America ffewisk PerioScal Cotter CLIPTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE end the Legal Chronicle Decembor 27, 1940 Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Schechter's Death One of Big Four DAVE BORIN By PROF. MORDECAI M. KAPLAN Editor, The Reconstructionist Magazine marked the 25th anni- which Schechter sought with all Dec. 11 versary of Solomon Schechter's his might to combat. Schechter realized that the death. No Jew who is keenly anxious that there be a future time to combat escapism is not to Judaism in America can let when the Jew has broken with that day pass without experi- Jewish associations and responsi- encing a sense of gratitude for bilities. Then it is too late. The what Schechter did to render such time to expose the centrifugar a future secure. Much has been tendency among Jews is while it said, and will continue to be said, operates under the aegis of re- about Schechter the man, the ligion, philanthropy, and social scholar, the hasid, and the found- service. In the kind of religion er in this country of Concerva- which it became fashionable for tive Judaism. Yet in one of these Jews in the upper brackets of roles does his true distinction lie. wealth and influence to profess, As a man, Schechter had his Schechter discerned nothing but human failings. As a scholar, a catering to opportunism. Sch- he had „his peers. As a hasid, echter maintained that in whittl- he was too modern to be true to ing away from Jewish religion type. As founder in America of the substance of Jewish practice Conservative Judaism, he may be and reducing it to a sum of uni- said to have organized a move- versal platitudes, to a way of ment which is still in too–amor- speaking instead of a way of phous a state to do him much living, Jews were trying to cover glory. But what Schechter will up this flight from Judaism. With always be gratefully remembered all the devastating wit at his for is the fact that more than command, he exposed the true any other Jew in this country, meaning of the sublimation of either native or foreign born, he Jewish nationhood into a Jew- set in motion the inner forces in ish mission. For what else could Jewish life that will, in all like- a mission without missionaries lihood, ultimately check the dis- be than a ridiculous paradox? integration with which it is The Primacy of Jewish threatened. Scholarship Schechter Militant Against Escapism EXTENDS CHANUKAH GREETINGS and Solicits Your Patronage on FUEL OIL • CAREFUL AND COURTEOUS SERVICE • METER EQUIPPED TRUCKS PHONE HOGARTH 2520 for Instant Service SIDNEY HILLMAN D. A. BORIN CI CO. Sidney Hillman, prominent la- bor leader, has been named one of the four national leaders to direct the defense program. The other three are William S. Knud- sen, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. Richard Crooks to Be Sym- 3, 4 Once we became aware that the phony Soloist Jan. purpose which dominated Schech- From the standpoint of pro- ter's soul was to halt the process Following its Christmas week grams and philosophies of Judir- of dejudaization, we can appre- inactivity, the Detroit Symphony ism, Schechter defies classifica- date the true significance of the Orchestra will resume its concert tion. "He was too liberal for various emphasis in his writing Orthodox Jews," writes his bi- and teaching. Those emphases schedule with the performances ographer, Norman Bentwich, "too fall into a distinct pattern. He of Thursday night, Jan. 2, Fri- conservative for the Reform lead- stressed two principles: (1) the ers; he antagonized the Zionists pr i macy of Jewish scholarship, because he demanded a religious and (2) the importance of keep life in Palestine; he antagonized i ng Jewish life integral and the anti-ists because he was too whole. Those two principles were passionate for the cause of Zion." not intended to constitute the It is not possible to label Schech- basis of an alternative to the ex- ter by any of the usual adjec- isting versions of Judaism. They tives we have on hand, because were meant not as a program of he was not interested in pro- a party, but rather as a program mulgating a particular version that would make the existence of Judaism. His ambition was of parties or sects safe for Juda- to halt the process of dejudai- ism. zation that is going on within Jewish scholarship was to Jewish life itself, within the very Schechter much more than an in- heart of the Jew. Dejudaization tellectual passion. He regarded is the gradual elimination of what Jewish scholarship of the modern is distinctively and uniquely Jew- type as indispensable to the ish, for fear of being a conspic- maintenance and the keeping of uous target of attack. It is Jewish consciousness in our day. prompted by 7 the half-conscious To be conscious of being a Jew desire to run away from Jewish without the knowledge of what life. This desire, which gnaws had gone into the making of at the hearts of an increasing Judaism was to Schechter the number of our people, is a reac- cardinal evil of Jewish life. That tion to anti-Semitism in its vari- evil could not be overcome so ous manifestations; but it is that long as we lacked that ordering reaction reenforced by the as- and interpretation of the tradi- RICHARD CROOKS sumption that there is nothing tional content which would render in Judaism worth living or dying it understandable and palatable for. It was that assumption to the Jew trained in modern day afternoon, Jan. 3 and Satur- day night, Jan. 4, in Masonic ways of thought. The only way to effect the needed ordering and Temple. Richard Crooks, one of Amer- interpretation of the Jewish her- itage was to have Jewish schol- ica's greatest tenors, will be the ars imbued with a love of their soloist at the Thursday-Friday people and highly disciplined in pair, the program for which will the techniques of research, apply be the same. Solist at the Sat- themselves to the task of recreat- urday pop concert will be Wini- ing the Jewish past and make fred Heidt, Detroit mezzo-soprano it live again in the mind of the member of the Metropolitan Op- Jew as though it were part of era Association, whose recent rise his own personal memory. The in the musical world is one of few highlights of ancient Jewish the city's prides. history dn not suffice to foster Jewish consciousness. The Jew- ish past must live on, not like fore all the more alluring. This the ruins of Pompeii, but like a is why Schechter was such an city beautiful. Schechter assumed ardent Zionist, and this is why that the more Jewish knowledge he fought for the revival of Plan your Christmas and a Jew possessed—the knowledge Hebrew. He was influenced by New Year trips by Blue made available by modern Jew- Ahad Ha-Am's contention that ish scholarship—the more inner Palestine has become indispens- Goose Bus. Use the money satisfaction would he find in be- able as a keystone to hold to- you save for other things. ing a Jew, and therefore the less gether the various Jewries of the would he want of take to flight diaspora. Without Palestine, world from Judaism. To be sure, the Jewry would break up into sep- Go and return when you knowledge of the right does not arate tribes. Before long they always lead one to do the right. would lose contact with one an- please on buses which you But such knowledge as has to other, and be rapidly absorbed know are warm, safe and do with giving a man status and by the non-Jewish population. maintaining his self-respect is, By the same token that Schech- comfortable. indeed, likely to prevent him from ter fought a Zionless and Hebrew- doing anything that would des- less Judaism, he fought a re- troy his self-respect. This is why ligionless Zion and Hebrew. The Detroit Terminal Schechter was so eager to have former wanted the soul of Juda- the Jews foster Jewish scholar- ism without its body; the latter Washington Blvd. ship and learning. wanted the body of Judaism with- at Grand River Ave. out its soul. He sensed in the Keeping Jewish Life Whole modern secular nationalism "a Secondly, Schechter stressed CA. 9000 the importance of keeping Jewish root that beareth gall and worm- life integral and whole. There wood," and he dreaded to have was no danger he so feared, and such a root grafted in place of against which he had so set his the messianic ideal which had heart, as the ranger of fragmen- ever been part of the tree of tation. Once a Jew loses touch Judaism. The present world up- with the totality of Jewish liv- heaval has vindicated the truth ing, he develops a kind of local of Schechter's deep insight into Judaism, which is more local than the perils of godless nationalism. Schechter could not have made Jewish in character. That kind of local Judaism, cut off from a greater contribution to the the tree of Jewish life, withers Jewish survival.. and revival than away for lack of spiritual sus- by his insistence on Jewish knowl- FURNACE OIL tenance. Under those circum- edge ad Jewish integrity. For stances, escapism can take on that his soul will be bound up LA 4500 the form of trying to satisfy with the bond of ever living spiritual hunger, and is there- Judaism. YOU CAN SAVE MONEY BY BUS BLUE GOOSE LINE S ARGO 10019 BROADSTREET, cor. Collingwood PERSONAL Give Your Clothes the very finest Dry Cleaning for Holiday Perfection Vitalize Dry Cleaning and Hand Finishing Called for and Delivered Men's Regular Suits or Topcoats Ladies' Plain Dresses, Suits or Topcoats Phone COlumbia 4200 FOREST CLEANERS 533-547 FOREST AVE.: EAST CHANUKAH GREETINGS TO OUR FRIENDS AND PATRONS GARBER'S COLLEGE INN CASS AVE., COR. 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