THEI)EIROIT, IEWISII CARMIC1A;
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7IE1LTROIT 1 IL111S11 RON ICLE dication of the growth of the Jewish popu-
lation. Tereza (Theresa) Zawisha, lady
of the domain, permitted the formation of
Published Weekly by The Jewish Chronicle Publieking Co, Inc.
a trade union of Jewish tailors in 1732, ex-
Entered
Second-els. matter March 3. 1913, at the Post-
ern. ill tar , roit Mich.. under the At of March 8, 1879.
empting them from the Kahal's rule. Prince
Radziwill, in 1794, gave the Jews permis-
General Offices and Publication Building
sion to elect their own judges.
525 Woodward Avenue
Telephon•s Cadillac 1040 Cable Address: Chronicle
Thus, beginning with the end of the
London Office..
14 Stratford Place, London, W. I, England
eighteenth century, the history of Berdit-
Subscription, in Advance
$3.00 Per Year
chev is a series of Jewish activities, unpar-
To Inure publication, allcorrespondence and news matter
alleled anywhere. The city became a com-
must reach thin °Mice by Turaday evening of each week.
When mailing notices, kindle uee ono side of the paps only.
mercial center when King Stanislaus de-
The Detroit Jewish Chronicle invitee correspondence on flub-
creed in 1765 that great fairs be held there
feels of interest ti the Jewish people. but disclaims responni•
bilk, for an indoreerni nt of the •Iewe .preesed by 'hr write.
every year, thus attracting Jews from many
Sabbath Readings of the Law.
sections of the land. When, in 1793, at the
Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 10:1-13:16.
Prophetical portion—ter. 46:13-28.
second division of Poland, Berditchev came
under Russian rule, it was the largest com-
January 23, 1931
Shevat 5, 5691
mercial center in the Jewish pale, boasting,
of all the cities in the Jewish pale of set-
The Tributes to Nathan Straus.
tlement, the largest proportion of Jewish
The universal tributes that are being residents. Berditchev also became a cen-
given to the memory of Nathan Straus ter of Chassidism, and when Levi-Isaac, the
reveal the power of the affections that all celebrated Zaddik, made it his headquar-
mankind had for this great humanitarian. ters in 1780, it became the metropolis of
The tributes to his memory by both Houses the Chassidim of Volhynia.
of the United States Congress, the outpour-
Now Berditchev is among the passing
ing of thousands of mourners at his funeral, worlds in Jewry, and to the elders in Israel
the glowing honors that have been accorded the present condition represents one of the
him throughout the world, attest to an uni- tragedies of the death of a great Jewish
versal appreciation of his accomplishments. center and the uncertainty of the future
It may well be said that the entire world Jewry that is to replace it. Everywhere the
sits in mourning over the loss of this great Jewish activities and interests of the pres-
humanitarian.
ent generation are dying, and a new gen-
Even before his body had cooled off, eration is rising to puzzle those that are
American leaders began to speak of a me- passing with the old civilization. What
morial in his honor. James W. Gerard, for- will replace it? An anxious people is
mer ambassador to Germany, in a letter watching for developments,
addressed to the editor of the New York
Ttimes, under date of Jan. 13, said:
,
Negroes Reject Rosenwald Award.
I
think that there should be a memorial to
Nathan Straus, not only to honor his memory
but as an example for the young. If some one
will undertake such a movement I will gladly
subscribe to the fund. I am sure that a great
number of subscriptions will be forthcoming to
honor the memory of this splendid citizen.
In more than one sense, Nathan Straus
needs no special memorial because the love
that his benefactions have engraved in the
hearts of the present generation is the
greatest memorial that any human being
can crave for. But if it is possible to find a
suitable means of impressing the young
with his achievements, we have no doubt
that an appreciative world will make offer-
ings for a deserved monument.
In so far as the Jewish youth is con-
cerned, the memory of Nathan Straus will
forever serve as a blessing. In Palestine as
well as in the Diaspora there are evidences
in every walk of Jewish life of the contri-
butions he has made to his people as well
as to all mankind. Immediately following
the letter of former Ambassador Gerard, in
the columns of the New York Times, ap-
peared this tribute to Nathan Straus, from
the pen of Reuben Goldsmith, which ex-
presses the feelings of millions:
Explaining the rejection of Julius Rosen-
wald's offer to supply funds for a Negro
hospital, Ferdinand 0. Morton, Negro
leader, had this to say:
Mr. Rosenwald's projects in behalf of the
Negro, while doubtless well-intended, have per-
haps done us more harm than good. If Mr.
Rosenwald's interest in colored Americans is
sincere, it would be a fine thing for him to
prove it by extending to colored men and wo-
men in his vast business organization equality
of opportunity in employment and promotion
—a thing which he does not do now.
There is an ungrateful note in this state
ment. For many years Mr. Rosenwald has
been known as a benefactor of Negro insti-
tutions, and at no time has his sincerity
been doubted. To reject his generous offer
and to blame him for what is done in his
employment department is cruelly unwise.
It would be equally as unwise for Jews, for
instance, to blame all Jewish employers for
not hiring Jews in their business establish-
ments, when in most instances the fault may
lie entirely with prejudiced employment
managers. We feel confident that if the
Jewish employers were advised of what is
happening under their very noses and with-
out their knolOedge, they would remedy
conditions. The same applies to Mr. Rosen-
They say that he has passed—this man of men
wald, and it would have been wiser first to
Who toiled to gain great affluence, and then
Lavished his wealth with free and open hand
advise him of the existing conditions, if
Upon the babes and poor of many a land.
prejudice really exists in his business
against Negroes.
I say that he still lives, and long will live
To teach his fellows how they ought to give—
But in one other sense this action of the
Giving not only gold. With heart and mind
He gave himself as well to humankind.
Negroes reveals a very healthy awakening
in their ranks. It shows a desire for self-
emancipation from dependence upon out-
A World That Is Passing.
siders for support of their institutions. It
The Shtern, Yiddish Communist daily of reveals an awakened understanding of the
Charkov, recently complained that Berdit- need for a people to free itself. There is a
chev, once a hundred per cent Jewish city, lesson in it for all individuals and peoples
is now completely Russified. According to who suffer some sort of dependence or op-
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, the pression. There is a lesson in it for the Jew-
Shtern discloses that the Berditchev Soviet ish people. Long before Dr. Theodor lierzl
ceased to publish its orders in Yiddish, and wrote the "Judenstaat," Dr. Leo Pinsker
the Jewish court, which handled 200 cases published his pamphlet, "Auto-Emanci-
a month in Yiddish, is practically dissolved pation,"' calling upon Jews to emancipate
because the judge says he understands no themselves. Self-redemption is the only
Yiddish and therefore resorts to an inter- cure for an oppressed people, because no
preter. The Shtern further complains that laws or state grants of rights can do for in-
a non-Jew has replaced the Jewish state at- dividuals and peoples what they can do for
torney, that the militia has begun to con- themselves.
duct its activities in Russian instead of Yid-
dish and that the factories, with 90 per cent
The Jewish Old Folks Home.
Jewish workers, are adopting Russian in-
stead of Yiddish. Jewish Communists from
The request that was made at the meet-
Moscow and Charkov who are ashamed of ing of the board of governors of the Jewish
Yiddish are blamed for these changes.
Welfare Federation that the Jewish Old
The inner Russian-Jewish problems re- Folks home be admitted as a constituent
vealed by these facts are minor in compari- body arouses hopes that better times may
son with the tragedy of the passing worlds be ahead for the old people who are now
that were once great Jewish centers. Ber- compelled to live under very unsatisfactory
ditchev, in the province of Kiev, is ethno- conditions.
graphically a part of Volhynia and has of-
A situation has been created at the Old
ten been referred to as the "Jerusalem of Folks Home which lends little honor to this
Volhynia." It was one of the largest Jew- community. We are informed that lack of
ish communities in Russia and has a history funds for the upkeep of the home, occa-
that reads like a romance. It is not known sioned by obligations on real estate hold-
when Jews first settled there, but references ings of the institutions, even endangered
to Jewish activities date back to the six- the lives of the inmates because they could
teenth century. The Jewish Encyclopedia not be provided with proper food and be-
article on Berditchev sets the Jewish popu- cause the home has run down and has
lation there for 1899 at 50,460 in a total of become infested with rodents and vermin.
62,283, and states that in that year there
The Jewish Welfare Federation is the
were seven synagogues and 62 houses of one, perhaps the only, agency to which the
prayer.
Old Folks Home may look for support in
Under Polish rule from the sixteenth to and relief from the present situation. And
the eighteenth centuries, the Polish Tish- the federation is obligated, by communal
kewitz family, hereditary owners of the do- responsibility. not only to come to the aid
main which included Berditchev, lorded of this home for the aged, but take control
over it. There is reference to Berditchev of it so that the old folks may be assured
as the "new town" in 1593, when the mill- of a home governed by modern and hu-
and-bridge-taxes were farmed out to a Jew. man rules. It is high time that the problem
A Jewish "Kahal" or community was or- of the Jewish Old Folks Home of Detroit
, ganized in the eighteenth century, giving in- were solved.
11011611 10111
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BY-THE-WAY
Alleged Substitutes for Religion
h
Charles Josep
•
Tidbits and News of Jew-
ish Personalities.
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
TWO KINDS OF MILK
Shakespeare, it was so sweet of
hint, poured forth a stream of sac-
charine counsel to the Jew on the
"milk of human kindness."
I have a feeling, however. that
in the eternal scales, the "milk of
human kindness" which Nathan
Straus, who has just passed away,
distributed, will bulk just a trifle
heavier. Ile brought the actual
pasteurized milk free of charge to
thousands of the poor children of
New York.
Bernard Shaw once observed
that "those who can, do, and those
who can't teach."
Emerson observed: "Your acts
speak so loud I can't hear your
words."
And the ancient rabbis boiled It
down to: "1,o hamidrash haika•
eloh hamaseh" ("Not the word is
important, but the deed").
Shakespeare pre ac h e d, but
Straus predicted.
WEEPING AND WORKING
Says a New Testament pas-
sage: "Jesus wept." Along about
100 years ago came a cynic and
added ill app isition: "Voltaire
smiled." Came Elbert Hubbard
some 15 years ago and added If
third link: "William Morri.
worked."
And Hubbard left the inference
that in his opinion the working
was more important that either
the tears or the grins.
I neither
affirm nor reject Hubbard's de-
cision, but as between Straus's
practicing and Shakespeare's
preaching, I'll take the former.
SPORTSMAN TURNED PHI-
LANTHROPIST
The turn of Nathan Straus to
philanthropy presents one of those
strange metamorphoses, that re-
mind on that the transition of the
cocoon into the butterfly has its
analogue in the world of human
life.
Straus was a business men, and
in his leisure hours he was out at
the race track. One finds it dif-
ficult to think of Straus as a sort
of }lorry Payne Whitney, standing
at the race track with hat aloft in
hand, cheering for "Aggravating
Papa." And yet he was that. Ile
was regarded as one of the leading
turf men of the metropolis, with a
stable, the par of any in the
country.
But the sportsman was destined
to be lost in the philanthropist,
and to that role he added subse-
quently the other of Jewish ideal-
ist.
THESE SUDDEN CHANGES
These sudden changes, in which
there seems to be not so much of
a change, as a complete breaking
off of the past, occur more fre-
quently than is imagined. In "The
Moon and Sixpence," Mougrarn
has recounted the actual story
(although in fictionized form) of
a stock broker, who of a sudden
dropped career and family to paint
in the South Sea islands. Sher-
wood Anderson is said to have as
suddenly given up his business and
left for other scenes that he might
write. And was not Amos but a
plain herdsman before the word
of the Lord came to him?
SLAMMING THE DOCTORS
They are telling this one about
the wife of a prominent Jewish
undertaker in New York. Recent-
ly, she was at the home of some
prominent cloak and suit manu-
facturer.
The wives got to talking to-
gether. "Times are terrible," be-
gan the wife of the cloak and suit
manufacturer.
"Yes," wailed the undertaker's
wife, "it's terrible—there is little
business now."
"But how can you complain?"
interrupted the manufacturer's
wife, "your business must be as
good as ever. People die whether
times are hard or not."
"Yes," returned the under-
taker's wife, "hut you know in
hard times people don't have oper-
ations."
BUT SUPPOSE HE HADI
And anent the recent closing of
one of the big banks of New York,
Eddie Cantor tells one. Visiting
some old friends on the East Side,
Eddie saw Jake nervously pacing
the floor, with his hands on his
face in a panicky mood.
"0 my God-0 my God," wailed
the man.
"What is it," asked Eddie, anx-
iously.
"What is it? 0 my God. The
bank has failed with such a loss."
"Did you have any money in the
bank?" queried Eddie.
"No, but suppose I had-0 my
God, 0 my God."
AL AND LILLIAN
Now that Walter Winchell, once
a singer in the choir of an Ortho-
dox synagogue, rakes in something
like 150,000 shekels a year from
columning, and a former resident
of Washington, Calvin Coolidge,
without any previous n.syspaper
experience, duplicates that sum
with a little column of not more
than about 300 words daily, the
craving to become a column:,t has
become epidemic.
The last to enter the lists is Al
Smith. The column will net Al
more than he could have earned
had he been elected president of
the United States.
I don't want to discourage any
would-be columnists, but the truth
is, that all columnists do not earn
as much as $100,000 a year. A
few do not even earn half of that
sum. Besides, the number of
openings for columnists is con.
paratively limited.
So what is there to do? Well,
here is my advice. Do what • lit-
tle Jewish girl, I.illian Taussig,
has done. Lillian has gotten the
job of research secretary for Al
Smith. That means that Lillian
must get up much of the material
(Turn to Next Page)
ATZIWZAWT.;
'
Extracts From Address Delivered at Session of the
Thirty-Second Council of Union of American
Hebrew Congregations on Monday, Jan. 19.
I
T'S QUEER how rumors start and the headway
they make before they are overtaken. I am glad
that the J. T. A. ran down that absurd nonsense
that the American Tobacco Company had dis-
charged 20,000 Jews. And 1 was very much inter-
ested in the intelligent men who believed it. I was
told that a well known rabbi had announced it over
the radio, when 1 knew at the time that the rabbi
in question was confined to his home with a severe
illness. Then, too, the American Tobacco Com-
pany doesn't employ more than 3,000 all told.
I
spoke to some Jews who were district distributors
for the Lucky Strike cigarettes and they laughed at
the stories. Yet they persisted and, according to
the J. T. A., in sonic cities rumor had it that 150,-
0110 Jews had been discharged. That is what one
would call a "miracle," considering that the com-
pany employs only 3,000 persons. It is unfortunate
that such malicious stories are circulated as they are
so grossly unjust. The American Tobacco Com-
pany, from the J. T. A.'s personal investigation, is
completely innocent of the charge, and I might add
that my own inquiries indicate the stories to be
completely unfounded.
IN THE current issue of the .Menorah Journal is
one of the most startling, as well as exhaustive
analyses of the entire Zionist question that has
conic to our notice in years The title is "Realities
of Zionism," and the writer is Herbert Solow.
Some 32 pages are consumed in presenting the argd-
ments of this brilliant writer but they contain argu-
ments that will hold the reader's attention from the
first to the final word. 51r. Solow sees absolutely
no hope for Zionism. He believes that Great Brit-
ain has turned her back upon her wartime promises
regardless by what name they are known. lie en-
deavors to show the aims and the programs of the
three parties involved in the Zionist movement, the
Curter, the Left and the Right. When he has fin-
ished outlining them he goes further and shows that
not one of them is possible of realization. And in
t'7e end he refers to the rather hopeless, resigning
store of the leaders who in appealing for help for
Palestine at this time stress the point that we have
170,000 Jews in Palestine and at least they have to
carry on to some sort of a satisfactory conclusion.
But that conclusion will no more be Zionism than
an Arab resembles an Irishman. Whether one is
prepared to ogres with Mr. Solow or not one must
be deeply impressed with his remarkable and under-
standing approach to the whole question. Every
thinking Jew in this country should be given the
opportunity to read and to study that article.
I
ONLY met Nathan Straus twice: once at a liinch-
eon given to a small group and at a dinner at
which a campaign for overseas relief was launched.
I recall vividly an incident at the dinner which gave
me a sidelight on the character of this widely-
beloved man. The late Louis Marshall had just
finished delivering a remarkable plea for help for
our European co-religionists, when Mr. Straus was
so moved that he rushed to Mr. .Marshall, threw his
arms about him and kissed him on both cheeks. One
could see that he did good for goodness' sake. Ile
was a lover of humanity who genuinely grieved
when any of his fellows, Jews or Christians, were
suffering. And how his great heart went out to
the little ones! And no one will ever be able to
measure the good that Nathan Straus did in saving
the lives of literally millions of babies in this coun-
try. No one ever needed to tear his heart strings
with sob-literature. His heart was ever attuned
to the sufferings of others. Greater Jews have
lived; many have given greater sums to social
CALISC8, but I know of no one within my lifetime
whose loving kindness was so universally recog-
nized and who held such a place in the affections of
an entire nation. From Maine to California, great
metropolitan newspapers as well as the press in the
hamlet and the village united to pay their need of
respect and their tribute to the memory of this
Jew, Nathan Straus, Ile surely "gave till it hurt,"
he gave of his means and he dedicated his life to
the cause of the needy. And no sectarian boundar-
ies limited his benefactions, a suffering human was
a suffering human; he was not concerned whether
he was a Jew or a Gentile, Catholic or Protestant.
Ile showed the way to true JEWISH and CHRIS-
TIAN living. lie needed no creeds and dogmas.
He was a servant of God, a truly religious man; of
such are the kingdom of heaven! In a world peo-
pled with Nathan Strauses there would be only
love and no hate.
A
FAVORITE indoor pastime to while away the
long winter nights is to choose the ten outstand-
ing Jews of 1930 or some other year. Almost every
one has made his selection. I note that Joseph
Brainin, the editor of the Seven Arts Feature Syn-
dicate has selected these: Felix Warburg, Jewish
affairs; Salmon Levinson, international peace; Ben-
nie Friedman, sports; Benjamin Cardoso, law; Gov-
ernor Julius Meier, domestic politics; Michael Gold,
literature; Louis Lipsky, Zionism; Dr. Karl Land-
Steiner, science; Louis Bomberger, communal af-
fairs, and Ernest Bloch, music. Here we have 10
good names. But why choose Lipsky in the domain
of Zionism and not mention some one who has
done most to promte Jewish RELIGIOUS life?
Who, Mr. Brainin, is the outstanding social
worker who has rendered great service in welfare
work? Who is the greatest Jewish singer, or
painter, or actor, or musician? Why limit your
choice to one in the field of sports? Is Michael
Gold the greatest Jewish author discovered in the
year 1930? In the field of Jewish education
should no one be mentioned? Maybe a great Jew-
ish editor could be discovered? How about Ochs
in the field of journalism: I think next year in
order to cover the field you will have to make it 10
times 10.
NATIONAL Jewish institutions have their troubles.
Through some peculiar twist in our make-up if
see live in Oshkosh or San Francisco we think that
a sanatorium in Denver or Los Angeles created for
the benefit of Jews living everywhere should in a
large degree be the responsibility of the Jews in
communities. It seems so difficult to obtain a NA-
TIONAL, viewpoint. I was interested in two let-
ters in the American Jewish World of Minneapolis.
It seems that Minneapolis Jewry in 1928 contrib-
uted a thousand dollars and in 1929 about $750 to
the Los Angeles Sanatorium (Jewish Consumptives
and Ex-Patients' Relief Association), in 1930
the Minneapolis federation allocated $150 tot he
sanatorium with the notice that no direct solicita-
tion could be made. During the past year the sana-
torium took care of a Jewish boy from Minneapolis
at a cost of about $600. The federation said that
home needs come first; that contributions had fallen
off; and demands increased. The national institu•
tion said it would have to appeal direct to the Jews
of Minneapolis because some might give to the
sanatorium who were not contributors to the fed-
eration. in which case, neither the federation nor
the sanatorium would get anything. I simply cite.
this not because it is typical of Minneapolis but
because this same question arises in every Jewish
community where a federation exists. On one hand,
we have a sanatorium depending upon national
support with exactly the same increasing demands
as local institutions find in times like these, but
whose income is decreased by the local federation
because their funds are low. And they are not
permitted to solicit directly. There are two sides
to the question and there is some justice on each
side. What is the solution to this problem? It is
one that our philanthropic leaders have never, so it
seems to me,
endeavored to solve. Should there be
• NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHEST? If the Min-
neapolis federation, through one of its local agen-
Cies,
had to pay $600 to care for the boy now in
Los Angeles, is it right that Minneapolis should
contribute only $150 to the sanatorium? I am not
arguing; I am only asking. And how do other corn-
mun:ties feel about similar situations?
Experts
please answer,
5.
By MILFORD STERN
Never has established religion
been challenged more aggressively
than it is today. Rivals are spring-
ing up on every Ride; competitors
fill the scene; opposing forces are
enticing away untold numbers of
the keener minds among the
younger generation.
At the outset let us concede
that these competitors of religion
are attracting adherents in increas-
ing numbers. Some of the move-
ments are evoking such deference
and enthusiasm ass to win for them-
selves the character of apparent
substitutes for religion.
These alleged substitutes for re-
ligion—sand their name is legion—
are exercising a powerful appeal
to youth, not to young people
alone, but to multitudes of mature
men and women who are of that
critical and inquiring attitude
which is commonly associated with
youth. For after all youth is a
state of mind and not merely a
group subject to an age limit.
Jewish Generation Affected.
The present Jewish generation
has been affected by these influ-
ences perhaps to a greater extent
than any other group, and for ob-
vious reasons. We have had to
contend with the need of adjusting
ourselves to a double-barreled
transition—first to the industrial
revolution which is common to all
the western world, and then to the
political emancipation which came
to a large section of the Jewish
group only within recent decades.
In the new environment, our task
to attain and maintain a balanced
status as citizens of the twentieth
century and as Jews is complicated
to an extreme degree.
Three categories of Jews play a
part in the apparent dissatisfac-
tion from the synagogue. First is
the group who in their pre-occupa-
tion with the concerns of modern
living are simply forgetting the
existence of their religion. The
second class comprises those com-
monly known as the intellectuals,
emanating from the universities,
or else influenced by studies in
science and psychology outside of
the university walls, who believe
they have outgrown Judaism. Last,
are those who are not altogether
indifferent to their religion, but
claim that they have a definite
quarrel with the synagogue, accus-
ing it of being static and unpro-
gressive, holding that it has lost
its power to inspire and awaken
enthusiasm, and charging that in
the synagogue the living dogmas
of the dead have merely become
the dead dogmas of the living.
If the indifferent ones, and the
super-intelligent souls, and the re-
bellious spirits would occasionally
stop to take inventory with them-
selves and examine deliberately
the very fundamentals of religion
and the nature of the religious ex-
perience, they would not be so apt
to lose their sense of perspective,
nor forsake so carelessly the an-
cient, rich spiritual heritage of
their fathers.
The trouble with nearly all of
them is not only that they are im-
patient of old things, but that they
are uninformed. They may have
studied science, but they have not
studied religion. Not having had
the proper religious training either
at home or at school, securing their
higher education through colleges,
reading or personal associations
that are unconcerned about the re-
ligious point of view and even at
times prejudiced against it, these
"moderns" know next to nothing
of the nature of religion. How
many of them can state the sim-
ple truths of religion? How many
of them know that the very es-
sence of religion is the faith that
there is an intelligent purpose in
life and that there is an intelligent
force guiding life? They do not
understand that religion is the yin-
ion of the spiritual reality which
underlies the flux of immediate
things, a fundamental mystical ex-
perience that gives meaning and
value to the universe and of our
own lives, that religious conscious-
ness is the resultant of a direct
contact between human spirit and
the supreme spiritual reality, that
its predominant feature is a sense
of the holy or sacred in the uni-
verse and in personal life.
Among the Young.
There are many earnest souls
among our youth who, because of
university experience or perhaps
some reading and study, believe
that they have achieved a sort of
intellectual maturity. It is among
these that we find science, as such,
raised to the status of a substitute
for religion. Young people of this
type having been overwhelmingly
impressed by the developments of
the new technology, in conse-
quence have adopted a mechanistic
interpretation of life. They try
to make themselves believe that
our stupendous material progress,
the vast expansion of our indus-
tries and commerce, the greatly in-
creased comforts and luxuries of
life, its multiform amusements and
pleasures are sufficient to satisfy
our every want and craving.
They assume that science is the
one and only revealer of truth,
that it has definitely banished God Ss
out of the world, that it alone ex-
plains the only "reality." They
take a position of positivism based
upon the principle that energy
alone reigns in the world. Blind
and impersonal. They claim that
science alone has given and can
give an adequate explanation of
the universe and of man's place in
it and that therefore it is impos-
sible for us any longer to hold to a
belief in God in any vital sense.
They hold that there is no need for
religion and that science is able
to supply all the insight and con-
trols necessary to human well-
being.
The weakness of science as a
substitute for religion lies in the
fact that a purely scientific and
naturalistic approach to the prob-
lems of life is utterly inadequate.
We simply cannot reduce values,
ideals, ends, and purposes, to the
level of red biological fact. Nat-
ural science does not aim at the
cultivation of moral values. Nat-
ural science is a thing apart from
social relations and moral implica-
tions, and surely it is these that
constitute the content of human
life.
The world of science is not a
world in which men can live. It is
a world of mathematical formulae
and heartless abstractions which
would kill any red-blooded crea-
ture who tries to live in it as
quickly as the shutting off of the
supply of oxygen.
Eddiniston. Whitehead and Ein-
stein acknowledge that we know
little of the nature of the world.
The testimony of these super-scien-
tists is unmistakable that science is
full of unanswered questions, that
science is as yet an infant, lusty
and promising. but unable to grap-
ple with any of the problems which
concern meaning and destiny.
Those of us who rely upon science
as a complete philosophy lean upon
a reed.
Einstein's Cosmic Mystery.
Prof. Albert Einstein confesses
to a profound reverence and awe
when h e contemplates the cosmic
mystery. Ile finds the cosmic re-
ligious sense in the psalms of
David and in the Prophets of Is-
rael. He states that the further
we proceed the more formidable
are the riddles facing the universe.
In one of his papers, speaking of
the role of religious feeling in
scientific creation he says: "The
basis of all scientific work is the
conviction that the world is an or-
dered and comprehensible entity,
and this constitutes a religious
sentiment. Any religious feeling
is a humble amazement at the
order revealed in the small patch
of reality to which our feeble in-
telligence is equal."
In these words Einstein ex-
presses eloquently not only his
own attitude but those of a whole
group of our greatest living scien-
tists—Nfillikan and Jeans, White-
head and Eddington, and many
others. They have all in various
writings manifested that they pos-
sess a sense of the holy and sacred,
which is the very basic element of
religion. They admit the psycho-
logical validity of religious experi-
ence, and themselves draw from it
their inspiration for life and work.
Should not younger and less ma-
ture persons hesitate before they
lay the flattering unction to their
souls that they have deeper under-
standing than these masters of
science?
114
The Fad of Humanism.
Humanism as a substitute for
religion 19 rapidly becoming a fad.
Its appeal is strong, particularly to
those young men and young wo-
men who seek the latest mental
novelty and the freshest fashion in
churchtlom. The school of liberal
Christian theory which produced
Unitarianism discarded the Trinity
and all its connotations; now the
same school goes a sten further
and discards the One God Himself fyl-
and produces what it presumes to
call the new religion of humanism.
By way of comparison, it is to
he emphasized that there is noth-
ing worth while in humanism that
has not always been in Judaism.
Our faith is a social religion and
as such it has all the elements of
humanism, but Judaism is human-
ism plus. In Judaism, man is the
starting point of philosophy anti
religion, and not the end. Judaism,
like this new cult, is a this-world
faith, but with the tremendous dif-
ference that even in this world
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IN THE PUBLIC EYE
Approving plans for construction of what will he one of the finest
airports in the country to cost $1,000,000, the New Orleans Levee
Board voted to name the project "Shushan Airport," in recognition of
the service rendered by its president, Abe L. Shushan, in suggesting
and working toward the end now in view. The airport will be built
along the short of Lake Pontchartrain behind a sea wall now in the pro-
cess of completion.
Rabbi Israel M. Goldman, spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-el,
Providence, R. I., officiated at the opening of the General Assembly and
the inauguration of Governor Norman S. Case. Rabbi Goldman was
introduced by Roy Rawlings, speaker of the assembly. Rabbi Goldman
is the Jewish chaplain to the state institutions of Rhode Island.
•
•
•
The New York Academy of Medicine has awarded the Academy Gold
Medal, offered annually to an outstanding medical _,sit of science, to
Dr. David Marine, chief of the laboratory division at 5Iontefiore Hos-
pital.
•
•
•
Dr. David II. Kling and Dr. Louis Nathan of New York have been
awarded fellowships of $2,400 each for 1931 by the committee of the
Brown Orthopedic Research Fellowship of the Hospital for Joint Dis-
eases of Manhattan. according to an announcement this week by Fred-
erick Brown, president of the hospital. The award is made possible
by an annual subscription of $4,800 by Mr. Brown.
•
•
•
Mrs. Sophie Monsky, active Omaha Jewish communal worker, was
appointed county administrator of the poor for Douglas county.
ass