Protests Against Poland's treatment of her Jews Adopted

28 June 2012 | The American Israelite

Had the United States joined the League of Nations, such injustices as the Polish case would not exist.”

1 July 1937 | American Israelite

Public Opinion Is Called Sole Hope In Polish Horrors | President of Federation of Churches, City Official, and Rabbi Are Heard

Protests against Poland’s treatment of her Jews were adopted by resolutions Tuesday evening, June 29^th, at the Cincinnati Jewish Center. Speakers included the Rev. Dr. Jesse M. Halsey, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Churches; John D. Ellis, city solicitor and acting city manager; and Rabbi Samuel Wohl of Wise Temple, chairman of the Emergency Committee for Jews in Poland.

The meeting was called by Oscar Berman for the American Jewish Congress and Rabbi Wohl for his Emergency Committee . . . Dr. Haley expressed hope that “the shining sword of truth” might be the weapon of victory against oppression in the Polish as in other modern crisis.

“Had the United States joined the League of Nations, such injustices as the Polish case would not exist,” he said. Dr. Halsey was sent by the U. S. State Department to Poland in 1917.

“It is our belief,” said Rabbi Wohl, “that the time has come when American Jews must express their complete solidarity with their stricken brethren in Poland and formulate a program to safeguard their lives and protect their status as human beings and as citizens.”

“It is important that we should indicate to the Polish government that the Jewish community of America is united in horror at what is taking place in Poland and that we are determined to protect our fellow Jews.

“The recent pogroms are the most sweeping that this generation has known and the result of the poisonous propaganda tolerated by the government. For three years, the Polish government did nothing to stop the cold blooded pogroms that destroyed the economic position of the Jew, pauperized him. It appears now that the Polish government is also tolerating blood pogroms.”

He asked the meeting to send a delegation from Cincinnati to join similar delegations from other cities in the country to go to Washington and confer with the President and the Secretary of State and be called for action which will make clear to the Polish government that the Jews of America will not sit by idly and watch their fellow Jews in Poland murdered in cold blood.

He urged that action be taken to indicate to the Polish government that the horror of the Jewish community of America, as indeed of the entire Jewish world, is shared by all right thinking citizens.

“The Jewish people have helped in the reconstitution of Poland and have been its most loyal citizens and sacrificed themselves on the battle-field, and we Jews of America, together with the non-Jews, have sacrificed life and blood that Poland may be free,” he said. “Treatment of the Jews by Poland violates the peace treaties, violates the consideration which guarantees civil rights to all its citizens. This treaty of Poland was also made with America and we must insist that no nation especially a nation that owes so much to the United States, shall flout and destroy its treaties and its constitution.

“The time has come that all honest Christians shall cry out in one voice that all outrages against the Jews must stop. We of Cincinnati are particularly happy to have the friendship and understanding of all enlightened citizens.”

“we are grateful to the president of the Federation of Churches, Dr. Jesse Halsey, and to the acting city manager, John Ellis, for their expressions of sympathy and cooperation.” . . .

Miss Julia Resor Foster | Daughter of Early Clifton Family Dies After a Long Illness

Cincinnati Enquirer | 23 May 1937

Frederick A. Isham | Obituary

5 March 1937 | Lake Placid News

1937 Union Theological Summer Session Catalogue

"I have in my heart pity"

"your chairmanship of the Spanish meeting last Friday"

"it will take more than a Roman blast to dampen"

"the Communist Party deliberately assails America from within"

7 Jan 1937

"Not even the most bigoted Catholic, not even a Spanish Bishop, could deny that the letter is a ringing call to arms . . ."

"Few political orators could nave equaled the indignantly patriotic messages which pilloried General Franco and the Bishops not only as disturbers in Spain, but even as enemies of American ideals and the Star Spangled Banner."

October 12 , 1937 | Letter from William Green, managing editor of "The Witness," to Reverend Jesse Halsey

"open hostility toward popular government, freedom of worship and separation of church and State"

from "Waking to Danger: Americans and Nazi Germany,1933-1941" by Robert A. Rosenbaum

In September 1937 the Spanish bishops issued a pastoral letter justifying Franco’s insurgency. They described the “Spanish Communist Revolution” as anti-Spanish and anti-Christian. Appealing to the just war doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, they argued: “. . . Spain had no other alternative but this: either to perish in the definite assault of destructive communism . . . or to attempt . . . to save the fundamental principles of her social life and of her national characteristics.”

American Protestants were not persuaded. On October 4, 1937, the New York Times published an “open letter” signed by 150 prominent Protestant clergy and laymen rebutting the Spanish prelates’ justification for war. The Protestants accused the Spanish bishops of “open hostility toward popular government, freedom of worship and separation of church and State—principles that we, as Americans, deeply cherish . . .”

….

A response to the Protestants’ “open letter” signed by 175 Catholic clergy and laymen, appeared in the Times on October 14. “The publication of [the Protestants’] letter has not only misrepresented the facts and the issues of Spain,” the Catholics asserted, “but it has also tended to create a species of religious war in the United States . . . Do American Protestants accept and endorse a governmental regime that has carried on a ruthless persecution of the Christian religion since February 1936? Does American Protestantism endorse a regime that is composed predominantly of radical Socialists, Communists, Syndicalists and Anarchists? Does American Protestantism championed a regime that has consistently violated in theory and in practice the fundamental principles of liberty and democracy guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States?”

Spanish Hierarchy Is Denounced Here

October 4, 1937 | New York Times


"Bishop Paddock said that the letter was 'a responsible and friendly' attempt to induce the leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States to set forth their own political views. Many of the signers, he said, felt confident that American Catholics did not share the opinions of the Spanish hierarchy."

"The letter said its signers were 'disturbed by the fact that no leaders of the Catholic Church in America have raised their voices in repudiation of the position taken by the Spanish hierarchy' and added that 'they too seem to have given their blessing to General Franco and his Fascist allies.'"

Open Letter in Reply to Spanish Hierarchy’s Recent Views of War

October 4, 1937
New York Times

The text of the open letter issued by 150 Protestant clergymen and educators and laymen on the recent pastoral letter of the Spanish hierarchy follows:

The pastoral letter issued by the prelates of the Catholic Church in Spain stirs our anxieties. The Spanish hierarchy’s attempt to justify a military rebellion against a legally elected government is alarming, as is its display of open hostility toward popular government, freedom of worship and separation of church and State—principles that we, as Americans, deeply cherish.

Its apparent unwillingness to recognize the social and economic evils that have sickened Spain for generations is disquieting to those who feel that there can be no stability in the peninsula until these evils are eliminated; that resort again to force, repression and dictatorship can only be futile. IN this respect the Spanish hierarchy will not admit what leading Catholics here and abroad have long discussed and deplored.

It is noteworthy that this pastoral letter was issued to answer criticism abroad of the Spanish hierarchy’s position, criticism voiced not by the secular but by the Catholic press.

We are amazed to find the pastoral letter 1) approving of resort to violence and military insurrection as a means of settling political controversies; 20 rejecting not merely the present Popular Front Government of Spain but the republic itself and the Constitution of 1931 on which it was founded; 3) stigmatizing any form of parliamentary government, presumably even if under a constitutional monarchy, as “irresponsible autocracy”; and 4) condemning in principle the democratic institutions, the freedom of worship and the separation of church and State established by the Constitution of 1931. It is hard to believe that this pastoral letter was written in the twentieth century . . .

Letter from Jesse Halsey to Father Reardon

1937

"we don’t want Communistic Bolshivicks here your chairman of the Reds you are Anti God"

Jan 11 1937

Daniel Beddoe Death | 1937

December 26, 1937

Solicitation Letter | North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy

1937

From the Manse | 1937

FROM THE MANSE

Never, through the years, have we been quite so grateful as this year, for the warm security and comfort of the lovely house that the generosity of the congregation has provided for the minister and his family. Built and maintained by the Church, we are privileged to live beneath the shelter of its roof. You have been good to us. From our home, which your thought has built, each member of our household gathered here for Christmas, sends Hearty Greetings and Good Will.

THE HALSEYS

Christmas, A.D. 1937.

Photos of Construction on Christ Church, Alpine, TN | 1937

Construction on Christ Church, Alpine, TN | September, 1937

Jesse Halsey: Notes on Sermons 1937-38

AND IN THE PSALMS

The harassed mayor of a major American city lately confessed to a group of his friends that he constantly turned to certain of the great poets in times of stress as the best source of sustenance and balance. While others might find “escape” in detective stories he read Milton aloud and envies Macaulay who knew Paradise Lost by heart and once repeated four books of it while crossing the Irish Sea. The mayor said that once in time of grave personal crisis he found in Browning, “the courage to go on,” and added that Browing’s great spiritual message is that of courage rather than optimism. A memory stored with great poetry is as an arsenal for the soul.

“It shall be 

A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to me,

Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever; a Hand like this hand 

Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!"

See the Christ stand. Robert Browning

They that trust in The Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever. Ps 125 1-2

READ: Your Favorite Psalm Aloud.

PRAYER. Unto Thee life I up mine eyes O Thou dwellest in the heavens, in thanksgiving for all the forms of loveliness and strength that speak Thy praise and reveal Thy nearness to human hearts and minds. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait and in his word do I hope, through Christ the Word Incarnate. Amen.

IN ALL POINTS . . . like as we are that rebellious boy of yesterday who was being ‘educated’ in life’s best school used to wonder about Jesus the carpenter’s boy of Nazareth. He hardly dared to wonder even about HIM. But the preposterous parallel that he confided to no one, but carried in his secret heart, brought sweetness to many a bitter day. Jesus (too, he said to himself), Jesus wanted to go to the Jerusalem Schools, but for eighteen years stayed home to push a plane—and support his mother and sisters and brothers. That always brought help.

And that boy is but one of millions who have, to this hour, found help in Him—in what He did and what he said and what He was (AND IS).

JESUS MADE ANSWER AND SAID . . . Luke

“Go and do thou likewise” Luke 10:37

And . . . and . . . and . . . it is the heart of the parable—this conjunction. It is God’s plus sign; “and took, took him to the inn, and too care of him” and . . . This is God’s plus sign. Always adding, going second miles Himself, “while we ere yet sinners Christ died for us. Goodness and mercy peruse us, new every morning, fresh every evening are the tokens of his love. He loadeth us with benefits.

Can we afford to be stingy?

Read. Luke 10: 25-37

O Thou who givest us richly all things to enjoy, make us good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Grateful hearts come from Thee, and to Thee returns our Thanks. Thou are the source of all blessing. Things material spiritual and material—all are Thine, and we are Thine. Make us to realize our debt to Thee, and when we have given all, forgive us still our debts. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

TWO neighbors in the old days had gone to California in the gold rush. Young men and adventurous they had started out after selling all they had to by stock in the ship that should carry them round Cape Horn. One man struck it rich and came home to settle down in affluence, the other lost the little he had and came home to spend his days hoeing corn for his neighbors.

Uncle William and Grandfather and the Gold-rush

(Uncle Tom and none of the glamour of Kansas.)

LENT means Springtime. Let this be the Springtime of the soul. God is stirring in nature. Snows and sudden frost hinder her coming but come she will and must. Let God work naturally in your heart and life. No artificial apparatus is needed. Quiet, meditation, prayer, the Bible, and great poetry, the quiet stars, the out of doors, these were among Jesus’ sources of spiritual help. “As he was so are ye in the world.”

O GOD, who hast made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and didst send thy blessed Son to preach peace to them that are afar off, and to them that are nigh; grant that all the peoples who sit in darkness and the shadow of death may feel after thee and find Thee; and hasten, O Lord, the fulfillment of thy promise to pour out the Spirit upon all flesh; through Jesus Christ our Loud. Amen.