A merican ffewish periodical Center CLIFTON AVENUE • CINCINNATI 10, OHIO TittPETRUITIEW$Sit OlLfpf6 GIAS JOSE The Wise Men of the East (Continued from Preceding Page eat use when you use it as a play- thing. Gunpowder was the toy of In response to my query for further information regarding 1,1111 Mor- the Chinese. It has become the mas- ! ton, author of the widely discussed book, "I Ain a Woman—and a Jew," ter of Europe. a reader advises me that her real name is Elizabeth Gertrude Stern of Europa Under Fire. Philadelphia. She was formerly Elizabeth Levin of Pittsburgh, Pa. Con- And this is the challenge that the trary to the generally accepted reports that she married a non-Jew, my in- Far East hurls at our civilization. formant says that she married a Jew, Carl Stern, a well-known social worker. This conflicts with the statement made by Mrs. Coffee, wife of What you call progress, they say, Rabbi Coffee of California, who, in her recent lecture, mentioned that Leah usually means a new way of killing, Morton had married a lion-Jew. Mrs. Stern has written another book, the men. You are mastered by your ma- name of which has escaped me, which is said to be superior to her latest chinery Gandhi of India tells the people of Europe and America. You work. It is true that she was somewhat wayward toward her faith, but are the slaves of your inventions. that she finally came back again stronger and more devoted than ever to The engine's that were to give you Judaism. ease have only aggravated your un- rest. The motors which you think, I sat up all night to finish the book that the Bloch I'ublishing Company you are driving are really driving! sent me, The City Without Jews." I had no intention of sitting up all you. The workingmen in your large! night, but the story so interested me that I simply had to finish it. My industries can afford a few cheap readers will recall that when this book first appeared in Europe that its pleasures and comforts, but they author, Hugo Bettauer, was assassinated bvi a half-crazed youth who was have ceased to be persons. They are a Nordic fanatic. And one can imagine the consternation that the ' shock mere tools. Their very souls are that this crazy boy experienced when he discovered that Bettauer was not ground out by the deadly efficiency of a Jew—on the contrary, he was a Protestant and an aristocratic Protestant your mechanisms. Awl your busi- at that. Over 30,000 copies of this sensational work were sold in Europe. ness men are nervous wrecks. The Now It has been translated and published by Bloch. impersonality of the large industrial esamesse -- organization robs them of all sense It is an interesting story. This brilliant Viennese journalist worked out of fellowship or sympathy with their the idea of a plot based upon a supposiious law expelling every Jew in workers, the complexity of their un- Vienna. It was uncompromising in its severity. Even children of mixed dertakings keeps their nerves on marriages were included in the expulsion act. And Bettauer very cleverly edge, and the unremitting drive for depicts the scenes leading up to this exclusion act. He then strives to show what the "city without Jews" becomes without the Jews. After three years energy for any form of intellectual of experiment along this line, co•ditions become intolerable and finally life. Gandhi has asked his people to the Jews are voted back again. But it is interesting to note that both Jews have nothing to do with machine- and Gentiles are dissatisfied with the book. Though I am inclined to be- lieve that the better case is made sal for our co-religionists. It is extremely made goods but to go back to the old sophisticated, and if you want an evening of interesting reading, though spinning wheel and create their fab- not an especially literary achievenn at, the book, "The City Without Jews," rics leisurely at home. This is the asyogido doctrine of Gandhi, and it will provide it for you. has penetrated the thick skin of our ■ A contribution to the construcive activities of a Yowl.: Women's He- Western conceit. Exaggerated as this criticism may brew Association comes to hand i•. the form of a letter from Mrs. Samuel R. Glogower, chairman of the "Y" managing board of Detroit. I find that be, there is no doubt but that it has touched a weak spot in our system of the Young Women's Hebrew Association of that city has inaugurated re- cently a bureau of personal sere,ce to help the girls solve their problems, life. Professor Frederick Starr, pro- to keep in touch with employers and unemployed Jewish girls, and as far fessor of anthropology at the Uni- versity of Chicago, once told me how, as possible to fit the right girl in the right position. The bureau also un- , dertakes to supply these girls with the proper homes so that they will not after spending a whole year in the only have the necessary physical comforts, but the right environment. This Fur East, he landed at a European harbor. "I was shocked," he said, is a splendid activity for a Young Women's Hebrew Association, and I am I "at the difference in the facial ex- glad to hear that there is so much of this kind of work being done by "Y's", pression between the colored men I all over the country. After all, a Y. W. II. A. has more of a problem than f had been living with and these white merely providing a building with physical, social and intellectual activities. men. Compared to the soft, gentl • e. kindly faces of the dark-skinned men. It seems only yesterday that I saw three young rabbis sitting together the faces of the white men looked on a bench in a hall in Lancaster, Pa. It was the occasion of a Grand Lodge like sharp-beaked vultures hard after convention of the B'nai B'rith of District No. 3. I was somewhat of a their prey." youngster myself in these days. But I confess that I was startled when I One is reminded of the story of the read that one of these three rabbis celebrated his twenty-fifth year in a young man who came back from Newark, N. J., pulpit. This "youngster" is Rabbi Solomon Foster. The America to visit the Russian village second of the trio was Rabbi A. S. Anspacher, now associated with Rabbi which was his birthplace. lie called Calisch in Richmond, Va.; the third was the late Rabbi Eli Mayer of Albany, on the old rabbi of the town and tried N. Y. But to get back to Rabbi Foster. It seems as if the whole state of to impress his venerable teacher with New Jersey, including the governor, hastened to pay him honor. Services the wonders of America. "Suppose," lasted three days, and the most distinguished representatives of the Jewish he proceeds glowingly, "I want to see pulpit came to pay their tribute to one of the most earnest-minded spiritual a man in another town. I want to leaders in the House of Israel. Rabbi Foster 11/1S never compromised the let him know I am coming. Here in dignity of his pulpit with a desire for sensationalism. Ile has done his work Russia you would write a letter. It well. Through the sheer force of ability, a high sense of duty, an unques- would take several days before he tioned sincerity and a fine appreciation of the value of his mission, he has received it. In America I telegraph. made himself deservedly one of the outstanding leaders in the religious In half an hour he has my message and civic life of his city and state. I congratulate him most heartily upon in his haftsi." The young man paused completing a quarter of a century of service in the first pulpit to which he to see the effect of this revelation of was called. This speaks volumes for the splendid service he has rendered speed on the rabbi. But the rabbi his people. was unperturbed. "Now I have to go, my friend," the young man con- Those who followed the United Jewish Relief Campaign will recall that tinues. "You in Russia would go by it was argued that the Jew of Russia who has been and tried to remain a horse and wagon- It would tak e tradesman becomes declasseil, that only the worker has the fullest rights) a whole day to get there. In Ameri- of citizenship in the Soviet Republic. Therefore, one of the reasons ad- ca I take the train. In one hour I vanced for placing the Jew' on farms, other than the pue economic ad., am there." Still the rabbi is vantage to be derived therefrom, was the right to equal rights. So it will fected. "When I get to the station, - be interesting in confirmation of this to read this excerpt from an article I want to let my friend know I have in the current Nation, written by Louis Tissber. -its says: arrived. You in Russia couldn't do that. I go to the telephone. It takes The simple fact that a job as a street cleaner or a factory worker a second and I am speaking to him, admits one to the aristocracy of a country has a mnral or, if you though he is several miles away from will, "religious" value which can scarcely be exaggerated. I have, for me." Still the rabbi did not get ex- Instance, seen many Jewish merchants who were forsaking their cited. "Now," the young man be- small towns to become pfiasants in Southern Russia. Their great I gins to talk loud, "I want to get to urge is economic distress resulting from state participation in retail my friend's house. You iu Russia trade; nevertheless, all are happy that this circumstance driving would walk and carry your baggage them away front a parasitic existence into a life that opens the door On your shoulder. It would take you to citizenship, to equal civic rights, and —most important—to pro- an hour. In America I take an auto- ductive labor. The revolution has established a new social scale in mobile—in five minute's I am there." Russia. The man who earns his daily bread by the sweat of Ps brow And still the rabbi was unmoved. stands first. The student youth is second, the intellectual third (he "Rabbi," exploded the young man in last. Men ar i l is rising), and the private capitalist or Nepman • a rage of disappointment, "I suppose women do not wish to desert the ranks of labor. That they must you don't understand a word I am content themselves uith little material wealth is compensated by saying!" "I think I understand the satisfaction of bel urging to the ruling class, which is laying the everything you have said, my son," foundations for a future with less inequality than the present. the rabbi finally spoke, "only one thing puzzles me. What is it, my Well, the world does inure a fraction of an inch every 100 years ..r so. son, that you are in such a hurry Perhaps I shouldn't have said "the world"—civilization moves that dis- about—there in America?" tance in a forward direction. Now comes Frederick Lavanburg of New Our Hurried Life. York, who has amassed more money than he needs in the paint business ORON 'GEE convert us to its faith. At the &- soy Hotel in this city a Ilindu phi- losopher is giving a series of free lec- tures on the resources of the inner life. At the Twentieth Century Club in this city there is being held an exhibition of Hindu art which reflects the serene, meditative, aesthetic life of India. The works of Rabindranath Tagore and other poets of Hindu mysticism are enjoying a wide circu- lation. Mahatma Gandhi is the most fascinating and the most read about personality of this generation. There are yogi and swami, some genuine. some imposters, teaching their doc- trine in all parts of the country. New Thought and similar religiou s cults are spreading Far Eastern teachings to thousands of people. The largest i and the most influential organization tot the dissemination of Far Eastern thought •Theosophir movement. It has established itself in England and in America and is spreading rap- idly everywhere. The Theosophic movement came very near being on the first page of the newspapers a month or so ago. For Madam Besant, an Englishwom- an at the head of the cult, brought to America a young man whom she believes to be a world teacher, a nun through whom the voice of the Mes- siah is again to speak to men directly in the flesh, and face to face. The young man is named Krishnamurti and he is the author of an inspired little essay on human conduct en- titled "At the Feet of the Master." ophy. But while we shall not be per-1 the Far East. This will bring nearer suaded by Far Eastern belief's, we the realizati,,,, of the world that all cannot help being deeply affected by religion yearfis for—a world that Far Eastern attitudes. W• shall learn to meditate like the Hindus even though we do not meditate 'about the same things. Western Science and Eastern Silence. In the course of my research in problems of education, I recently read the curriculum of the school conducted by Rabindranath Tagore at Shanti Niketan or the Abode of Peace. I noted that on the daily school schedule for all students were two periods called "periods of medi- tation," one at sunup, the other at sundown. At these periods each stu- dent selects a tree• by which he sits and meditates for a quarter of an hour. The whole program of the school seems to be aimed not SO much at teaching the students proficiency in any of the arts or crafts as to teach them to enjoy meditation. What the school actually produces is men who are not only capable of do- ing skilful work but who are su- premely capable of living beautifully. We of the West must go to that school. 1Ve must train ourselves to enjoy meditation. We must learn to live calmly, peacefully, serenely. We shall not scrap our machinery, as the Far Eastern extremist would sug- gest, but we shall compel our ma- chinery to take its proper place as the means of life and not as its ends. It shall be our servant and not our master. Nor shall we in our quest of inner peace follow the extreme Hindu mystic who prizes complete unconsciousness or Nirvana as the highest achievement in life. We shall try rather to rid ourselves of our insistent worrisome self-con- sciousness by losing ourselves in the great ends of life, in the contempla- tion of nature, in the appreciation of art and poetry, in the search for knowledge, in the enjoyment of play and friendship, in our happy sharing in the world's labor and, what is com- prised in all this--in the cultivation of our souls and communion with God. All this we shall le•arn from the wise men of the For East who have over-specialized in relaxation as we have over-specialized in activity. shall be I:ke It safe, quiet hoer la which shall live an harmonious, hap- py family. Free Building Exhibition NOW OPEN You and sour friends are cordially invited to visit our Building Exhibition at Gratiot and St. Aultin Ave.., daffy except Sundays. Open evenings till 9 p. m. We believe we can give you many valuable suggestions, and show you ot.toy new items used in building today. C. W. Kotcher Lumber Co. Lumber for Over 60 Years" Business Established 5504 All Phon•s—M•boz• 139, The Michigan Bell Telephone Company The Hindu Messiah. Ordinarily the coming or the re- ALLS attention to the two general classifications turn of the Messiah should be first of Long Distance Tel( phone Service and rates: page news. Unfortunately for Mr. Krishnamurti, he arrived in America 1—Particular Person Coils—To be used when you just at the time of the death of Ru- dolph Valentino, and since the motion must talk to a particular person. picture industry does more advertis- ing than religion and education put Rates on Particular Pelson calls are the same, day together, the newspapers had as lit- and night. tle space for the coming of the young Messiah from India as it had for Pro- 2—Anyone Calls—To be used when you can talk f • • Eliot of Harvard. Theosophy with anyone who answers your eat). firings the Far East to the West in the form of a religion. There is There are Day, Evening and blight rates on Anyone TheueOphiCill congregation in Detroit, where you may hear young and alert calls, as follows: American men and women pronounce the exotic phrases and express the Day Rate, 4:30 a. no. to 7 p. m.—This rote is con- beliefs of ancient Hindu mystics. siderably lower than the Particular Person tate. Nevertheless, just as Europe did 1105 With the Far East learning to use accept the religion of Palestine in its Western science and the West learn- Evening Rate, 7 p. m. to 8:30 p. m.—Appetal- original form but combined it with i i ing to use Far Eastern silence, the nudely 25 per cent lower than the Day rate. European ideas and modified it into Orient and the Occident, sunrise and Night Rote, 8:30 p. ns. to 4:30 it. m.—Approsi- ('hristianity, so at this time the peo- the sunset, the palm and the pine, mately 50 per cent lower than the Day rate. ple of the Western world are likely sandland and snowland, blend in a to examine critically these gifts from wonderful harmony. East is West India and assimilate only part of and West is East. What a lovely THERE IS NO CHANGE OF RATES AT MIDNIGHT what is offered. Insofar as theosophy prospect there lies ahead for mankind is a religion, we have no accepted when to the social ideals born in Pal- standards by which to judge it. For estine of the Near East shall be har- religion, we have seen, is composed nessed the scientific engineering pow- of longings, sentiments and hopes, er created in the West—to the end and these are essentially private, in- that all men may be enabled to enjoy violable, sacred. We have learned to the bliss of the soul-life cultivated by respect . other men's beliefs eves though toe du not share them. The beliefs of the Theosophists originate. out of the same deep human wishes ME=1 ■■ =1MMEMOP as the religion of the Jews and Chris- tians. That same sense of the in- adequacy and the injustice of our limited span of physical life ahicu has led Jews and Christians to yearn passionately for a spiritual life be- yond the grave, an immortality of the soul, has led the Theosophists to unfold the age-old teachings of Kar- ma and reincarnation of the transmi- gration of souls. The idea of rein- carnation may be uncongenial to you or to nie. I personally cannot see what difference It can make in my life or conduct, that I have had pre- vious existences of which I have no recollection or that I shall have fu- ture existences totally discontinuous with my present life. I prefer to have the problems of life solved here rather than in the hereafter and in human society rather than in the in- dividual soul. I may challenge the doctrine but I cannot help revering the profound human needs out of which it curves. And the same home- sickness which has led Jews and Such bargains as we offer Christians to believe in a world which is like a sheltered house cared for are only made possible by by a devoted father has led the Theosophists to bring to the West the low rent and small operat- venerable Hindu doctrine of Panthe- ism—the doctrine that the world is ing expense. not merely created by God but it is created of God, the teaching that the earth itself is God, every tree on it a limb of His divine body, every We are always in a hurry, always blade of grass His finger, every sun- and is seeking an outlet for his surplus—in a way that will benefit swileone else not so fortunately circumstanced as himself. So he has decided to in a rush after something or nothing. beam his smile, every living thing invest $500,000 or so in building model tenements in which three or four- The Far Easterner has caught that His breath. We may challenge even room apartments will be the average, and for rent only to those who make failing of ours. We betray it by the this sublime teaching. Sonic things $25 a week or thereabouts—but the "thereabouts" must be less than $15. fact that "busy" and "speedy" are are good, some are less good and The moment the tenant becomes so affluent that his earnings exceed $25 the superlative adjectives of praise some are utterly bad. It is intellecs we bestow upon people. e betray tually and morally confusing to call a week, out he goes, to make room for someone else less prosperous. it by the tact that our mast preva- bail things divine. There are Hindu But Mr. Lavanburg has ideas dvan aced beyond the mere supplying of lent diseases are the diseases of peo. pantheists who will not swat a ma- physical comforts. lie aims to introduce into his scheme social and cul- ple who live under a continuous lariat mosquito or crush a poisonous tural, to say nothing of spiritual, advantages. Ile will have a trained social strain—weakening of the heart, high snake (n the argument that these worker who will be the neighborhood "Ask Mr. Foster" person. Be will blood pressure and nervous disorders. things are as divine as human souls. also arrange for a small-sized synagogue in the district where probably We betray it by the fact that one of Theosophists will eat no meat on the the entire roster of tenants will be Jewish. They will have a commodious our most thriving industries is the argument that cattle are divine. Of room, where religious services may be held in comfort rind without cost. manufacture of headache pills. Al- course, we know that vegetables also Greatest Woes in History. Ile thinks that will develop a get-togetherness that will make for goodwill ways engrossed in things, we lose all are alive and sensitive and therefore - — as well as the satisfying of the spiritual yearning of his tenants. All in taste for ideas. Even when the busi- divine, but, then, even pantheists all the idea is a good one. But it is unfortunate that civilization is moving ness day is over, the worry of affairs must live. We may challenge the va- so slowly that it has net yet caught up with the thought that the state owes still seethes within us, we cannot re- lislity of the doctrine, we cannot help Lanips it to the people to provide proper housing quarters. No society can progress, lax and be quiet, we cannot find any but appreciate the love of nature out nor can the proper standard of living be expected where it is impossible joy in our own company. We have of which it springs. All this is to indicate that we of Odd Chairs for families to live properly. Some day the state, speaking in its widest to seek forgetfulness in further ex- sense, will arouse itself to an appreciation of the fact that hundreds' of! citement, in crowds, in sensational the West — Jews and Christians—are Chifforobea millions of dollars now being wasted on all sorts of non-essentials can he movies, sensational news, sensational not likely to be converted in any con- devoted constructive! , to promoting the welfare of those who, by reason of music, sensational dancing and games siderable numbers to Hinduism as a I Breakfast Sets • place to of chance. Our homes are becoming religion, not even in its Westernized! an economic situation beyond their control, cannot find a beet live at the price they can afford to pay. In the meantime, Mr. Lavanburg, steadily smaller, our places of rum- forms of New Thought and Theos• I mercialized amuse ment steadily Mirrors larger. And the man whom we cal I '' ‘,IMIlA s l :Wislislh's 1"$`) successful—by the time he has accu- Wall Cabinets Lots of discussiol throughout the country as to whether Jewish social clubs should have 1161 New Year affairs on Friday evening! Such discus- mulated the surplus wealth he ha , • chased after, he is so worn out that Everything for the A sions merely allow tint whenever we try to accommodate our sails to every: Home. shifting wind, we sometimes find ourselves in a very embarrassing situa- he cannot enjoy it, or he has become g so sordid in the chase that he is cap- tion. There can be no argument that a Jewish social organization has no I 1 business to sanction a social affair on Friday evening, but that, in fact, is able of doing nothing better with it 0 as true of any Friths/ evening as it is of the Friday evening before Christ- than to harness himself to it again mas. The principle •n•olved is the same. It so happens that when Friday and make it grind out more and more' 0 is • Christmas eve, it happens to be a more widely advertised Friday—that's of the same thing. 0 --'I It is not even true that our indus. the only difference. And furthermore, is it any worse for a Jewish social it club to refuse to sanction on event on Friday evening than for the club to try and inventions have given our place at the disposal of the members everything necessary for them to lives sanely. With every mechanical A with our hold parties if they choose? Stripped of all pretense, it just means that invention our life becomes increas- V, Friday evening, so far as the average Reform Jew is concerned, means ingly standardized. Monotony rath- 6alleries, we are nothing. At the sane time it is politic for a Jewish organization to hold er than variety characterizes our i 1E subtle charm de ign and supet bravely to the remnant of its self-respect as a Jewish entity by refusing. civilization. The chief theme of our of luxurious and to officially hold social events on Friday evening. It isn't very often that Current literature of revolt is just 2 Goods on Display Tuesday Evening. and Dean Decor refined surround the leaders of Jewish social clubs have such a distressing situation to con- this: that our mechanical culture has 2 inKs is reflected to sider. And really it must have been very distressing to them: such a made everybody and everything look Ej credit of the ho alike—all men, all women, all streets, g, battle (?) with their Jewish conscience! who holds her tin all cities have become unrelieved!) , parties, bridge dr, the same. A keen psychologist has ANT:----We manufacture Living Room Furniture to order. See our or social teas at said that it WAN to seek relief from man, Frank Berman, A. J. Bloomgar-! Spa( PYTHIANS WILL HONOR Palmetto. of roes of frames and imported coverings. Moderate prices. this oppressive sameness of our life den, H. P. Cohen, Isadore Cohen, J. ballroom, private N. A. PEREIRA JAN. 11 W. Cohen, Max Finkelston, Abe that the young men of America manship. ing rooms and t plunged into the war. Unless we can Goldman, Nathaniel Goldstick, Sol hall may be r. Willi am find our thrills in the wonders of On Tuesday evening, Jan. 11, De- Kaufman, Ben Kramer , through the st nature, and our variety in the fancies Morse, Ben 0. Marx, Mark Mitsch- troit Lodge, No. 55, Knights of of our own souls, we shall again and Pythisa, will pay homage to Nathan kum, Louis Morrison, Joseph Neder- again be driven to the thrills of war. EET, at BUCHANA 1( A. Pereira, presest master of ex- lander, Samuel Raskin, William Ro- I Mechanics 4300 FOURTEENTH STR alone are not adequate to Leeches. II.34 to chequer and ardent worker of the senberg, Charles Rosenthal, Simon' enrich life, the glory of human liv- Dm.. 1.30 t• 5 30— Wholesale and Pet.' Warehouse: lodge. D. Rosenzweig, Ben Shiffman, N. S. Sosilay Dia.. 11 :30 A. U. ing must come from within. And Shellfish, Julius Shellfish, Ed mun d MALL IXT 1601 WEST LAFAYETTE, Corner TEN 7I 1 An elaborate program has been this glory of life we shall never at- A EXQUIS/TE 154PC)RTI Stoman, II. Weitzman and I. Win- planned by the committe in charge tain until we have learned to value AND ston. of arrangemen• Past Chancellor calm and relaxation as we value ex- Nathaniel Goldst will act in the citement and activity. We make large promises, to avoid capacity of mast of ceremonies. ma Missionaries Frees Asia. The other hot , ed guests on this making small presents. HA.. CO(K AT JO; Calm and relaxation, quiet and occasion are the Charles iI. Clone }lowing past-chan- contemplation, the Far East has ape. 0 Shop cellors of Detroit Glendale 3000 dge, No. 55: Sid- Nowadays, Whatever is not •orthI cialized in these things and it is send- rey betwera ney L. 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