PAGE FOUR

THE DE1 ROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

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

JOSEPH J. CUMMINS
NATHAN J. GOULD -

.

-

-

.
President
Secretary-Treasurer

Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Postoffice at Detroit,
Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

Offices, 1334 Book Building

Telephone Cherry 3381

$3.00 per year

Subscription, In Advance

To insure publication, all correspondence and news matter must reach
this office by Tuesday evening of each week.

RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN

Editorial Contributor

The Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on subjects of interest to
the Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for an indorsement of the
views expressed by the writers.

Friday, February 13, 1 920

Shebat 24, 5680

Choosing a Rabbi

The person . who paraphrased the German poet's words to read
"Every congregation has the rabbi it deserves," spoke greater truth than
'he knew. For the fact is that most congregations obtain the sort of
minister that would naturally respond to the methods they pursue in
securing his services. NVe arc particularly impressed with this fact
when we note what we esteem the altogether unworthy and thoroughly
undignified manner in which certain congregations whose pulpits are
presently vacant, set about to secure the man who shall be their religious
teacher and guide.
While advertising in the religious press for applicants for vacant
pulpits has always seemed to us to be undignified, this method is far
less reprehensible in our opinion than that of inviting, as some of our
congregations habitually do, one man after the other to occupy the
pulpit and like a salesman showing his wares, to preach a trial sermon.
Let it be said without fear of successful contradiction, that the trial
sermon, which is a thing of the past in congregations that have before
them a high and steady ideal, is the least satisfactory manner that a
religious organization can adopt to secure a leader.
In the first place, men of real standing, even though they would
consider a change in pulpits, will not respond to this method of solicita-
tion. With them their profession is too sacred a thing to be laid out—
as it were—upon the counter for the inspection of prospective buyers.
With them the rabbinate is a calling that cannot be evaluated in the
same terms as salesmanship and the mechanical crafts. The true rabbi
recognizes the fact and insists upon it in dealing with his people, that
eloquence and oratory are not the first and prime essentials in the
equipment of the successful minister. Scholarship, loyalty, a spirit of
consecration, and above all, a manly character, are to be considered
before the ability of a man to preach the sort of sermon that will call
forth either the tears or the cheers of his auditors.
Moreover, let it be remembered that the trial sermon is by no
means a real test even of a man's scholarly ability. Who has not heard
of the preacher who had one great sermon, his "Musterwerk," which
he preached on every possible occasion, but except for which he was
unable to produce a single logical and forceful discourse? \Vhen
choosing a rabbi, congregations should ascertain what men are avail-
able. They should by dignified and proper means of inquiry, find out
what record the man whom they would engage as their spiritual leader
has made in the community which he has been serving and what reasons
impel hint to seek a change. They should acquaint themselves with
the part that he has played in the uphuilding of the congregation which
he would leave as well as with the service that he has rendered to the
community as a whole. They should learn something about his ideals
and his practices. They should know whether he is a man in the best
sense of the term who has in hint the qualities of leadership as well as
those endowments that tend to make him a friend, a guide, and an
inspiration to his people.
And once having decided that he possesses the necessary qualifica-
tions to lead and lift their community and congregation, they should
as becomes organizations that foster an ideal, engage his services upon
conditions entirely satisfactory to the congregation whom he is serving
and to whom lie may owe his first obligation.
Until congregations attain a proper sense of the dignity of the
rabbinate and manifest their appreciation of the fact that their relation
to the rabbi is not that of the employer to the employee, neither the
congregations nor the ministry' will rise to the highest possibilities of
service and of influence. This word should be taken to heart especially
by congregations now without rabbis, who for months and months have
been inviting to their pulpits, week after week, rabbis from all parts
of the country to shim, as it were, a sample of their goods.

and of Judaism, our problem would be solved. Undoubtedly, such a
program of education consistently and effectively carried out, would go
far to reduce the wicked bigotry against which all classes of Jews have
to carry on an unremitting battle.
To this end, it is well that the message of the Jewish pulpit should
be given a wider audience than it receives within the halls of the aver-
age Temple and Synagog. Those congregations arc doing a real service
to our people who are printing for wide distribution, the pulpit messages
of their ministers, provided always of course, that they are men of
tight and leading who know whereof they speak and whose pronuncia-
mentos arc based in the authority of scholarship. It is well, too, that
tracts such as are prepared by the Central Conference of American
Rabbis and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations should be
widely distributed and that the Jewish press, too, should become an
effective instrument in making known to the non-Jewish world, the
ideals sponsored by the Jew.
But in granting all this, we must not forget that it is nor only the
non-Jew who is beset by the sin of ignorance. The real tragedy of
the Jew today perhaps is the fact that so litany of our own co-religion-
ists are hopelessly uninformed as to the part that the Jew has played in
the uplmilding of civilization through the ages. We are ignorant—
most of us—of the literature, ancient and modern, which the genius of
the Jew has produced. Many of us cannot intelligently meet the
arguments of those who hold that Judaism has no distinctive contribu-
tion to make to the life of today. Asked as to the dogmas for which
Judaism stands, we are compelled to confess our ignorance. Under
such circumstances, it is idle to talk continually about the education of
the non-Jew. Let its get under the task that needs first to be done.
Let us educate the Jew as to the meaning of Judaism. Let its over-
come, once and for all, our own besetting sin of Ignorance.

Father and Son Week

Throughout the land, there will be celebrated this week what is
known as Father and Son Week, an institution brought into existence
a year ago by far visioned men and destined, we believe, to have in it,
the seeds of great good. It is essentially the purpose of Father and
Son Week to bring into nearer contact with each other, the fathers of
this nation and their sons, in order that the one may the better learn
to appreciate the other and that a mutual confidence between them may
be the more tirmly established.
It is a fact, the tragedy of which is not always apparent, that many
men whose great successes in life they hope may be carried even further
by their children after them, are so engrossd in their business and pro-
fessional affairs, that they scarcely take time to come into close personal
touch with their boys. flow' many fathers there are who scarcely
sense the dreams and the ambitions and the hopes that till the hearts of
their sons! And how immeasurably surprised would they be if in a
flash they could be shown the stirrings of their own boy's soul.
On the other hand, it is a fine thing for the boy to have an ideal
of manhood and integrity and honor embodied in his father—a man to
whom he may look up as the very paragon of all that is tine and big
and noble. Now, it is to bring about just this sort of thing that the
Father and Son Week has been instituted. Every father should take
advantage of this time to become better acquainted with his boy. Every
boy should see to it that his father rises to the opportunity that is thus
laid before him.

Polish Jews and Sunday Rest

An item appearing during the week in the daily press tells that the
Polish government has decided to enforce the obligatory Sunday rest
throughout the land. As might naturally be expected, the Jews of
Poland are strongly protesting against this ruling since it will compel
them to abstain from their tasks, two days in the week instead of use,
and thus add to the economic hardships that already weigh so heavily
upon them.
The Polish Premier to whom the matter has been brought, declares
himself unable to alter the law, seeing that the Polish Diet has passed
it. Taking it for granted that the press report is true, we wonder
whether this is simply another item added to the long list of economic
disadvantages under which the Jews in Poland have had so long to
labor. Legislation of this kind will assuredly not add to the good feel-
ing between Jewish and non-Jewish Poles. It will simply serve to add
fuel to the flames in that land of unrest and no good can conic of it to
anyone concerned.

(Continued From Page One.)

Breakdown of Transportation In
Europe.
"The great difficulty in affording
Within recent weeks, there passed away a Detroit citizen who front
since the cessation of hostili-
small beginnings, had risen to a foremost place among the successful relief
ties has been the utter breakdown of
manufacturers of this dynamic city. Indeed, if common report be transportation, the lack of railroads
true, he died, though a comparatively young man, the possessor of and other facilities for forwarding
many millions. To the surprise of many, the probate of his will both money and supplies. This con-
dition the various units working in
indicates that he had left no bequests out of his vast fortune for the co-operation
with Mr. Hoover's com-
public good, but his attorney, a personal and confidential friend, has mittee hope to remedy through the
given to the public press the statement, that it was the intention of the establishment of motor transporta-
deceased to spend great sums of money on public benefactions during tion to the interior, not only of Po-
his lifetime, so that he might have a voice in the direction of the land but of the other countries to
which the units are to be sent. Dr.
organizations which it had been his purpose to create.
Goldman will be called noon to co-
Undoubtedly, the attorney knows whereof lie speaks and all the ordinate and to systematize this tre-
mendous
task. In addition, he will
greater, therefore, is the pity that the man was laid low by the hand of
death ere his plans could have been realized. There can be no doubt be called upon to plan for the perma-
nent work of rehabilitation and re-
that a wise man prefers to do good with his means while he himself construction of the Jewish people in
may enjoy the fruits of his sowing rather than to provide for benefac- all lands affected by the war and
tions after his death. None the less, life is so uncertain that it is well which must ultimately be begun.
"It is difficult, indeed, to appraise
for men of means to make adequate testamentary provision for the use
the sacrifice he is making as a volun-
such part of their monies as they wish to devote to the public good, teer to undertake this work. His
Id they be stricken down ere they be able themselves to carry out long experience, keen perception,
broad sympathy, tact and wisdom
thtir plans.
Indeed the making of a will ought to be recognized as a pressing eminently fit him for the work he
has assumed.
diIty upon all men, but especially upon those who having gained their
"Dr. Goldman's departure signifies
tunes in a community, wish to restore to that community, some part a new epoch in extending the aid of
American
Imre to the sufferers in
the benefits which have been theirs. We are entirely sure that there
the war zones abroad. whose conch
act many men, who, if properly guided in matters of this kind, would Lion
instead of having been amelior-
find if their duty to provide for the endowment of institutions of charity ' ated by the end of actual warfare is
and education in their wills, but who die, leaving to others the disposal in many respects worse than ever
of their wealth, who f ■ ir reasons that seem good to themselves, do n ot before. due to economic conditions
had it feasible or desirable to provide living memorials for the departed. and to the scarcity of the very ele-
ments that constitute life itself."
In the case of the man referred to• it is altogether likely that if his "The Joint Distribution Committee
plans are known. they will be carried out by his heirs. But we cite will now be in a position through its
this striking instance only to exemplify the duty that we would press American representatives abroad to
home upon all men of means: first, not to delay too long in doing judge much more accurately and to
with much greater efficiency in
those good deeds which their own Wes would see and second, to make ) act
relieving the conditions which afflict
proper provision for the carrying out of their ideals should they be the great percentage of all the Jews
prevented by death front doing so themselves.
in Europe."
Dr. Goldman's Career.

4
It

WI-

4

Those who are studying the causes of anti-Semitism, especially
as it appears in this country in the form of social discrimination against
the Jew, are practically unanimous in the opinion that the attitude of
the non-Jew toward the Jew is for the most part born of ignorance of
our ideals, achievements and aspirations. It is commonly held that P
only we could educate the Christian to an understanding of the Jets

Beginning Thursday, February 12,
Max N. Freedman, attorney, will con-
duct a course of weekly lectures on
the "Conflict of Laws" to the Senior
Class of the I.aw Department of the
University of Detroit.
A better known, though less ac-
curate, name tor this branch of the
law, is "Private International Law."
The subject deals in part with the
principles which govern private legal
relations between citizens of different
states and nations. It does not in-
clude public international law which
deals with the legal relations between
states or nations.
The lectures will be4iven in the
Law Building of the -University of
Detroit, 348 East Jefferson avenue.
every Thursday, 'between 5:30 and
6:30 p. in.

The Phaeacians Are
Starving and Begging

(Continued From Page 1.)

Jews were, of course, all the time
permitted to hold services in private
houses where rooms might be set
aside as "Betstube," but building a
synagogue would have been a recog-
nition of a "Gemeinde," and to this
Emperor Francis (1792-1835), a nar-
row-minded autocrat, would never
consent. But a Jew never gives up.
The leading man in the congregation
was Michael Lezar Biedermann
(1769-1843), a jeweler, who through
his business was in close contact with
the highest circles of the residence
and probably with the aid of diamond
rings, scarf pins and similar powerful
arguments won the high-ups, and
through them the emperor, over. It
is told that he had one of the rafters
of the ceiling in the "Betstube" sawed
so that the ceiling began to settle.
The building inspector and the chief
of police, being called in, declared the
place dangerous, and recomtnended
in view of the difficulty of procuring
appropriate rented quarters that "the
Vertreter" of the Vienna Israelites"
be given permission to buy a piece
of property and build a "Temple."
This permission was given under the
condition that nothing in the architec-
ture must show that this was a place
of worship, and indeed the front
where the offices and apartments for
the use of the rabbi and cantor were
located, looks like an ordinary apart-
ment house.
The new synagogue was dedicated
on the traditional day for such occa-
sions on the first day of Nisan, 1826,
and is ith the new building new forms
of worship came. They were of a
very mild nature. In America the
services would be considered rigidly
orthodox. The changes consisted in
eliminating some Piyytitim, in regular
music, but without any instrument
and with a male choir, and in the in-
troduction of German sermons with
some prayers, like the prayer for the
government, in the vernacular. Yet
in those days even these changes
were considered dangerous innova-
tions. Rabbi Lazar Horwitz had
scruples, and he submitted them to
his teacher, Moses Sofer, who de-
clared there was no objection to his
attending the services when he had
said his prayers before, and when
the preacher deli (Ted his "blasphem-
ous sermons," he should read some
book. The preacher was I. N. Mann-
heimer, and the cantor the celebrated
pioneer of modern synagogue music,
Solomon Sulzer (1804-1890). So, the
"Stadt-Tempel," still existing in the
same place with the sante order of
services, became a historic institu-

Baron de Hirsch and visited him
the
DR. JULIUS GOLDMAN ilate
lin his castle in Hungary. This con- , The ‘isiona
revolutin
of 1848
brou
Aprght
il 25th,
Co
I c onstint
i n of
DIRECTOR GENERAL Terence resulted in the organization which
tir71. . abolished all discriminations
the Baron de Hirsch hind, of
EUROPEAN RELIEF of
which Dr. Goldman was honorary on the ground of .religion. The Jews

Making a Will

Our Besetting Sin

MAX N. FREEDMAN TO
LECTURE AT U. OF D.
ON "CONFLICT OF LAWS"

Accompanying Mr. Warburg's state-
ment was the following sketch of Dr.
Goldman's career prepared by Mr.
Warburg:
Dr. Goldman was born in the city
Dr.
of Philadelphia, t'a., in 1852.
He was one of the representatives
of America to the Berlin International
Jewish Conference in 1890.
He enjoyed the confidence of the

were now permitted to settle freely
i Si) i to 1904.
secretary
Upon the in Vienna. Reaction, however, set in
death of In ge Meyer Isaacs, he e- very S0011. The emperor dissolved
came President of the Baron de the "Reichstag" and issued a consti-
Hirsch Fund. in which office he con- tution of his own making, March 4,
tinued until 1906. The Work of the 1849, in which the principle of equal-
Baron de Hirsch Fund in America ity of the Jews was still maintained.
has always had the unremitting devo- This constitution was suspended, De-
tion of Dr. Goldman. Through his cember 31, 1851, and the freedom of
energy and foresight public baths residence of the Jews was therefore
installed
nstalled in New York City in called in question. Elie supreme
1899; the Agricultural School at court, however, decided that it was
Woodbine was started in 1891 and I not abrogated.
brogated. Reaction progressed
the Baron de Hirsch School largely lust il y, and an imperial order of
owes its inception to Dr. Goldman. , October 2, 1853, ruled that the Jews
in 1900 the Industrial Removal of- should not have the right to hold
five was organized, its purpose being, property in places where they did not
to distribute the immigrants who possess this right before January 1,
were arriving in large numbers in, 1849. This. although not retroactive,
New York, throughout the less popu- affected the future of the Vienna Jew-
lated parts in the country.
. ish congregation very considerably.
In the Federation of Jewish Milan- Meantime the number of Jews in
thropic Societies in New York, Dr. Vienna had rapidly increased, and
Goldman has been a pioneer. His , this increase was not even checked
identification with the Federation and by the imperial order of October 2,
his ardent and manifold labors in 1853, which affected only the right of
relation to it. are too many to be, holding property but not of residence.
incorporated in this statement. The census of 1850 shgwed 10,670
l'rior to Dr. Goldman's sailing, Jews. The need of another syna-
members of the Joint Distribution gogue was evident. In spite of the
Committee. including Mr. Warburg,1 order of 1853 the minister, Count
Jacob H. Schiff, Judge Abram I. Thun, a clerical of the blackest type,
Elkus, Dr. Cyrus ;Adler, Louis Mar- gave permission to build a new syna-
shall and others, conveyed to him in gogue in 1854, and even the old re-
person their best wishes fbr the stic- 1 striction that the building should not
cess of his mission. show its destination by its architec-

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U. F. &
COAL

PEG u S. PAT OFF..

GREAT many people live their
lives, mole4ike, close within
the narrow confines of a day
to day routine, totally oblivious of
their dank, and dark and cramped
abode.
•
Their days are spent in climbing
over rho backs of their fellows In a
mad rush to get —Where?
•
Feverishly running
hillier aid
thither to satisfy an isattable desire
to accumulate—What?
•
Their nights are spent, prompted
by the same pathetic propensity, in
the identical performance but with a
different title.
•
Business at (lay, and games at
night.
•
Predigested and tampered brain
food with which they am fed by the
eollosal news institutions of the
world, only adds to rhachitic state of
their mental economy.

Thought and the powers of observa-
tion are inherent in all normal people,
but through willful disuse and Illuse
are generally In . a woeful state of
atrophy or distortion.

True happiness, In the fullest meas.
ure, is dependent upon the proper ex-
ercise of these neglected mental func-
tions.

The world Is so repletewith beau-
ties and wonders—such a vast store-
house from which we can drew illimi-
table inspiration, whatever our walk
of life might be, that he who Is so
narrow and blind that he cannot or
will not see them Is indeed poor in
heart and dwarfed in soul.

ture, was quietly dropped. The new
temple was built outside of the old
"city" in the district where the old
ghetto was located in the seventeenth
century, though not exactly on the
same spot. It was dedicated June 15,
1858, and became one of the land-
marks of the city, being considered a
model of beautiful Moorish architec-
ture. As preacher, Adolph Jellinek
was elected, who soon acquired fame
as one of the leading preachers of
his age. After the death of Mann-
heimer he was transferred to the old
"Stadt-Tempel" which, though much
smaller, owing to the aristocratic
nature of its worshipers, was always
considered the cathedral synagogue,
and on Jellinek's death in 1893 Guede-
mann was equally transferred and of-
ficiated in Mannheimer's and Jellin-
ek's pulpit until old age shortly be-
fore his death (August 5, 1918) com-
pelled him to retire, to make room
for his successor, H. P. Chajes, in-
augurated two days before Guecle-
mann's death.
The beautiful old temple in the
Leopoldstadt, was laid in ashes on
the eve of the old emperor's birth-
day, who had granted the permit of
its erection, in the first year after his
death. It seems almost a symbol of
the decay of old Austria with its
privileges, its Spanish court etiquette
and its tinsels of titles, uniforms and
decorations. Who could have fore-
told old Biedermann that Vienna,
growing to about a hundred times
the Jewish population which it had
in his days, %%mild have to beg for
the restoration of its temple. The
Midrash tells us that Providence se-
lected Jeremiah from Anatoth (pun
on poverty) to sing dirges because it
required one bred in poverty to sing:
how dost thou sit solitary.

SUPPRESS ANTI-JEWISH
ROUMANIAN PROPAGANDA

Bucharest.—Thruout the city spe-
cial proclamations have recently been
posted. These proclamations are is-
sued under the title: "The Red
Beast," and are in the form of a
small newspaper. They claim their
object to be a crusade against Bol-
shevism, but the contents are purely
anti-Jewish propaganda. Jewish
leaders in Roumania declare openly
that they have proof that these sheets
are compiled and issued by the gov-
ernment itself. A delegation from
the Union of Roumanian Jews visited
the Ministry-President and demanded
that these papers be suppressed. The
latter had to accede to the deleg- i-
tion's request, and the objectionable
proclamations no longer appear.

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