Friday, October I, 1943 THE JEWISH- NEWS Publication Society Views Growth, Aid to U.S. Jewry Came Into Being In Order To Meet Problem During Critical Period in History of the American Jewish Community; Founded 55 Years Ago By DR. SOLOMON GRAYZEL Editor, Jewish Publication Society of America A consciousness of crisis pre- contrary, a very powerful force vails in the thoughts and actions for good. In this case it laid the of the Jews today. We shall not foundations for a cultural revival stop to consider here how great which helped save the dignity a world upheaval was needed to and spiritual unity of American stir so many of our contempor- Israel. This is evident from the aries out of their lethargy. earliest publications • of T h e It is more important to ask Society. Graetz's "History of the what will result from this in- Jews" in English translation creassed concern with the Jew- proved to be not merely an in- ish fate and future. Some Jews teresting work; it was rather a Will yield to panic and others tool with which . another link to paralyzing fear. was forged in the chain of Jewish The more clearly the implica- history. • tions of the present state of Jew- The publication of Israel Zang- ish life are realized, the greater will's stories was a means of the recognition which will be bringing to the English-reading accorded to the usefulness of The public a recognition of the spiri- Jewish Publication Society of tual values of the new East America. It came into being in European population and an ap- order to meet a problem during preciation of the poignant pro- a critical period in the history cess of their adjustment to the of the American Jewish commun- Anglo-Sakon environment. ity. Borrow From Others Founded 55 Years Ago • The time soon came for the The Jewish Publication Society Jews to reclaim the Bible. Ignor- was founded 55 years ago. No one ance of this fundamental Jewish could have foreseen at that time treasure was partly due to ignor- that the comparatively small ance of the Hebrew language. American • Jewish population of The Jews, in this respect as well, seevral hundred thousand would, were living on borrowings from within less than the . span of a others. The traditional Jewish single lifetime, become the larg- meaning of the Bible's words and est aggregation of Jews in the thoughts had been lost because world. the translation in general use The Jewish communities of was of Christian • origin. The England, France a n d Italy, Jewish Publicatibn Society rose though numerically smaller than to the occasion. . the Jewish population of the U. In co-operation with the Cen- S., were far ahead of us in Jew- tral Conference of American. ish cultural productivity. Amer- Rabbis, the society produced an ica's Jewish population was English translation which retains scattered over a broad land. It the best elements of the King lacked organization. It was de- James Version but presents the veloping serious religious cleav- Jewish attitude and interpreta- ages. It had few effective plans tion. The publication of The for Jewish education. Society's translation of the Bible Such was the situation when (1917) marks the emergence of a small group of Jews met to American Israel as a community organize The Jewish Publication spiritually independent and in- Society. Among them were tellectually productive. Judge Mayer Sulzberger, Rabbi Two new motives had thus en- Joseph Krauskopf, Dr. Cyrus Ad- teredinto The Society's work or ler and Dr. Solomon Solis-Cohen. at least attained prominence in The Third Attempt it: the aim to unite the commun- What motivated these men to ity around its spiritual heritage organize the society? Theirs was and the desire to give the Amer- actually the third attempt to ican Jew a sense of continuity in form. an organization for the relation to the great Jewish:com- publication in the U. S. of Jewish munities of the past. Both mo- books in the English language. tives were in response to the The two previous efforts had needs of American Israel during failed, primarily because the and after the First World War. American Jew had been content Still . another series speaks elo- to live on intellectual food bor- quently of the society's efforts to rowed from the older communi- foster dignified community con.- ties across the sea. sciousness among the Jews of They were ashamed that a America. 45 years ago, the so: . large and well situated number ciety began the annual publica 7 of Jews knew so little about their tion of a Year Book. CyrnS,Adler religion,. their past and their peo- Was its first editor; later the edi- ple's contribution to civilization. torship was taken over by Harry There is • nothing petty about . Schneiderman. The annual vol- a sense of shame. It is, on the : umes are a joint publicaton of Buy More Bonds In 5704 Advance Glove Mfg. Co. Borin Bros. 1635 Westminster Fifth of Hungarian Jews Claim Jewish Nationality ZURICH, (JTA)—One out of every five Hungarian Jews de- clared that they adhered to the "Jewish nationality" when queried during the official census of 1941, according to sta- tistics made public in Budapest this week and appearing in Hungarian newspapers received here. While 724,000 persons, or 4.9 per cent of the population, de- clared that they were of the "Jewish religion," 150,000 said that they were of "Jewish na- tionality." The Society and the American Jewish Committee. This neglect has, unfortunately, not been limited to the Year Books. Altogether the American Jewish public has not shOWn any marked appreciation of The So- ciety's work, at least not in fin- ancial terms. The Jews . of America, avid readers though many of them are, have not as enthusiastically as they might have -to the oppor- tunities presented by The So- ciety's publications which, apart from those mentioned above, are numerous and -valuable.. This is certainly not due to the price of membership; $5.00 a year is sure- ly not a large sum for the three books given in return. One ex- planation may be that a large proportion of the books issued by The Jewish Publcication So- ciety offer solid (as opposed to light)., instructive (as opposed to entertaining) reading. Page Forty-nine Thomas Mann Praises Volume by Dr. Klatzkin Noted Philosopher's Book, 'In Praise of Wisdom', Is Called Colorful "So colorful and brilliant a collection of aphorisms has not been published since Nietzsche. `In Praise of Wisdom' is the work of a man with deep knowl- edge of life and soul whose dic- tion is lucid and kindly, and who has counsel, enlightenment and consolation to offer to many." These are the words of Thomas Mann on Dr. Jacob Klatzkin's newest book, trans- lated from the Hebrew, publish- ed Sept. 23 by L. B. Fischer Pub- lishing Corp., 381 4th Ave., New York. Biographer of Spinoza Jacob Klatzkin, the noted Eu- ropean Jewish philosopher and psychologist, the creator of an original widely acclaimed bi- ophilosophy, is author of many books on philosophy and psy- chology which have been pub- lished abroad. He is a biogra- Buy More Bonds In 5704 pher of Spinoza, author of a dic- tionary of philosophy, editor of the Encyclopedia Judaica. His book "In Praise of Wis- dom" is concerned with the large and small aspects of every- day life and the art of living. Here are mature, sensitive re- flections on science, art, politics, philosophy, psychology and re- ligion, the art of the writer, manners and morals, saints and the human spirit. Here are dis- tilled the essences of rich expe- rience and observation, and deep knowledge of many literatures, professions and civilizations. Provocative Items The book is divided into "Life Microscoped," which includes such provocative items as "To each generation its laugh," "Kiss vs. Bite," "Creeping Thoughts," "The Common Origin of Two Extremes"; "Psychological Es- says," including such headings as "Preachers and Speakers," "Midwife and Nurse," "Spiritual Eunuchs as Guardians"; "Aphor- isms," numerous capsules of wis- dom and wit. Buy War Bonds Buy More 3t. - Bonds In 44 5704 Buy More ic Bonds In 5704 . Shanah Shel Shalom Shanah Shel Shalom Miller Lumber Co. DeRoy Jewelry Co. 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