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Americn
a Jewry with its rabbis and
most
its teac hers. Many, its
of the rabbis of this country, whether
Orthodox or Reform, are products of
the Talmud Torah, and that es true
of our religious school teachers. But
its day, even in the most congested
centers, is waning. Its strength is
drying up. Jewish education is pass-
An Interview With Rev. Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan.
ing out of the Talmud Torah( and bus
to be. taken over by the synagogue.
By DANIEL SPEAR
"That has been done to a large
measure already, but the congrega-
of
its
desperate
plight,
of
the
nerd
Once upon a time—and not so very
tional
schools have not yet, except in
mg ago—Jews had different stand- for an organized effort to establish it a few cases, produced rabbis or teach-
on a sound footing in this country.
als. "Success," AS we define that It was Dr. Kaplan who opened up that ers. The explanation lies, of course,
c ord today was not the most impor-
in the character of the congregational
nt. Whether in Frankfurt or Vilna, almost forgotten "pigeon-hole" of my schools. The first to be established
Odessa Or Kovno, in London or in memory in which were stored away in this country were, mostly, by syna-
the
records
of
the
old-time
Jewish
oscow, or in Lemberg or Suwolk,
Empire 5560
gogues of the Reform type. The
Northway 4359 - 1417
hat was true. Scholarship, the pur- social conversation that I heard in schools of the Reform synageegee are,
uit of the Torah, that was the high- nip home and in my boyhmid environ- more or less patterned after the I
meet.
s t standard.
Naturally, when Dr. Kaplan talks testant church—that is, they are
Jews were proud to be spoken of as
nothing else but Sunday schools. In
mdonim, as maskilim. They were of Jewish education he thinks of some-
erl ,j s ahta i Le I s i y t sr . , n .
i, e y ve ti h it e s, c socihl
1 rouder
to be so known than as garde- thing bigger than the Sabbath school, lhstelth8t5s.lo f
,
1. Riches, prosperity were secondary the Synagogue school or the Talmud
i scholarship, to Jewish scholarship. Torah. Naturally, he views it in the agogues, and conditions in this coun-
he Study of the law, the reading of widest horizon, as a function of Jewish try being what they are, we, too, have
he pages of the Gemorrah, the Tal- life, us something that cannot be had to follow the Sunday school sys-
individual teacher, Lem, which, however well it may serve
WOODWARD AT MT. VERNON
nul, a finger-tip familiarity with dealt with by All
the Protestant church, and however
EMPIRE 2996
EMPIRE 2226
( • very sentence, every phrase, every or an individual school, or an individ- adequate it may be for it, is, never-
rQ )
Joni in the Five Books, with the Itashi ual synagogue. Ile sees it as some-
% nterpretation,
Q)
an equal familiarity thing embracing all of Jewish life, theless, entirely inadequate for the
ith the Tyactates, these were the including the adult as well as the Purpose
of Jewish
education.
"After
all, the
test of life is its
w
attainments of which the Jews were child, as something to be dealt with,
(Continued on next page.)
if
not
by
an
organized
community,
.
roudest.
on of like-
There were no golf links swarming surely by an organizati
with Jews in those days—though, in- minded Jews, by an organization, for
t risically golf is a very good thing. instance, like the United Synagogue
T here were no card games, except, of America.
"We must have an organization, and
p erhaps on Chanukah. But there were
,
Chevroth Shaas—clubs for the study a powerful organization, if we are to , 1 Os
have
a genuinely Jewish system (4 4,1
of the Talmud. Jewish speech was
D r.
education
in
this
country,"
said
so
f ascinating in those days. It was
Kaplan. "And an organized effort is
r eplete with phrases from the Bible,
roni the Gemorrah. It had charm, it especially important in America be-
Established 32 Years, 30 Branches.
cause
of the struggle of Judaism to
had erudition. It indicated an en-
exist in its present environment. It s ts,
l ightened spirit, it was the tongue of
single congre-
an educated laity. It had in it the it too big a task for a
assurance of permanency for Jewish gation to undertake alone. Not even C=
the largest, strongest congregation V
values.
can undertake it alone. It is some-
I remember all of this from my boy- thing that must be undertaken as a
howl environment. I remember it from group task. The child who goes to a
my own home. The early Jewish religious school must have the feel-
pioneers of New York (a few of them ing that it is doing what thousands of
are still alive) brought it all with other children are doing at the same
For Information
them. I remember the fascination
___, with which I used to listen to the time, just as the public school child
has the feeling that it is doing exactly
..-,--
social converse on a Sabbath after- what all the other children of the
noon, on ninny weekday evenings. I country are doing at that time. That
heard men described: "A Yid, a lam- is an intangible factor but a serious
den, a hen Torah, a socher"—(A Jew, factor that cannot be supplied by any
a scholar, a son of the law, a mer- one synagogue school, just as it could
chant). Merchants came last! Scholar, not he supplied by a cheder.
son of the law, first. Probably this
"If for no other reason but that I
social converse, most of which I could would eagerly advocate the strength-
not grasp, but which sank into my ening of the United Synagogue of
consciousness, had something to do America, because with its growing
with my present outImik on life. If strength, the number of children at-
a moral was to be pointed out, the Tal- tending the synagogue schools would
mud was drawn upon. Wan effective increase. For them it would strength-
Orast• was needed, it came from the en the group-consciousness so essen-
tial to the success of education, and
But though I have listened to many for the larger, ever larger number of
social conversations by Jewish groups men and women who would thus be-
during recent years, somehow the tone come directly interested in the sub-
and color of these conversations lack ject of Jewish education, it would
the flavor of that one time Jewishly have decidedly salutary results.
erudite conversation. And I miss it.
"The need for the making of Jewish
But what is more to the point, the education a group task both for the
hoped-for continuity of Jewish life, children and for all of us becomes ap-
the maintenance of the permanency of parent at once when we think what
Jewish values, miss it, too. I am the United Synagogue has been trying
afraid, very much afraid, that even to do for the isolated Jewish com-
in Europe, poor, war-racked Europe, munities, the small towns, the vil-
it is
i also missing. The Jews of Vilna, lages, the farming settlements. No
of Kovno, of Lemburg, of Frankfurt, phase of Jewish life in this country
of Moscow—their lives, during the is see difficult, from the Jewish stand-
848 PENOBSCOT BUILDING
last 12 terrible years have been too point, as the struggle of the Jew in
horribly cruel, have been so utterly the small town, in the farming settle-
Phones Cadilac 2346-7-8
debased into an almost savage strug- ment, to bring his children up as
grtmeanammitpammumlimmuummennurimminingiummummpimmoratmelauntonsmanos tosiorla
gle for physical survival, that I doubt Jews," said Dr. Kaplan. "The fear
12950 KERCHEVAL AVENUE
they have had the time to think of a that his children would, under the in-
cheers shoes, to turn a page of Gem- fluence of their environment, and be-
Phone Lenox 4045
orrah as they were so accustomed to cause of the lack of synagogues and
do in the good old pre-war days. Al- schols, drift away from their Jewish
nuist, I am tempted to call them heritage, abandon it, has caused ninny
"golden" days. In those days, at any Jewish parents to give up all they had,
rate, the merchant made the time to come into the big cities, and so to
go to his beth medrash and listen un- speak, start all over again.
derstandingly to a disquisition on
"If the United Synagogue were put
L
.51
1 1 - 5, 51
1 51 A- 51
some Talmudic problem, and to par- in a position to supply these concerned
1 -50 71 W1 1 51
ticipate in the discussion. It was the parents with the assurance that the
distinctive, characteristic act. Today, Jewish needs of themselves and their
in this country—golf, when it isn't ‘hildren would be met—if the United
pinochle, occupies too many Jewish Synagogue of America could send
minds.
them teachers, even for two or three
For those who believe in the perm- days of the week, that would have a
anency of Jewish. values, the disap- favorable reaction on the tendency of
pearance of an erudite Jewish laity, so many Jews to crowd into the Mg
INCORPORATED 1923.
ESTABLISHED 1883.
the disappearance of Biblical, of Tal- cities.
mudic phrases from Jewish speech, are
"Viewing it for the moment from
painful things to contemplate. Their the purely civic standpoint, we don't
disappearance means a drastic change want all the Jews in America to be-
of Jewish standards. That change has come dependent on urban life, we don't
begun. It is in full swing. And it want them all to be city-dwellers.
contains a threat. I rejoiced to hear
"It has been pointed out by many
Dr. Cyrus Adler so eloquently des- competent authorities that one of the
cribe the heroic struggle of European greatest assets of the Jews of any
Jewry to maintain their cultural in- country would he a large farming ele-
stitutions, to keep alive the spirit of ment. That has been one of the argu-
the Torah. That's fine. But, with ments for the creating of a Jewish
the shifting of the center of Jewish farming population in l'alestine. That
gravity to this country, it is here that is one of the arguments in favor of
we must develop an educated, a Jew- Russian Jewish land settlement. Un-
ishly educated laity. Otherwise, the questionably a large Jewish farming
future is filled with ominous portent, element in this country would be a
not only for the Jews of America, but great asset to us. It would so strik-
for all Jewry.
ingly, so effectively answer so many
These thoughts came to me the other of the accusations made against us.
evening as I left the study of Dr. But how are we to develop such a
Slordecai M. Kaplan. We had talked farming element, such a rural Jewish
for a little while about the status of element unless we make it possible for
Jewish education in this country— them to bring up their children as
Jews? There are thousands of Jewish
"WHERE ONLY THE BEST 11AS BEEN CONSIDERED YOU
farmers in this country now, but they
MAY EXPECT TO FIND A.B.SEE ELEVATORS"
will
not stay in the fields unless they
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can be assured their children will MIL
grow up goyim. There are thousands
of Jews drifting into the cities from
the small towns for the same reason.
If the heart of an apartment house
"We must meet this fear. Only a
0
is its elevator service, it must follow
j
tm% ni, and
III bi
w,gr;,irig , atnhitzaftiin oea s can
that the type of elevators installed
missionary
0
which
we
must
engage.
But
I
repeat
should be determined entirely on the
0
.
0
that for this we must have a strong
basis of which will give the maximum
organization. Splendid results s ave
service to the tenants.
0 been achieved by the United Syna-
gogue of America in that direction al-
ready, in spite of its limited strength, I
its limitml means, notably in New:
York , New Jersey, Pennsylvania and
New England, but there is a vast
O amount of work of this important'
kind still to be done, and unless it can
increase its membership very largely
and very soon, the United Synagogue
will not be able to extend its efforts
in this direction as widely as they
should be extended, and what is equal-
ly serious, may have to curtail what
doing now."
Royal Mayonnaise adds zest to salads and has the O it is "Itut
isn't it a fact that the tendency
III
toward Jewish education is increasing
magic trick of transforming cold meats, sand-
r ,
in
this
country?" I askd Dr. Kap- T
O
wiches, entrees into epicures' delights.
lan. "So for as I know the situation,
to
use
that
all
synagogues
it seems
whether Ref , rm or Conservative, have
Its never-varying deliciousness has made it the
religious soh sds; the I Irthodlox Jews
DETROIT OFFICE
. are intensely interested in the main-
choice of fastidious hostesses.
! tenance of Talmud Torahs—"
56 Henry St.
4 ,..
:4 ' Dr. Kaplan interrupted me:
Cadillac 2167-8
"You say 'it seems to you'—and it I t
Made in Detroit. Delivered fresh every day. Your Uj
0 1 , seems so, also, to many people who are
not close to the problem. It is true
MAIN OFFICE
grocer carries it in convenient quart, pint and half-
that all the conservative synagogues
OFFICES
52 Vesey St., New York City
in
New York have religious schools;
pint jars.
PHILADELPHIA
DETROIT
that all the Reform temples have Sab-
WASHINGTON
1110=0000.110M86.111.1"...MIIIIIIMM
NEW yogic
FACTORY
O
. bath or Sunday schools, that large
BALTIMORE
BOSTON
Jersey City, N. J.
CLEVELAND
HARTFORD
_ numbers of children go to the Tel-
' mud Torahs.
"But, let us deal with the Talmud
Torah first. In the evolution, or I l
rather in its establishment of itself
on a firm footing in this country, by
the immigrants from Eastern Europe,
MICHIGAN
the Talmud Torah was the second
WALNUT 1293
DETROIT
J"'
stage. During the period of its hey-
It 1.1
dey, the Talmud Torah furnished
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