REVIEW OF THE YEAR REVIEW OF THE YEAR CONTENTS I. UNITED STATES 87 II. BRITISH EMPIRE 1. Great Britain 159 2. Eire 169 3. Canada 171 4. Union of South Africa 174 5. Australia. 179 III. OTHER WEST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 1. Belgium ' 180 2. France 182 3. Netherlands 185 4. Spain 187 IV. GERMANY ." 189 V. AUSTRIA .' 204 VI. HUNGARY 215 VII. OTHER CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 1. Czechoslovakia 222 2. Danzig 226 3. Denmark 228 4. Italy 230 5. Switzerland 235 VIII. POLAND.., 238 IX. ROUMANIA 280 X. OTHER EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 1. Bulgaria 301 2. Estonia 302 3. Greece 302 4. Latvia 303 • 5. Lithuania 304 6. Soviet Russia 304 7. Yugoslavia 308 XL PALESTINE 310 XII. OTHER COUNTRIES 1. Egypt 332 2. In>q 334 3. Syria 334 4. Turkey 336 5. Mexico 336 6. Other Latin American Countries : 338 XIII. INTERNATIONAL MATTERS 343 REVIEW OF THE YEAR 5698* By HARRY SCHNEIDERMAN INTRODUCTION Several tragic factors combined to make the period now under review probably the most sombre and disheartening twelve-month for jews since the close of the World War. The breath-taking increase in the unconscionable ruthless- mess of the Nazi drive against the Jews of Germany, especially after the seizure of Austria; the savagery of the sadistic maltreatment of Jews which accompanied that act of international banditry; the indications, all too numerous and obvious, that the pestilence of Nazism has spread to Poland, to Roumania, and to Hungary and has begun to infect other areas; and, finally the catastrophic deadlock in Arab-Jewish relations in Palestine — these develop- ments, all of them symptoms of the breakdown of inter- national morality, served to focus the attention of Jews in all other lands as never before on Central Europe and the Near East. The inter-governmental refugee conference at Evian-les-Bains, France, at the close of the period brought the Nazi regime in Germany, the chief cause of that breakdown, again before the bar of civilized world opinion, but, althougthcondemnation wasdecisiveandunqualified.it did not avail to stop or reduce the depredations of a criminal government which appears to have neither con- science nor regard for world opinion. The period covered by this review is from July 1, 1937 to June 30, 1938. It is based on reports in the Jewish and general press of theUnited States and a number of foreign countries. AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK I. UNITED STATES In opening our Review, a year ago, we observed that there were indications that the Jewish community of the United States was again beginning to give to its domestic interests the major part of its thought and attention which had been focused on events abroad since 1933, when the present regime in Germany came into power. The turning of the screw of Jewish torture in Germany, the increase in the number of Jewish victims in that country by the addition of the 200,000 Jews of Austria, the intensification of anti-Jewish incitement in Poland, the moves to deprive Jews of citizenship and livelihood in Roumania, the legal sanction given to anti-Semitism by the enactment of a numerus clausus for Jews in the cultural and economic life of Hungary, and the recent tragic turn of events in Palestine, drew the attention of American Jews back to the Old World. Along with increased solicitude for the welfare of their brethren in lands of oppression, came a more wide- spread as well as more intense interest in the activities of domestic communal agencies of all kinds. Events of Jewish interest in Germany and happenings at home con- nected with them continued during the review period to occupy the foreground of the overseas interests of American Jews, with events in Palestine, Poland, Roumania and Hungary following close. A. OVERSEAS INTERESTS i. Reaction to Events in Germany As in the previous review period, there were during the past one a number of events both at home and in Germany which were of special interest to the American people whose reaction to them indicated manifest and unmistak- able disapproval of Nazi policies and procedures. • REVIEW OF THE YEAR 5698—UNITED STATES 89 a. United States Representation at Nuremberg Congress On August 26, 1937, it was announced that the United States charge d'affaires in Berlin had been instructed by the State Department to attend the Nuremberg Congress of the National Socialist Party, It was disclosed that this decision had been taken against the strong advice of Ambassador William E. Dodd, then in this country on leave of absence. It had become customary for the principal democratic powers, England, France, and the United States, not to be represented at the annual congresses at which democracy is held up to ridicule. This time, however, because Hitler, himself, as head of the State, had requested the attendance of representatives of the democratic countries for one day, the British and French Governments had accepted the invitation in order to avoid an open affront; and the government of the United States had followed suit. The action of the State Department evoked a great deal of press comment, some of it condemnatory of American representation at the Nazi Party Congress, and several organizations protested against the action; but, there were indications that, on the whole, public opinion recognized that it would have been extremely difficult for the State Department to have acted otherwise in this very awkward situation. b. Resignation of Ambassador Dodd In view of Ambassador Dodd's known opposition to this step and other indications of his unmistakable disapproval of Nazi policies, the American public was not surprised when, on December 7, it was announced that, after four and one half years service at Berlin, he had tendered his resignation. On January 7, 1938, Mr. Hugh R. Wilson, Assistant Secretary of State was appointed to succeed Dr. Dodd. In a statement to the press upon his return from Europe on January 6, 1938, Dr. Dodd declared that a representative 90 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK of a country of democratic ideals, such as the United States, could not successfully serve his Government in Nazi Germany. He vigorously condemned race hatred, war preparations, and treaty violations. He was especially outspoken in decrying the persecution of the Jews, who, he said, had served courageously on both sides in the World War and had come to the aid of the helpless Germans after it. In a region where religious freedom is denied and racial hatreds are cultivated, said Dr. Dodd, it was the duty of an American representative to "remind men of the significance of democratic civilization for which peoples have struggled since the sixteenth century." On January 13, in an address at a dinner given in his honor at the Hotel Waldorf Astoria, New York City, Mr. Dodd labelled German "Aryanism" a false doctrine, and charged that Hitler had killed "more personal enemies in five years than Charles II of England did in twenty years." These statements evoked a protest from the German Ambassador, Dr. Hans Dieckhoff, who, without awaiting instructions from his Government, called upon Secretary of State Hull. While deploring the incident, Secretary Hull pointed out that the Federal Government has no control over the utterances of Dr. Dodd, who was no longer an official. Dr. Dodd's address on January 13 was favorably received in the American press and he was immediately besieged with invitations to address groups throughout the country. Dr. Dodd spoke and lectured extensively and on repeated occasions condemned the brutalities perpetrated by the Nazi regime and emphasized the responsibility of democratic countries to preserve their free institutions and resist the inroads of authoritarian dogmas. c. Utterances of Ernst Wilhelm Meyer A sensation, similar to that created by the resignation of Ambassador Dodd, was caused in February, 1938, when at a dinner in New York City, tendered to him jointly by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, and the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work, Dr. Ernst Wilhelm Meyer, for sixteen years a member of the REVIEW OF THE YEAR 5698—UNITED STATES 91 German diplomatic service, and for six years first secretary of the German Embassy in Washington, who resigned from the service in May 1937, delivered an address in which he stated his reasons for his step. Assailing Hitlerism as anti-German and anti-Christian, Dr. Meyer declared that "Hitler and his regime have betrayed what I knew to be the lasting interests of the German Fatherland." He went on to say: "I could no longer conscientiously serve a government which I saw to be the foe of so many things I had been taught Germany stands for. The moral law and loyalty to the true Germany makes surrender to National Socialism impossible. I cannot do otherwise, whether as a German or a Christian." Dr. Meyer listed the myth of Nordic superiority and anti-Semitism as among the anti-German traits of National Socialism. "It is the disgraceful opposite," he declared, "of German and Nordic for the government of almost 70,000,000 inhabitants to drive a helpless minority of less than 500,000 to destruction." Characterizing anti-Jewish persecution as evidence of moral and racial weakness arising out of the lowest human instincts, Dr. Meyer asserted that "Everybody knows that the German Jew has been a devoted and useful citizen of Germany. To deny this, means either ignorance or lying." d. American Publishers and International Congress On January 17, 1938, forty-eight of the outstanding American book publishers announced that they would not participate in the 1938 International Congress of Book Publishers to be held at Leipzig in June.