THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

PAGE FOUR

THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

MICHIGAN'S JEWISH HOME PUBLICATION
Published Weekly by The Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.

edge, may be able to speak with authority upon so important a

question. In the meantime, however, it behooves us as Jews, as we
us may
enter upon this new year, to determine to do what in each of
lie, to stem the growing tide of dissatisfaction that threatens to

overwhelm the structure of society. Unquestionably, what the
President modem world needs over and above all else is a return to the old
JOSEPH J. CUMMINS -
Seeretarv•Treasurer Jewish conceptions of justice and of righteousness upon which alone
•
NATHAN J. GOULD -
a stable society may be builded.
t Postoffice at Detroit,
Entered as second-class matter March 3, 19 1,
6 at he
Because of this, the Jew faces in this new year a rare oppor-
Mich., under the Act of March 3 , 1879.
tunity. He must be the moral teacher of the warring factions in
our present disturbed society. He must first, through his own prac-
OFFICES, BOOK BUILDING
tices, whether he sit in the place of the employer or of the worker,
Telephone Cherry 3381
prove that only as men recognize the brotherhood relationship, can
$2.00 per year true prosperity lie brought to the larger or the smaller social groups;
Subscription, in advance
and then he must spread his doctrine far and wide. Perhaps this
news matter must reach is the destined task of the Jew in this new day and age.
To insure publication, all correspondence and
The year 5680 unquestionably conies to us laden alike with
this office by Tuesday evening of each week.
—
Editorial Contributor ditties and with opportunities. May we face the one fearlessly and
RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN
may we rise to the other as to a God-given purpose, through the
The Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on subjects of interest
to fulfillment of which, salvation—physical as well as spiritual—shall
of
the
disclaims responsibility for an indorsement
be brought to that society of which we are a part.
the Jewish people, but
views expressed by the writers.

Back to the Synagog

A Happy New Year
to You All

The Episcopal Church is setting to other denominations and by

no means, least of all, to the Jews of this country, an example worthy
of imitation. Throughout the length and the breadth of the land,
the workers of the church have set themselves to the task of inter-
viewing all those nominally affiliated with the church, with the idea
of awakening or re-awakening in them that interest and enthusiasm
in the work of their denomination which is necessary if it is to attain
its highest possibilities for good.
5680
Somewhat akin to this movement, though by no means as far-
reaching, is the "Double Your Membership Campaign" now being
For all our friends and readers, we pray that the year 5680 may carried on tinder the auspices of the Union of American Hebrew
come fraught with richest blessing. May they whose hearts have Congregations. Unquestionably, there is scarcely a city of any con-
been gladdened by the experience of the past, be actively appreciative siderable size in this country where the membership of congregations
of the gd
a fallen to their portion; and to those whose bur- might not be doubled if proper efforts were put forth to bring into
oo tht has
heavy, may there be given strength to bear their
the fold those who stand without. But to our mind it seems even
den h as been
sorrows with brave hearts.
more important that, at this time, an effort should be made to stimu-
At the dawn of the year which is now closing, the great world late the interest and the whole-hearted loyalty of those who are nom-
struggle was still raging, and though we were fighting under the inally affiliated with the synagog. Too many there are who believe
spur of the conviction that victory must be ours because our cause that the mere payment of dues is a sufficieint recognition of the
was just, our hearts were yet heavy-laden at the thought that our duty which the Jew owes to the congregation. With all emphasis
supreme sacrifice
boys over there might be called upon to bring the
let it be said that while the material assistance of every member of
and that we might not see them again face to face. Happily, most the community is logically the due of the congregation, it is by no
of them in the mercy of God were spared and happy are our hearts means even approximately all that men and women should give to
that on this New Year's, they shall be at our sides, proud in the the synagog. A house to house canvass of those whose names
consciousness that they have done their duty without flinching.
appear upon the roster of tbembership of our congregations, but who
Last New Year's Day, the foe against whom we had pitted the never show their faces within the synagog, except perhaps on the
fairest of our youth, was not yet humbled. Today, thank God, his rare occasions of the High Holydays and on the anniversary of the
might has been crushed and the cause of Justice and Humanity and death of some loved one; might afford the opportunity to intelligent
synagog workers to present the claiMs of the congregation to these
Civilization seems in a fair way to prevail.
people in such fashion that they would be moved to give to its
In matters Jewish, the outlook is also infinitely more hopeful activities a greater share of moral support.
than it was a year ago. Last Rosh Hashono, the pulpits of the land
In a .community as large as Detroit, the task, we know, would
rang with the denunciation of one group in Jewry against another.
Differences among the various sections in Jewry had become bitter be difficult, but it is not impossible. As a matter of fact, just such a
plan is now in contemplation by a leading religious organization.
and intense. It scented well nigh impossible that they should ever If carried into effect, the results will be carefully watched by other
be harmonized. Today, things look better for the Jews of the world.
As was pointed out in these columns last week, the warring factions communities and congregations, for it will be the first truly effective
in Israel seem to be coming to a nearer understanding and a closer step that has been taken in America to bring the Jew back to the
sympathy, each with the other. Calm, sane leadership has come to synagog.

THE MODERN BABEL

A New Year's Plea for a United Israel

What does it mean—that clamorous screech,
That rises and falls out of range!
It'hat is that noise—that jumble of speech,
That sounds incoherent and strange!

Oh, can it come from tutu mighty throng,
That sweeps irresistibly on-
0 n to one goal, through sad years and long,
If'ith a wondering world looking on!

They move as One—their ideals the same,
But methods are curiously mixed.
They hope alike—they bear the same name,
And their aims are stolid and fixed.

Then tell me, pray, what means all the noise,
The difference of speech and the spite,—
When Heaven wills that the purest joys
And clear speech of Truth be their light.

A mighty clan—Jehovah tenth said—
Fran Abraham shall spring o'er the earth.
But tell time wh .v keen sorrows were fed,
When all that they craved for was mirth?

I'll tell you why—the reason is plain—
In concord alone is there peace.
When brothers fight, unquenchable pain
But goads them and serer can cease.

With peace assured and conflicts at rest,
Sweet happiness comes in its wake.
False points of Virit' clasp not to your breast—
You dare not for Liberty's sake.

So reason well—from prejudice free—
The goal and the purpose at hand.
And pray that God give vision to see,
To balance and then understand.

—Enoch Mebs.

"If a Man Die, Shall He Live Again?"

(Continued From Page Two.)

but our knowledge that is derived a word capable of several interpreta-
tions. When the materialists say that
from other sources corrects the inac-
thought is a function of the brain,
curate report of our eyes and declares
they mean that it is a productive func-
to us that it is not the sun that moves
tion of the brain. Besides produc-
around the earth; but the revolution
tive function, psychological scientists
of the earth upon its axis that gives
know also and material scientists like-
the sun the appearance of such a
wise, of the different forms of func-
movement.
tion known as releasing or transmis-
Who ever has noted that in a
sive function, and finally the function
swiftly moving train the objects out-
that is subsumed under the term ex-
side seem to be in action, while the
train is stationary, has yet need of plosive function. The transmissive
this mental process which corrects function of the prism and lens, Prof.
James declares, gives us a clearer
the evidence of the senses.
We may say, therefore, that the insight into the fact whether there is
evidence of the senses is not irrefut- a soul that is eternal, or whether such
able proof, that it is not positive, con- a belief is a mocking illusion. If the
take the place of unreasoned agitation. Zionist and non-Zionist,
clusive; that because with our eyes brain may have a transmissive, as well
Orthodox and Liberal Jew are happily beginning to realize that
and with our touch we observe that as a productive function, then the
neither shall sustain his cause the better by assailing the motives of
the body that has succumbed to death brain is only like the lens or the
refracting glass which shows the
the other. All elements in Jewry are at least one in this: that they
The Commissioner General of Immigration—Anthony Cam- is like the clay and there is no room spirit that is outside of us. In accord-
realize that they must work together to bring about that happy day enitti—has just issued an official statement in which he refers to for a spirit in it or elsewhere outside ance with the transmissive power of
when the Jew shall be a world citizen, having the right to live a the hysteria "that exists in relation to emigration," and in which he of it, that therefore the spirit does not a the brain is the intellect of the indi-
exist, man has no soul and is only
full life in whatsoever land he will, if so be that he is willing to give shows that the number of foreigners who have left these shores since combination of molecules and ions. vidual. Like a dome of many hued
to that land his full and undivided loyalty. Faithfulness to the the signing of the armistice, is practically negligible as compared
Another objection to the theory glass that shuts out the infinite, the
religion of his fathers dare nowhere be permitted to limit or inter- with the number who returned to their old world homes annually that the soul of man is immortal is eternal, the divine, the sublime, so is
the objection of materialistic philos- the brain of man that shuts out the
fere with his citizenship rights.
previous to the war.
This philosophy has been incorporeal, the spiritual, of which we
The signing of the Polish Treaty and the more recent appointment
These statistics quoted by Mr. Camenitti are exceedingly inter- ophy.
answered conclusively by the greatest have transmitted knowledge. The
of the Jew—Berenson—as Second Secretary to the Polish Embassy esting, since they re-emphasize the fact that America remains the physiologist-psychologist that Amer- materialists who say that thought is
in Washington, are favorable indications that the safety of the Jew Land of Promise to vast hosts of men and women whoth one would ica has ever produced, Prof. William a function of the brain have no more
in those lands, where he has heretofore suffered the agonies of hell, naturally imagine to long for a return to the land of their fathers. James of Harvard University. In the justification for their contention than
shall be secured. The reports of pogroms in Poland were no doubt It is but a repetition of the old tale more than once exemplified in first lecture in the Ingersolian series the idealists, who with Prof. James
a function of
exaggerated, but that the Jew in that land was the victim of inhuman Jewish history, that the land of the children becomes dearer to the on immortality which Prof. James de- say that it is indeed
productive function
livered, he dealt with two aspects of the brain, not a
atrocities, none can deny. The full story of the horrors he has suf- heart than the land of the fathers.
transmissive function. •
but
a
however,
the problem of immortality, and one
fered, will—it is to be presumed—be accurately known when the re-
For this reason we believe that even should the most ardent of them was this objection raised by The argument which the materialists
port of the Morgcnthau Commission shall be published.
hopes of the Zionists be realized in regard to Palestine, the number materialistic philosophy, that the advance to challenge our claim of im-
mortality is, therefore, utterly Mad-
What the fate of the Jew in Russia shall be is, of course, prob- of Jews emigrating from America to the new land would he infinites- brain is the scat of what we vaguely
in the court of reason.
lematical. But we have faith that when the chaos that abounds imally small. For the most part, Jews have found America to be the and erroneously describe as the soul. missible
Finally there is the argument de-
there shall have been displaced by an orderly system of government land of their golden opportunity. They may talk much about the The function of the brain is thought, rived from, the fact that not only do
declare materialistic philosophers, just
—as assuredly it must be—the Jews remaining there, their numbers Holy Land, but few of thetn will go there.
as the function of the tea-kettle is to the senses give us no evidence of the
decimated by the horrors through which they have lived, will find
produce steam; just as the function future life; but we cannot even imag-
of the flower is to generate inside of ine a human existence apart from the
a safe abiding place.
itself perfume and to create, without physical body that manifests the per-
the
situation
of
In a word, to most of those who are studying
external influence, sweet odor, so the sonality, the individuality of the per-
the Jew today, it would seem that, in a civic sense, the Jew of the
Under the auspices of the Tract Commission, jointly conducted function of the brain is thought. Prof. son whom we know and love. Is that
world is destined to come into his own. Poor, indeed, would be the by the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union of James, the great physiological psy- a valid objection, any more than those
reward of the sacrifices which these last five years have compelled. American Hebrew Congregations, there has just been published a chologist points out a subtle mistake which have already been rejected?
would there at the end of the reconstruction period through which holiday pamphlet containing a series of pulpit addresses delivered which the materialists make in say- Shall we not accept something as true
we are passing, yet remain a spot on earth where the Jew, just be- by the late Dr. Isaac Mayer \Vise on the High Holydays, as well as ing that thought is a function of the merely because we cannot imagine it?
(Continued On Page Eight.)
of the
brain. He points out that function is

Emigration Decreases

A Timely Volume

cause he is a Jew, might not stand forth the equal in the eyes

on the minor festivals. The book published at this time is a further

The New Year

tribute to the great leader of American Israel, the 100th anniversary
law, of any man of any faith.
The immediate duty confronting the Jew in the lands that have of whose birth was recently celebrated by Reform congregations
not been devastated by the war is the economic rehabilitation of our throughout the length and breadth of our land.
Each year the Tract Commission publishes a volume of sermons
people. They must be given the means to start life anew upon a

5680-1919

Wed., Sept. 24
sound economic basis. For this purpose millions of dollars will be which are primarily intended to be used in those congregations that New Year's Eve
Sat., Oct. 4
required, and the American Jew, who has never been niggardly in are financially unable to support a resident rabbi. In many hun- Yom Kippur
responding to the appeal of suffering and who, with unwonted gen- dreds of communities throughout the land, these sermons are read Succoth (First Day)
Thurs., Oct. 9
erosity, has given of his largess during the calamitous times through on the High Holydays by laymen, who also conduct the religious Succoth (Last Day)—Shemini Atzereth ..Thurs., Oct. 16
which we have passed, will again rise to his duty and his oppor-
Fri., Oct. 17
services. The o value of such a publication, therefore, can scarcely
tunity. No doubt all classes of Jews will share in the privilege of be overestimated. But this year in particular, its appearance is most Simchath Torah
Fri., Oct. 24
the physical rehabilitation of Palestine, should it be found, as seems timely, for there has never been a time when there have been so Rosch-Chodesch Chesvan
Sun., Nov. 23
likely, that a considerable number of our co-religionists will wish to many congregations unable to secure the services of an ordained Rosch-Chodesch Kislev
settle there; but equally important will be the task of putting the rabbi as is presently the case. Besides, it is well that our pulpits Chanukah (Feast of Dedication)
Wed., Dec. 1
Jews in other lands in a position to maintain themselves adequately should ring again with the stirring words of that master rabbi who,
Mon., Dec. 22
and to give their children the opportunities that they should have with a courage seldom equalled and with true prophetic spirit, pro- Rosch-Chodesch Tebeth
5680-1920
for physical, intellectual and spiritual development.
claimed the message of Israel to his people, both in the pulpit and
As American citizens, we Jews share with ottr fellow citizens thibugh the columns of the paper which he brought into being and Fast of Tebeth
Thurs., Jan. 1
of other faiths the mighty responsibility of readjusting the disturbed whose policies he directed until his death.
Wed., Jan. 21
Rosch-Chodesch Shebat
situation that obtains in the economic and the social world. It is a
For this latest volume, American Jewry is under real obligations Rosch-Chodesch Adar
Thurs., Feb. 19
mistake to believe that with the signing of the armistice, the war
to the Tract Commission.
Thurs., Mar. 4
Purim (Feast of Esther)
ceased. There are those who believe that the greater war began" on
Sat., Mar. 20
November 11, 1918. Certainly, the condition of unrest that mani-
Rosch-Chodesch Nissan
fests itself in every phase of modern society cannot go on unabated.
Sat., April 3
Passover (Pesach)
Mr.
Nathan's
Promotion
What the fundamental causes for the present situation are this is
Sat.,
April
10
Passover
(Eighth
Day)
appreciation of merit recog-
not the place to discuss. Of this, however, we may be certain.
We are always glad to record our
Sun., April 18
While the dissatisfaction elat obtains everywhere in the industrial nized. In the promotion of Mr. Jacob Nathan to the Executive Rosch-Chodesch Iyar
Thurs., May 6
world may in full justice be regarded as a re-action against the un- Secretaryship of the local Stock Exchange, a real tribute is - paid to Lag b 'Omer
Tues., May 18
reasonableness—some might even say the cruelty—of the capitalistic ability and character. Not only has Mr. Nathan won an enviable Rosch-Chodesch Sivan
classes to those whom they owned body and soul—it cannot be place in the local newspaper field, but he has been a notable con- Shavuoth (Confirmation Day)
Sun., May 23
denied that capital at its worst was never more tyrannical or more tributor to every cause that has made for the civic and social better-
Wed., June 16
unjust than labor is today. So long as class arrays itself against ment of men and women in our community. Mr. Nathan is an Rosch-Chodesch Tammuz
Sun., July 4
and
a
staunch
American.
We
join
his
many
friends
in
Fast
of
Tammuz
class, failing to recognize a mutual interdependence, there will be ardent Jew
Fri., July 16
no peace that is enduring and that has in it the seeds of happiness. wishing him abundant success in his new field of activity.
Rosch-Chodesch Ab

There are those who hold that among the most aggressive
agitators in the labor world are to be found many Jews. Perhaps
they are right. The whole problem of the Jew in the industrial
world needs to be carefully studied as a phase of the larger problem
of modern industrial unrest. We trust that such a study will be
made ere long by someone who, through adequate first hand knowl-

Fast of Ab
Rosch-Chodesch Ellul

New Year's Eve

Sun., July 25
Sat., Aug. 14

5681-1920

Sun., Sept. 12