Robert Weltsch Anb the Leo Baeck Institute
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Volume XXI No. 6 June, 1966 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN CREAT BRITAIN ^- Rosenstock most American Jews are descendants of Eastern Jewish immigrants we are apt to forget that the foundations of many local and national Jewish organisations were laid by A DECADE OF ACHIEVEMENTS German Jews who emigrated at an earlier stage. We owe it to Hanns Reissner that, Tenth Year Book of Leo Baeck Institute in his article on German-American Jews, he has unearthed much, so far unknown, source This issue carries birthday tributes to countries. As the article on this subject by material about the places of origin, occupa several personalities who are closely associated Zosa Szajkowski reveals, the Jewish masses tions and resettlement areas of these immi *ith our work. Yet we also have to record an wished to have a say in the distribution of the grants. The detailed study ends vidth the ittiportant anniversary in the history of an funds and resented the " patronising " attitude enumeration of well-known German Jewish organisation whose objects are inseparably of the German " Hilfsverein " and the Ameri families such as the Gimbels (from Bavaria), linked up with those of the AJR: the pub can " Joint". The article also recalls interest the bankers Seligman (of Baiersdorf), the lication of the Tenth Year Book of the Leo ing details about the Zionist policy prior to Lehmans (of Rimpart near Wuerzburg), the Saeck Institute.* the Balfour Declaration, when it appeared Kuhns, Loebs and SchifTs, to quote only a few In his introductory article the president of equally necessary to secure the goodwill of examples. the Institute, Dr. Siegfried Moses, rightly the Central Powers because Palestine was then There is hardly any sphere of historical states that the achievements of the past under Turkish rule. research in which personal recollections are <lecade more than exceeded the expectations The relationship between East and West as important as in the evaluation of youth of its founders. Apart from ten Year Books is also mirrored in a study on the life and movements, because their community life was (in English) and 29 Bulletins (in German), work of the founder of the " Hilfsverein", determined by emotional undercurrents rather the list of publications comprises 14 volumes James Simon, an " assimilated " Jew who had than by tangible ideologies. In his article on of the " Schriftenreihe wissenschaftlicher attained a high position in the cultural and Siegfried Bernfeld, Willi Hofler brings to life Abhandlungen", seven memoirs and bio economic life of his country and who used his the efforts of a group of young Viennese graphies, several monographs and collections influence for the benefit of his persecuted Jews at the end of the First World War who of letters, as well as translations (into English fellow Jews abroad. This type of Jewish infused the ideals of the German Youth Move and Hebrew) and reprints of works by out philanthropist is now extinct, and it has ment into their work for the national rebirth standing German Jews. As Dr. Moses states, become fashionable to speak of it in deroga of the Jewish people. Another educational of the 200 authors who have contributed to tory terms. Yet we must not forget that the venture, although under entirely different these publications 65 per cent lived and philanthropists of the old school were also circumstances and towards entirely different forked in Central Europe until the Nazis driven by strong Jewish impulses. The objects, was the Auswandererlehrgut Gross- ^ame to power. A further 25 per cent were " Kaiserjude" James Simon was well aware Breesen, described by Wemer T. Angress. horn in German-speaking countries but of his underprivileged position. When, for This agricultural training centre was estab ^migrated at an early age. These figures are the purpose of war propaganda, the repre lished after 1933 for young German Jews interesting under two aspects. They show sentative body of French Jewry published a who, mainly for ideological reasons, intended the important role to be played by those who statement accusing the Germans of anti to emigrate to countries other than Palestine. ?^an still speak from first-hand experience, semitism, Simon was asked to refute these The author, himself a former Gross-Breesener, ^et they also indicate the increasing interest accusations by a counter-statement. He is now a Professor of History in New York. of young scholars of German-Jewish origin in declined to do so and, in a dignified letter to He frankly admits that Gross-Breeson had the tasks of the Institute. Some of them may the German Foreign Ofiice, referred to the been a failure from a vocational point of view, he impelled by the desire to get to know their humiliating discriminatory measures to which, and that it had not succeeded either in own background. But others may also have in spite of their formal emancipation, the imbuing the pupils with a genuinely Jewish •"oalised—the importance of the subject for German Jews were still subjected. Present-day Jewry. The confrontation of an Another personality who was involved in Continued on page 2, column 1 ^niancipated Jewish society with the political the work for the Jews in German occupied ^nd cultural life of the majority population, as countries was the economist and sociologist, experienced in Germany, has now gained Franz Oppenheimer. An evaluation of his The Association of Jewish Refugees in '''omentum in countries whose Jewish com- work by Adolph Lowe is, to some extent, Great Britain "J'^nities no longer consist of immigrants or based on Oppenheimer's interesting auto herewith invites members to its J'hildren of immigrants, but of members of biography, " Erlebtes, Erstrebtes, Erreichtes " tho third generation who are integrated into (1931) which has been re-issued in an GENERAL MEETING their environment. While a few decades ago enlarged edition by Joseph Melzer (Duessel there was tension between the comparatively on Tuesday, June 14, at 8 p.m. dorf). Oppenheimer's "Sociology" has at Hannah Karminski House, ^niall section of assimilated Jews and the become a standard work. On several occa i^wish masses who lived in or came from sions, his ideas about agricultural settlements 9 Adamson Road, Swiss Cottage, *;astern European countries, in the meantime were put into practice in Gennany and also N.W.3 he descendants of these Eastem Jews have in Israel. He was associated with the Zionist AGENDA ^Isf) been " acculturated " (as the term in the Movement, although neither the article nor Reports on AJR Activities yS.A. runs) and are struggling with the the autobiography make it sufficiently clear, Treasurer's Report ame problems of preserving Jewishness as for which deeper reasons and to what extent Report on Restitution and Compen he former German Jews. this highly assimilated " German" professor sation , During the First World War, this tension was really captivated by the idea of a Jewish Election of Executive and Board etween East and West manifested itself in renaissance. As a teacher of Chancellor (The list of candidates submitted by the he controversies about the methods of Jewish Erhard he is, as the article puts it, the Executive is published on page 13, elief work in German occupied Eastern "grandfather" of the German "Wirtschafts further nominations should reach the wunder." AJR ofiice by June 8.) W*J^*ir Book X of the Leo Baeck Instltnte. Edited No further notice will be given. loo Robert Weltsch. East and West Library. London, The dominant position of American Jewry 1^- 365 pp., 42 iUustrations. £2 7s. 6d. For mem- Non-members are not entitled to vote, but S. °f the Societv of Friends of the Leo Baeck in Jewish life gives added topicality to any are welcome as guests at the meeting. '««titiut e free of charge. study of the history of that community. As Page 2 AJR INFORMATION June, 1966 DECADE OF ACHIEVEMENTS THE GERMAN SCENE Continued from page 1 DANGERS FROM THE RIGHT SEPP DIETRICH'S FUNERAL In Ludwigsburg, the funeral of Sepp attitude. Yet, particularly due to the influ Bavarian trade union leaders have criticised Dietrich, the former S.S. general, was ence of the Director, Professor Curt Bondy, Chancellor Erhard for his view that Right-wing attended by more than 3,000 people. Most the human contacts between the pupils were radicalism represents no threat to democracy of them were former S.S. men and included so strong that they persisted for many years in West Germany. Trade unionists in Baden- delegations from Austria, Finland and Hol after their dispersion. Of great documentary Wuerttemberg have asked that the forth land. Representatives of the extreme Right- value are the posthumously published auto coming trade union congress should denounce wing National Democrat Party and mem public attempts to minimise the importance of bers of the West German Army in uniform biographical notes of the philosopher, the late growing-neo-Nazi and antisemitic tendencies in Professor David Baumgardt: " Looking Back were among the mourners. Wreaths were sent the Federal Republic. Dr. Erich Mende, the by the families of the former Nazi Foreign on a German University Career". Without Federal Chairman of the Free Democrat Party Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Hitler's glossing over the negative aspects, Baumgardt has, however, said that the N.D.P. represents deputy, Rudolf Hess. recalls the hardly impaired good relations no threat and that it would be a mistake to ban its activities. Dietrich's Nazi Iron Cross was displayed on between Jewish university teachers and their the coffin. The mourners sang the Nazi anthem non-Jewish colleagues, some of whom, as he Vigilance against the increase of the N.P.D.