The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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NEW YORK, Monday—I spent part of Friday afternoon and evening in Providence, R.I., at a meeting sponsored by the World Council group of that city. This is a very active society that is enthusiastically spreading throughout the community information about our foreign policy and the United Nations and its specialized agencies. East Providence has a wonderful new school in which our meeting was held.

When I was young, my grandmother used to say it was useless to comment on the weather since we could do nothing about it. In spite of that advice, I must say that for the month of May the weather is treating us badly and does make flying very uncertain! One expects in winter to wonder whether planes will leave and arrive at their destinations but by the month of May those anxieties should be over.

On Friday I wasn't sure I could reach Providence and return by air, and I had to plan on all sorts of alternatives. Fortunately for me, however, nothing went wrong. On Saturday morning, therefore, I was able to drive up to Hyde Park where I was having some young students who are here from the Gold Coast, in to lunch. They had asked to come and see me to lay a wreath on my husband's grave for the Gold Coast Students' Association.

Saturday proved to be as cold and disagreeable a day as one might find in November and I felt we had really returned to winter. I dreaded to find the country, with all its brave spring flowers and blossoms, caught by a frost.

During the month of May I have accepted for the third time to serve as chairman of the United Jewish Appeal campaign in New York City. At the moment the most urgent concern is for the safety of the 2,500,000 Jews behind the Iron Curtain. The fund is helping escapees from Eastern Europe, giving them relief and resettling them in democratic societies, principally in Israel.

It is hoped that the apparent change in Soviet policy may mean that more Jews may be permitted to leave Russia. In that case the need for help in Israel in accepting these new immigrants will be greater even than has been the case in previous years.

The Soviets strongly condemned Hitler for his anti-Jewish actions but now, at least up until very recently, they seem to have been following a similar policy. Since the changed attitude on the Soviet doctors was announced, however, there is hope of a changed policy not only in the Soviets, but in the satellite countries.

The UJA and those who support it are helping to create in Israel an enduring democratic society. I think all people of all faiths should lend support to this campaign and give aid to the oppressed people who are escaping from countries where they cannot live in peace and security.

Our concern everywhere in the world should be for justice and the removal of injustice and fear, which cause suffering to mankind.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 5, 1953

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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