Page 225 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Letters

[This letter appeared in the B’nai B’rith Messenger, under the heading,
“ZIONIST PROTESTS.” Another letter on the back of the clipping
dates the newspaper to February 1922. The “district” referred to is the
Los Angeles District, Zionist Organization of America.]

Editor B’nai B’rith Messenger:

In a recent article of publicity of the Keren Hayesod in this city,
the writer tries to magnify the work done by the Keren Hayesod
committee, and belittles all the work done previously by the Zionist
organization for the restoration fund.
The writer, who, as a rule, nowadays, must certainly be an M.D.,
lauds the wonderful accomplishment of the Keren Hayesod
organization in receiving a hundred thousand dollars in pledges to be
paid in installments (but avoids stating how much hard cash the
campaign brought in), whereas, he says, the restoration fund
campaigns never accomplished anything.
The worthy M.D. must have just landed in this city, or he never
was interested in the Zionist cause. Otherwise, he would have known
better the activities of the Zionist organization in the past three years.
Here are a few of the financial facts transacted in this city by the
Zionist organization in the year of nineteen and twenty.
In the first restoration fund drive, over two thousand dollars in
cash was collected by the district at different meetings, and fourteen
thousand one hundred dollars was given by the membership of the
B’nai B’rith Temple and received by and turned over to the Zionist
organization by Mr. Ben R. Myers of the Union Bank and Trust
Company.
In the second drive $28,000 was collected by the district through
the efforts of the honorable Louis M. Cole. Together a sum of
$40,000 was collected with a negligible sum of expenses.
Silvery vocabulary and mere exaggerations cannot fill the
Philharmonic Auditorium or convert $100,000 in promises into hard
cash.

A. ROTHSTEIN
221