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Prith Peridial Cotter.
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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
THE JEWISH PEOPLE--
A SPIRITUAL FORCE
PAGE FIVE
the world, peoples do not live and die
according to rationalistic rules worked
out by the individual. The deepest
springs of the Jewish life burst in a
great flood.
I'tirsonal and material
advantages were swept away. The
spiritual tradition 01 the living Jewish
people surged
M 1 Within
it a a
n d over.
IE face of the world
is being its ways of living. Vet the Jewish whelmed it, leav ing it but
h elpless
changed.
The very bases of I people, th e ;iim h a Seid
l , th e People instrument in the hands of a !tight'?
civilization are shaken. But
I of the Book, of the Torah shelie-Csav
while these
outward events are r :mil the Torah Shebal-Pe, have always
Nor is it strange that the lung Apir-
taking place there is a change
going searched out, from the eery begin- itual tradition of this ancient spiritual'
on inwardly in the heart, the mind of 'fling of their history the spiritual jus- people should be so deeply grounded.
the world, in the soul of man. It tification for the existence
of the Jew- This people has seen the rise and fall
should he everyone's purpose to ish people.
of ciOlizations, ancient and modern.
emancipate himself, if this be at all .
It has had experience of all people and
Jewish "Churches" Fail
possible in these miraculous days,
;ill cultures
It has greater knowledge
from the fascination of outward hap-, 1 he Reformed Jewish ( -
Much--
-to
than
any other people of history, on
penings.
We should, as far as we I use the name give:" it by its
■ levo-I
kle
Meaning
of
tyranny and autocracy.,
mar, try to ea
s— winch exists only iii ‘Yestcril ,and more than any other people of
cata-'.coupe and
in America, has proven history, it has resisted every form of
clysm, to regard it si aeterm.. to be bankrupt. For over one hundred tyranny and autocracy, iron' the time
tutus. It is more than ever necessary , Years past its one cardinal doctrine
of Pharaoh ■ IOWtt to the present day.
that we turn our eyes within and en - has been the universality
of Israel. It has had a
greater share than any
1.1eavor to guide by the inner spiritual Israel's mission to the
nations. II) But other group in the downfall of the
li g ht o f our J u d a i sm. \\:h at
h as th e
:the Reformed Jewish Church has not Russian autocracy, and it may be de.:
_Jewish people to offer, what has the preached this great mission in these molded upon in the future to range
By RABBI JUDAH L. MAGNE8
' Jewish religion to offer, what has the days when it was most needed. It its forces with every form of political,
Jewish spirit to offer in the recoil-'has failed
utterly to justify the very economic and spiritual democrat . ).
struction of the life of man? principle of its existence. .1tta 11Ioreover, the Jewish
intellect has
This is not the first time that the bechartains or the Am segulah, the been sharpened and disciplined by its
Jewish people, in the course of its chosen, the peculiar people, is a revo- experience of peoples and eiviliza-
long history, has passed through a lutionary doctrine. The preaching of tions, by its passionate study of its
world-cataclysm, nor is this the first a revolutionary doctrine requires rev- devel o pin g
'1 orals and by its conduit-
tittle that Jews have come to realize olutionaries. The carrying on of a ins application of its fundamental law •
that, whatever be the material for- mission requires missionaries. \Vhy to all the changes of its changing life.
nut's of the Jewish people, their real'
expect the membership and preachers A people with such experience of life,
life is the life of the spirit, and their of the Reformed Jewish Church to
be with such a deepening and disciplin-
real goal the strengthening, the deep- revolutionaries or missionaries? Their ing
of its mental processes and it,
the
fife
is
lived
on
illmtli
the
smile
ening, the beautifying of the life of
level spiritual qualities, must necessarily
spirit. It is true that the biological as that of their neighbors. Ilas a have acquired a detached, :in age-long
reason, the desire of any people to sin gle
,
spokesman among them lilted wisdom enabling it to look with we
perpetuate itself, is a sufficient reason I up his voice in these perilous days on es es upon the unreason of riders of
for its struggle to maintain its life and behalf of the revolutionary Jewish passing empires.
idea of the Fatherhood of God and
I hope I may have been able to
the brotherhood of man? ‘ • hat
I say show from this instance: First, that
, about the Reformed Jewish Church in the masses of the Jewish people du
applies also to such Orthodox Jewish Jewish spiritual tradition still lives and
institutions as
!
are no longer intlib lives intensely; second, that this tra-
sliced by the masses ■■ i the
living ilition permeates all sections of the
Jewish people of Eastern Europe and
Jewish masses, whatever be their relic
America. tion to the synagogue: and, third, that
I
realize some of the practical ad- this tradition, as every Jewish tradi-
vantages of this
attitude of the ‘Vest- tion, is an expression of the funda-
ern Jewish Church. •ley are spared mental idea of the Fatherhood of God
explaining themselves to their neigh- and the Brotherhood of !dais In so
Worth Fighting For
hors. They move along in the current far as the Jewish tradition is thus
noble service of charity, of encourage. alive, what a powerful ferment it be-
inem for the day, as they are called coines in the spiritual life of any coin-
of the national life. They perform mutiny containing living members of
upon to do. I have no quarrel with the living Jewish people.
then' for their practical ;minute.
I
The Jewish International
merely contest their claim to being
9
WHEN YOU GO OUT
the bearers of the living Jew ish spirit.
A Revolutionary Mission
Yet. despite the NVestern lewislt
Church, the Jewish people has a mis-
you like to feel that your
apparel is correct and be
free from self-conscious-
ness.
sion to the world, that very tradi-
, tional,
re ■ ohltionary
mission
0,
preaching the brotherhood of man
amt the Fatherhood of (Md. I hart!
never realized so truly as now and
since the war that the bearer and
preaCher of that mission is not the
We are glad to show
you the new fabrics and
designs that would be
particularly becoming to
370U. than ever that
• life—religions, moral, artistic, politi-
cal, social—of a living people. The
only standard by which any event in
Jewish life is worth being measured
is: Does this event aid the Jewish
people in carrying on the living Jew-
: ish tradition?
In the face of such
OUR. TAILORING
, tests and such ideals, the arrogant
threats of antisemitism recently made
by half-Jews and non-Jews against
the Jewish people of America fade
A. C. KRENZ
into their real insignificance. Every
sacrifice is worth while if it gives ex
pression to the living Jewish tradition
of the living Jewish people. Nothing
Grand 3634
925 Woodward
Just a few steps north of
Forest.
•
: is worth while if it be merely for the
sake of saving our skins.
The Democratic Spirit
lint when a catastrophe overtakes
Siluse of a great historic tradition, is
intensely conscious of its own distinct
individuality, on the one hand. and at •
the same time, is intensely conscioti:
of the universality of its membership
in the family of peoples. May we not
call this consciousness of our univer-
sality, the Jewish International? l‘lay
we not call this consciousness of our
a better day. I know that there have
been many Jews, during the past hum-
Bred years, who have denied the ex-'
the Jewish International was falsely,
unjustly alleged by our enemies to he
an international financial and political
conspiracy. Such a conception of the
Jewish International has always been
a fiction and a libel. It is only Ghetto
cowardice that could have prompted
any Jews to accept this calumny as
the basis of a policy of international
inaction. There is the Jewish Inter-
national,
the International of the
spirit, all International more subtle
than any free masonry, an Interim ,-
tional that thinks but littl e of material
of the human spirit in science, art, lit-
erature, social economy, religion, be-
tween the Eastern and the NVestern
worlds, between men of all tongues
and loyalties and nationalities. In a
world in which internationalism is
suspect, What a blessing that this in.
ternational people lives and has the
will to develop its International in
common
with every other Interna-
tional of the spirit
With
Sherwin-Williams
PAINT AND VARNISH
The question which today confronts America
as a nation, and you as an individual, is
wLther or not a free America
is worth fighting for
istence of the Jewish International. I
They felt compelled to deny it because
cupations upon which they are c„-
gaged. It is this International which
is the traditional bearer of messages
PAINT AND VARNISH NOW
For over two hundred years Americans have
fought valiantly, and died gallantly, to win for
themselves and hand down to their posterity the
blessings of liberty, justice, self-government and
equal opportunity. This precious heritage, bought
at so great a price, is now threatened.
taboo. But fur those who 1151c not ,
yet lust the international mind. the
existence and the functioning of the
Jewish International must be a sign
of hope in the skies, the harbingei of
forms for its expression.
It is that
quality that makes Jew understand
Jew regardless of the lands and lan-
guages of their nativity, or of the oc-
It Costs More Money to
Paint and Varnish Your
Home Each Year.
Are American children in this and all future
generations to receive unimpaired the legacy of
freedom of which we are now the custodians, or
shall their country be turned over bodily to the
brutal, rapacious, power-mad enemy which has
forced us into this wary'
This question cannot be answered by word of
mouth, but by deeds alone,
L et Your Answer Be Your
Investment in
LIBERTY BONDS!
Jewish Nationalism
But what is the essence of the jeW-
f§ ish International, upon what does it
depend for its very existence? Is it
ki
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of American home we know, healthy and
happy? Shall she have the advantage of
living and learning in a free land, under free in-
stitutions ? Shall such children develop into the
Liberty-loving citizens that a free America may
be proud of ?
From Nt nut I have thus far said, it
is, I think, a lair inference to assert
that this ancient people, with its living
1Vestern Jewish (Muse'', but rather
the Jewish National?
the masses of the living Jewish peo-
This consciousness of universality—
ple, who are still under the influence
the Jewish International—now, in the
' of the living Jewish tradition. The
midst of the uar, is one of the great-
, present-day spiritual loyalties of the
masses of the living Jewish people est international forces. For this sea-
son it is hated and feared by Many
have made Ole realize more deeply
for whom everything international is
the Jewish mission, as
a spiritual force, expresses itself not
through ecclesiastic forms alone, but
through all the ways and hopes of
When can you call and
let us take your measure
for a smart top coat or
stylish suit of
HALL this little girl grow up in the sort
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THIS SPACE PAID FOR AND CONTRIBUTED BY
not the Jewish National, the colt
sclOOSfiCSS of our distinct individual-
ity? If those forces and forms stamp-
ing us as Jests were to disappear, it is
evident that the Jews would not un-
derstand one another, and that thus
the Jewish International would disap-
pear, 'Moreover, with the disappear-
ante of the Jewish National, we should
lose the living Jewish tradition, whose
very essence is International, univer•
sal. The spiritual forces of the Jew -
ish international are but the projec•
tion into
the broad life of the world of
. .
the spiritual forces animating the little
Jewish world, the Jewish microcosm.
The Jewish national spirituality has
validity not for the Jew alone, but is
universally valid in reason and in the
possession of both Jews and of the
Chassidei Umos Ha-Clam, the best
spirits of all the nations of the world.
JOSEN I HARTMAN
nationalism such as strangely seems the Brotherhood of Matt. It is not a
other people as a people. nationalism of arrogance, but a na-
"Our portion is not like theirs, and tionalism that has always stood f
our lot is not like the lot of the :la- the eternal right of every minority,
to
lions." This i s th e fa mili ar doctrine be true to its innermost
convictions.
of the Chosen People, a people differ- It is a nationalism that seeks develop.
ent from others, not better; a people merit, not for its own sake, but
in
upon whom the "01 Idalchus Shama- order that all nations, great and small,
yim"—the yoke of the Kingdom of may live and flourish in the way
of
Heaven—has fallen, not through its justice and of truth. It is not a na-
own virtues, but through the virtue, tionalism that desires the territories
the Zechus, of its tradition. This is a of other men, it is not a material, an
nationalism which is as distinct from economic, a political imperialism. But
chauvinism as is the East from the it is a nationalism that seeks an em-
West. It is a nationalism whose es- pire of the spirit, that is, the recogni-
The Jewish
nationalism is in fact a sence is the Fatherhood of God and tion by all men of the Fatherhood of
to prompt no
God and the
Brotherhood of Man,
whatever languages they speak, in
whatever lands
they dwell, in what-
ever form they worship, or by what-
ever names they
call their gods.
No Jewish Chauvinism
This is a nationalism sharply dis-
tinguished from the nationalism of
the old
Roman State, from the pagan,
the Teutonic, the serr.i - aristian
na-
tionalism
of the present day. One of
the bases of the Jewish nationalism is
the principle familiar to the messes of
the living Jewish people, "Whoever
(Continued On Page tight.)
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