The B'nai B'rith magazine · 1927-06-01 · 9 (6.1927) · p. Seite 387

District No. I Accepts Wider Scope Quota Y\ 7TTH the convention of B'nai B'rith vv District No. I in New York City, May 8th, 9th and 10th, the Jewish cultural renaissance x gained a footing in the stronghold of American Jewry, d r e d from York State, Charles Hartman Two hundelegates sixty-nine in New City and Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Eastern Canada, pledged their organizations to raise $750,000 for the support of the cultural projects represented in the B'nai B'rith Wider Scope Campaign. The acceptance of its quota by District No. 1 practically insures the success of the $2,000,000 B'nai B'rith Wider Scope Campaign. The Jewry of that section of the country have never failed to make good a pledge to their people, and as the East goes, so goes the rest of the country. A guiding force in the Wider Scope effort in District No. I is Charles Hartman, of New York City, representative of the District on the Executive Committee of the Constitution Grand Lodge. For years he has devoted most of his time to B'nai B'rith work and many of the great achievements in the Order and in the District are the result of his counsel and labors. District I now is beginning to organize for the campaign. The actual drive will be launched in the Fall. The imagination of the convention delegates was fired by the aims of the Wider Scope Committee. Dr. Boris D . Bogen described Hk i|k the five B'nai m B'rith. Hillel Foundations a t universities, and of others that are to be established, where Jewish college youth may be trained for Jewish leadership. He spoke of the extension of Maurice Block this work, through the Aleph Zadik Aleph, to Jewish young men not in colleges. He described the Anti-Defamation League, the B'nai B'rith Mexican Bureau and the Palestine Building Fund to which also the proceeds of the Wider Scope Campaign will be applied. Important business was transacted at the sessions of the Convention but public interest centered in the banquet which opened the conclave. Twelve hundred guests, representing all wings of New York Jewry, united under the banner of the Wider Scope Committee. Their enthusiastic response to the sentiments of the speakers attested their sympathy for the Wider Scope ideals. The group of speakers included Dr. Israel Mattuck, Rabbi of the Liberal Synagogue of London, Maurice Bloch, New York Assemblyman, Robert F. Wagner, United States Senator, Albert Ottinger, New York Attorney General, Louis W. Osterweis,and Dr. Bogen. Leonard J. Obermeier was toastmaster. The keynote of the event was sounded by Dr. Mattuck. Referring to the effort of the Wider Scope Committee to instill a self-respecting identity in American Jewry, Dr. Mattuck said: "I don't care what others think of the Jew. But I care a tremendous lot of what the Jew thinks of himself." Continuing, Dr. Mattuck said: ". . . so long as we continue to believe in ourselves and our destiny, so long as we believe that the Jew has a purpose in the world—I care not what others may say or do—we have that in ourselves which can defy circumstances and stand before the world able to serve the world." In his address, Senator Wagner, also spoke of the Jews as a people ,who might serve the world—"to improve the understanding of nations; restore friendly relationship between them and do away with even the possibility of another war such as the one we have just gone through." 387 David Ruslander Judge Albert Cohn Attorney General Ottinger extolled the B'nai B'rith as an organization that best represents the ideals of our faith. "It gives the lie to those critics who would besmirch the people of our faith as dedicating themselves upon the altar of commercial interest," he said. "Here each man and woman has devoted himself and herself to the cause of humanity as broad as the whole world. Such an organization as this gives us renewed faith in God, for if it is true that man is made in the image of his Maker, we are but feeble imitations, and by our noble effort we glorify the name of God." Governor Alfred Smith of New York, and Henry Monsky, of Omaha, national chairman of the Wider Scope Committee, who were expected to speak at the banquet, were unable to be present. Assemblyman Maurice Bloch was elected to lead District No. I as its president during the coming year. Mr. Bloch has been a member of the New York Assembly since 1915 and has been the minority leader of that body since 1924. As a member of the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly, he came into national prominence in 1920 by his refusal to recommend the ousting of Socialists from the House. He previously was vice-president of District No. I. Other officers elected are David Ruslander, first vice-president; Judge Albert Cohn, second vice-president; Louis Fabricant, treasurer, and Max Levy, secretary. Joshua Kantrowitz, president of the Board of Governors of the Home for the Aged and Infirm at Yonkers, an institution which is maintained by the District, reported that the home will be sold and other provisions made for the welfare of its inmates. Louis Fabricant