Jewish Relief Day - 07/21/1916

[fol. vi.]

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& girls, old men, the maimed, the blind, the diseased the crippled the insane, pellmell into the cars they are packed facing the rigors of winter without shelter or food. Why is all these atrocities? Only because they & only because they are Jews. For this reason, an appeal is being made to the world & we think it can be done with perfect propriety. The burden of relief is too great for the American Jew hence he will call upon his Christian brother -- yes he will call upon him the 1^st time in American history, A truly a marvellous record. In order to stir the souls of the people to their very depths, I have read one of the following graphic the account of recital of conditions along in the war zones was read at Carnegie Hall the other night among many others. "Along the whole line of battle for example, along the line from Lublin to Rovno, along that whole line there was progrom after pogrom, & the word pogrom has become part of the English language because of the excesses practiced upon the Jews. Countless progroms have been practiced without our hearing a word of it without a rumor having come to our ears, & along the line of battle in Lublin & all other cities

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the names of which I cannot recall now, but those of you who have come from there know what they are & where they are, of Rabbis hanged to telegraph poles, men & women shot down, the wives & mothers & daughters of men in the army ravished, women running to the synagogues, take hold of the horns of the altar for safety & not being protected; synagogues shot through & burned down, the scrolls of the Torah desecrated. Every possible indignity, every possible brutality practiced, not upon 1 family, but upon a whole people, upon thousands upon millions of your brothers & mine." I could go through this book & read from paragraph after paragraph & page after page of this harrowing tale. It is not as through one men & women were suffering merely because they are in the battle zone or in the line of fire. They need relief because they are Jews. I will read you one more thing more -- a letter also read at the Carnegie Hall by a Russian Jew. "More"

The magnitude of the tragedy cannot possibly be imagined by mortal men. You must read the horrors You must be told in order to get but a faint conception

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But what of ourselves? What of ourselves here in Dallas? While we have sent approximately $600 a month during the year 1915 have we done all we could have done? Have we done all we can do & are doing? I do not think so. For there are many -- I should imagine there are hundreds of us here who have not yet contributed one cent towards keeping alive a little babe, an old decrepit father, a sick mother in amid the blaze of bullets left alone in the world over there in the midst of all this convulsion. There are some whose hearts are so cold & consciences so dead that they cannot or will not see the duty & responsibility that is placed upon them in this greatest of all Crimes in Jewish History. As Jews we must at least have the satisfaction of knowing that each one of us, of the poor the middle classes, the rich, is doing his ample duty to his own flesh & blood-the people men & the women of his own race who are holding out their trembling hands to us across the csea begging for help. Shall we some of whom are living wallowing in luxury & enjoyi denying themselves nothing

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on this Earth to satisfy their lusts & pleasures, shall we turn a deaf ear to the wails of the widow, the cries of the orphan, the prayers of the bleeding hearts? God forbid.

I want to add that the Dallas Section fo the American Jewish Relief Society at the meeting held Wednesday night unanimously decided with reference to Jewish Relief Day so designated by Pres. Wilson & appointed & ordered for the 27^th of this month, next Thursday, that no mass it is imprudent to hold our mass meeting in order to secure contributions from the non-Jewish people. We have deemed it advisable & the part of [ ] compatible with the dignity & reputation of our Community to issue an appeal to the general public through the daily press. We realize too that personal solicitations on the part of influential Jewish people would not be refused but & possibly for the reason that for many reasons but think it

[fol. x.]

the part of wisdom to refrain from such procedure a method & to rely upon the sympathy & generosity of the public. who we feel sure those whose hearts prompt them to are stirred by the frightfulness & magnitude of the Jewish [ ] will volut voluntarily send their contributions to the treasurer of our this fund.