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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
NATIONAL AND FOREIGN NOTES
SIR JOHN MON ASH
Commander-in-Chief of Australian
Expeditionary Forces during the
World War, recently hailed Austra
lia’s leading general, is the Jew hold
ing (he highest military rank in any
country.
New York, N. Y.—Religion became
a center of bitter controversy in New
York as a result of the publica
tion of a story in the local news
papers that the Board of Educa
tion of the city was planning to in
stitute a course in Bible teaching in
the schools and that pupils would be
given credit for it. The plan to teach
religion in the schools was said to be
the outcome of plans worked out by
the so-called Interfaith Committee, a
self-constituted body consisting of
Jews, Protestants and Catholics. At
once Superintendent of Schools Wil
liam O’Shea and members of the In
terfaith Committee vehemently denied
that there was any intention to make
the teaching of the Bible a part of
the curriculum for New York school
students. It seems that all the Inter
faith Committee wants is for the New
York State Board of Regents to give
credit for courses in Bible study con
ducted outside of school buildings and
school hours and in institutions rep
resenting the individual faiths. A sim
ilar move to introduce religious in
struction in the school system by dis
missing all pupils at certain hours
every week to go to religious school
was made in 1920 but was quashed by
the protest of numerous individuals
and organizations. Rabbi David de
Sola Pool is a vice-president and Rab
bi Israel Goldstein is treasurer of the
Interfaith Committee.
Jerusalem.—The Moslem Supreme
Council, after consideration of the re
port of the Wailing Wall Commission
of the League of Nations, has defi
nitely determined not to accept its
findings and will so inform the Brit
ish Government. The Moslems declare
that since they did not agree to the
appointment of the Commission in the
first place, they are not bound by its
decisions. They further state that Mos
lem rights have been violated and
Jews have been granted rights which
they did not previously have.
Vienna.—With Austria’s financial
and political difficulties becoming more
pronounced daily, popular wrath
against Louis Rothschild, head of the
Creditanstalt, whose collapse caused
the country’s economic crisis, has
broken out into a series of street dem
onstrations. This feeling is being
fanned into anti-Semitic paths by pro
fessional agitators. A series of pa
rades and street meetings have been
held during the past week, during
which Rothschild has been character
ized as a symbol of Jewry, ensalving
Austria as well as the rest of the
world.
Madrid.—A large fund is now being
gathered among Sephardic Jews in
various countries for the purchase of
the famous Synagogue of Toledo, ac
cording to El Debate, Catholic news
paper. The abolition of the decree
banning Jews is expected to bring
many Jews back in the country, who
will need places of worship in the
large towns.
Jerusalem—Thirty-three Jews left
in Palestine during the month of May
but 470 immigrants stayed in the
country, according to the report of the
Immigration Department.
COMPLETE REVISION OF UNION HYMNAL
1 he annual convention of (he Central Conference of American Rabbis, held in
Wawasee, Ind., June 17, featured a report of a committee that for the past
five years has been engaged in revising the l nion Hymnal. In the picture are
members of the committee at their final meeting. Standing (left to right):
Rabbis David Marx and Nathan Stern, Abraham W. Binder of New York,
musical editor, and Rabbi Abraham Holtzberg, secretary. Seated: Rabbis Jacob
Singer, Harry H. Mayer, James G. Heller, Edward N. Calisch, Sidney E. Unger,
and Louis Wolsey, ot Philadelphia, chairman of the committee. The new r hym
nal is entitled, “Songs and Prayers of Jewish Worship.”
Vienna.—Hereafter Felix Mendels
sohn’s Wedding March, the most fa
mous of our time, will not be played
at matrimonial functions performed in
the churches of Linz, Austria, as a
result of a ruling made by Bishop Jo
hannes Gfoelner. His official reason is
that the music is too worldly for Cath
olic rites, but it is believed that the
Jewishness of its author affected the
Bishop’s decision.
New Y’ork, N. Y.—Organizers of
“mushroom synagogues,” which spring-
up in every large Jewish community
before Rosh Hashanah, will be prose
cuted to the full extent of the law
in New York, as a result of action
taken by the New York branch of the
United Synagogue. Judge Hyman J.
Reit, president, has organized a staff
of lawyers who will act on complaints
against those who “fleece orthodox
Jews.”
New York, N. Y.—A World Jewish
Congress for the discussion of the ills
which afflict contemporary Jewry will
be held at Basle, Switzerland, on July
12th, according to an announcement
made at an executive committee meet
ing of the American Jewish Congress.
It was pointed out that this year’s
meeting would be only a preliminary
conference which would make com
plete plans for a really representa
tive world Jewish gathering to meet
later on.
The American Jewish Congress also
passed resolutions condemning the
passage of the alien registration law
in Michigan and denouncing the anti-
Semitic agitation in Mexico, calling
upon the government, for the sake of
its own good name, to suppress such
demonstrations against Jews as have
recently occurred.
Washington, D. C.-—Freedom 0 f th
press gained another vict< -
the United States Supreme , : ’ urt JT‘
a vote of 5 to 4, decided that'the
Minnesota “press gag” law i s U ncon
stitutional. However, the court’s de
cision, though a boon to liberalism*
has raised important questions with
regard to the right of a publication
to indulge in attacks upon a particu
lar race or religion. For the Saturday
Press of Minneapolis, which was the
center of the long court suit, had not
only published a series of attacks on
individuals in public and private life
but had also continuously published
attacks on the Jews as individuals and
as a people. The majority opinion
was written by Chief Justice Hughes.
The dissenting opinion was written In
justice Butler, who, referring to the
attacks on “leading newspapers of
the city, many private persons and
the Jewish race,” urged that the law
restraining libel of the kind said to
have been published by the Saturday
Press should be upheld.
PROFESSOR EINSTEIN
Most recent portrait of the I
the Theory of Relativity, on His ^
to receive an honorary degree a
ford University, England.
Cambridge, Mass.—An u &n( j
vandal entered Straus - 1 .^ or
slashed the portrait of tht . irva rd
Straus, in whose memory ti V, she j
University dormitory was e
by his three sons, all Harva ‘! ut tfng
It is not known whether ’ tu _
of the picture was done by
dent with an anti-Jewish