THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

escaped us. It is time that we looked at our great and heroic and con-
quering past from the other angle.
Issued Every Friday by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company.
Let those who will, then, lament the loss of country and nation.
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As for us, we have faith that the Jew among the nations has a higher
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ANTON KAUFMAN
destiny to fulfill under the providence of God than could ever have
been his in Palestine, and that in line with the Scriptural teaching that
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"wheresoever I shall cause My Name to be mentioned, there will I
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salizing the message which it is his to sound and bringing all men
nearer to the shrine of God. In this spirit we interpret the Fast of
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Ab. It should be not a day of mourning, but a day of gladness for
the house of Israel.
Editorial
Contributor
RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN,

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

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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
tf*

FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1917

Tisha B'Ab

iU

On Sunday next, July 29, will occur the Fast of Ab, which ac-
cording to tradition marks the anniversary of the fall of Jerusalem
and the destruction of the Temple first by the Chaldeans in 586 B. C.
E. and then by the Romans in the year 70 of the Common Era. To
myriads of Jews in every part of the world Tisha b'Ab is the saddest
day in the whole religious calendar and they give themselves over to
wailing and weeping because of the departed glory of Zion.
To those who regard the fall of Jerusalem and the loss of the
Temple as the supreme calamity of Israel's history, Tisha b'Ab may
indeed-continue to take on a very great religious significance. To
those who hold that in Palestine only the best of Israel's ideals may
realize themselves and that exile from Palestine spells separation from
Israel's God, nothing more tragic nor more terrible is conceivable than
the dread events which tradition ascribes to the Ninth of Ab. Zion-
ists the world over may even today logically look upon this day as the
one in all our history most to be lamented.
But there is another side to the picture. Keenly alive as anyone
can be to the bitterness and woe spelled by the loss of the Temple
and the city to the Jews removed from each other by the space of
about six and one-half centuries, and fully appreciating what humilia-
tion and sorrow was spelled for them by exile and subjection, those
of us who do not interpret Jewish history from the nationalistic stand-
point find in the events that to those who were contemporary with
them seemed grim and horrible beyond description, a token of God's
hand in history. Indeed we believe that the destruction of Israel's
national life and his dissemination to every corner of the earth was the
very condition of his ultimate survival as a factor in human civiliza-
tion. We shudder to recall what fate might have been his had he
never left the shores of Palestine. His might have been an unmarked
hermit's grave. But his lessons would have been untaught, his mis-
sion unfulfilled and what the Jew has wrought for truth, and humanity
and brotherhood might have been as yet undone. His dispersion,
therefore, was a blessing, not a curse, and the very condition of a life
of usefulness.
We are not the first to hold to this view. The late David Einborn
in his "Ner Tomid" writes thus : "Reformed Judaism beholds in the
cessation of the sacrificial service the termination of a special national-
ity and in the scattering of the Jews among all the nations the funda-
Mental condition. for the fulfillment of their mission among mankind.
only after the destructiori of Jerusalem was it possible for Israel to
become a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation ; a conception which
even in the Talmud is intimated in the saying, 'On the day of the
iestruction of the Temple the Messiah was born.' "
Moreover our attitude toward these events is colored in another
!way. We like to interpret Israel's history as a record of great spir-
tual triumphs and not as a chronicle of unending defeats. We like to
believe that the God of our fathers has had a wise purpose in all His
dealings with us and that many times what seemed to spell a momen-
tarY'def eat was but the condition of an ultimate and enduring triumph
for Israel's idealism and Israel's truth. The minor note has been
struck too often and too constantly by Jewish preachers and histo-
rians. We have lamented our losses so constantly that we have failed
to sound the note of triumph for the noble spiritual achievements of
!Our people. We have so accustomed ourselves to regard ourselves
as a martyr people that the thought of our spiritual mastery has

i

NJ/

Mr. Lipsky's Denial

We arc glad to accede to the request of Mr. Lipsky to reprint in
our issue this week what purports to be a denial of the main subject
matter of his interview published in the New York Times, and upon
which we based certain editorial comments in this paper. However,
we confess to some confusion as to what constitutes an interview in
the mind of Mr. Lipsky. He pleads that when he gave his views as
to the status of the Rabbinical Conference to' the Times reporter, he
was not told that the matter was to be printed as an interview. Pray,
in what form did Mr. Lipsky, who is no tyro in newspaper experience,
expect his conversation with the reporter to appear?
But that is after all a minor matter. Perhaps, as in another
familiar matter, Mr. Lipsky wished the reporter to interpret his words
"liberally and not literally." Evidently the reporter was stupid
enough not to do so. Be that as it may, in his "denial" Mr. Lipsky
does not deny saying the things to which we have taken exception, but
on the contrary re-emphasizes a statement that is in fact without a
scintilla of justification. He says : "The fact is that the Central Con-
ference at its convention in Buffalo did not adopt a resolution opposed
to Zionism." This statement we declare to be as ridiculous as it is
false. The Conference could scarcely have condemned Zionism in
stronger terms than it did. These are the words which having been
printed and re-printed many timesand are apparently familiar to every-
body except the Chairman of the Federation of American Zionists.
"The Conference re-affirms its traditional positiOn that the essence of
Israel as a priest people consists in its religious consciousness and in
the sense of consecration to God and Ilis service in the world. And
THEREFORE WE MUST AND DO LOOK WITH DISFAVOR
UPON EVERY AND ANY UNRELIGIOUS OR ANTI-RELIG-
IOUS INTERPRETATION OF JUDAISM AND OF ISRAEL'S
MISSION IN THE WORLD." These words may be interpreted lit-
erally or liberally as Mr. Lipsky pleases. They mean only one thing.
By an overwhelming vote, which was preceded by much pro-Zionistic
eloquence, especially on the part of those young men whose modesty
Mr. Lipsky fears would have prevented them from voting or voicing
their convictions, the Conference set itself squarely on record as op-
posed to Zionism.
Neither Mr. Lipsky's interview which he now claims was no
interview, nor his denial of obvious facts can change the true situation.
We had hoped that enough had been said and written about this mat-
ter to make further discussion unnecessary. We certainly hope that
such is the case now. It will be if Mr. Lipsky will take these words
literally as they are meant to be taken, and not attempt to construe
them "liberally" and thus put into them a Meaning that was never re-
motely contemplated by the writer.

The Book of Deuteronomy

According to the Synagogal calendar the reading of the Book of
Deuteronomy, as the weekly Pentateuchal lesson, begins on Sabbath
of this week. It is to be regretted that the reading of this noblest of
the books of the Thora should come year by year at the season when
by reason of the fact that many people are absent from home, the
attendance at synagog and Temple is at its lowest ebb. That there
is no more inspiring book than Deuteronomy in the Bible is generally
conceded by appreciative students of Biblical literature. Unfortu-
nately, however, many of our people are strangers to its contents.
Might it not be worth while for us to sake up this book and read a
chapter or two each night before retiring to rest? It would be a relief
and an inspiration to turn aside for a little while both from the bloody
tales with which our newspapers are filled to overflowing and from the
trashy "light literature" in which most of us are accustomed to indulge
during the heated spell and take up a book that has helped to lift
humanity through many centuries to a higher plane of living and
thinking?