my great uncle had a trophy in his house. for years i saw it but never knew what it was for . eventually i heard the story of how it was won.
in 1928, when my great uncle was 23, there was a debate at the local jewish community center. the debate was whether or not the jewish communities of the united states should raise money to help the jews of europe come to america or should the jewish communities of the united states raise money to help the communities of europe live better in europe. my great uncle debated the side of raising money to bring the jews of europe over to the united states. my great uncle's side won. too bad the jewish communities of the united states did not abide by the outcome of this debate. it was 1928. if the yidden of 1928 america had raised money to help the jews of europe leave who knows how the course of history might have been? hindsight is twenty-twenty, but it is interesting to ponder. apparently the matzav of eastern europe was dire enough for a group of twenty-somethings at a jewish community center in the united states to debate in 1928.
and of course , i am proud to say that i had a great uncle who debated in the honor of trying to save the jews of europe , way before world war 2.
5 comments:
you've got an awesome uncle :-)
On what basis did he say to bring them over.
my family came to america in the early 1900's because russia/poland was not a great place to be if you were jewish. there were pogroms. one of my grandmothers was shot in the face during a pogrom when she was a child. i have some family who left kishinev not long after the brutal pogroms there. i think that those who were lucky enough to escape the old country knew that things werent getting any better there though they would not have necessarily predicted the horror of the holacoust that was on its way.
unfortunately my great uncle passed away a few years ago, so i cant ask him what points he used to prove his point , but knowing him as i did i think that the thoughts i just mentioned would have been part of his proof.
at the time we discussed the trophy the debate had been about 70 years prior.
my great uncle lived to be a month short of 97.
interesting debate, but it was basically academic. no amount of money raised would have helped after congress passed restrictive immigration quotas in 1924 that put an end to era of jewish mass immigration.
"my family came to america in the early 1900's"
was your family frum all along or are you (or your parents) BTs?
lion of zion- i agree that the debate was academic as far as i know, i just thought that it was interesting that this was debated in that space in time.
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