JEWISH APPEAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20042, 14 September 1939, Page 5

JEWISH APPEAL

PLEDGE TO EMPIRE CONSCIOUS OF PRIVILEGES “MOST SACRED ..CAUSE!’ NAZI DEGRADATION BLAME PLACED (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. “Every man who cares ■ for- -fee future of civilisation? every man. who believes in the ultimate triumph^of right in the world, every man who has a spark of the divine within him will pledge himself with, all his, heart to his country’s cause, sure in the knowledge that he is serving a most sacred cause of mankind,” said the Rev. Alexander Astor in a striking sermon at the Jewish New Year service in the Auckland Synagogue today. “As Jewish citizens of the Empire, we affirm our wholehearted allegiance to Britain. Deeply conscious, of the privileges we enjoy under the British flag, we shall bear our full weight of the grave responsibilities she has undertaken,” he added. Issues Never Clearer: Never in the world's? history had there been a conflict in which the issues were more clear, and in which the blame was so definitely placed, lie said. Britain’s record'had been a shining light, working more earnestly and devotedly than any other nation for the ideal of peace and international goodwill.

“Herr Hitler istands to-day ' unmasked before the 'bar of human judgment,” the Rev. Astor went on. “He must answer for all human distress for which he and the Nazi regime alone is responsible.”

Referring to the Nazis’ treatment of Jews, the Rev.. Astor said that no man with a spark of human feeling could read of the terrible happenings in concentration camps without a shudder and without a sense of shame that men could be so degraded, that human beings could sink to‘ such depths of depravity and cruelty. “Cruel, Brutal Monsters” “Nazi leaders are nothing less than cruel, brutal monsters bent upon inflicting terrible punishment, not only upon the Jew but upon all who believe in religion, democracy and human freedom: They have turned their country into a jungle, and would I urn the whole world into a jungle. Deeds of their wickedness cry out in heaven,”

For a time Herr Hitler’s ambition might have triumphed over an enslaved people, lie concluded, but his might would soon melt away; his name would only remain as a word of shame like that of Hainan and other tyrants who had pitted themselves against God and religion.