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July 11, 1924 - Image 4

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The Detroit Jewish Chronicle, 1924-07-11

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PAGE

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TILE gritOIT/TWISli 1110411GI

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Publlsh es; Cs.. let,

Published Weekly by The Jew.111 Chres.cle

Joseph J. Cummins, President and Editor

Jacob H. Scbakne, Boainem Manager

blercil I, 1911. at the P wtofhce at Detroit,
Entered as Seeend.elass
ish.. under thy Act of 'W eb I, 1879.
Kish..

General Offices and Publication B lidding
850 High Street West

Telephone: Glendale 9300

Cable Ad

hem

Chronicle

London 0111th.

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Subscription, in Advance... ....... ........ . ...

To theure pebIlration, all correspondence and new. mere
°Mee by Tneoday evening of eech w

. $3.00 Per Year

re moat reach this

lubjecte of Interevt
The Detroit Jewlelt Chronicle invites correspondence on
Indureernont of the
to the Jewish people. but disclaims reeponelbIllty for an
• Isthes exprethed by the welter..

Ta nuz 9, 5684

July 11, 1924

A Great Sorrow

If President Coolidge had had the po war to choose
between the saving of his son's life and t le Presidency,
he would have rejected the most exalte r I office in the
world in order to hold his son. The hear t of the nation
goes out to the President and his family i n what is per-
haps the darkest period in their lives. E !Wowed as he
is with strong mental qualities, Mr. Cool i dge will bear
his loss with fortitude, though nothing tries the soul
of man or woman so poignantly as the ( .eath of a son
or daughter in the full flush of joyous y t )uth, destined
by virtue of physical and intellectual ubstance and
social distinction to reap a full measure of happiness.
The people of America unite in hoping t hat the l'resi-
dent and his family may bear with coura ge the sorrow
that has befallen them.

Central Conference Conve ntion.

The thirty-fifth annual convention o f the Central
Conference of American Rabbis was h old at Cedar
Point, Ohio, June 27-30.
Following the precedent of the non-Partisan Con-
vention, the conference went on record in favor of all
movements which have in view the industrial, agricul-
tural and commercial upbuilding of Palestine. The
conference is as hard on political Zionism as it has
ever been, and yet do they differ so much from most
Zionists of today? Outside of Jabotinsk y, who is car-
rying on almost a single handed campaign for a re-
statement of Herzlian, that Is political, Zionism, prac-
tically every one is committed to the rebuilding or Pal-
estine as a place where persecution-driven Jewry may
come. Most of the rabbis would not find the Zionist
organization a chilly or uncomfortable place at this
time.
Perhaps the most violent discussions evoked at the
convention were the different points of view on Reform
Judaism. The majority favor Reform Judaism sans
nationalism while a minority, fiery and articulate, see
the disintegration of Jewry unless it is hitched to na-
tionalism. Reform Judaism has survived a whole cen-
tury of internal and external attack divorced from na-
tionalism and shall in all probability continue to grow
even more significant and reach into new fields as the
days go on, for with the more thorough Americaniza-
tion of Jewry, greater demands will be made upon Re-
form Judaism for guidance and direction. Reform rab-
bis with a better appreciation of social a 'al psychologic
needs will find much to do.
Quite naturally the questions of Jewish education
and consciousness were discussed. With the new im-
migration law a fact, these questions became of para-
mount importance. The most complacent and indolent
rabbi in America must needs realize that American
Jewry is confronted with serious dangers, and the nat-
ural healthy state of Judaism cannot expect to remain
robust through accretions from without. The core and
body of Judaism will be kept in good health and vigor
through careful, intensive work of rabbis and earnest
laymen.
The conference passed a war and p nice resolution
of little value.

tine, education prepared the child to live a simple shep-
herd life or an agricultural life. As the fortunes of .1
Jewry changed, its education changed also. Recently
Jewish life in the eastern European Ghetto, a Jewish
environment in which learning functioned and where
life was regulated by Talmudic law, resulted in a cur-
riculum in which the Bible, Mishnah and Talmud be-
Arbitration.
came almost the exclusive subjects of study.
IITITIIOUT realizing it, American
"The lack of Jewish environment in America must
VI Jews are slowly establishing an
result in 0 change of aim. Instead of 'learning,' the institution that in the past was
strongly fixed in the life of the Jew-
more elementary need of developing a Jewish con- ish connnunity in every part of Eu-
sciousness should be the chief aim."
rope. That institution is the court of
set up by the conununity
It is not the lack of Jewish environment but it is a arbitration,
to function in dispotes between Jew
different Jewish environment which confronts the edu- and Jew. when Jewish life in Eu-
cational and social leaders in Israel. Up to the pres- rope was spiritually self-contained
and derived its social sanctions from
ent time the synagogue and the rabbi functioned as im- within, because the Jewish group was
portant factors among these Jews in America who were regarded as outside the normal scheme
still rooted in European traditions and practices. The of life, the community reared, and
necessarily so, its own legal machin-
social workers at the convention voiced a complaint ery. That the system of equity in
that the rabbi and the synagogue were conspicuously vogue was founded on rabbinic law
absent in the social activities of the day. Jess Perlman and was dispensed by the rabbi of
the community or by a rabbi designa-
of New York found Catholic, Protestant and other de- ted as a "doyen" ( referee) meant that
nominational clergymen at meetings dealing with juve- when a judgment was rendered it was
nile delinquency, but no rabbis. This means that the fortified both by legal and moral au-
thority.
rabbi has not caught up with the procession. The spirit-
The introduction into the life of
ual leaders in the Christian Church rely no longer upon modern American Jewish communities
their leadership derived from the medieval age when of arbitration tribunals for the pur-
the church was the supreme authority, but know that pose of reducing litigation to a mini-
mum serves as a reminder of the ju-
this leadership is challenged by others who recognize dicial
institutions that obtained in the
the social problems of this inquiring, iconoclastic age. Jewish community before govern-
It is not surprising, however, that the rabbi and the ments recognized the Jew as being on
a legal parity with his non-Jewish
synagogue are behindhand in social work, for they neighbor. But it ekes more. It marks
are hardly removed from the influence and effects of a dawning realization that it is neces-
sary not only to discourage Jewish
Ghetto Medievalism.
litigation as much as possible but to
Perhaps the problem confronting American Jewry inspire persons with the idea that
of today and tomorrow was expressed most succinctly when they have grievances against
one another they should resort to the
and forcibly by Dr. Alexander M. Dushkin:
judgment of a body that represents
"I believe that many, if not all, of us recognize that the community's moral—as distin-
from the technically legal—
the problem of Jewish adjustment in the country is guished
governing force.
fundamentally not economic• nor political, nor even
In many cities there have been re-
racial in character, but rather psychological and cul- current attempts to set up tribunals
for
the extra-legal adjustment of dis-
tural."
putes. Scene succeeded; others failed.
If such is the case, and we think it is, the educators, But the purpose to maintain such tri-
social workers and rabbis of America must exert them- bunals, which cost a community virtu-
nothing, becomes keener all the
selves in new and many directions to preserve and ally
time. It suggests a growing desire on
maintain the Jew psychologically and culturally. This the part of Jews to diffuse a higher
task requires conviction and enthusiasm, as well as moral tone in their dealings with one
scholarship and scientific training. The 1,500 to 2,000 another.
In Dana arbitration has been re-
teachers who are devoting their time to Jewish educa- sorted
to on a number of occasions
tion must be increased, the social service school which when parties to a controversy aired
is to be organized will have to turn out many compe- their grievances before a man who
weigh both the legal and moral
tent social workers and the rabbi will of necessity be could
aspects of a question and abided by
compelled to enlarge the sphere of his activities to meet his decision. To make a system of ar-
the increasing demands for his time and service as a bitration effective it is necessary to es-
tablish a tribunal of }amenable and un-
social teacher and worker.
derstanding men willing to serve
American Jewry is face to face with its own prob- without pay and to attach that tri-
to the recognized instrumental-
lems and although no Chinese wall can be built against bunal
ity for the community's organized
ideas the fact remains that the spirit of European Ju- service.
daism will not quicken and vitalize American Jewry
as it has done in the past, because despite all opposi-
Sanctity.
tion the flood of immigration has been stopped,—per-
ILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN,
haps for a long time.
for as our recollection goes
Our fellow-townsman, Fred 111. Butzel, in whom hack, as never
preached in a Catholic
Detroit Jewry always takes much pride for his devotion Church. If he has, we can only ex-
plain
our
lack
of information on that
to the needs of Detroit and his exalted social conscious-
point by the fact that we lapsed in
ness, was elected in the committee for the School of our faithful attention to his rapid na-
Jewish Social Service. Our new director of philan- tion-wide itinerary. But in temples
thropies, Morris D. lValdman, is on the executive com- and synagogues he surely has spoken.
The silver-tongued orator, for all his
mittee.
consistently rejected philosophy, has

Social Workers Conven lion.

The Jewish Social Workers Convent ion held in To-
rondo reflected changed perspectives, att nudes and pur-
poses of philanthropic and social work. A decade ago
the method of dealing with economic di stress and mal-
adjustment, problems of vice and delinq uency were the
absorbing as well 115 the paramount ssues. At the
present conference although philanthr npy and delin-
quency were on the agenda, yet the imp( irtant problems
discussed did not deal with questions of adjustment,
but were vitally and primarily concern ell with the ef-
fechi of the new immigration law upon American Jew-
ry, Jewish Education, arousing Je•is consciousness
and similar cultural and psychologic ttif lie ult ies.
It was apparent from the discussio is that the pin-
veering days of American Jewry were past and with
the end of that period the peculiar prob ems of pioneer-
ing no longer engaged the attention of t hose assembled.,
This view was expressed in the followin g words of Rab-
hi Barnett R. Brickner of Toronto:
"In the next twenty-five years, if the Jew en joys
the same economic privileges as he dot .5 today in Am-
erica there will be no poor Jews and the Ghetto will
disappear, and with the Ghetto will go the Yiddish Ian-
guage and Jewish ceremonialism. This will reduce the
work of the Jewish social worker to a minimum, and
the charity Jews will have to find a new market 'for
their philanthropy."
We are not agreed that it will r ?duce the work
of the Jewish social worker; it will hange his work
and, as a matter of fact, widen the sc Doe of his work
and increase his activities many fold. The end of the
pioneer condition in America general]. • did not reduce
the work of the social worker, both sp liritual and lay;
it really was the beginning of construe tive social study
and work in America. The social prob lems of a settled
life are perhaps not as acute, but they are more varied,
numerous and subtle than those of a more primitive
cultural stage.
The need for Jewish education ,vas stressed by
many of the speakers who realized tha t the Jewish ed-
ucation which served to hold Jewr r in the Ghetto
would not meet the requirements of American Jewry.
To quote from Dr. Emanuel Gamoran . director of the
Department of Synagogue and School Extension of the
Union of American Hebrew Congregat ions:
"Jewish education in the past via s a reflection of
Jewisklife. In the early days of Jew ish life in Pales-

ZA17#4, SZ(071a4,n0,2-4

A

"ft ••W'

The Humanization of Herzl

AS WE GO
ALONG

By JOSEPH BRAININ

(Copyright, 1924, by Seven Arts Feature Syndicate.)

(Editor's Note:—July 3 :narked the twentieth anniversary of the
death of the founder of political Zionism. His diaries, the publica-
tion of which was, by Beres request, held back until now, are of
paramount interest. Do they r•vyal a new Ilerzl? Did Ilerzl destroy
his own legend by humaniziig himself and laying bare his innermost
world? This article discusses ;he new Ilerzl.)

Somewhere in London lives

told that he is just now busily ee-

gaged with the translation into I:ee-
lish of the diaries of his father, to
dor Ilerzl.
The German edition appeared Ia. , '
year. In this time of universal ne-m-
oir-writing, when ex-ministers, w•ol-
als, private secretaries and ex-Emper-
ors are giving the public their own
world and provoking endless discus-
sions thereby, the three bulky volumes
bound in grey, bearing the simple title
"Thedor Ilerzl's Tagebucher," have
passed unnoted, not only in Gentile
circles, but in Jewish, mitt even Zion-
ist spheres. Strange, especially when
you remember that the publication of
these diaries had been impatiently
awaited ever since Berth; death. But
this was before the war—these jeers
which marked a chapter in our lives
and divided our outlook into ante and
post helium. Now, Theodor Ilerzl be-
longs 30 completely to Jewish hi,tory,
the Ilerzl legend has grown su swift-
ly, that no one except the student of
Jewish history is eager to check
all have a subconscious unwillingness
to let reality spoil the romantically
heroic figure of the modern Jewish
prophet.

W

Is This So?

enough of the circus performer's sen-
sational style to arrest the attention
of even those stolid synagogue burgh-
ers whom the prosaic sermons of the
rabbis cannot stir. A Philadelphia
temple, whose membership may be 100
per cent Republican, would he filled to
capacity if it were announced that
the man who "also ran" on three no-
table occasions would deliver on ad-
dress on, let us say, "The Suppression
of the Evolution Heresy."

In a recent issue of the Jewish World of London
we chanced upon the choice morsel which follows:
"The Reverend C. Lewis Fowler, D.D., L. L. D., a
prominent divine in the United States, has issued a mag-
azine in what he claims to be the interest of his church.
In it he appeals 'to the Protestant American moral con-
the Democratic Convention Bry-
sciousness' (what a mouthful!) 'founded upon the on At performed
not well but skillfully.
teachings of Jesus Christ as set forth in the Holy Bible, In the traditionally Bryanesque man-
to take aggressive action to expel anti-Christian Jewry ner he came to the rescue of the Klan
in doing so sought to mollify the
from the United States entirely' (note the entirely). and
Catholics, whom he deeply dislikes,
And he goes on to quote Scripture for his own purposes and to placate the Jews, whom he
loves with the official love of a man
to prove that true Christians ought to rejoice when the
who still hopes to hold high office.
opportunity comes to them to do the righteous act he The
Catholic Church, he declared, af-
counsels. Well! Well We are getting on. So this ter delivering a eulogy upon it, and
the
Jews,
who produced Moses and
is America! And this is Christianity as there expound-
Elijah, do not need the protection of
ed !"
a great party against the Ku Klux
Klan. There is no occasion to he
We are somewhat at a loss how to take the writer.
ruffled over an inconsequential dis-
Does he really take the Reverend Fowler seriously, or turber.
is he laughing at us because we have Reverend Fowler
Side by side with the "cross of gold"
in our midst? Our English cousins have many distort- and "crown of thorns" phrases should
ed views of us and often say things about us that are tie placed his defence of the Klan at
At a time when
truly absurd to those acquainted with the facts. If by the recent convention.
A fro
s, tiTpor-
any chance he believes that any number take Reverend
a tunny
f t lruiy jlt i rli k s 'i e rn t "0
heig ht
renutined Bryan. If ever a .n-i'anr i ' Va an s
Fowler seriously we hasten to explain that the Rever-
of casuistry, Bryan was when
end Fowler is not a prominent divine in the United guilty
, h )r e gf ) :) Tr za h t i•fri oott h .or(1),nta d il to defend an
States. Ills magazine has a circulation which probably
t f7e.
reaches any but his own congregation. We are mental darkness a cti ntl.'cowla nrd l itTidir The
who for years orated on "The
not told Reverend Fo•ler's place of residence nor the man
a priiintiLeo afu sl( h ieti,(1- ( ce " ietiwheisi m a I hce u r-
name of his wonderful magazine, and inasmuch as they
nnehis
his sympathies lie with the Klan.eart,
were not mentioned we plead ignorance as to the ex-
Next winter William Jennings
istence of the reverend and his paper. We hope this
and
explanation as to the prominence and influence of the ii (biu % a... ) 1 ;gab i t ii:nst)., w teir lis sap tea th ke i e n su tr i p c tut-
a
'
Reverend Fowler will, in a measure at least, dispel the
fears of the editor that there is any immediate prospect
of the Jews being entirely expelled from the United
Chameleon.
States.
nURING the late war the Germans
Yes, we do have savior Ford, the Nordic superiority
I/ used to be given horrible tongue
fanatics, the Ku Klux Klan and the whole brood of and ei pi e rn itrlir a h : irtr ghsey itywii p ir a e tre it,tit r ie c r t te r e a ii t a ttn rs i,
exclusionists, but they never mentioned expulsion.
Some irresponsible, fanatical and hysterical preacher but Huns. Every base mischief to
t )p Ted: could resort was
seeking notoriety makes a statement and presto! Am- ascribed
German
every a scan
erica is in serious danger. No, Reverend Fowler is ,,tan s woiMantaralLc In there
the
symbol
of
the
Kaiser's
vaunting
not America. And the brand of Christianity preached imperialism. The lot of American
by him is not eXpounded here.
citizens of Teutonic extraction was by
America is making definite, honest efforts to iron no means enviable. That was during
the war.
out its racial and religious problems and Christians of
But under the new immigration law
good-will and intelligence have contributed much work the quota of Germany exceeds that
of any other country. Being a so-call-
ll-
and reason to the solution of these problems.
?tit r ic
h d Germans
t
will
5 l,P0
e0d( 0-0 ti P ol imm
e s f te
Men
Men in every profession and in public life have
im
i o . nth:
i grants , wh ite
shown a spirit of brotherhood and no little affection Sta tes
is limited to a paltry
for our people, and have repudiated in unambiguous s p France
ec
. a pt l y h o t e
l a re
nt If Iv n ,ii,z ia y are i s o tatkhee
language the attacks of anti-Semites and Jew halters.
may he that, if Holland could be in:
There is much to criticize in America and we never d g It ra
ti c ( e xi t le e n
hh eerr
r s di
t e n egu
, i
d K i
i-
hesitate to express an opinion on any unsatisfactory,
the
ai s e r,
unhealthy state of affairs, but we do emphatically deny too, will consider coming hither. Be-
easily assimilable, there is no rea-
that the Reverend Fowler is of the spirit of America ling
son w by he should not be allowed to
or of its Christianity.
enter.





"S

'1%.

1N. --, V-0A '1% • •ro•

II:to.,

Ilerzi, a tall, pale, sad-faced viing
man in his early thirties. I have I

up—

This Jewish attitude of stopping
our ears, of leaving Herzl alone, is
tragic, now matter how justified it
may be. True, you cannot read Ilerzl's
diaries without the risk of having a
new Ilerzl revealed, a Ilerzl stripped
of all the meaningless flowery epithets
that havy been heaped on hint. A
Herz! with faults and weaknesses,
with fears and fantastic hopes—a
man taken in by cheap politicians,
struggling for his position, limited by
a surrender to the conventions, proud
of his personal success. And from out
all this activity there emerges Herzl
the leader, immortal because so hu-
man and simple in his errings, his
defeats and his never-failing cour-
age.
Herzl was perhaps the most admir-
ed and mourned Jew of the nineteenth
century. But this aristecrati• figure
has beat the unapproachable, unas-
sailable hero. Never, either before or
after his death, was there an intimate
current between hint and the mosses.
Ile was never Theodor or Ilerzl,—it
was always Dr. Herz'. Few anecdotes
find a place in his legend,—no picture
has reached as on which he is smil-
ing and happy.
When one reads Ilerzl's diaries, one
finds that the founder of political
Zionism was essentially a man of the
world and a man of letters who grad-
ually became a leader—which, in Jew-
ish history, means a martyr. At the
beginning it is the elegant feuilleton-
ist of the Neue Presser who reg-
isters and comments. There is a fine,
Heinesque irony in all his characteri-
zations and descriptions. Least of all
does he spare himself. When, un-
known to the Jewish masses, he car-
ries on negotiations with liaron de
Hirsch, he chuckles to himself. It
seems to him so strange that he should
speak in the name of a people to whom
he means nothing, and who might not
wish to he liberated from the Goluth.
For hint it is still an adventure. "Even
if my idea falls through, a novel will
remain," he says, speaking of his "Alt
Neutand." .
Then Herz] possessed a smile, and
wrote charming, facile literature. lie
was through and through n Viennese
man of letters, who might have devel-
oped into another Arthur Schnitzler.
His personality and his writing had

a graceful rhythm—never Ixtuyant,
but always a bit melancholy.
But as we advance, the hobby be-
comes the Leitmotif; the opposition
increases, the rich Jews stand aloof,
and the masses move very slowly and
unwillingly. Ilerzl's smile fades away
and his face saddens.
To outline what these diary volumes
contain would mean giving a resume
of the history of Zionism, as seen
through the enthusiastic eyes of a
subtle intellect. And this would by
no means acquaint you with Ilerzl, the
real Ilerzl. No one has ever written
of Zionism with such graceful sophis-
tication and logical clarity. No lead-
er has ever analyzed himself more
searchingly, and sincerely. Ilerzl be-
lieved in official pomp. He was no
democrat; the masses should not know
that thos, who lead are mere mortals.
This would destroy discipline. This
was one of flerzl's axioms of conduct.
At a Zionist Congress session, for
example, he directed the decorating of
the hall, inspected the appearance of
his adjutants, (once he sent Nordau
hack to the hotel to don his dress
suit), shook more hands than a presi-
dential candidate, delivered the key-
note speech and squelched the opposi-
tion. And all this he did in a formal,
official manner. lint at his desk, over
his dairy, he shed all pose and con-
straint with his dress suit and wrote
what was in his heart. The oppo-
sition, which he had silenced with a
majestic gesture, or smiled away with
an ironic remark, now gnawed at his
heart. Ile, the invulnerable, was
sensitive —but no one was to know it
until 20 years after his death.
There has been a Balfour declara-
tion and a San Remo conference; we
have a Jewish high commissioner in
Palestine—but Ilerzl's Zionism has
not advanced much. The institutions
and financial 'instruments he created
are still the backbone of the Zionist
organization, and the Zionist con-
gresses have not gained in glamor or
influence.
Now- that the amazing lack of co-
operation from the Jewish financiers
and the masses is fully revealed and
the gigantic structure of the Zionist
organization appears as the work and
creation of one man, vee cannot but
wonder at this dynamic personality
who in nine years achieved infinitely
more than most of the greatest states-
men do in a life-time.
If you want to understand the
Zionist situation of today—regardless
of whether you admit the validity of
Zionism as a solution of the Jewish
problem—you -will have to open these'
three grey volumes. You will read
them. with as much interest and liter-
ary delight as you read Rolland's
"Jean Christophe." Herz], the man,
fought the current of public opinion:
he fought and turned its tide, but was
shattered by the tossing waves.
Zionist propagandists have made of
Ilerzl a wooden figure, outstanding
and lasting, but lacking human quali-
ties. It has often been asked: We had
better speakers, better writers, more
subtle diplomats than Ilerzl; why did
Ilerzl achieve this distinct and unique
place in modern Jewish history?
lierzl's personality, an empty word
in itself, but revealed in his diaries,
is the answer. It is symbolical, in
the light of the present situation of
Zionism, that the last words of his
books are addressed to America, to
the late Jacob Schiff.
It is to he hoped that young Herzl
will not delay. It is high time that
the English-speaking Jews get an op-
portunity to know Ilerzl, the most hu-
man great Jew of the nineteeth cen-
tury.

ORTHODOXY AND REFORM

By RABBI MAURICE H. HARRIS.

The classiceveforeners were the

Prophets; but in an ethical rather

than the theological sense, calling for

reform in mode of life—exposing the

evil of obeying the ceremony and
neglecting the spirit. In post-exilic
Israel, we meet tin° distinct parties—
the Chassidim pious) who carried re-
ligious duties to heroic extreme—and
Hellenists (Greekt, those ready to
adjust themselves to their environ-
ment. These later developed into
Pharisees and Sabluccees. The Sad-
duccees, the priestly, aristocratic, ra-
tionalistic party, like the Hellenists,
encouraged intimate relations with
their surroundings. The Pharisees,
accepted in addition to the Mosaic
1.aw, the later ceremonial, rabbinic
code. They formed the democratic
masses; theirs, the simple faith, so re-
liant on divine Providence as to deem
all external alliance unnecessary. To
discredit them as worshippers of the
letter and neglectors of the spirit of
religion is one of the greatest calum-
nies in history.
In the Middle Ages, the Karaites
were the natural successors of the
Pharisees, with their rejection of rab-
binic law and their cry of "Back to
the Bible." It was not till the dawn
of the 19th Century that the need of
reform, as we understand it today,
became manifest. The ceremonial of
the Synagogue, through gradual ac-
cumulations, became so vast as to be-
come unwieldy. The spirit of the
faith was almost buried in the accre-
tions of rites and forms.
The first stage of reform consisted
in the cutting away of certain foreign
growths not intrinsically Jewish,
which hail come to adhere to Judaism
—folk customs, superstitions, Caba•
listic fantasies; ceremonial was ab-
breviated, prayer in the vernacular
introduced, together with some ex-
ternal changes, in the interests of the
aesthetic. The second stage of the
reform went to the roots of things,
touching fundamental doctrines in
the entire philosophy of religion. Its
central note was the rationalistic—
this as against belief in the miracu-
lous—the acceptance of the reign of
natural law. Prophesy it defined not
as a supernatural gift through which
those thus endowed could perform

wonders and fortell the future, but
rather expressive of a spiritually en-
dowed nature; the prophet—one who
feels the inspiration of God and is
urged to preach His law of righteous-
ness.
The reformer accepts the doctrine
of evolution as the explanation of
the world and its growth. Ile, there-
fore, does not feel that each species
of life is separately created by divine
fiat, but by a progressive law, not
less divine.
Unlike the Sadduccees and Kara-
ites who accepted everything in the
Mosaic Law as religiously binding,
and nothing in the rabbinic, the mod-
ern reformer exercises the right of
discrimination in both.

I BELIEVE

By MAX L. MARGOLIS.
"I believe in God, the One and Holy,
the Creator and Sustainer of the
world.

"I believe that man possesses a Di-
vine power- wherewith he may subdue
his evil impulses and passions, strive
to come nearer and nearer the perfec-
tion of God, and commune with Him
in prayer.
"I believe that select individuals
are, from time to time, called by God
as prophets and charged with the mis-
sion of declaring His will unto men.
"I believe that man is subject to
God's law and responsible to the
Searcher of the human heart and the
Righteous Judge for all his thoughts
and deeds.
- "I believe that he who confesses his
sins and turns from his evil ways and
truly repents is lovingly forgiven by
his Father in Heaven.
"I believe that the pious who obey
God's law and do His will with a per-
fect heart, and those who truly repent,
share, as immortal souls, in the ever-
lasting life of God.
"I believe that Israel Was chosen by
God an His anointed servant to pro-
claim unto the families of mankind
His truth; anti, though despised and
rejected by men, to continue as His
witness until there come in through
him the Kingdom of Peace and moral
perfection, and the fulness of the
knowledge of God, the true Commun-
ity of the Children of the living God."

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