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wwklishod W..kty by The Jewleh Chronkle N414106111' Co., Inc.
JOSEPH J. CUMMINS
W
Pre silent
-Secretary and Tre sourer
Managing Editor
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JACOB H. SCHAKNE
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
MAURICE M. SAFIR
Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, et the Postofnce at
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Sabbath Readings of the Torah.
Pentateuchal portions-Deut. 11:26-16:17.
Prophetical portions-Is. 54:11-55:5.
Pentateuchal readings for Rosh Chodesh, Aug. 16 and 17-
Num. 28:1-15.
Ab 24, 5688
August 10, 1928
Jews and Kellogg Peace Plan.
ZJ
.70
Ya
Perhaps no other people has glorified peace a s has
the Jewish. The word "shalom," which is the He brew
for peace, is the Jewish form of salutation, and i: rab-
binical literature /111(1 law there is such an abuni lance
of sayings urging, in the words of Billet, to "love p lace
and pursue peace," that there is hardly room ii this
column to quote even a fraction of their numbs r. It
may suffice to refer to two very important ones, i n ad-
dition to the already quoted one from Billet: "The
whole Torah exists only for the sake of peace,' ' and
"by three things is the world preserved: by t ruth,
judgment and peace," are samples of the stress t at is
laid in Jewish life on the pursuit of peace.
And it is but natural. Because in time of w ar or
strife the Jew is always the worst sufferer. Inevi ably,
our people suffers doubly in time of conflict bet ween
two or more nations, because Jews are certain to be
found in the armies of the conquerors as well a 5 the
conquered; and the pitching of brother against broth-
er, and the accusations of disloyalty to which Jews
have unfairly been subjected as a result of our being
so widely dispersed over the face of the globe , has
made our lot doubly tragic. It is no wonder, then :fore,
that our passion and love for peace should be as great
as it is.
It was but natural that Jews should be amon g the
first to join in peace movements following the I Vorld
War; that from our ranks should have come son ne of
the most rabid pacifists; and that the Kellogg Peace
Plan should have won its most ardent supporters i n the
ranks of our people. The Council of Jewish Won en in
this country, the Union of Jewish Women and the
t Nv -
ish Religious Union in England, have advocate I j e the
plan in serious campaigns, and the finest expressi on in
favor of a peace movement came from Mrs. I srael
Zangwill, who, in a communication to our worthy • con-
temporary overseas, the London Jewish Chro nicle,
makes the following plea for the Kellogg plan:
If war is a tragedy for all peoples, it is the great est
tragedy for the Jewish people. For as Jews form a part of
every nation, whoever conquers, Jews are among the c on-
queredi (And further, in wartime, Jews do not only sit er
at the video( their enemies; they also suffer at the ha nib
of thei friends. An increase in anti-Semitism is one
the invariable and dreadful results of an attack of w ac-
fever. Not long ago, I saw some documents, altos ted
documents, telling of things that were done to the Jew ash
citizens of Russia in 1917, by other Russians, chiefly e-
diers. Always the Jewish Position in Tsarist Russia vas
terrible, but never before had it been as terrible as t his.
For in war time no help could come to them; they w ere
surrounded by a double ring of enemies, those outs i
and their own countrymen. The things I read were bey and
human utterance, beyond human conception. One can
never forget them. The past cannot be undone, but the
future is ours. The Kellogg treaty may not succeed
in
ending war, but, at least, it will make war more rare, m ore
difficult. The treatment of Jews in past wars is in it elf
a sufficient reason for joining the crusade.
There is an echo in this of the Prophetic longir ig for
peace, the most powerful sentiments for which are to be
found in Isaiah:
And they shall beat their swords into plows tares,
And their spears into pruning-knives;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
And they shall not learn any' more war.
Nailing a Prejudice.
Representative Meyer Jacobstein, former Rc Iches-
ter professor, has in the course of his brief membe rship
in the United States House of Representatives wo n the
distinction of being among the best informed e cone-
mists in the capital. An exhaustive report on hi s ree-
ord as Congressman during the last session, an d his
explanations on the manner in which he voted c m all
important measures. brought flattering comment 5, in-
cluding a laudatory, editorial in the New York Ti ures.
Dr. Jacobstein, however, is not only a good ecc mom-
ist but is proving to be a fine campaigner and k nows
how to defend good American principles. Pro of of
this was offered last Friday evening, when he w a Is de-
livering an address at Livonia, N. Y.. in suppo rt of
the candidacy for President of the United Stat es of
Alfred Emanuel Smith. Miring Representative J acob-
stein's address, the attention of his audience wa Is at-
tracted to a fiery' cross which was said to have been
lighted by the Ku Klux Klan as a protest againa 1 the
congressman's address. The cross, which was obs ? ? revel
for more than a mile, was planted on an adjacen hill.
But Dr. Jacobstjin's American idealism proved st roug-
er than the fire of the Klan cross, when he shout e d:
That doesn't represent the spirit of America. It lo dee
to me as far away that I believe it must be in a fore ign
country.
I know it doesn't represent the spirit of your people of
Livingston and Ontario Counties. Never forget that t his
nation war built by people of all faiths and races.
If the applause which, according to reports, greet-
ed the remarks of Representative Jacobstein, are to be
taken as an indication of American fairness, then we
may hope to see prejudice nailed and condemned at
the polls as well as in the every-day life of the Ameri-
can people.
if RON
lar
ei:?i:".
"Get" and Divorce.
Action taken ill the Kings County Supreme Court
by Jonah J. Goldstein, New York attorney, on behalf
of Kate Joseph, to compel her former husband to ap-
pear before an Orthodox Rabbi to grant her a "Get,"
or divorce, according to Jewish law, establishes a test
case on the anomalous position in which Orthodox Jews
and Jewesses are placed when seeking divorce:
Kate Joseph was released from the marriage vows
to Jacob Joseph on July 21, 1923, in the Supreme Court
of Kings County, New York, but being an observing
Orthodox Jewess, the civil divorce did not free her and
prevented her remarriage. According to Orthodox Je•-
ish law a "Get" is indispensable to make a second mar-
riage religiously legal. Thus, if one of the parties in-
volved remarries upon securing a divorce through a
civil court, such It marriage is legal according to the
laws of the state, but according to Jewish law the chil-
dren are illegitimate.
As in the case of Kate Joseph, who divorced her
husband on the ground of "physical incapacity," and
whom her husband refuses to grant the religions di-
vorce, or "Get," an injury is done to one of the parties
involved in the divorce, as a result of the anomaly
created by the conflict between the civil divorce and the
religious "Get."
The deviations from the common rule, as it exists
in the anomalous situation of the divorce as opposed
to the "Get" demands the establishment of a prece-
dent whereby an Orthodox Jew may' be able to find
relief through court compulsion from the situation he
or she is placed in by' the refusal of one of the parties
to submit to the granting of a Jewish divorce. Should
Attorney Goldstein of New York succeed in winning
his point in the Kings County Supreme Court he will
have accomplished something that will be very desir-
able under present conditions, although his court vic-
tory will be far from a solution to the problem created
by the irregularity in the civil and Jewish divorce
codes.
It will be of interest, at this time, to refer to the
first chapter of Ludwig Lewisohn's "Midchannel," his
autobiographical sequel to "Upstream," appearing in
the July Menorah Journal, in which he deplores the
fact that the "assimilationist policy" of his fellow Jews
made it imposible for him to apply for a divorce from
his non-Jewish wife to a Rabbinical court. That por-
tion of his chapter in "Midchannel" which deals with
the divorce problem is worth quoting, and an interest-
ing extract follows:
The laws of the State of New York are based on the
Christian conceptionn that marriage is a sacrament where-
by the corruption of nature is curbed and bridled, that
it ought to be permanent, and that the only offense against
it that can lead to its dissolution is an act involving
"moral turpitude." My liberal Gentile friends, admitting
the facts, will laugh. Very well. I observe that they
make no particular effort to change the laws. That istheir
business and it is not for me to criticise them. AIM in
all sincerity I do not. For I have come to understand and
respect the subtle and kindly inertia toward even the out-
worn ways of one's folk. I would not dream of giving
offence in either Vilna or Jerusalem by eating trek food.
But the human disgracefulness of assimilationitan is illus-
trated by the fact that the Jewish community of New
York, the most powerful and numerous in all history, has
not demanded, has not dreamed of demanding exemption
from laws that have no relation to its instincts, its tradi-
tions or its reason. It is our constant experience and the
o 'nion of our sages that the relation of marriage can and
ofte oes become a sacred one. All the sanctities of Jew-
ish li e gather about the hearth-stone; all our great historic
festivals are home festivals. But there never was any
doubt in Torah or Talmud-vide Tractntes Ketabot and
Gittin-in tradition, folkway or instinct in respect of the
initially contracture' character or the blameless dissolubil-
ity of the )atirriage bond. But we American Jews, sup-
posedly free citizens in a free state, submit to an outrag-
ing of our innermost susceptibilities which the colonial
powers of Europe will not inflict on subject and semi-bar-
barous populations. The North African Arab must very
properly obey French law in all that regards the security
and the physical health of society. His intimately personal
concerns he takes, as always, to the Cadi's court. . . I hear
your stormy and outraged question, dear American fellow-
Jews: Do you, then, advocate the re-establishment of
Rabbinical courts? Be calm. I do. Has it ever occurred
to you to wonder why Jewish lawyers who specialize in
domestic or breach of promise cases are often such par-
ticularly repulsive scoundrels? Because they are of neces-
sity utterly cynical in regard to the laws involved and buy
and sell justice under them as they would sell onions or
tin-ware. Such is never, it will be admitted, the moral
atmosphere of Jewish lawyers who fight to restrain monop-
oly or to defend labor. These are activities to which Jews
can bring the complete assent of their instincts.
I expect, then, to be made to suffer. For I have now
found in my situation two elements of guilt : the ancestral
guilt of servile assimilationism which had gotten me into
my dreadful predicament and the equally servile assimila-
tionist policy of my fellow Jews which made it impossible
for me to go to a Rabbinical court and issue a writ of
divorcement.
I ant thoroughly aware, of course, of the historic causes
which made for the incurring of that guilt. I am aware
of the handsome theories by which it was and is still de-
fended. There is firstly the false analogy between Juda-
ism and Christianity. 'A Jew need not he religious in the
Christian sense in order to find the Torah and its law
conformable to his nature. Fur that law has nothing in
common with churchly enactments or theological theories;
it is the law of his folk, of his nation. Both our written
and our oral tradition reach back to the dawn of human
history; they are the expression of what we have always
been and essentially still are. A Christian agnostic rightly
repudiates ecclesiastical dictates and regulations; a Jewish
agnostic still finds the basic portions of our law engraven
on his heart. The second notion that has been hostile to
Jewish self-expression and self-emancipation has of course
been that of the unified nationalistic state. That notion is
still celebrating some rather loathsome orgies in the South
Tyrol, in Hungary, in Rumania and in Poland. But the
very fact that the Peace Treaties of 1918 include a recog-
nition of the cultural rights of minorities is at least a
public and moral acknowledgement of the fact that these
rights exist. Nor has the use of such rights ever in fact
been quite disallowed, though on somewhat different
grounds, in the United States. Observant Catholics are
respected for not using the courts in matters of marriage
and divorce. Papal annulments are received as legal,
and the Quakers right to non-participation in official mur-
der has never, I believe, been questioned. The Jews, a
communion immemorially older than the Catholic Church,
have pretended for a century that they have no convictions
or traditions or special instincts. That is their shame. No
wonder that the individual suffers. When finally, justly and
rightly, I tried to liberate- myself 1 could not for a moment
reconcile myself to the whirl of legal machinery, the
scandal, the extortions, the almost averted faces of a few.
For the whole thing happened outside of me. It had no
relation to reason; it had, what is more important in such
matters, no relation to anything in my consciousness; it
outraged my very blood.
It will be of interest also to note that reference to
the "Get" and the Jewish divorce institution dates
back to very early' times, the first Biblical mention oc-
curring at the opening of the twenty-fourth chapter of
Deuteronomy:
"When a man hath taken a wife and married her,
and if come to pass. that if she find no favor in his eyes,
because he had found some scandalous thing in her,
he may write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in
her hand, and send her away out of his house."
Writein44441XML=4444,44=4 4440 asiarle4W ,TATATatI
The Achievements of Con-
servative Judaism
'bC0 Cq.f0r5
CifAS. H. ci OS EPH -.=
When it conies to romances in the business world, some
of our co-religionists have certainly contributed their
share. When I think of the Benjamin Winters, and the
Frederick Browns, and the William Foxes, anti the Lef-
courts, and the Zukors, and the Loewe, and the Sadow-
skys, and the Roxys, and the host of other Jews, who
have started with nothing and built for themselves not
merely a fortune, but an important place in the business
and industrial life of the nation, my hat goes off to them.
The other day I came across an item concerning another
Jew who started with nothing but a passage across the
ocean when he was two years old and today at the age
of 48 is recognized as one of the outstanding shoe manu-
facturers of the country-Andrew Geller.
Geller is the man who tried to buy the Long Halal
Vanderbilt estate, "Ile Hour," but through some legal
technicality was unable to consummate the Beat. Here's
a romance for you! What a thrill he most have had when
there flashed through his mind that the Jewish immigrant
boy, who landed in the United States penniless, and
who, at the age of 13, was earning $2.50 a week clerking
in a shoe store, was negotiating 25 or 30 years later for
the ptirchase of the estate of one of the great millionaire
families of the nation. We have a lot of young men of
the present generation, who stand around wishing for an
opportunity. They can find an inspiration in the life of
Andrew Geller: Through his own efforts, he ruse from a
shoe clerk at 82.50 a week to a retail ;hoe merchant its
1907. lie did the first year about $10,000. Think of it!
Today, only 20 years later, he has a factory employing
hundreds of men, doing a business running into the mil-
lions, and in addition has half a dozen of the finest
woolen's shoe stores in the country. Ile has just com-
pleted a lease on Fifth Avenue, New York, where he will
open the finest shoe store in the world in the early part
of next year. And he has adhered to the highest ethical
standards in business and has established for his product
a reputation that is nationwide and translated through
the trade-mark Andrew Geller Shoes. But prosperity, I
am glad to say, has not weakened his Jewish ties. but as
one of the leading workers of the NOV lurk Jewish Fed-
eration and a director of Temple Israel, Long Branch,
New York, he has maintained his interest in Jewish life.
I am always glad to comment on Jews of this type. They
are a living refutation of the unfair charges brought
against the immigrant. More and more, as the life story
of men like Geller, and Epstein of Baltimore, of Levitaa
of Wisconsin, and thousands of others who have con-
tributed to the business, industrial, civic, and philan-
thropic life of the nation, are revealed, I cannot but help
believe that America is what she is because of what
those high minded Jews have given her..
Some one has written to me that "Stephen Wise got
what he deserved at the Zionist convention." I want
to say right now that the Zionists owe Dr. Stephen Wise
more than they will ever be able to repay. And while I
ant on the subject I might as well say that this great
national Jewish leader, who has given his life to the cause
of his people, has placed the whole world of Jewry in his
debt. This is said not because there exists between us a
friendship covering 25 years, but because as an observer
of Jewish life for even a longer period of time, I realize
to the fullest the rich contributions of service he has
brought to his people. We have disagreed on many sub-
jects, but I hold him in the highest esteem and admira-
tion and appreciate that he is a Jew of Jews.
Well, the country districts are bringing in splendid
returns. Talking about election? Certainly not. I am
referring to those small Jewish communities that are
setting the pace fur their splendid communal activities.
And how proud these communities are of their temples
and synagogues! They have a right to be, too. Just read
these letters:
The first one comes from the town of Jasper. Ala-
bama, addressed to me, in care of the Cleveland Jewish
Review and Observer. It is written by Moses Newburger:
I have been reading with a good deal of inter-
est your letters in regard to small communities
having erected temples. Our little city has a
population of 5,000, of which there are only seven
Jewish families. We erected a brick building
330x50 feet at a cost of $11,200, Our Gentile
friends gave us $1,200, some came from Jewish
friends in other communities, and we gave the
major part. We have an I. 0. B. B. lodge. Serv-
ices are held every Friday night, conducted by one
of the young, men. Sunday School every Sunday
morning. Will state for the benefit of other small
Jewish communities that all this can be accom-
plished if their heart and soul are in the work.
I take my hat off to those seven Jewish families.
Think of it! Sonic of you larger, lazy, indifferent, card-
playing communities that can't afford I?) a small syna-
gogue of your own can take a lesson from Jasper, Ala-
bama.
I can't express my surprise and gratification at the
ever increasing evidences of good-will and understatid-
ing fellowship that exist in our smaller communities be-
tween Jew and Gentile. If this Random Thoughts column
had never done anything else, the fact that it is being
used as an outlet for the spokesmen of these small Jew-
ish groups to express them publicly and to give thanks
to their Christian neighbors, it would be worth all the
effort and time I have spent developing it. Before quot-
ing the next letter, I want to again clear up a mis-
understanding so that correspondents will not ask me to
write on affairs of strictly local interest. These Ran-
dom Thoughts are syndicated and appear in 20 of the
Principal Jewish periodicals of the country. So it will
be obvious that to chronicle local happenings would be
impossible. Therefore the writer of the following letter,
written to me in care of the Boston, Mass., Jewish Advo-
cate, will understand why I have omitted certain portions.
Dear Mr. Joseph:
"Our Gentile neighbors of Clinton, Mass., are
ready and willing to help bear the cost of building
our new synagogue, which is now under construc-
tion. Ours is a community of only 25 families and
the synagogue will cost. including the Hebrew
School, about $20,000. And the generous attitude
of our neighbors to help defray this cost indicates
the friendship and good-will that exists in our
midst, when the synagogue is dedicated, promi-
nent men of all denominations will take part, in-
cluding Senator Walsh.
This letter is signed by Jacob Green. It gives me
pleasure and I am sure the editors of the various Jewish
journals are willing to give space to the broadcasting of
items of such constructive value to the Jewish life of
the country.
They have just taken a religious census of the num-
ber of Jews in the country and we now have over four
million. I am glad to hear this, for I have been tired of
writing for years that we have three and a half million
Jews in the United States. I have always believed there
are many more than eve this last census indicates.
Many Jews belong to no congregations; many Jews don't
believe anything. religiously speaking, so they evidently
were not counted. I imagine that four and one-half
millions would be nearer the mark.
I observe with interest that an attempt is being
made to discuss the matter of converting Jewish children
to Christianity. A group of Christians and Jews in New
York will talk it over. It seems that there is something
rather underhand in the practice of offering young people
certain social activities to induce them to leave their
religious faith. Certain Hebrew Christian missionaries
evidently are quite practical in these matters and they
do not hesitate to We rather questionable means to
bring the erring Jew to see the light. Perhaps the
conscience of some of our Christian friends is troubling
them over this phase of "conversion." I have been en-
gaged in Jewish work for a great many years and know
Jewish life quite well and I can say in all sincerity that
I have never met a Jew who has become a Christian
from conviction, unless he has been a missionary. I am
not saying that there may not be such Jews, but I have
never known one. I know some Jews who have left
Judaism and become surface Christians for husinssa,
social or political reasons. But they will have to bring
me a lot of evidence before I'll ever believe that a Jew
left his faith and turned to Christianity, because he felt
that that was the way to salvation.
O. sT,
t
By RABBI HERBERT PARZEN
Congregation Ahavai Shalom, Portland, Ore.
The achievements of Conserva-
It is because the teachings of t le
Conservative synagogue has ef-
fectively influenced American
Jewry.
tive Judaism cannot be fully ap-
praised at the presen• time be-
cause it is still in flux and without
Result of Conservative Thinking.
In addition to serving as the bul-
a determined program. Its influ-
ence has, however, permeated
every phase of Jewish life in
wark aganst assimilation and ab-
sorption, be it radical or reform,
America. Its viewpoint has influ-
as the means to adjust Judaism to
enced every constructive move-
the American environment and as
the medium which taught Ameri-
ment of American Jewry. It is
therefore difficuult to chronicle its
concrete accomplishments because
its influence has been felt almost
unconsciously and intuitively.
can Jews to regard Judaism as an
entity and as a developing organ-
ism, Conservative Judaism has
Nevertheless, Conservative Ju•
deism has definitely and complete-
ly effected certain phases of our
life in America. It has, tirst of
all, served as a restraining force
in Jewish living. It has kept Jew-
ish life in America in the historic
Jewish channels. It has been a
deterrent of radicalism end assimi-
lation. It has compelled Jewish
robe:di:All to respect Judaism. It
has compelled assimilation to mod-
ify considerably its self-destruc-
tive doctrines. It has brought into
American Jewish life a new stand-
point-the standpoint of adjust-
ment and adaptation. Formerly,
American Jewry reacted to the
American 'Milieu interwoven. One
group insisted on the "status quo,"
that is, it determined not to reckon
with American conditions but to
ignore them; the other group in-
sisted on complete surrender to
and absolute absorption with the
American environment. It conse•
quently whittled Judaism down to
a series of sect-doctrines. Con-
servative Judaism abandoned these
two attitudes.' It substituted for
them the theory of adjustment to
American life. It denied, at the
outset, that7Judaism on American
soil can thrive in a transplanted
East European ghetto. It just as
fervently rejected abject absorp-
tion within the American sur-
roundings. Conservative Judaism
taught and is still teaching that
Judaism must be adapted to Ameri-
can life, tha Judaism must be ad-
justed to American conditions, and
at the same time retain its catholic
end world-wide characteristics.
This indeed is an immeasurable
contribution to Jewish life in
America. Without it Jewish life
would lose the bit of color it still
has.
helped to mould, shape and fashion
three concrete activities of the
community: the center, Zionism,
and Jewiall education.
Front these original purposes it
is already evident that the center
came into existence alma result of
the needs of I'saiservative Judaism.
Only this interpretation of Juda-
ism demands to florescent develop-
ment of all phases of Jewish life.
This institution is the logical re-
sult of conservative thinking. An,l
in reality, it received its impetus
and its original forms from con-
servative thinkers. When the
center for various reasons, failed
to achieve the contemplated re-
sults, the synagogue center was-at
promulgated to make it possible
to work with smaller and more
homogeneous groups. The entire
center movement is an outgrowth
of Conservative Judaism.
1
Zionism had its most welcome
haven in the Conservative syna-
gogue. The philosophy of Jewish
nationalism is intertwined with
the Conservative outlook on Jew-
ish life. Palestine has always in-
trigued the imagination of the
worshippers of the Conservative
synagogue.
The Civilisation of the Jew.
l'alestine reconstruction receives
its solid support. Zionism has
been propagated from its pulpit
and platform. There is no need
to go into details. It is today the
backbone of the movement in
America.
There is yet another attitude of
mind which Conservative Judaism
has introduced into our thinking
whose significance is as yet not
fully appreciated. It has taught
us to conceive Judaism as an en-
tity, as an harmonious whole.
Judaism is not merely a religion,
nor is it only a racial heritage, nor
simply a national culture. It is all
of these. Judaism is the civiliza-
tion of the Jewish people. Juda-
ism, so regarded, may be adjusted
to American conditions without
losing its identity with "Catholic
Israel." Just as the Conserva-
tive synagogue, the truly Conserve-
ati•e synagogue, is suited to Amer-
ican life and retains its Jewish dis-
tinctiveness, so Judaism, under-
stood as the reservoir of the vari-
ous aspects of the life of the Jew-
ish people the world over, may be
modified to suit sour American life
and it will nonetheless rental,: dis-
tinguishably Jewish, historically
Jewish.
Emphasis on Education.
Today Jewish education is an ac-
cepted community activity. Not
so long ago it was otherwise-par-
ticularly is this true of modern
Jewish training. The Conserva-
tive synagogue has been the pio-
neer in proper methodology and
proper curriculums, as well as in
proper equipment of plants and •
teachers. The Sunday School has
been deprecated from the begin-
ning. Just as strenuously was the
East Europen Hader opposed. A
modern Jewish education for
American children was insisted
uponThough the purpose has nut
as yet been completely achieved,
e• Very
intelligent community
strives to attain it.
A third beneficent factor which
Conservative Judaism has intro-
duced into American Jewry is the
concept that Judaism must be
studied and conceived historically,
as an historic process. This idea
has inserted balance and beauty
into Jewish history and Jewish liv-
ing. No era is exaggerated. No
epoch is minimized. No period is
repudiated. The entire vista of
Jewish history is perceived in its
precise colors and exact dimen-
sions. This conception bestows
upon Judaism its intrinsic right to
be regarded as a growth of the
past ages and as a developing or-
ganism which will continue to
flower and grow in the future. This
aktorisal attttude (wants Juda-
ism is primarily the Conservative
viewpoint. While it is the creation
of the petorical school of the
science of Judaism, it has devel-
oped in America under the guid-
ance of the Conservative teachers.
Had conservative Judaism ac-
complished nothing more than in-
sert these constructive ideals into
our existence, it would he suf• "
ficient to justify its prevalence
and its growth in our midst. To-
day these concepts are platitudes.
The philosophers of Jewish edu-
cation in America spring from the
Conservative synagogue. The ac-
tive leaders in the field of Jewish
education are in close sympathy
with if not actually affiliated with
the Conservative synagogue. Jew-
ish education in America has de-
veloped with the development of
the Conservative movement in
Judaism, Where Conservative
Judaism is strong, as a rule, there
Jewish education is strong; where
Conservative Judaism is weak,
Jewish education is In its infancy.
These are the achievements of
Conservative Judaism and the
Conservative synagogue in Amer-
ica. When it is realized that the
present Conservative synagogue
has labored only about a quarter
of a century, its accomplishments
must appear tremendous. And
still more tremendous is the effect
of •its entire influence which, at
present, cannot as yet be properly
estimated. In the face of these
consummations many of its detrac-
tors still regard it as a transitory
and temporary movement in Jew-
ish life. This phase of Conserva-
tive Judaism I shall discuss in my
next article.
6
di
It was quite evident early in the
history of American Jewry that
Judaism, if it is to flourish as the
civilization of the Jew, must have
a concrete favorable environment
fur its variegated activities, such
as the ghetto was in pre-modern
times and the Russian Pale of Set-
tlement in recent times. The cen-
ter was established as the substi-
tute for the ghetto. It was to be-
come the social, cultural and re-
ligious meeting ground of the com-
munity. It was to develop and
encourage an intense Jewish life,
in all its various aspects.
er
THE RABBI KNOWS
eilSK HIM
A Sheaf of Sheilas
141
By RABBI LEON FRAM
1).•eetos of Religious •fusee:ea, Temple Beth El.
(Readers of Ilhe Detroit Jewish
Chronicle are invited to submit
questions for Rabbi From to an-
swer. Address Rabbi Leon Fram,
Temple Beth El, Detroit.)
1. What is meant by the expres-
sion "Ile is a Jonah"?
2. To what Biblical story does
the phrase "Ile is a Jonah" refer?
3. Which was the first to be de-
stroyed-the kingdom of Israel or
the kingdom of Judah?
4. What was the date of the de-
struction of the kingdom of Israel?
5. What was the date of the de-
struction of the kingdom of Ju-
dah?
6. What world empire destroye I
Israel?
7. What world empire destroyed
Judah?
8. What became of the Tribes
of Israel after the destruction?
9. What became of the people
of Judah after the destruction?
10. Who Was the conqueror of
Babylon?
MPT.MAM14,144:44,24
11. How were the children n
Israel governed after the return
from the F.xile?
12. Who conquered the Persian
empire?
13. What holiday commemo-
rates the conflict between Jew and
Greek?
14. What holiday commemo-
rates the conflict between Jew and
Persians.
15. What day commemorates
the conflict between Jew and
Roman?
16. What was tba capital of
the kingdom of Israel at the time
it was destroyed?
17. To what does the expres-
sion "Ile has the patience of Job"
refer?
18. What finally caused Job to
complain? '
19. Why is the Book id Job
called a drama?
20. What is the theme of the
Book of Job?
(Turn to Last Page.)
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