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"This Unbelieving
World

about religion that they wish to prove If later in life they dislike strangers net of Victor Hugo's books which he RABBI NIEMIROWER'S
•onally or by telephone, Glendale
—the evidence is so personal and or run away from animals, it is •be- donated, and also wishes to thank the
0086. Do you need a position? Do
PROTEST CONFIRMED
therefore so pliable. Thus a popes- cause they have been taught to do this Phi Sigma Epsilon Fraternity for its
you know of one far another "Y"
Friday Evening Services:
larized account of the science of corn- by parents, teachers or servants. And donation of $50 toward recreation
girl?
IlUCIIAREST.—(J. T. A.) — The
parative religion lends itself to dan- when fear is no longer regarded as equipment for the Mothers and Ba-
The !services on Friday evening,
report of Reuter's Agency concerning Feb. 11, were conducted by Jacob Saturday Night Dancer.
gerous misconceptions, quite as read- the paramount and fundamental hu- bies Camp.
the
declaration
of
Rabbi
Niemirower
ily as do the popularizations of psy- num trait, what need is there to desig-
(Continued from Preceding Page.)
Nathan, who delivered a most inspir-
Be sure to attend the dance at
on the Jewish protests abroad against ing and interesting talk. Services Webster Hall this Saturday night and
•hology and anthropology. A pious nate it as the fountainhead of re- Skating Party Postponed:
the excesses in Roumania was con-
man who is not otherwise well-in-
nificantly he dedicated the work to
The West End Social Leaders had firmed by an official statement issued w ere held at the clubhouse, 80 Ro- meet your friends there.
Again, what could have induced Mr. to postpone their skating party ached- here. According to this statement, wena street, at 8:30 p. inn. The pub-
G. Wells, the founder of the current formed might read Mr. Browne's
lic is cordially invited to attend
popularization movement, and the per- "This Believing World" and lose eith- Browne to introduce a book on the uled for Sunday afternoon.
Rabbi Niemirower protested from the hese service's and stay for the social
sonal awakener of Lewis Browne's er his temper so- his religion, and this origin of religion with that weird pro-
floor of the senate against the inter- t hour afterward.
might happen without any fault on logue on the theme of religious ha- m a4 e d s:
muse.
vention of foreign Jews in the affairs
the lona of the author. Browne's Meets? From a vantage point in Jeru-
What Is Popularisation Worth?
Northwestern Branch:
An enthusiastic non appreciative of Roumanian Jewry. Ile also pro-
treatment of religion as a human salem, the holy City, the author
It is important that we stop at this rather than a divine thing, coma as watches the representatives of yard- audience welcomed the three soloists, tested against "the participation of To Present Plays:
The next meeting of the North-
The
Strolling
Players
of
the
Y.
W.
western Branch of the Jewish Old
point to appraise this entire school of a shock to people who are accustomed sins religions and sects go by. He ob- Dr. Mark Gunzburg, Maurice War- foreign Jews in the spreading of re-
popularization, started by Wells and to think of religion as revelation, as serves the hatred with which each re- ner and Max Levy, as well as Walter ports concerning anti-Jewish pogroms II. A. will present three one-act Folks Home will taken place on Feb.
plays, Feb. 23 and 24, in the "Y" 21 instead of Feb. 14, as previously
Van Loon, which attempts to trans- something given to man rather than gards the other and recalls the bloody Chasson, the accompanist, when they in Russia."
late the subtly refined and intricately made by him. A sense of disillusion- clashes which hove taken place be- appeared at the first of a series of
The candidacy of Rabbi Niemirow- little Theater, 89 Rowena street, at announced, at the home of Mrs. Alice
involved sciences into the simple terms na•nt is likely to be the initial effect tween such men in the streets of the musicales held at the Jewish Center er as senator representing the Jewish 8:30 p. nn. The plays to be given are Eerier, 3033 Leslie avenue. There
which the man on the street can under-
ancient town. And out of this scene on Saturday evening, Feb. 5 under religion was confirmed at a sleeting "White Elephants," "Stringin"Em" will be musical entertainment and st
stand, or into light novels suitable for things.
of this The
secular
treatment
of not
sacred
social hour, to which members are re-
pre- of ugliness and bitterness comes the the auspices of the Mothers Club. The of the senate, disregarding the claim anti "Pygmalion and Galatea."
average
reader is
summer reading. Does Dr. Thomson a par ed toeconstruct
quested to invite friends. On Feb.
his reliious
g
ideas question to be answered by the book program was varied and brilliantly of Rabbi Schur to the seat.
r
Bureau of Personal Service:
"Outline of Science" really teach any- at short notice and to disco ver what proper: What is this thing we call executed. The Mothers Clubs want
2'7, Sunday evening, a novelty party
will be given at Braiker's Hall, 2201
The
director
of
the
bureau
re-
It
is
a
great
sign
of
niedisyrity
to
religion?
Well,
what
kind
of
an
an-
to
take
this
means
of
thanking
the
one chemistry sir astronomy? It is scholars have discovered, that the
quests that any girl who has ever Gladstone avenue, corner Fourteenth
doubtful whether anybody actually ideals of religion are just as valuable swer is one to expect when the ques- artists and Mrs. Albert Ilurwith and praise everything moderately.
her
assistants
for
their
very
fine
co-
street.
Tickets $1 per couple. Please
applied
fur
employment
will
either
learns astronomy without having been after they have been proven human, lion is put that way?
A Mall forewarned is worth two.
report at the office of the bureau per- reserve this elate.
equipped to examine the heavens as they were when they were regarded
Jerusalem is not just now a good operation.
through a telescope and record his ob. as revelation. Instead he will hasten place in which to study religion. Ex-
nervations in precise mathematical to the conclusion that religion is an cepting the new suburbs outside the
symbols. There is no paved root' nor invention by which he has heretofore walls where the new Jewish immigra
Twentieth Century Limited to science, been deluded. The book, I say, might lion resides, it is inhabited by the most
Many university instructors in science exercise this unfortunate influence al- extremely orthodox and reactionary of
have told sic that their hardest task together without guilt on the part of all the religions. It is not proper that
is not to teach the Scientific method the author. The author himself may all religion shall be measured by their
but to unteach the erroneous concep- be a genuinely religious man. its may standards. Richard Burton, the
lions of science which their students go out of his way to plead with his learned translator of the Arabian
ha d acquired by way of the Book of reader and to show that he is offering Thousand Nights says in one of the
Knowledge and articles in popular him a much better interpretation of re- footnotes to this work: In Jerusalem
science magazines and easy high school ligion in
i place of the one he has have somehow been concentrated the
courses.
snatched away. It will avail the auth- very worst types of Jews, Christians,
Wherein lies the value of these or nothing. For it is a simple mat- and Mohammedans. Moreover, the
simplifications? First of all, they may ter to destroy a faith. It can be done hatred which these Jerusaleinites feel
in some cases whet the appetite for in the course of half an hour's reading. fur one another, can lie traced to other
further and more systematic study. It takes assure than one book to recon- factors than religion, namely, racial
historical, and economic factors.
Second, they certainly do create a struct a faith once shattered.
general admiration fur science and the
Is Religion An Invention . Could not Mr. Browne have intro-
j now
Iduced the subject of religion with a
scientists. And the scients is just
Mr. Browne almost wept with dis- I picture of the Society of Friends the
scientists. The scientists is just now
appointment when I told him, during
in dire need of the respect of the mass- his recent brief visit tie Detroit, of the k mist intensely religious people of
Americo, doing relief work among the
es. Are we not witnessing in the
states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis- hostile attitudes towards religion that enemies of religion in Communist
sissippi a movement to prohibit the People derived from his book. It was Russia? Or, if he must begin in Jeru-
study of science? Are we not witness- a very' intelligent friend of mine, a salem, could he not have begun . with a
ing everywhere a growing distrust of college graduate, who said to me after picture of the Hadassa
in
ospi
the science of medicine. It is quite matting "This Believing World," "I
, alem giving relief to Mo hamme-
likely that if there was some way of have certainly learned a lot from
this
!slero
s
Jews?
and
Christians
as
well
in
idea of 'da
, •
I
getting the "Hill-Billys" of Tennessee, book. Now I know that the
d e story h ave begun
I Or , cou lt
• I ......
or the "no' white trash" of Mississippi the immortality of the soul and other with the scene of American students
•
• II I
I
•
5
enthusiastic about the achievements of religious ideas were only invented by pledging themselves in the name o f
• • •
the scientists, they would not be using priests in miler that they might gain Christianity never to tight their fel-
t
the awful power conferred upon them Power over the credulous masses
anti lownien, or the scene of a committee
I say Mr.
by democracy to thrust America back squeeze money out of them."
, composed of devout American Jews
Browne almost wept when he hear d
to the Middle Ages. Third, in the case that, fur he deliberately devotes a page and Christians making an investiga-
of the physical sciences We know these of his most persuasive English to cor- tion of the Mexican situations with a
view to preventing war?
popularizations can do no material
rect that error so prevalent among }'et I shall not convict Mr. Browne
harm. I say this advisedly. The man pseudo-intellectual
people.
iof being hostile of religion and anx-
who has read a simplified story of
Here it is: ions to tell the world that the chief
chemistry is not likely to start playing
"So long as the meek were concerned
with dynamite. Nor can the man who only over their treasures in heaven, fruitage of religion is hatred. I be-
ee he s himself a religious man. I
has read the romance of the heavens the strong were left free to steal all twee
flight of
shall convict him only of dramatizing
possibly disturb the rythmic
the treasures of the earth. And to too hard, of being too anxious to keep
the stars. It is different, however,
with the popularizations of such sewn- such an egregious degree has this ()th- the resister a-reading.
em as psychology and anthropology, er-world hope. fattened the crafty at I What excuse is there for the relish
and religious origins—the so-called , the expense of the simple during these and the gusto and the sly winking with
social or human sciences. There, the last 2,000 years, that nowadays there which Mr. Browne describes the con-
are some who maintain it was from
popularizer may wreak great havoc. the very first simply a stratagem de- ventional and !florally innocent sexu-
Take, for example, the science of vised by the crafty to attains that very al rites of the ancient agricultural re-
psychology. The stuff it deals with, end. Of course, such a theory cannot ligions? Undoubtedly it is a play for
namely, the human mind, is the most
It is obviously his Greenwich Village crowd with its
exaggerated sex obsessions. To get a
d elicate the most inflammable stuff in he taken seriously.
the world, yet it is also the most easily pure romance to imagine so human a modicum of applause from that crowd,
accessible. Anybody can experiment hope to have been deliberately foisted Mr. Browne reduces what might be a
with his own mind and it is a fact fa- on humanity by a handful of greedy serious study of a primitive human
riests or princes. Undoubtedly such
miller to neurologists that the popu- p men did take all possible advantage fact to a salacious smoking-car story.
Once we have vented our outrage
larizing of such psychological theories of the hope—once it had come into be-
as psycho-analysis, hypnotism, and ing. But that was all. They no more at these crimes which the author com-
auto-suggestion, has led many people created that belief in another world mits against the unwary reader, we
to tamper carelessly with their minds than they created the belief in ghosts cannot help but confess of this book
and nerves. This accounts for our in- or gods. The poor man's stream of what we have confessed of "Stranger
creasing plentiful and luscious annual heaven was but one more of those wild Than Fiction"—that it is the most
crop of "nuts." A little knowledge, clutches after security which make up readable account yet written of its
says the old adage, is a dangerous the whole spiritual history of the race. subject. It is an achievement to have
thing. It requires the very highest And it was as unpremeditated, as made the study of religion fascinat-
type of scientific skill to deal with the thoroughly natural and inevitable, as ing. Ti, readers who have already
Any
been initiated into the critical study of
mind and nerves, but people will read
one hook of popular psychology and the thirsty bedouin's sight of a mir- religion, the book does not sound radi-
age
cal
or
iconoclastic.
Dr.
Franklin
read
the whole subject will be made to ap-
healthy person
Alas, there are times when the best it through last fall and decided to
pear so simple that they will proceed
of explanations are worth nothing. I
immediately to experiment upon them- told Mr. Browne of another inference use it as a text book in his course on
Comparative Religion at Beth El Col-
selves and upon their friends—with
can secure a
that was drawn from his book, namely, lege of Jewish Studies. Students who
tragic results!
Take the case. of anthropology which that religion is only a disguised ex- take the courses in Comparative Re-
Non-medical
includes the study of the problem of pression of the sex impulse, and still ligion at the University of Chicago, or
races. There, too, you have a science another, namely, that religion is as- who read the Journal of Religion, get
which is so difficult, so elusive, that tuated solely by fear. Mr. Browne a much more radical presentation than
Application
no definite conclusions as to the mean- again gave nine chapter and verse to Mr .Browne offers.
ing of race have yet been reached. Yet show how hard he had tried to avoid
People who hold an intelligently lib-
eral view• of religion have little rea-
the subject-matter that science deals just such misinterpretations.
Evidently the chief danger of the son to be apprehensive about this honk.
with, namely, human beings, their up-
puissance and their characteristics, tip- popularization of the human or social Its dramatic theme centers about the
pears to he simple. Every other man sciences is not only that the author broad ideals which are common to all
you meet claims to be an expert identi- will distort facts for the sake of build- religions and their frustration by the
tying the racial origins and traits of ing up a romantic plot, but that the pettiness which is the way of sill flesh.
be religionists have always sensed
people. How many of you have not reader, bewildered by the sudden on- And
said, "I can always tell a Jew, or I rush of new and sensational informa- this tragetly. It is the bigoted and the
eon always identify a Frenchman or tion, will become incompetent to read intolerant who need to tear this book.
correctly even the truest and the most It takes the ground from under their
an Italian?"
Such writers as Lothrop Stoddard important and the most constructive feet. It shows their most rigorously
Ind Madison Grant have written pop. things which the author has to say. held dogmas to he mere survivals of
ular books on race in which they have The immediate results are more likely savage superstitions and their most
Inviolable rituals to be relics of blind
jumped to the definite conclusion that to he negative than positive.
The Crimes of Lewis Browne.
barbaric practices. It is good that •
there are differences of mental ability
Despite his protestations, Mr. highly readable book is throwing the
between one race and another, and
they have distinguished between the Browne is not altogether
. without searchlight upon them. Religious fa-
.
is . e
nativism has assumed dangerous pro-
superior Nordic races on the one hand. blame as to the misconceptions
overplay portions
by
his
book.
Ile
does
portions in our land even in thin
and the inferior Mediterranean and
It is pro h ibiting
Semitic races on the other. Nuns there the words "fear" and "afraid." It
-- " twentieth entur
i the the study of science, it is discrediting
as
a
tailor
n
is no genuine scientist who would sub- admitted that fear w
scribe to such a distinction. The an- evolution of religion, but it did not the science of medicine, it is trying to
swer which an experimental !scientist p lay the dominating vote he assigns to reeombine church and state, it is dic-
would give to the question whether it. 'The opening sentences of his chap- tating our immigration policy, it
there are differences of mental raper- ter on the genesis of religion is a As- threatens in slivers ways our individ-
ity between one rote and another ingenuous parody on the open i ng verse sal liberties. If this book can help to
would lie "I don't know." But you of the Book of Genesis of the linble and liberalize. popular opinions on religious
cannot make a popular hook out of the on the first verses of the Gospel of matters, then it will perform an ultt-
theme, "I don't know." If you want John.M'here they say: In the begin• nately positive service which will more
to write a book of dramatic quality, sing there was Ged, he says: In the than compensate far the iinmediate
you have to have definite convictions, beginning there was fear; and fear disservices we have mentioned.
I refuse to to panicky about the
and you have to create, even if it does was in the heart of man; and fear con-
not exist, such a conflict or contrast trolled man. From this devastating cause of religion. I believe it is root-
eel sleep in human nature and is rap-
between Nordic and Mediterranean keynote sentence of the hook the
races. Now this popularization of an- er receives the impression which no able when it operates at its best of in-1
races.
thropology has done infinite harm. It subsequent explanation, however, per- gnite blessings to man. I welcome Mr. I
is a well established fact that the im• fect, can efface, that religion has its Browne's challenge that it proves its
migration law of the United States is stimulus in fe ar, It is here that Mr. right to survive by functioning prof+.
inspired by Stoddard's book. "The Browne betrays his lark of prepare- etically as a lever and a leaven of in-
Rising Tides of Color," and Madison thin for the vast project which he un- ternatIonal peace, social justice, and
Grant's "The Passing of a Great deook.
He had spent many years
rt
Race." We know that these books upon the materials which went into personal grace.
were the text books of the congress- the making of "Stranger Than Fir
and senators who w e re the most lion." But he' probably gave himself
active in agitating this law which dis- only one year of research in the ma . s-
linguistics between the people of ive libraries of data on comparative
. Mothers Club:
northwestern Europe as desirable im- religion. Had Mr. Browne been able Fenkell
The Fenkell Mothem C lub will hold
migrants, and the peoples of south- to find the leisure and the opportunity
eastern Europe, including the Jews, as to cover the available than more than a meeting on Saturday afternoon,
Feb. 12, at 2:30, at 3430 Fenkell
undesirabl e immigrants. The whole superficially, he would have found that
avenue. Miss Leila NIcGuire of the
idea of the Ku Klux Klan, insofar as it is altogether unnecessary to say
it has any ideas, is derived from the religion had its' genesis in fear. Dr. Merrill-Palmer School will talk on the
same sours ,. dramatized, popular- Whitehead, in his book "Religion in "Behavior Problem of the Pre-School ,
ized anthropology. If we could only the Making" gives convincing evi- Child." A musical program by the
••••••••• ■ •
get our congressmen and senators to donee to the effect that the origin of Music Study Circle will follow.
study real science instead of popular religion lay in the play-life of man. Patriotic Program:
science, we would not suffer from so lie find', that religion begins with
A patriotic program is being pre-
games, lances, feasts. sports and good
many freakish and vicious laws.
cheer. Modern social psychologists pared in order to properly celebrate
The Science of Religion.
the birthdays of Washington and Lin-
dome Office Building
In the effort to romanticize the aci- find the basis of religion in the wish- coln. It will be held on Sunday, Feb.
entre of comparative religion, a similar es of men. The wish for things or
2210 Park A•enu•
danger lurks. Ever since the publi- for better things created the belief 20, at 8 p. m., at the Jewish Center.
cation of William James' "Variety of that they were attainable. The human The program will include a tableau,
Religious Experiences," the study of wish for being loved and cared for singing by the Girls Glee Club, a
!elusion in general, its origin, its ideas, creates the belief that the world is its play and several musical numbers.
its forms of expression, and its efifects the care of a Loving f ether. Not
hl T lk •
has become a science studied with the onl • have modern P.cholar 5 traced re- M
The fifth monthly talk, which will
same impersonality, the same pre- ligious phenomena back to things oth•
cision, and the same experimental er than fear, they have also found that be held on Monday evening, Feb. 14,
method which physics and astronomy fear is not the fundamental factor in at 8 o'clock, will be addressed by
are studied. It is much more laborious life, that the earliest students of pay- NUM Jessie Bonstelle of the Bonstelle
a science than physics or astronomy ehology took it to be. In a series of Playhouse. A musical program will
because its subject matter is not near- experiments with infants, carried out follow Miss Bonstelle's talk. All jun-
ly as concrete or as fixed as is theirs. at the psychological laboratory of for and senior club members are
et its subject matter, too, appears so John Hopkins University, it Was re• urged to attend.
MORRIS FISHMAN, Vice-President
HOMER GUCK, Asset to President
M. E. O'BRIEN, President
simple, no readily accessible. Anybody cently shown that there is no such
The Jewish Centers Association
can have an opinion about religion and thing as innate instint of fear. Chit-
an ybody can make his opinion sound dren are not born with instinctive fear wants to take this means of thanking
plausible. People can prove anything of strangers or animals or darkness. Harry Blumenthal for the complete

Y. W. H. A. NOTES

OLD FOLKS HOME

OUT TO BEAT
WORLD'S RECORD

APPLICATIONS IN MARCH

1111111111111111111111 11 11111111111111111111

SIMON REUBEN

AST Week's issue of the Chron-
icle carried the announcement
of my intention to secure 1,000
Life Insurance Applications in the
month of March. In the history of the
life insurance world this difficult task
has never been accomplished.

in Units of

$1,000 to $2,000

at the

Lowest Basic

Non-participating

Rates quoted

by

any company.

111 111111111 1111111 11111111 1111111 11111111 11

CENTERS ASSN

,

If I am to succeed I will need the co-operation
of all my friends. I know I can do it. I have
the backing and assistance of the officials of
my company and my associates in the organiza-
tion. If I can get all my friends to work with
me, I feel certain I will beat the world's record.

What This Accomplishment Means!

1.The world's record achieved by a Detroiter.
2. It will place Detroit on the Life Insurance
Map of the World.
3. It will turn the eyes of the Life Insurance
World to Detroit.
4. Detroit can lead in other things besides autos.

MAY I COUNT ON YOU?

SIMON REUBEN

Representing

DETROIT LIFE INSURANCE CO.

2210 PARK AVENUE .

.

- DETROIT