A Philadelphia conference of American Jewry organized by the “forefront of American Jewish philanthropy” slated for the following week led the news in the Sept. 4, 1925 Jewish Exponent.
The conference was called to consider ways to intensify a significant Jewish mass colonization movement in Russia and elsewhere, but organizer David A. Brown said a more important issue was at stake.
“This conference will settle for all time to come the attitude of American Jewry toward foreign relief. The Jews of this country … will determine this fundamental question. Are we going to limit ourselves to American philanthropies and work in Palestine or are we going to be the big brother to every suffering Jew the world over and stand by him until his anguish is at an end and he has gotten squarely back on his own feet,” said Brown, a noted fundraiser who later founded the Broadway National Bank and Trust Company and the Broadway National Company.
Also on the front page was a cabled report from the closing days of the Fourteenth Zionist Congress in Vienna, Austria.
Reuben Brainin, a vice president of the Zionist Organization of America, provided a pessimistic account of events, including the re-election of Chaim Weizmann — later Israel’s first president — as leader of the World Zionist Organization.
“Weizmann has left this Congress a lesser influence than when he entered it,” Brainin wrote. “He did not exhibit the strength of an undisputed leader who stands or falls by the record of his administration.”
The final element on the cover is a large photo of Rabbi Marvin Nathan, who was celebrating his 20th anniversary at Congregation Beth Israel. Nathan spent more than 30 years at the synagogue, according to the website of the merged Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel (BZBI).
