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IRONICLE
Published Weakly by The Jewish Cisranicla Publiaking G. Inc.
President
Secretary and Treasurer
Managing Editor
Advertising Manager
JOSEPH J. CUMMINS
JACOB H. SCHAKNE
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
MAURICE M. SAFIR
Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Postal'. at Detroit,
Mich., under the Act of March 3,
General Offices and Publication Building
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The Detroit Jewi.1c Chronicle invites correspondence on subject. of interest to
the Jewish people, but disclaim. responsibility for an indorsement of the view.
expressed by the writer..
Sabbath Readingsef the Torah.
Pentateuchal portion—Gen. 23:1-25:18.
Prophetical portion—I. Kings 1:1-31.
Rosh Chodesh Torah Readings, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Pentateuchal portion—Num. 28:1-15.
November 9, 1928
Cheshvan 26, 5689
Detroit Jewry and the Community Fund.
AJ
Were it not for the fact that Detroit Jews have
failed to give in proportion to their numbers in this
community, this bit of writing would be entirely un-
necessary. Our people is referred to as "rachmonim"
b'nai rachmonim," as a merciful and charitable peo-
ple and it is superfluous to appeal to them to give for
the relief of the unfortunate elements in the commun-
ity. But the fact that Jewish contributions have fallen
below the mark in last year's drive makes it necessary
to emphasize the needs of the present campaign.
The Jewish Welfare Federation, which embraces
practically all the Jewish agencies in the city, this year
asks for an increase in budget, made necessary by in-
creased demands. Unless the Jewish contributions
equal the demand, and they should exceed them for
the good of the general community, the request for an
increase in the budget will be undeserving. At the
same time, it is pointed out by our Jewish leaders, the
possibility of drawing into the fund other Jewish agen-
cies, like the Old Folks Home, the orphan homes, etc.,
depends entirely upon the size of this year's combined
Jewish contribution to the fund.
Jews will argue, of course, that their obligations to
their people abroad, as well as to the unfortunates in
this country, and the constant taxation :or educational
and other purposes, compels a decrease in their local
contributions. But, disregarding even the obligations
placed on every individual by the common law of
"charity begins at home," and considering this from a
strictly Jewish viewpoint, the success of the Detroit
Jewish agencies, which are dependent for their sup-
port upon the Community Fund, is important also for
the welfare of all other Jewish movements. It ought
to be known and emphasized that the educational ele-
ments of our Jewish agencies, striving as they do to
help in creating a well informed Jewry, are a contribu-
ting factor to every other movement that is Jewish.
As citizens as well as Jews, our people is obligated
to increase its contributions and at least to equal its
share in proportion to the rest of the population. Our
duty to the existing Jewish agencies compels that Jews
honor this obligation.
Armistice Day.
This Sunday will mark the passing of a decade of
the cessation of hostilities between the Allied and Cen-
tral Powers. On that happy day ten years ago, hope
was strong in the heart of all mankind that the horrors
experienced in the terrible war years would not again
be visited upon the world. Since and during that time,
however, men who make war their business, and states-
men who make prophecy their avocation, predicted
that another and a thousand times more cruel war is
due for our own generation.
The question naturally arises: If the peace of
November 11, 1918, is to be short-lived, what is peace?
If we have not profited from the recent war, what hope
is there that mankind will establish "peace on earth
and good will among men?"
The late great Jewish philosopher Asher Ginsburg,
better known as Achad Ha-Am ("One of the People"),
in an essay written in 1891, defined peace as follows:
Even when the world as a whole is at peace, there is no
rest or peace for its inhabitants. Penetrate to the real life,
be it of worms or of men, and beneath the veil of peace
you will find an incessant struggle for existence, a con-
stant round of aggression and spoliation, in which every
victory involves a defeat and a death.
Yet we do distinguish between time of war and time of
peace. We reserve the term "war" for a visible struggle
between two camps, such as occurs seldom, a struggle that
we can observe, whose causes and effects we can trace,
from beginning to end. But to all the continual petty
wars between man and man, of which we know in a
general way that they are in progress, but of which we
cannot envisage all the details and particulars, we give
the name of "peace," because such is the normal condi-
tion of things.
If peace, therefore, denotes the normal condition
of things, then the assurance of peace must come from
normal men who will strive to guarantee normal con-
ditions. Such normalcy must begin in the inner circles
of every people before there can be any hope of its
spreading to the political realms of the nations. "Sow
peace at home and scatter its fruits abroad," said our
Rabbis. Each nation, in its own time, by preaching
peace and aiming for it, will be able to spread the
movement for the stamping out of legalized bloodshed
on battlefields. But first there must be peace at home
with each nation.
The movement begun by the women of this country,
the Council of Jewish Women included, to propagate
peace and to educate the people against war, is a move-
ment in the right direction. Inspired as this work is by
the new Kellogg Peace Treaty, the Secretary of State's
instrument for peace is an effort to be remembered on
Armistice Day. Whether it is the League of Nations
or any other international body that will settle disputes
and eliminate war, as a result of the Kellogg and other
peace efforts, Armistice Day places upon all people
the important obligation: to strive to maintain peace;
to continue to make war upon war, and to help create
what our great Achad Ha-am called the normal con-
dition of things: "Peace."
"
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Religion and Politics
It may be well to understand that the Republican man-
agers have from the first counted upon religious intoler-
ance as an aid in the election of Mr. Hoover. Openly they
have deplored it; secretly they have gloated over it. There
is no use in setting up false pretenses. Long before Gov-
ernor Smith was nominated, Republican politicians were
chuckling to each other over the fact that, as they believed,
his lacing a Catholic would be a fatal bar to his election.
. . . The plain fact is that Republican calculations have
from the beginning figured that bigotry in this country
still has many votes. The party managers have simply
gone out to get them. That may not be good citizenship,
but it is regarded as good politics. The only qualification
is that one must not be caught at it. The Republicans
have been caught. They ha's e broken the Eleventh Com-
mandment of politics. It is a sorrowful business, but when
the truth has been stated, there is nothing more to say
about it.—New York Times, Nov. 2.
The injection of the religious issue in this year's
presidential campaign, as evidenced from the above
quotation, has introduced a deplorably bitter note,
hitherto foreign to national campaigns. But the elec-
tion now being over, it is worth while considering the
issue calmly with the hope that the repetition of such
campaigns may be prevented. We are compelled to
disagree with the New York Times that "there is noth-
ing more to say about it." With no election spoils at
stake, now that the balloting is over, it is important
that all serious-minded Americans strive for the elimi-
nation of a division in the ranks of the people on re-
ligious grounds.
When James Russell Lowell was asked by Guizot.
"How long do you think the American Republic will
endure?" the reply was: "So long as the ideas of its
founders continue to be dominant." To guarantee
that the ideals of the founders of the Republic will
continue to dominate, it is not enough that the victors
in this year's election repudiate open as well as whis-
pering religious campaigns, but it is important that
the American people be educated against bigotry and
intolerance which threaten the very foundation of this
great Republic. So many stupid rumors have been cir-
culated and evidently gladly accepted by the mass of
the people during the past three months, that it is not
too early for America's leaders to prevent the danger
of this "land of the free and the home of the brave"
reverting to the bigoted practices of the Dark Ages.
A Rumanian Is Decorated.
King Mihai of Rumania has decorated George Cret-
ziano, his ambassador to the United States, in acknowl-
edgment of his role in bringing about a "friendly and
satisfactory settlement" of Jewish discontent in this
country with the Rumanian government. It will be
remembered that it was through the efforts of Envoy
Cretziano and a group of Jewish leaders that Jewish
support was pledged in the stabilization of Rumania's
financial program.
If Rumania has seen fit to honor the man who
pledged to American brethren of oppressed Rumanian
Jewry that the excesses in that country which have
stamped a mark of shame upon Rumania will not be
repeated, it is appropriate to inquire again into exist-
ing conditions. If the Rumanian government, upon
whose shoulders rest all the blame for the anti-Semitic
occurrences of the past few years, is so happy that
Jews were appeased by its ambassador, what is it
doing, and what does it intend to do in the future, to
guarantee the pledge made to Jews by Cretziano.
Only last week we published a report from Bucha-
rest to the effect that "a new campaign of anti-Jewish
violence is being planned by a group of anti-Semitic
students." Similar reports come from Rumania almost
every week, revealing either attempts at renewing
attacks on Jewish communities, or that fear for such
attacks remains in the hearts of Rumanian Jews.
If the Rumanian government means to be honest
in its joy over the friendy relations established between
itself and American Jews through the efforts of Ambas-
sador Cretziano, it will best display its sentiments not
with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of
Rumania, but by guaranteeing peace and protection
for its Jewish citizens.
The Czechoslovakian Celebration.
The joy with which Czechoslovakian Jewry is re-
ported to be celebrating, together with their non-Jew-
ish fellow citizens, the tenth anniversary of the found-
ing of the Czech republic, reflects the sentiments of the
Jewish people throughout the world. The reason for
this is attributable directly to the great president of
Czechoslovakia, Professor Thomas Massaryk. From
the very day which opened the decade of Czech history
now being completed, Professor Massaryk exerted his
influence in favor of just laws which created for the
Jewish citizens of the land a position of equality. The
liberal Czech president did not stop at that, however,
but used every available means to encourage the crea-
tion of better conditions for Jews everywhere. As one
who, prior to the establishment of the Czech republic,
himself belonged to a minority group, President Mas-
saryk knows how to value the dreams and ideals of the
oppressed, and it is no wonder, therefore, that he
should be listed among the leading non-Jewish cham-
pions of the Zionist cause.
Professor Massaryk will also be remembered as one
of the defenders of Leopold llilsner, the unfortunate
Austrian Jew who, in 1899, was sentenced to life im-
prisonment on the barbaric ritual murder charge, final-
ly being pardoned after almost 20 years of innocent
jail suffering. The Jews of Czechoslovakia, through
their National Council, by staging large demonstrations
and by holding special se•ices in synagogues, and the
Jewish people elsewhere by their interest in Czecho-
slovakian freedom, are at the same time paying a de-
served tribute to one of the ablest leaders and most
honored champions of the oppressed living today.
Tel Aviv's New Sabbath Ordinance.
A laborite majority in the municipality of Tel Aviv,
all-Jewish city in Palestine, is responsible for the adop-
tion of a new Sabbath ordinance permitting non-Jews
to obser:e a rest day other than Sabbath. This ordi-
nance met with opposition from Orthodox members who
urged a more religious law. The laborites are to be
commended for their action. A free Jewish Palestine
must be careful not to do unto the non-Jew what we
did not want the non-Jew to do unto us. Freedom of
worship must come first in the Jewish Homeland.
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Well, it all depends whose ox is gored. By the time
this paragraph is published the election will be over and
we shall have a breathing spell from the hatreds and the
prejudices aroused, for at least another four years. For
example, I have before me in a journal printed in Pitts-
burgh a criticism of Rabbi Wise because he spoke over
the radio in favor of Governor Smith. The writer said:
When a man of the attainments and renown
of Rabbi Stephen Wise, a Jewish leader whom we
once respected, will stoop to the bigotry and
ignorant utterances given recently in a radio talk
on "intolerance," we have alarm over even the
slender prospect that the Bowery may dominate
White House decisions and cast its shadows over
the serious national and international questions
which must be decided in the Capitol at Washing-
ton.
Now that's typical of what has been going on for the
past six weeks. If Dr. \Vise had spoken for Hoover this
criticism would not have been written. But the wrong
ox was gored. There may be an honest difference of
opinion as to whether a rabbi or a priest or a Protestant
clergyman should actively promote the candidacy of )hie
or that man for high political office. There are plenty
of opinions to support both sides. I heard that speech of
Dr. Wise over the radio and he did not stoop to bigotry,
and for the benefit of the person who assailed him, I
wish to add that Dr. Wise's utterances are never "ignor-
ant." Only an ignorant person would voice such a criti-
cism. You may not agree with his utterances, but at
least they are to be respected. And they usually chal-
lenge the intelligence of those who differ with him to suc-
cessfully contradict them.
In justice to Congregation Beth Israel of Hartford,
Conn., I publish the following letter:
My dear Mr. Joseph:
In a recent issue of your Random Thoughts
you quoted the incident at Emanuel Synagogue,
this city, where Mr. Ben Holden, who not having
accepted the invitation to speak on a political
theme was nevertheless announced to speak, and
his subsequent explanation in the Hartford Cour-
ant. You have a wide public who know of Con-
gregation Beth Israel, and people who read your
article have asked ow what happened at my syna-
gogue. I think, therefore, in fact that the con-
gregation you referred to us not Congregation
Beth Israel, which is the first and oldest Jewish
congregation in Connecticut.
Cordially,
(Rabbi) Abraham J. Feldman.
If there is any doubt that the problems of the Jew
abroad must be solved somewhere else than in the United
States it is set at rest by the figures of Jewish immigra-
tion for nine months, ending September, 1928, which
indicate that 7,973 entered this country. This gives one
an idea of just how drastic the immigration restrictions
are insofar as they affect those countries in which dwell
the major part of the Jews of Europe. These figures
again focus attention of our welfare agencies upon the
fact of the ever lessening need for relief work among
Jewish poor. Some years ago it was predicted that the
time was not far distant when the charity problem re-
lating to the immigrant would be of little importance.
Yet despite the situation as outlined we find that enor-
Mous sums are still disbursed in Jewish centers through-
out the country for relief of the needy. Of course we
understand that the poor will always be with as yet I
wonder to what extent restricted immigration has re-
duced the need for relief. I would thank someone in
authority to supply me with the desired information as I
ant sure it would be of interest to the readers of this
column.
Forty years is a long time to spend in one pulpit.
Rabbi David Philipson, of Rene Israel Congregation of
Cincinnati, has achieved that distinction and the leaders
of Reform Jewry have taken fitting cognizance of the
event. When I write the name of "David Philipson" a
flood of memories sweep over me. Through Rabbi Lip-
man Mayer. for 30 years rabbi of Congregation Rodef
Shalom, Pittsburgh, Pa., I became acquainted very early
in life with the outstanding figures in the American rab-
binate. I used to meet Dr. I'hilipson quite frequently
in the early period. I was always impressed by his intel-
lectual qualities. Ile seemed to me to be more of the
professional than the pulpit type. The other day I no-
ticed that t h e American Israelite, in editorially' review-
ing his life, referred to his "cool, refined and powerful
application of his gifts. That describes Dr. l'hilipson.
My early remembrance of him was that he has "cool and
refined." He preferred to make his appeal to reason
rather than to the emotions.
Perhaps we are influenced by the past too much, and
the men of yesterday were greater than the men of today.
Sometimes I wonder if I am mistakiln if I imagine that
with but two or three exceptions the present group of
leaders do not measure up to the rabbis of yesterday.
When I think of Emil Hirsch, Joseph Krauskopf, J. Leon-
ard Levy, Henry Berkowitz, Leon Harrison, David Philip-
son, Samuel Schulman, Edward Calisch, Kaufman Kohler,
and others of the earlier school, perhaps I am prejudiced
in their favor, but those early memories still cling.
Heywood Broun, the columnist, quoted this letter,
which, while a little stale in relation to the election, sug-
gests questions that are always fresh, too fresh, it seems
to me:
"I we," writes Newman Levy, "that that ar-
dent champion of our liberties, the Rev. John
Haynes Holmes, has lined up with the Stratens and
the Wildebramits in defending the right of a
church to enter politics. 'It should go into politics
in the defense of an established good,' he is quoted
in the New York Times as saying, 'and the Protest-
ant churches which believe in prohibition are
justified in opposing Governor Smith, who is per-
sonally and politically wet.'
"Thus arises again a question that will have
to be fought out long after the tumult and shout-
ing of the present campaign has subsided. When
does a moral issue become a political one? And
who by the way, ever told Dr. Holmer that pro-
hibition was 'an established good'?
"The church to which I belong has had a pro-
hibition law as one of its tenets for several thou-
sand years. It did not conceca-itrelf with alco-
holic liquor. Our prohibition had to do with harm.
It never occurred to me until I read Dr. Holmes'
sermon that there might be a moral issue in-
volved, but certainly our sumptuary law depends
for its origin upon higher authority than Wayne
Wheeler or Volstead.
"It seems to me, now that Dr. Holmes has called
my attention to it, that it is time we did something
on this ham question. I do not know whether the
other candidates are addicts, but I have seen
Norman Thomas eat a ham sandwich and appar-
ently enjoy it. The moral turpitude involved in
eating a ham sandwich may not be any more
apparent at first glance, than the shocking sin of
drinking a stein of Pilsner. Such hysterical sub-
tleties I prefer to leave to the more trained cleric
mind. But when it comes to determining what is
'an established good' I will back Leviticus against
Mabel every time.
"'The rabbis,' Dr. Holmes goes on to say, 'are
asking their people to vote for Governor Smith on
the supposition that once a Roman Catholic is
elected president it would be simpler to elect a
Jew.' This is the first I have heard of it. Perhaps
Dr. Holmes has misunderstood the whispers to
which apparently he is giving willing ear. Perhaps
it is being whispered that Smith is not a ham
eater."
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"The Goodwill Invasion of
Mexico"
By
RABBI LEON
(Continued from Last Week.)
Catholic Piety.
One Sunday morning our party
went out to the edge of Mexico
City to visit the shrine of the Vir-
gin of Guadalupe. The magnifi-
cent church at the foot of the hill
was crowded with worshippers—
despite the fact that there was no
priest to conduct the services.
Some layman droned a prayer in
a monotonous tune. liut the
crowd listened and worshipped as
though some sweet choir was
chanting, as though some splen-
didly robed bishop were perform-
ing the mass. And on the steep
hillside at the top of which stands
the shrine proper. we could see
whole Indian families, father and
mother and children, climbing the
ktl,S. a (solidly
long way on
in one hand, flowers in the other
hand, and in their eyes communion
of devotion, which is the mysteri-
ous quintessence of all religion.
You cannot sir that sight and be-
lieve anything other than that the
Mexican people are religious and
Catholic.
There is not a single officer or
official of the present government
in Mexico who does not speak of
the church with reverence. The
leaders of the Mexican revolution
resent any imputation that they
are anti-religious. Many of them
prefer to be enthusiastically re-
ligious and Catholic. When Presi-
dent Calks sent his children to
the United States for their educa-
tion, he sent them to Catholic
schools. Dr. Moses Saenz, under-
secretary of the Department of
Education, who is himself a Prot-
estant (there seems to he no foun-
dation whatsoever to the current
rumor that he and his brother,
Aaron Saenz, who was once men-
tioned as the probable successor of
Calks, are of Jewish origin. They
are what is known as "Tageblatt
Jews," that is, men proclaimed as
Jews by Jewish journalists who
are fond of accepting every person
of distinction into the Jewish fold)
Dr. Saenz told a group of Protest-
ant missionaries in Mexico to be
under no illusions as to the re-
( li a g t ionof
holic . the Mexican people, that
it is overwhelmingly and inevitably
The Church Goes On Strike.
In view of all this acknowl-
edged Catholic piety of the Mexi-
can permit, as a whole, who are we
to explain the laws which two
years ago President Canes began
to enforce against the church,
laws which prohibited the church
from (iwning any property, not
even a church building; lows which
prohibited any but native Mexi-
cans to officiate as priests; which
deprived all ministers of religion
of the right of suffrage and which
prohibited ministers of religion
from expressing themselves either
in the pulpit or in the press on
subjects of current political or
civic interest; which took the au-
thority of the church out of the
hands of the bishops and desig-
nated the government as the au-
thority which determines how:
many priests shall be assigned to
any locality; laws which required
that priests, like any other pro-
fessionals, shall register with the
government.
Those of you who have at all
watched the newspapers will recall
that when the president began to
insist upon the enforcement of
these laws, the bishops entered
upon the now famous boycott. The
priests left the churches and for
two years there has been no mass
consecrated in any church in Mex-
ico. Nevertheless, as has been
indicated, there is no abatement
in Catholic piety. The people still
go to church and worship just as
rventiv as before. And while
they regret the absence of the
priests, they show no bitterness
against the government whose pol-
icy has banished the priests.
How are we to solve this puz-
zle? In the course of my investi-
gations as chairman of the Church-
State Committee of the American
Seminar on Mexican Relations,
investigations which included in-
terviews with priests in hiding,
with schismatic bishops, with
keepers of the governmental ac-
tivities, with Mexican historians
and educators, with American
journalists and American Catholic
leaders and with plain Mexican In-
FRAM
dians picked up on street and lie],
I came upon two clues which
seemed to answer the riddle.
Is Religion Reactionary or Revo•
lutionary?
First, the anti-church leg,isla.
lion is not the invention of the
present government but was writ-
ten 70 years ago in the course of
the revolution of 1857 led by Be-
nito ,Juarez. This revolution was
nullified by the long dictatorship
of Diaz and the anti-church legis-
lation and became a "dead letter."
Let it be stated as a simple fact
that Benito Juarez regarded the
churc's as one of the ninny ene-
mies of the revolution which he
led. It is not necessary now to
analyze the motives and circum-
stances which brought Juarez and
his following to that viewpoint.
Suffice it to say that all churches
have at various times been regard-
ed as an enemy of the Russian
revolution of the nineteenth cen-
tury. Jewish labor leaders,
whether of Europe or America,
have felt the seine way about the
synagogue. On the other hand,
not all revolutions have been anti-
religious. Thus the English re-
bellions were all led by deeply re-
ligious men such as Cromwell. The
American revolution was inspired
by the prophetic teachings of the
"Old Testament." The Hindu
revolution in India is led by a re-
ligious saint, Ghandi. The British
Party today is coniposed of
men like McDonald and Snowden,
who go to church scrupulouly
every Sunday and are genuinely
pi o us.
Among the leader of the French
revolution and among the lead-
ing champions of the cause of
Jewish emancipation in France
were Catholic priests like Abbe
Gregaire. The lenders of the Ma-
dero revolution, the officers of the
present government, are not anti-
religious. Tla y do not feel that
hostility toward the church that
was felt under the altogether dif-
ferent conditions of Juarez revo-
lutionists 70 years ago.
What then has induced these
liberal and progressive men to re-
invoke these old and irrelevant
anti-religious laws?
' 1 3 1
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"4,
The Church Laws Are War
Measures.
My second clue is that the lead-
ers of the present revolution still
feel that they are in a state of
war. To feel in a state of war
means to be nervous. To be ner-
vous means to grasp at anything
at all that teems to offer a sense
of security. Juarez, the Mexican
hero, made laws against the
church. Therefore these, his dis-
ciples, have felt impelled to fol-
low his example. The enforce-
ment of the anti-church laws is a
war measure, an act born of the
blindness of the war spirit. The
church of Mexico is today a vic-
tim of the emotions which were
invoked against it 70 years ago
and which in the hysteria of the
revolution have been reinvoked.
Once we recognize that the
anti-church laws are war measures
we recognize also that they are
temporary. The present govern-
ment of Mexico gives every prom-
ise of permanence and stability.
Perhaps, the most telling symp-
toms of this stability is the fact
that so sensational an event as
the assassination of Obregon
caused hardly a ripple in the po-
litical situation * of the country.
The fact is, too, that outside of
the narrow official circles, no one
in Mexico believes that the church
had anything to do with that as.
sassination. The revolution is
successful. It has struck deep
roots in the life of the Mexican
people. Canes' successor is a
man who comes from civil life.
Mexico is at last to be governed
by a man who does not bear the
title of "General."
It will not be long before the
government will have gained com-
plete confidence in itself and the
natural phobias and suspicions of
war will have been allayed. When
that time comes—and it is not
far off—the government will be
ready to revise its attitude towards
the church. It may not abandon
those measures which the succes-
sive revolutions of Mexico took
to prevent economic denomination
of the country by the church, but
it will give to the church that lib-
Pl+
(Turn to Next Page).
Gems From Jewish Literature
Selected by Rabbi Leon Fram.
A GALICIAN PARABLE
I'll tell you one of his proverbs.
One day a chassid came to the
rabbi—he was rich, but a miser.
The rabbi took him by the hand
and led him to the window, "Look
out there," he said. And the rich
man looked into the street. "What
do you see?" asked the rabbi.
"People," answers the rich man.
Again the rabbi takes him by the
hand, and this time leads him to
the mirror. "What do you see
now?" he says. "Now I we my-
self," answers the rich man. Then
the rabbi says: "Behold—in the
window there is class and in the
mirror there is glass. But the class
of the mirror is covered with a
little silver, and no sooner is the
silver added than you cease to see
others but see only yourself."—
(From "The Dybbuk," by Ansky.)
"TIIE SHADOW DANCE"
"A faint sound is heard as the
tallow of my little candle drips
over the Gemara. It is casting a
dim light over the bet hamidrash
and peoples it with shadows. Im-
mediately about me the light is
flickering, intensifying only the
darkness everywhere. The shad-
ows are swaying; shadow falls
upon shadow, shadow stretches
over shadow. The whole house is
undulating. The shadows pros-
trate themselves. They greet
each other with peace and friend
ship and kiss each other. Now they
speak, now they whisper. I do no
understand a word. But I play
with them. I swallow them.
delight in their black appearance
I want them to grow still blacker;
to broaden and expand and to fill
the whole world with sweet awe
and pleasing fear—even as they
did me."—(From "Whither," by
M. Z. Feierberg.)
A TALMUDIC PARABLE
"'All Israelites are mutually
accountable for each other.' In a
boat at sea one of the men began
to bore a hole in the bottom of the
boat. On being remonstrated with,
he answered: 'I am only boring
under my seat.' Yes,' said his
comrades, 'but when the sea rushes
in we shall all be drowned with
you.' So it is with Israel. Its weal
or its woe is in the hands of every
individual Israelite."
HEBREW PROVERBS
"Israel is the heart of mankind."
—Jehuda HaLevi.
"Far more than Israel has kept
the Sabbath, it is the Sabbath that
has kept Israel."—Achad Ma'am.
"Israel is a nation by reason
of his religion, by his possession of
the Torah."—Saadyah Gaon.
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