The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

Conservative Rabbi Simon Greenberg of the Har Zion Temple and President of
the Rabbinical Assembly of America viewed the announcement of the conference as
heartening to “every lover of liberty and human decency” regardless of the lack of any
liberalization of immigration quotas. Elias Rex Jacobs (1892-1979), editor and publisher
of the pro-Zionist Buffalo Jewish Review, called upon Congress to “modify the
Immigration Act” as “the number admissible under the present quota is much too
limited.” Dr. Dan B. Brummett, editor of the Methodist Christian Advocate in Kansas
City, envisaged the Evian Conference as a shining example of the “best American
traditions” of offering sanctuary to political and religious refugees and urged
liberalization of national immigration policy. Dr. William E. Gilroy, editor of the 122
year old Congregational Christian Churches' The Advance, believed that United States’
immigration policy “ought to be subject to modification or…appeal to some higher
authority where consideration of justice and humanity are involved.” Dr. William Hiram
Foulkes, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, believed the
convocation of the meeting harmonized with the “essential American spirit” and together
with Dr. Willard E. Shelton, the editor of The Christian Evangelist, sought modification
of the quota system. 9
captured by the idea of a community of the German people,’ and offer them all a free passage of return to
the fatherland. The only reservations would be, first, no passport to return, and second, the same financial
conditions the Germans have fixed for the Jews…The funds so procured would apply on the costs of
transportation. Such a plan would give happiness to a great number of people and it would be a most
commendable act of the only nation in the world whose specialty has been freedom for the oppressed.”
9 “Question of the Week: What should be the American policy toward oppressed minorities of foreign
nations who look to this country as a haven of refuge? Should the barriers set up under the immigration
laws be lowered to help them find new homes here or should the present regulatory restrictions on entry
apply to them the same as every other alien?” The United States News April 4, 1938.
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