America i fewish PeriodA
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
6
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
Issued Every Friday by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company.
Michigan's Only Jewish Publications'
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SAMUEL J. RHODES, -
ANTON KAUFMAN,
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Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of
March 3, 1879
FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1916.
Marriage and Intermarriage
The obvious increase of intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews
is giving serious concern to the leaders of American Israel. That the
number of such marriages grows greater year by year, there can be no
doubt, and that in difference of religious opinion between husband and
wife there is an added chance for unhappiness cannot be disputed. Time
and again attempts have been made to analyze the causes for the increas:
ing ratio of intermarriage, but they have resulted in no great unity of
opinion.
\Ve do not believe that it is just to say, as a recent writer upon the
subject said, that the extravagant standard to which so many of our
Jewish young women are accustomed and the consequent fear that such
standards cannot be maintained after marriage, drives Jewish young men
to seek non-Jewish women as their life companions. If there is one
single cause more responsible than another for the growth of intermar-
riage, it is, we believe, the laxity of the religious spirit in the average
Jewish home, and in the negligence of Jewish parents as to the compan-
ionships formed by their children during the adolescent period. How
can parents expect their children to marry those of their own faith unless
they encourage the growth of friendships among them during their early
years? How can they expect that their children shall be loyal to the
rancestral faith if they themselves have no Jewish affiliations?.
Moreover, the congregations are in some measure responsible for the
prevailing condition. . They do not make sufficient provision for the social
life of their young men and women, though this unfortunate state of
affairs is being gradually overcome in many communities. \Ve believe
that if the young people's organizations of our various synagogues
served no other purpose than to bring clean, decent young Jews and
Jewesses into social contact, they would be justifying their existence and
the result would tell quickly enough in the decrease of intermarriage.
Back of this question of intermarriage, however, is the question of
marriage, and the mere fact that a man and a woman are of the same
religious faith by no means fits them to complete the happiness of one
another. Those who object to intermarriage on the single ground of
religious difference, should bear in mind that a moral difference between
and unclean man and a clean woman is even greater reason why marriage
between them should not be consummated.
This whole problem of marriage and intermarriage is one that deserves
the earliest consideration not only of teachers and preachers, but as well
of parents and of all those who have the welfare of our young men and
our young women deeply at heart.
A . Word of Commendation
In last week's issue of THE JEWISH CHRONICLE there appeared
a page article by the President of the Young People's Society of Temple
Beth El. It described in detail the problem of the Jewish strangers in
Detroit, and announced a program of work by which the Young People's
Society proposes to solve the problem. A more worthy work this organi-
zation could not attempt.
The thousands of Jewish young people that are coming to Detroit
every year bring with them a problem of no small importance. Flow to
secure for them companionship and friendship has demanded the best
thought of Detroit's Jewish leaders. Many men realized that something
must be done' along these lines—but nothing was done. It remained
for the Young People's Society of Temple Beth El to take the initiative.
Where other organizations and individuals have fallen down, this live
organization of young people' stepped into the breach. They have gone
about solving the problem in a business-like, forceful, logical manner.
That they shall succeed is not to be questioned.
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE welcomes the opportunity to speak a
word of commendation for the Young People's Society of Temple Beth
El, as well as for its officers and members. \Ve feel that Detroit has good
cause to be proud of having such an interested, far-seeing organization for
its younger Jewish element. \Ve feel that this word of whole-hearted and
unstinted praise should be the share of the Young People's Society and
its work.
Wasted Powder
There are some policies of which it is said that if they have done no
great good they can do not great harm. There are others which are only
justified by success. The action of the American Jewish Committee in
sending a petition to Pope Benedict the XV, comes within the category of
these uncertain policies. \Ve cannot acquit the American Jewish Com-
mittee, in this as in many other things, of a certain carelessness, or if that
be not so, of a certain lack of understanding of the political situation in
Europe.
Thomas Lawson is responsible for the very wise but not at all original
observation, that, the way to success is to see the right man at the right
time, in the right place, about the right thing. One way that those adopt
who really make a business of diplomacy is to endeavor to insure the
answer before they raise the question, which is an attempt to live up to
the Lawsonian idea. But the American Jewish Committee seems to go
about its business very crudely. By its letter to the Pope it has not
achieved anything for the Jews, but it has achieved something for the
Pope. Not that we begrudge the Pope any advantage in this or that di-
rection—and it is obvious that the American Jewish Committee did not
seek to aggrandize the position of the Pope—what it did have in mind in
sending this letter was to benefit the Jews. Yet since the beginning of
the war and prior to it, it has been very clear that Benedict XV is not the
man who can help other people, but a Pope who needs a good deal of
assistance in maintaining his own infirm position in the world.
Perhaps at some moment since the beginning of the wat he has
wished to call upon all men of the Catholic faith to cease fighting, but lie
did not dare to issue that order because lie could not afford to face the
humiliation of wholesale disobedience. The circumstances are that he is
in the position of the very worst of neutrals, for all neutrals are suspected
of partisanship, but the Pope has to eke out his neutrality by expressing
the:, -uselessness of a flourish of the keys of St. Peter. Perhaps it is in
truth a great compliment to the papacy as it exists today, that being merely
amoral force it is powerless in the war of the world, but such being the
very obvious facts there is no apparent reason why Jews should now
write a very nice and appropriate imitation of the kind of letter to be
found in a Letter-Writer.
The Pope's answer is, of course, courteous and cleverly written for
the purpose of record. His Holiness knows no more about the special
facts in the Jewish case than he did about the Belgian or the Armenian,
or about anything that it would be awkward to admit knowledge of.—
The Jewish Advocate.
Jewish Collegiate Club to the Fore
"The Community needs a Forum," wrote the Jewish Chronicle in its
last issue. "The Community shall have what it needs," responded the
Jewish Collegiate Club.
The Jewish Collegiate Club proposes to give the forum idea a trial.
If it proves successful—and we have no doubt that it will if properly
managed—the forum is bound to become a permanent and prominent
institution in the life of Detroit Jewry, and well be it so, for what better
method has been suggested for bringing purely Jewish questions before
the Jewish men and women of the city ?
The Jewish 'Collegiate Club is a new organization in this city, but
apparently a live one. It has played an important part in the raising of
funds for the war sufferers ; and now it has come to the frOnt in the
matter of the Forum.
Much can be done for the good of Detroit Jews by an organization
of college men. And if the enthusiasm and energy which it has thus far
displayed is not merely a flash in the pan but will be constant and con-
tinuous, we expect great things from the Jewish Collegiate Club.