A MORAL CHALLENGE TO BRITISH JEWRY – The sermon of Britain’s Chief Rabbi Rabbi Joseph Zvi Hertz, in favor of German Jews who are groaning under Nazi rule – an urgent call for help and assistance to German Jewry before it is too late. Published by the Central British Fund for German Jewry. March 1934. Rare.
This sermon was delivered by Rabbi Joseph Zvi Hertz on Passover after the rumors about the persecution of the Jews in Germany, whom he describes as “the victims under the swastika” increased day by day. At the beginning of the sermon he announces “This year we are slaves”‘ and in fact there is hardly a word about Passover, but it is all about the dire situation of the Jews in Germany and an urgent request from the public to help them in whatever way possible. In his sermon, he explains that the Nazi persecution of the Jews is a direct continuation of the atrocities committed by the Spanish Inquisition, and the Crusades. And he writes that what is happening in Germany came to teach the Jews who thought that assimilation would be a way out of the phenomenon of anti-Semitism for them, that it would not benefit them. He points to the unfortunate fact that not only did the assimilation of the Jews not improve their situation, but also the right of all the Jews who fought on the battlefield in the German armies in the First World War did not stand up to them in the face of “Satan’s fury” arising in Nazi Germany – ” The fruits of this fury are the elimination of Jews, Their expulsion from the schools and universities… Tens of thousands of men and women without a livelihood… This is the cup of bitterness of German Jews”. He describes the situation as a moral challenge for British Jews and most clearly calls “to give those who suffer practical help… whether the victims remain under the cross or immigrate to the Holy Land or to other countries to start their new lives”. Rabbi Hertz cries out on behalf of the British foundation that organized the donations, asking every Jew in Britain to donate “large sums of money” to save the refugees from hunger and deprivation, and says most clearly: “The religious structure of the German communities – the largest fabric of Jewish culture built by a long succession of K’doshim and scholars is in danger of collapsing… This will lead to the Nazi dream of reducing Germany’s Jews to the rank of gypsies”. And calls on every Jew who with a “spark Messiah’s soul in his heart” to prove this by helping the Jews of Germany.
12 p. Very Good Condition.
