, S. C.
Although there is no realization of it,
Belgian Judaism which, say alxmt sixty
years ago, had only an extremely small
number among it, out of a total popula
tion of 7,(XX),(XX) inhabitants, is now slow
ly, but surely, gaining the importance of
a considerable factor that will soon have
to be reckoned with ( if not numerically
then at least from the moral and spiritual
point of view).
Backed up by some 70,000 Jewish in
habitants, this, the smallest community of
Western Europe, lias for some year? past,
offered the gratifying spectacle of a con
siderable development, which could not
leave anybody indifferent who is inter
ested in the Jewish problems of our days
and in the future of the Jews.
Within hut a few years Belgian Juda
ism, made up chiefly of elements im
migrated from Russia, Poland and Hol
land, has in fact succeeded in strengthen
ing itself and organizing itself into pow
erful, fully-alive and whole-heartedly de
voted groups, wlv) in a good many re
spects arc already at this time cited as
models for organizations of a similar
character existing in the Jewish centers
of the rest of Europe.
Thanks to the spirit of tolerance and
of perfect democracy in which, in this
free and without hindrances up to our
thoritics, as well as the inhabitants, take
inspiration, a steady Jewish immigration
has, since about 1880, been left practically
free and without hindrances upto our
days—a very rare thing, to be sure—with
the result that Belgian Judaism lias been
able to grow and to prosper to the point
where in a short time it now peoples
great metropolitan centers, such as Brus
sels and Antwerp, with heavy Jewish
populations, of 40,000 and 45,(XX) souls,
respectively, an economically prosperous
population, which has known how to gain
for itself the esteem of the authorities
and of the Belgian people, while at the
same time conserving its own national
identity which it has been able to concili
ate with a sincere devotion to the well-
being of the country that was so hospit
able, so generous with regard to the Jew
ish immigrant.
It was not such a very long time ago
that Brussels, with its 5,(XX) and some odd
Jews, was still able to be cited as a fort
ress of assimilation, which, in imitation
of the Parisian Jews and under the di
rection of the hanker Philipson, the de
ceased president of the Icane, recognized
hut few ties binding it to world Judaism.
Today, under the influence of a new
immigration, and thanks particularly to
u
HALTIWANGER'S
Ladies’ Ready to Wear
and Millinery
1441 Main Street Phone 8510
COLUMBIA, S. C.
M
the powerful inspiration of the Jewish
community of Antwerp, Jewish Brussels
has been compelled not only to relinquish
the moral direction of Jewish affairs in
Belgium to this living and active Jewish
agglomeration of Antwerp, but also to
become itself at the present time a Jewish
center to which no event affecting the
Jewish world is foreign.
Little by little new elements have caused
a beneficial influence to filter through in
to the midst of the supreme organism
which, according to the Belgian Constitu
tion, runs the cultural affairs and which
is called the “Central Jewish Consistory
of Belgium,” and at the present time
Belgian Judaism has a Grand-Rabbi in
Brussels, who associates himself closely
with the different manifestations, both
religious and national as well as philan
thropic, of which Belgian Jewry has in
recent times offered such shining ex
amples.
Philanthropically speaking, the Jewish
community of Antwerp has in fact one
of the most remarkable charitable or
ganizations in the world. One single Fed
eration, with its own sole budget, en
compasses the activity of some twenty
Jewish associations, whose task ranges
from the keeping of the vacation house
for feeble Jewish babies to the superin
tendance and protection of Jewish immi
grants, which Antwerp secs arrive yearly
by the thousands, on account of the situa
tion of its port.
This latter organization has particularly
won for itself an almost world-wide repu
tation due to the perfect operation of its
services in connection with passports, aid,
shelter and embarcation, and the efforts
of its members have met with full recog
nition and appreciation in the fact that
a competence in the matter of immigra
tion questions has been officially recog
nized to them both in the ministries of
Brussels and in the international gather
ings of Geneva.
And it is to the probity and competency
with which this Jewish organization per
forms its task that the great influence
enjoyed by its representatives attached to
the Belgian authorities is due, enabling
them to intervene most effectively in be
half of our Jewish brethren whenever the
necessity therefor arises.
The Jewish national and cultural move
ment itself finds nowhere else any more
enthusiastic and more zealous support
than among our Jewish brethren of Bel
gium.
The latter have always and more par-
VARN’S
DRUG STORE
Edgar H. Vam
2525 Main St. Tel. 4237
COLUMBIA, S. C.
PETER’S
DRY CLEANING CO
TELEPHONE
3933
1412 Main Street
COLUMBIA, S. C.
ELLIOTT & DAVIS
Stephen Elliott Claude P. Davis
Fire and Auto Insuran
Real Estate
Bonds of All Kinds
Arcade Bldg. Phone 5206
COLUMBIA, S. C.
Owings Tire &
Vulcanizing Works
WM. Y. OWINGS—OWNER
VULCANIZERS AND DEALERS
U. S. TIRES AND TUBES
1315 Taylor Tel. 9701
COLUMBIA, S. C.
CENTRAL ICE CREAM
& CANDY CO.
“Best by Test’’
In Our New Up-to-Date Ultra
Modern Plant
1005 Main Tel. 3178-3179
COLUMBIA, S. C.
CLARK HEATING
COMPANY
Joe W. Clark
Heating and Plumbing
Contracting
1226 Washington Tel. 6672
COLUMBIA, S. C.
CAROLINA
DRY CLEANING
COMPANY
“If it can be cleaned
we can clean it'
Quality Is Our Mon >
1608 Barnwell Phone 156
COLUMBIA, S. C.