The Jews had a great opportunity in the New York Kehillah. They had an opportunity to say to the world, “This is what the Jew can do for a city when he is given freedom to work.” They have the city government, the police department, the health depart¬ ment, the school board, the newspapers, the judiciary, financiers—every element of power.
And what have they to show for all this? The answer is,—New York.
New York is an object lesson set in the sight of the whole world, as to what the Jew can do and will do when he exalts himself to the seat of rule. It is inconceivable that even the Jewish spokesmen will defend Jewish New York.
Lest the New York Kehillah—in view of statemerits yet to be made concerning it—should be dis¬ regarded, or its importance minimized, by the feeling that, after all, it only represents the more radical elements, “the apostate Jews” which seems to be a recent favorite designation for them, a partial view is here given erf its leaders.
Present at the 1918 convention were Jacob H. Schiff, banker; Louis Marshall, lawyer, president of the American Jewish Committee and frequent visitor to Washington; Otto A. Rosalsky, judge of the General Sessions Court, who has taken part in several affairs of interest both to Jews and Gentiles; Adolph S. Ochs, proprietor of the New York Times; Otto H. Kahn, of the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb & Com¬ pany—AND—Benjamin Schlesinger, who is lately returned from Moscow where he had a conference with Lenin; Joseph Schlossberg, general secretary of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, with 177,000 members; Max Pine, also recently a consultant wjth the Bolshevik rulers of Russia; David Pinski; Joseph Barondess, labor leader.