' 0AGE

FOUR

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

from debt, the lifting of mortgages, and even the Wilding of fine
Issued Every Friday by The Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company
ANTON KAUFMAN
•
•
•
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•
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President places of worship do not constitute an invariable evidence of su
sue
that is the highest. \,.ery often, all of these accomplishments,
MICHIGAN'S JEWISII HOME PUBLICATION

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Phone: Cherry 3281.

RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN,

Editorial Contributor

creditable as they undoubtedly are, may point to a material succe ss
that has in it no spiritual quality. Sometimes the business side of
the synagogue may be most admirably administered, while t he
spiritual side, the side of its work that really counts, may be utter ly
inefficient.

If, then, the outward symbols of success are really delusive at ul
All correspondence to insure publication must be sent In so as to reach this misleading, what are the positive conditions upon which congreg a-
office Tuesday evening of each week.
tional efficiency may be said to be dependent? If we may state 01 ir
The Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on subjects of nterest to the thought somewhat categorically, we should say that the success of
Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for an indorsement of the views a congregation depends upon the ideals that it sets before itself an
expressed by the writers.
upon the willingness of its minister and its members to make tl
necessary sacrifices to realize these ideals.
Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1915, at the PolitoInce at Detroit,

Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

The Efficient Congregation

In these days when religion is on trial and when there are not a
few who arc eager to proclaim the failure of the church and syna-
gogue, it is well for religious organizations to take stock of them-
sel es and to face frankly and fearlessly the question whether in
fact they arc serving a useful purpose in the social organization.
Such an investigation dispassionately and honestly made will, we
believe, establish beyond question the priority of the synagogue as
an inspiring force in Jewish life.

Few, we believe, even of the most rabid anti-religionists among
the Jews, will hesitate to concede that the congregation has played
an important part in the outworking and the upbuilding of Jewish
community life. For our part, we believe that it is not going too far
to assert that the history of American Israel is to be read in the
story of her congregations. To her ever changing sentiment the
synagogue is the sensitive index. When the hold of the synagogue
upon the heart of the Jew is strong, it is safe to believe that the Jew
of that time is sane and safe. When its influence is weak and
wavering, so too is likely to be the religious consciousness of the
people.

However, our insistence is that the Congregation is more than a
mirror of Jewish sentiment. It is, as well, its inspiration. We take
no iota of just praise or credit for their merits or achievements from
other Jewish institutions when we say that not one of them all could
lead a purposeful existence were it not for the inspiration and the
religious reinforcement offered them by the synagogue.
Nor do we hear refer chiefly to such organizations as are Jewish
only in the matter of membership. Leaving out of consideration
altogether so-called Jewish Arbeiter Rings, Jewish Trades Unions
and Jewish political clubs of all complexions, which have no right to
call themselves Jewish, let us concede that the Jewish Social Club,
so-called, whatever its deficiencies and dangers, does fill a legitimate
and somewhat necessary place in the community life. Its value as
a
factor in upbuilding the idealism of the American Jew or in stimu-
lating him to the noblest sort of endeavor will hardly be urged by its

the National • Conference of Jewish Charities. This committee
looked into the Denver situation most carefully, consulted with the
officers of the two great Jewish hospitals ill that city as well
with the leading spirits in the 1)enver Federation of Jewish Chari-
ties, and all were unanimous ill the ()pinion that the Ex-Patient:'
Aid Association not only was not needed, but was actually workin
g
harm to the cause of the poor Jews.

Report has it that letters of appeal from this organization 11;11 e
in recent weeks gone to large numbers of our co-religionist
s in this
city, and it is well, therefore, that they should be warned to throw
them unanswered into the waste-basket.

In every community there are those out of harmony with the
organized relief agencies who are prone, for their own aggrandii,
ment, to establish new organizations in which they may become
It might be suggested that the ideals of all congregations are 0 titled officers. But they are usually of the sort who wish to ("Irry
on their work at other people's expense.
necessity the same; that all religious organizations are by their ver
The National Jewish Hospital of Denver and th I
nature constituted for the purpose of teaching men the truths o
,
religion and awakenin
sumptives' I:elief Society are doing splendid and adequate
g
g
them the desire to live righteous live
k
As an academic theorem this is unquestionably the case, and yet, s. both for the patients immediately under their care, and so f. ;
se
I necessary, for those who have been discharged. These two organi
e look
about us and congre-
note the real activities Of some of our
ns
gatio, we shall find that in practice their ideals are far removed zations deserve the fullest co-operation at the hands of the Jews Soi
from these.
this country, but other organizations that seek to duplicate their
work arc superfluous.
Shall one say, for instance, that the synagogue that is closed for
six and a half days in every week and open for a few hours merely
for religious worship, is truly striving for a high and worthy ideal?
(Jr shall Nye believe that the congregation is realizing a high ideal
•
whose sympathies are so narrow and crude that they extend no far-
ther than the four walls of their synagogue and whose pulpit, instead
of preaching a constructive message, devotes itself week in and week
out to criticizing and co n
demning those who hold to a different inter-
pretation of religion than itself? The ideals of congregational life
to be worthy must be as broad and as deep and as high as are the
strivings and the out-reachings of the human spirit. Wherever there
is a heart that cries aloud for help, wherever there is a hand that
reaches out for the sympathetic touch of a brother's hand, there the
(Continued from last week.)
synagogue must be with its warm sympathy and its ready help. 'File
At
to
Julius
Rosenwald
left hot
first of the ideals of a congregation, therefore, must be to serve—
and the public schools of Springtic lie I Jewelry Company and re-established
to serve men in the living world. Too long and too generally has it Nlaternal uncles lived in New Yo Id. r himself in Minneapolis. NI r. Roebuck,
been true that the hand of the congregation has been the hand of the Thither he went, and his mercant rk. neither then nor after, had any Mimi-
cial interest in the business. Ile was
beggar and that men have been brought into touch with the syna- relatives gave him employment, "1111 t." always an employe on a salary.
using his phrase, of a very suborn
gogue largely, if not altogether, by its appeals for gifts of money and nate character." Sweeping, possibl
Sears-Roebuck & Co.
"01111' more Mr. Scars prospered.
material support. But the ideal congregation seeks not always to dusting, no doubt, and washing wi
"-
\\lien
down.
he was free to do so he changed
get, but rather to give, and to serve rather than to be served. It
the name of his firm to Sears. Roe-
"One day." to give another 51101
asks of men and women in the community, "What can we do for sales for 1917 will amount to $170,001 cII buck & Co. He had widely advertised
you?" "What is there that we have to offer that can awaken ill 000, which is only a small drop in . the old firm and believed that NIr.
" Roebuck's name was of considerable
your heart new hopes and make you tread the path of life the firmer big bucket. Take shoes, for exanipl value. Therefore, he used it along
of his story, personally related. '
because of your renewed faith in God and
and righteousness?"
righteisness?" went to a wholesale establishment • with his own, although he was the
order thus to serve, the congregation mast
nst touch life at every He was a clerk by this time and it I " - , sole owner of the business.
"Mr. Scars returned to Chicago in
point. Through the influence of the pulpit, physical cleanliness and trusted with important commissions.
1895. Up to that time he had sold
Clothing.
moral probity must be emphasized; childhood must be kept pure
"Summer clothing for men—alpac jewelry and watches exclusively.
through the purity of manhood and of wInnanhood ; domestic rela- coats, duck vests, and seersuck, a , When he added a small line of cloth-
to his stock 1 showed him .ea
tions
must be sanctified by the fact that marriage is consecrated in suits—was the exclusive line of thi s pies from our factory. Then our Ill-
. .
house," he said. "Business was brisk
ac-
quaintance
opened. Ile told me about
•
the things that must go and the proprietors were in a cheerfu

7

-

HOW JULIUS ROSENWALD ROSE
FROM POVERTY AND OBSCURITY
TO WEALTH AND PROMINENCE

am confidential mood. One of them I his business.

their homes, into their told me that they had received tha
"I had a brother-in-law who was
r relations to men and (lay sixty more orders, sonw by tele then looking for an opening. He and
I went to \I r. Sears and asked him if
graph, than they could fill.
iemselves.
"I turned this information over it In. felt like acceptim, us as partners.
o equality of opportunity my
A
bargain was soon made. \I r. Scars
mind and mentioned it to m V
11111 valor Of $140,000 MI his stock.
nagogs been social insti- uncles. Summer clothing for men,
. (agog is one of the first thought, and they agreed, might do good will, and so on. The price was
of religious opinion. It would be unjust not to remember hox v a and most essential steps that is now pressed upon us as a great well somewhere else. A location wa satisfactory. I paid him $35,000, and
my brother-in-law paid hint $35.000.
little more than a half-century ago, the social barrier that loon led need of the hour. Congregational policies must be so revised that my first problem. Inquiry showed that And
so the three of us owned the
a line of such goods had not been de-
business. II - e turned the company
ominously big between the proud Portuguese Jew and his on for- every man whose hands are clean and whose heart is pure shall veloped in Chicago.
"My father supplied Me with funds, later into a corporation. \I r. Sears
tunate German co-religionists who came here later, ofttimes a s a have an equal representation and an equal part in the life of the con-
and a cousin became my partner. We was elected president and I was
poor and helpless immigrant, was bridged chiefly by the lodge.
gregation so far as he desires it. The money test which still obtains leased a loft on the third floor of the elected vice-president and treasurer
.
The history of those early times in the lodge points to its pros ent in many of our congregations and which is often the condition by Farwell building. it was in the fall of When \I r. Sears retired, in 1908, I
succeeded
him.
Ile
died
two
years
possibilities. Through the lodge the German and American Jc
which men rise to official positions, must be done away with. :Man- the year, and we be in a modest
ago, a very wealthy man. Modest
risen to places of prominence and power, may do, if they will, for hood must be the test of authority in the synagog and the poor way, the manufacture of thin clothing. always. and lovable. he was of great
In the January following we opened
their stricken brethren from various lands of oppression what oth ers man's corner and the rich man's corner must be a thing of the past. our selling campaign, deliveries to lc service. in my opinion, to the Ameri-
'co carry out such a program
made in the spring and early sum- can people. He brought inanufactur-
in other days did for them and their fathers. But though all this be
requires on the part of the members mer."
yrs and consumers together and saved
granted, we dare ask: Would the most ardent lodge workers of of a congregation sacrifices of no mean order. The spiritual head
"How old were you?" the inter- the latter hundreds of millions of dol-
lars."
them all be stirred to move a hand or think a thought for th eir of such a congregation must be truly consecrated to his task and viewer asked.
Phenomenal Expansion.
Meets Richard W. Sears.
stricken co-religionists were it not for the sense of Jewish broth er- those who sit under him must be willing and eager to be guided by
"Eighteen sixty-two from eighteen
The business of Mr. Sears in 1895,
hood and Jewish duty which is primarily impressed upon them by his words and by his example. When congregations grow into eighty-five
leaves twenty-three, and by his own statement, was worth
the synagogue?
AS my age. Mr. Rosenw
$145,000. N o money was afterward
places of influence in the community, it therefore argues that they tha
rep lied. "We did well," he continu aid put into it.
i Expansion was made
There is still another set of institutions that would represent t he have learned the meaning of religious efficiency, that they have not
ed,
tak ing up his story, "and nine ye
with profits. The shares of
Jew, timely our philanthropies. Under the stress of the scienti tic been content with small and easy triumphs, but that through hard late r I became acquainted w ars wholly
the corporation today have a market
ills
spirit of the age and of the reaction against ,formal creeds and ce re- work and through willing sacrifice they have served their people Ric hard W. Sears. Then the turn ing value of $125,000,000. Al least $25,-
poi tit in my life occurred.
000,000 has been taken out of the
monial religions, a seemingly new cry has gone forth of late, and by and their cause with courage and with conscientiousness,
Mr. Sears was a year younger th
business in the form of dividends.
none has it been more vociferously echoed and applauded than by
Despite the failure of a few congregations here and there to meet my self. Born in a little Nliniws( all Sales totaled $500,000 in 1895. -
Ita
"The y
tow
certain of our co-religionists. We say this cry is apparently a n e
he
learned
to
be
a
telegra
these rather hard conditions that make for efficiency, a survey of the
will be three hundred and forty. times
ope rotor. A natural trader, and ph greater this year.
one, for in reality it is but the faint echo of a cry that was voic ed larger Jewish religious organizations of this country will indicate, way
al-
s an honest one, I want to say it
"You know, of course," the writer
centuries ago by Israel's God-intoxicated prophets. Theirs the fir st we believe, that the majority of them are striving earnestly and pas sing, he began selling
watches to said to Alr. Rosenwald, "that country
courageously
for
the
railroad
voice to call for the religion of doing. Theirs the enduring servi ce
tile better things
1(11(1 of his acquaintan
and that they are truly influencing Ile
cc. merchants complain of having been
to humanity to proclaim to their generation and to all generatio ns their people to live ()tore intcnscly JCWISI1 lives. Let those who will and would buy two or three watch CS seriously injured h)• mail-order
houses?"
dispose of them to engineers, co
that to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked and to take the afflicte d say that the Jew today is irreverent and irreligious. The fact duct ors, and others.
"Yes, although there are more pros-
poor to one's house is the test of true religion. We speak of a ne
During his leisure time, while s
remains that never was a time when the great body of Jewry was
wrous and capable country merchants
ting at the telegraph instrument,
philanthropy tislay,but it was old ninny centuries ago.
to t n the United States than ever before.
more keenly alive to the part that Jews must play upon the stage woo
Id write letters to the operato
\Viten a man fails be will shift the
of life than is the case today.
And it is under the inspiration of the synagogue whose messag
who in he knew and in that way la I'S
'lame from himself to some one else.
the f oundation for his mail-order bus of 1
So far as the Reform Synagog
ought to be the echo of the greatest sermons that were ever preache
l- le will not admit that he is incom-
is concerned, it may have put ness.
Ile
(lid
so
well
that
he
left
th
ietent.
Egotism stops him from do-
by humanity's preachers, the prophets, that the religion of doing i
e
away' some forms and ceremonials that have become void of inclin- railr
oad business and went into bus
ng so. He finds an excuse SOIlle-
making its appeal anew to human hearts. Charity may be son
ing to our time and country, but the suggestive fact remains that its ness for himself at Minneapolis, lea
•herc
for his own shortcomings and
1- "
man's religion, but unconsciously to themselves, perhaps, it is th e young men and its piling mimen are intensely and vitally interested ing o my in watches and selling the: n c ( i l u v e il tlel.it;)se who know hit;f
in i ails to con-
by n Weans of circulars and letters.
synagogue that has waked the sympathy and the sentiment 0 in all problems affecting Jews and Judaism and that they are eager
Settles in Chicago.
humanity that warms their hearts.
"But It Is All Accident."
"C hicago, he thought, would be
to contribute their share, even at the cost of great sacrifice, to bring
bens r location, and so lie moved t a
"By his methods Mr. Sears caused
Our point is that the very center of Jewish life must, of neces about their solution.
that city. Ile had already proved th o ther merchants to find ways by
sits, be the congregation, which is the logical unit of the Jew's rep
The conclusion is inevitable, for those who arc not utterly' merit
w hich they could meet his competi-
resentation. Other institutions may do good work but they are al blinded to truth by partisanship and prejudice. that wherever con- mono of his idea, and was makin g ti on.
The whole retail world was
y. Then, in a year or two, a mai
the fruitage of synagugal planting. They are the machinery an( structive work for Jewry and for Judaism is being carried on, the Came along and offered him $123,001
u, (led up and grew more efficient.
fork is business, provided he wool,
mid merchants became better and
the congregation is the motive power that drives it. They arc the synagog k the inspiring force behind it. This in 1
I ha (I merchants went out of
(ase, agree not to sell watches again i I
business.
body and the congregation is the soul that vivifies it. They are tin. because whatever some sections of Jewry may hold to the contrary,' own n ame for a period of three years
"Billions of dollars are yearly spent
in this country by consumers. Our
"Nlr
workers and the congregation is the inspiring force behind them.
Judaism must ultimately be interpreted in terms of
. Sears was only 25 at the time
1
ix g i on. And and the sr ani
that
nnw h ie m. tsar o nff e cr ie l (1 th suppose the American people buy a
That these things are true might be readily enough proved in . t li llse tsilyensaygiolagg(i)sg t g limem s v isng illIe pt ( i ) i l l‘it t .rt a ha n t d rrepresents
represents the Jew religiously. I , s t 7h e50 `. 1 u ::: h d tit: ih )
ousand million dollars' worth of
any wideawake ;mil active Jewish community. This being granted.
g t at hrwould never want an sh OeS annually. Our sales of shoes
ency, the Jew will take
wl
that
)
mor
e
it might be timely to inquire what elements may be said to make
II not exceed, say, $18,000,000. Nlail-
lacc in the world for which his genius ti ts h im.
money. So he sold out, invest
or
farm mortgages, 'gay
for congregational efficiency and by what means they may most
I ". ret der houses cannot monopolize the
mortgages to his mother, and wi'M the
ail trade of the United States. but
tit ' :
effectively be brought into play. In what terms does congregational
Mexico and California on a vacation tht 1. can, ill a measure, regulate it as
to
A Word of Warning
success express itself ? The solution of these problems might be
prices and improve it as to service.
After traveling for six month he
I returned to Miuneapolis, weary from
reached by a process of elimination, by stating what congregational
s l ho There is room for all, and all, I
In last week's issue of The Jewish
pc, will prosper. provided, under
idleness. A. (_. Roebuck, who was
Chronicle appeared a letter
the plraotsvls),(ri.f.,good business, they ought
success is not; by showing that many religious institutions have
much older than himself, formerly
wrong standards for measuring the part they play in the life of the from Mr. Erin! M. Butzel calling attention to the fact that the "Aid had been in his employment as a to
A
people, and by holding up as a thing to In` ;(voided the goal toward Society for Ex-Patients of Denver Sanitariums" is a superfluous jeweler. Mr. Sears was attached to ana s for Julius Rosenwald himself. as
lyzed by himself, every-thing has
Mr. Roebuck and had great respect
organization and that its appeal for support, addressed to Iews
which some of our organizations seem to be striving.
bee
of for his mechanical ability and his
II an "accident:" exactly. as notch
this country, should properly go unheeded
of a n accident, it will he noted by his
,
character.
We might then especially emphasize the fact that the mere
This opinion of INIr. liutzel is not the result of snap judgment. 1 "Under the contract he had made in sto ry, as would lie the argument of a
numerical growth'of a congregation is not of necessity an. index to
cast
;
It is based upon the most careful investigation of all the facts in Chicago Ile was barred for three years law before the Supreme Court by a
its success. Or we might show that the full exchequer
!
ver or the construction by an en-
from engaging in the mail-orifer busi-
, the freedom the case by a competent
gint
and conscientious committee appointed bv ness under his own name. So he
.er of a railroad up the slopes and

. gan zt (I the

C. Roebuck NV

or- thro
ugh the notches of a chain of
I mountains.

