37 PREFACE The past five issues of the Year Book were prepared during the World War, and the influences of the period were reflected in the contents of the issues from 5676 to 5680, not alone in the chronology but also in the articles. Last year's volume, especially, was devoted to essays on the participation of the Jews of various countries in the War. Although at the present moment, the various peoples of the European continent are in the throes of a most difficult readjustment, the effects of which upon our brethren are graphically set forth in the chronology in the present volume, the articles in this issue deal with matters of a normal and peace-time character. A view of the numerous agencies which have developed in our midst to serve general needs and special requirements in the community was given last year in the Directories of National and of Local Jewish organizations. In this volume we publish an article on the progress of Jewish social research in the United States, in which the author, Mr. Hyman Kaplan, Assistant Executive Director of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research, traces the history of attempts at co-ordination among these societies, and outlines the development of a central agency for the scientific study of social problems arising in the community, which has culminated in the organization of that Bureau. The brief account of the work already accomplished by that agency will be found of great interest by the thousands of American Jews who contribute to the support of our philanthropic institutions. But the influence of the recent World War is not entirely absent from the contents of this issue. One of the most important changes in the map of Europe is the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France. We are fortunate in having from the pen of M. Sylvain Halff, whose contribution to Volume 21 was so well received, an article on the life of the Jews of the two provinces from the time of their severance from France until their restoration, which is replete with important items of information, and bears witness to the enduring and unshakable love for the mothercountry cherished by our coreligionists in common with the rest of the population. The advent of peace has made possible the resumption of a sacred task in which Jews of several countries were interested. This was the work of bringing back into the Jewish fold an extremely interesting remnant of our people inhabiting the almost unknown kingdom of Abyssinia. Doctor Jacques Faitlovitch, an untiring and devoted friend of these Jews, has again gone into the Dark Continent to bring to them material succor and spiritual comfort. In the article written by him he presents the most recent information about these Falashas, showing how tenaciously this isolated group of our coreligionists has adhered to the basic traditions of Judaism and how they yearn to be again in touch with their brethren of other countries. The excerpts from the treaties with Germany and Poland, bearing upon the rights of minorities, published last year, are reprinted in this issue supplemented by similar clauses from the treaties with Austria, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State (Jugo-Slavia), CzechoSlovakia, Bulgaria, and Roumania, which have since come into force. The text of the treaties with Greece and with Hungary could not be secured, but the minority clauses in them are practically identical with those in the other treaties. Extracts are given also from the official summary of the Treaty with Turkey, not yet signed, as respects the disposition of Palestine and the rights of racial, linguistic, and religious minorities in Turkey as it will be constituted. That there has been little change in the trend of events affecting our people in Europe will become apparent from an examination of the Record of Events in 5680. The summary of conditions contained in the introduction to last year's record applies in almost every detail to the chronology for 5680. Our brethren have suffered the same economic and cultural oppression in Russia; they have been subjected to the same humiliating insults and contemptible indignities in Poland; they are being decimated by both the regular and "irregular" soldiery in the Ukraine, as we, who mourn the dastardly murder of Professor Israel Friedlaender and Rabbi Bernard Cantor, know to our great sorrow. In Western Europe, the wave of anti-Semitism has swelled to enormous proportions; it has reached the British Isles in the form of insidious literary propaganda, and there are indications that attempts are being made to import this foreign plague in a virulent form into our own country. As respects Palestine, the Supreme Council has definitely decided that it shall be under the control of Great Britain as mandatory, and although the terms of the mandate have not yet been determined, the Treaty with Turkey definitely states that "the mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2, 1917, by the British Government." Little need be said of the section of the Year Book containing the Directories and Lists. The expository summaries introduced last year have been continued, and there is given a Supplementary Directory of Local Jewish Organizations in which are listed societies omitted from the complete Directory published in Volume 21, as well as other bodies which have come into existence since that Directory was compiled. The section on Statistics of Jews was prepared by the Bureau of Jewish Social Research. It is the first attempt to cast up the figures of Jewish population of the various countries as affected by the recent changes in Europe. These figures are full of significance. Whereas, before 1918, almost one-half of the Jews of the world were under the domination of the despotism of the Tsars, and the great Russian-Jewish question loomed so large that it eclipsed all others in the eyes of the Jewries of other countries, we are to-day compelled to distribute our attention among the Jewish questions of Poland, Ukrainia, Czecho-Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary, Roumania, and other countries, although there are indications that for the next decade at least the Jewish question in Poland will be the most acute. The partition of the great Russian-Jewish community has rendered the Jewry of the United States practically the largest in the world. An interesting study of the occupational tendencies of Jewish students in American institutions of higher learning is appended to this section in the form of a memoir of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research. In the preparation of the present volume, I had again the able assistance of Miss Rose A. Herzog, who collected the data for the Record of Events and for the Directories and Lists. Acknowledgment and thanks are also due to Dr. L. B. Bernstein, and Messrs. Hyman Kaplan and Michael Freund of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research for the preparation of the statistics section; to I. G. Dobsevage, the Secretary of the Jewish Publication Society; to Doctor Cyrus Adler, for valuable suggestions and assistance in the reading of proof; and to Dr. B. Halper, the Editor of the Society, for his untiring co-operation and encouragement. JULY 19, 1920. HARRY SCHNEIDERMAN. |