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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

If, as has many times been pointed out, the Christian world is
becoming however unconsciously ethically Judaised, it is because
through contact it has learned the truth and the beauty of Jewish teach
Issued Every Friday by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company.
General Manager ings in regard to God and man in their mutual relations. Indeed
ANTON KAUFMAN
may be answered to those who hold that the Reform Jew is becomin::
Christianized that a study of existing conditions will prove the \Tr\
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reverse to be true. If ever there was a time when Judaism's message
was being universalized it is today. The Jew in his dispersion ha:
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carried the word of the living God into every corner of the earth.
be sure in his contact with other peoples he has not remained uninflu-
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enced by their various cultures. The most wonderful fact in Jewish
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history is that in the coufse of his century long and world wide wan
derings, amid which the Jew has touched so many civilizations at s(,
Editorial Contributor many points, influencing and being influenced by the nations of th(.
RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN,
world, he has remained essentially unchanged—the same undaunted
The Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on subjects of inter- prophet of the one God and the one humanity.
est to the Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for an indorse-
What some men derisively speak of as the assimilative tendency
ment of the views expressed by the writers.
of the non-Zionist is therefore not a mark of opprobrium, but of glory
to the modern Jew. He dares to face the world instead of slinking
All correspondence to insure publication must be sent in so as to into a dark corner, sure that his part and place in the world is so fixed
and so necessary that no environmental condition can take away its
reach this office Tuesday morning of each week.
importance. He believes with an unflinching faith that he yet has a
mission to fulfill in the world and that only in the midst of men can he
Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit,
fulfill it. The Rabbinic injunction not to separate onself from the
Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879
community he dares to apply in a large sense than it was originally
intended by holding that wherever men dwell the Jew must go bring
FRIDAY, AUG. 10, 1917
the truth and the joy which Judaism has to offer.
It is only in this higher sense that the Reform or non-Zionistic
Jew may be called an assimilationist. To read such a one out of the
Assimilation and Christianization
• fold of Judaism as Shmarya Levin and his close followers would do is
Whatever other virtues he may possess Mr. Schmarya Levin does not only rank stupidity ; it is treachery and disloyalty to the historic
not understand the American spirit, and therefore his guidance in the past of the Jew as well as a misreading of his high destiny.
interpretation of American conditions even in their Jewish aspect is
far from reliable. It is to be deplored, therefore, that so many of our
Zionistic friends are prone to adopt his catch phrases and to follow Jewish WWelfare Work in the Army and Navy
his lead in directions where he is thoroughly incompetent. We do not
With the vast numbers of Jewish young men enrolled in the
refer to his lack of self-control and his very bad manners as indicated Army and Navy little argument should be necessary to convince the
in a recent article in which he cries out against the non-Zionists in Jews of this country that the appeal of the Jewish Board for Welfare
such words as these : "It is we (i. e., the Zionists) who are the pro- Work in the United States Army and Navy should meet with ready
tectors of the Jewish religion, you half-baptized fathers and you and generous response. The sum asked, as one of the members of the
wholly baptized children. You are the most hateful type that Goluth Board points out, is so very small $100,000, that it should be forth-
Judaism has produced." Outbursts like this are not new among the coming in a very short time. Our non-Jewish fellow-Americans are
apostles of Zionism, although Dr. Heller dares to claim that Zionists contributing millions for similar purposes. In the work to be under•
would not shut the gates of Judaism upon the non-Zionist It has taken by the Jewish Board there will be the closest co-operation with
become rather characteristic of some of our friends under the leader- the Y. M. C. A., an organization that has already done most telling
ship of such men as Levin to regard all non-Zionists and especially work along these lines.
all Reformers as out and out apostates.
Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the fact that the young
Indeed, in the article referred to Levin says : "Assimilation must men who are going to the front arc bringing the greatest sacrifice
be regarded as civil apostacy," which, he goes on to shoW, he regards that to them is possible. The least that those who stay at home can
as infinitely more reprehensible than religious apostacy. Now every do is to make their lot as easy as may be. So far as material com-
non-Zionist is to Levin and to those who think as he thinks, an assim- forts are concerned most of us understand this. The splendid re-
ilationist—ergo—an apostate. In this category are included not only sponse of men and women to the appeals of the Red Cross amply
the vast and overwhelming majority of Reform Rabbis and the mem- proves this. But more than physical comforts arc needed. In times
bers of their congregations, but such outstanding men among the of trial and danger men require spiritual help, too. This our Chris-
Orthodoxy community as Dr. Cyrus Adler, Dr. S. Solis Cohen and tian friends well understand and as a result they have given liberally
now Judge Mayer Sulzberger, whose ringing denunciation of the of their means to the support of the work inaugurated by the Y. M.
Zionistic movement carries conviction with it. The trouble with men C. A. Let it not be said to the shame of the Jew that he has been
who unlike Levin are not simply carried away by their passion, but slow to raise the beggarly sum that has been asked of him. No one
who unthinkingly follow incompetent leadership is that they do not need give a large amount. But every person should give something.
take the trouble to analyze the meaning of assimilation. Perhaps it is Give, and give today.
not so evil a term after all, and that in some sense it may be no dis-
grace to enroll oneself with the assimilationists. If by assimilation is
Another congregation has just laid the cornerstone of its new
meant the giving up of one iota of belief or practice that is essential to
Judaism then no good reform Jew is an assimilationist. Neither is he house of worship in Detroit. This synagog will be the first to be
if by being such he must accept a single doctrine or dogma that is in erected in the western district of our city, where the number of Jewish
fact or by implication un-Jewish or anti-Jewish. In a word if, as residents is constantly increasing. It is gratifying to note that the
Levin and his followers imply, assimilation and Christianization are plans for the new edifice call for not merely an auditorium, but that
one and the same thing, then the Reform Jew and the anti-Zionist is ample provision is to be made for a religious school and for meetings
not an assimilationist. To them the religious heritage • of the Jew is of the Woman's Auxiliary, the young people's organizations, etc.
too precious a possession to barter away for social or political recogni- This is as it should be. And yet we cannot repress a smile when we
remember how short a time it is since our orthodox brethren poked
tion in America or Palestine or anywhere on earth.
But assimilation has no such content or implication. Through fun at the reform Jew for attempting to make the synagog a social as
frankly we dislike the term because of its associations, it means ultim- well as a religious center for the people.
ately no more than this as applied to the Jew in America, that he is
ready to absorb such elements of the cultural and spiritual environ-
In a rather lengthy and altogether complimentary article the Cin-
ment amid which he lives as will not the less, but the more fully
cinnati Times-Star calls attention to the fact that in the realm of pro-
express the spirit of his ancestral faith. Thus, for instance, under the fessional pugilism the mantle of glory has fallen from off the shoulders
influence of the American ideal of freedom the Jew in America is of the Irish upon the shoulders of the Jew. According to this article
moved to interpret his Judaism as a religion of freedom and to emanci- the superiority of the Jewish hero is due to his greater sobriety and
pate it from those elements of ritualism and ceremonialism that make general good habits. Thus are honors heaped upon us from the most
for spiritual enslavement. On the other hand, this conception of assimi- unexpected quarters.
lation has another side. If we take what is good from the life around
us, so also out of the rich treasure houses of our own past do we con-
stantly enrich that life. Through the Jew who touches the life
around him at every point the whole spirit of that life is colored by
Jewish thought, Jewish aspiration and Jewish idealism.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

