Text of Dr. Abba Hillel Silver's Historic Speech in Detroit

(Editor's Note: The following is the
text of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver's ad-
dress, delivered at' the Tercentenary
Community Dinner last Sunday, at the
Statler Hotel, as the major social activ-
ity arranged by the Detroit Tercen-
tenary Committee.)
This is an, occasion to look backward
and to look forWard. We look back with
pride and gratitude. We look forward
with confidence and high hope. Our be-
ginnings here were humble, as were the
beginnings of all peoples who came to
these shores. Steadily through the years,
and more rapidly in the last three-
quarters of a century, our numbers in-
creased and we shared eagerly and
gratefully in the growing and evolving
life of America.

Our people became in outlook true
children of the New World, and in serv-
ice and devotion, loyal and proud citi-
zens of the United States. They served
it patriotically in peace and in war. They
made creditable contributions to its ma-
terial prosperity, to its political and so-
cial progress, its democratic institutions,
to labor and industry, to its arts, science,
literature, and music. They supported
generously all the 'philanthropic and so-
cial agencies and institutions of their
Communities — Jewish and non-Jewish
alike. They have been not an unworthy
or unimportant part of the colorful,
unique and noble, mosaic pattern which
is America.
Nor have they ignored or forgotten
their own religious heritage. They re-
Mained faithful to it. Upon the shores
of the new land they built their syna-
gogues, their schools and their institu-
tions of learning and philanthropy
Which have always embodied the ethical
ideals and the way of life of our people.
They did not isolate themselves from
the lot of their fellow-Jews in other
parts of the world. They remained bound
to them in. fraternal solitude. They
helped them in their needs. They came
to their defense when attacked. They
poured out their generosity when trag-
edy overtook them. They rallied to the
task of building the State of Israel when
the historic moment arrived, and they
have undergirded it with their support
and unflagging interest since then.

They remembered why those twenty-
three Pilgrims came to Nieuw Amster-
dam. They came here for the same
reason that a generation before them
another group of men and women had
come from 'England to Plymouth Rock.
They wanted to remain loyal to their
faith. They continued the noble tradi-
tion which was set by the founder of
their faith, Abraham, who was the first
pilgrim of mankind, for conscience sake.
Very little indeed were the pos-
sessions which these refugee pil-
grims brought with them to the New
World. But they did bring their ; most
precious possession of all, the Bible.
This book contained a verse which
a century and a quarter later the
founding fathers of the American
republic had inscribed upon the Lib-
erty Bell — a verse from the Book
of Leviticus — "And ye shall pro-
claim liberty throughout the land
unto all the inhabitants thereof."
It was this same Bible which in-
spired the Puritans, who justified their
anti-monarchial position and their de-
mand for civil and political liberty by
the words of the Old Testament. It was
this same Aible which inspired the
Declaration of Independence, the anti-
slavery movement in the United States,
and every movement for the economic
and social advancement of the working
masses of the people in the United
States,
Many have been the contributions of
our people during these last 300 years
to the progress of America; but none has
been as momentous as the spiritual con-
tribution in fashioning its basic institu-
tions and its dominant traditons. I ven-
ture to say that we Jews of Arnerca can
make no more significant contribution
as Jews in the future to the advance-
ment of our beloved country than to pre-
serve and express these basic spiritual
elements in our historic •faith which
have molded the great civilizations of
mankind.
We have now closed three centuries
of living in this country. In no other
land have our people been privileged to
enjoy so long a period of uninterrupted
and peaceful dwelling and labor. Can
we think hopefully- of the future as Jews
and as Americans. I believe we can. I
believe that we have every right to do
so, though we cannot be dogmatic about

.

28-DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Fridays Oct/911)ec 22, 1954

it; . for progress is, neither guaranteed
nor automatic; nor can we ignore the
fact that time and again the unforeseen
and unpredictable in history have upset
all man's most careful calculations.
I believe that the age in which we live
is a great age and that we are moving
towards an even greater age.
Many people are quick to describe our
age as materialistic, as lacking in ideal-
ism, hi aim and purpose, and as drifting
helplessly to disaster. There are very few
people who see this age as a great age. I
am persuaded that it is truly a great
age. Historic events, great in amplitude
and consequence, are coming to pass in
our day. I am not thinking at the
moment of the new worlds which science
is continually disclosing, the new in-
sights into the nature of matter and
energy, the new sources of power and
wealth, the new methods of production,
distribution, transportation and com-
munication. I am not referring to the
amazing progress in the medical sciences
which has so markedly improved the
health of the human race and increased
the average length of life, nor to the
marvels of engineering and the miracles
of construction.
In characterizing our age as..
great, I am thinking in terms of
social progress and welfare, in terms
of human advancement and civili-
zation. More is being done in our
day for the improvement of the
conditions of the common man, for
the raising of his standard of living,
his health, his education, and for
his protection against the disabili-
ties of sickness, unemployment and
old age, than in any generation,
than in any five generations in the
past. Never were more determined
efforts being made to bring about
a fairer sharing of the wealth than
is produced and a better way of life
for all.
Never have the submerged races and
peoples of the earth risen as they have
risen in our day to demand and to
achieve, as they have to a large measure
achieved, freedom and self-determina-
tion. Within the last ten years one-
fourth of the earth's population—more
than five hundred million non-self-
governing people—have obtained their
political freedom. Imperialism and
colonialism are in their death-throes.
Backward peoples are pressing forward
into the light of a new day, and the ex-
ploitation of the dark races of the earth
is rapidly drawing to a close.
What we are witnessing in our day,
if we have eyes not only to see things,
but to see into the heart of things, is
not social disintegration, but a radical
new re-integration of humanity, a pro-
found change in the social evolution of
man, a change not free, of ,course, from
dangers—for there is no progress with-
out danger—but one of boundless and
immeasurable potentialities.
I do not wish to overdraw the picture.
I am not suggesting that our age is
approaching idyllic perfection, or that
the millenium is just around the corner.
The important thing to consider is
not whether we are on the eve of the
millenium, but whether the major trends
of our age are in the direction of the
hoped-for good society, or away from it.
Is our age - trying to eradicate poverty
and illiteracy and to raise the standard
of living of people, regardless of race or
color or creed? Is it trying to satisfy the
legitimate aspirations of peoples to na-
tional freedom and independence? Is it
trying to organize the world for peace
and for international cooperation? I be-
lieve that in all these major trends, our
age has given welcome evidence of great
determination and of considerable pro-
gress. It is moving purposefully in the
right direction—the abolition of war,

'

the reduction of poverty, and the elimi-
nation of racial inequality. These are
the three major trends of our century.
In our day this moral forward thrust
encountered the stubborn and insolent
resistance of Nazism, of Fascism and of
Communist dictatorship. These have
violently resisted the spiritual aspira-
tions which constitute mankind's wave
oof the future. They put shackles on
man, even when they promised him
larger freedoms. They divided and stra-
tified men, even when they prated about
a classless society. They fomented war
even when they preached peace. But the
onmoving . tides of man's irresistible,
spirit have now swept over the shattered
ruins of some of these sinister aberra-
tions and dark conspiracies of the rebels
against light—though they have not as
yet entirely obliterated them. And the
Aides are now whirling around the bas-
t of the remaining dictatorships of
he earth. They will surely succomb.
They cannot, in the long run, win in the
contest for man's heart and man's
loyalties.
Man has struggled through the long,
weary centuries to free himself from the
bondage of nature. He will not voluntar-
ily and for long submit to the bondage
of man. Neither dictatorship nor racial-
ism nor statism nor militarism can or
will command the fortunes of the hu-
man race. They represent the sunk
wreckage of the past which the storms
of our day have dredged up again from
the bottom of their buried depths and
have set them afloat again danger-
ously along the ship lanes of the world.
The coming age will be a great
age for America. The next hundred
years at least seem likely to be
known, I believe, as the "American
Century," in the same sense as the
19th was "The Century of Great
Britain." Destiny has • singled out
our beloved country, the foremost
democracy on earth, to give leader-
ship to the world and to lead man-
kind out of the grave social, politi-
cal and economic predicament in
which it finds itself. I believe that
American leadership will prove it-
self equal to the challange, if it
will take counsel of faith and not of
fear, and if it will be guided by the
the prophetic insights and the
wide perspectives of the Founding
Fathers of this republic.

I believe that our age will find the
formula of toleration which will enable
the many envolving and fluid forms of
capitalism and socialism to work out
their destinies in the one world in which
we live. They may be irreconcilable in
theory; they need not be in practice.
America will lead in- finding the
way. The way is not that of a global
armament race which will impoverish
the peoples of the earth—ourselves in-
eluded—and end as such races always
lend—in the catastrophe of war. The way
is rather that of conference, of coura-
geous diplomacy, of giving urgent lead-
ership in the United Nations to a pro-
, gram of speedy and balanced reduction
of armament and help to the backward
peoples of the earth.,
* 1 believe that the American people
will earnestly strive to be worthy of the
challenge and opportunities of the
American Century.
And I believe, too, that it will be a
great age for American Jewry if the
catastrophe of war does not shatter its
security and life. As a minority, we are
helpless against the ravages of hate and
demagoguery which war • and economic
depressions unleash. But given peace
and economic stability, the American
Jewish community will move forward
and develop. It will expand its cultural
and religious life and institutions, and

THE TERCENTENARY STORY

will make worthy contributions to the
total life of America.

If the American Jews of the coming
decades will carry on uninterruptedly and
with wisdom and discrimination, putting
first things first, and accentuating the
positive and indispensible enterprises of
Jewish life, they will make the numeri-
cally largest Jewish community in the
world and the greatest in history also
one of the greatest in terms of faith,
culture and scholarship. What may en-
danger our Jewish future here is not
conscious communities or deliberate as-
similationist tendencies such as char-
acterized Jewish communities elsewhere
and at other times. Rather, an uncon-
scious drift and a carefree relaxation of
all disciples—not out of conviction but
out of sheer indifference—such as be-
longing to synagogues but not attending
them, or sending children to Sunday
Schools which are so limited as to time
that they cannot really give them an
adeqUate Jewish education, or in very
many instances, not giving them any
instruction at all, or homes which are
emptied of all Jewish content.

Too many of our people want an
easy-going religion, one which does not
challenge or disturb them, a religion
without any spiritual travail, without
any stab of thought or conscience, with-
out any sacrifices, the 'religion of self-
pampering people. No religion has ever
survived in that kind of an emotional
and intellectual vacuum, Judaism least
of all.
It is a great virtue in our people
- that they are generous in heart—
charitable and responsive to all
human need and suffering. It is a
noble tradition of Israel and a by-
product of a religion which, fore-
most among all religions of man-
kind, made charity and loving-kind-
ness central in its code of human
conduct. But Judaism is much more
than charity, and the charitable
impulse alone will not preserve our
faith and our people. "This Book of
the Law shall not depart out of your
mouth, bat you shall meditate on it
day and night, that you shall be
careful to do according to all that
is written in it; for THEN you shall
make your way prosperous, and
THEN you shall have good success."
No Jewish community ever survived
for long which did not' cultivate
Jewish learning and - study and
which did not cultivate the pre-
scribed way of Jewish life, at least
in its essentials. The axe must never
be permitted to exalt itself over the
man who wields it ...

What we should fear most is the rise
of a generation of prosperous Jews who
have no spiritual anchorage, or a gen-
eration of clever, restless Jews of quick
ferment and high voltage, rooted in no
religious tradition, reverent of no moral__
code, ignorant of all • Jewish learning
and held to social responsibility by no
inner spiritual restraint, who will range
and bluster all over the American scene
from literature and art to politics and
government and will commit their fel-
low Jews in the eyes of the American
people. Such floating mines are a dan-
ger to any people, but especially to a
minority people.
If American Jewry of tomorrow will
restore what - has become peripheral in
our life to the center again—the syna-
gogue, the school, the academy and the
religious disciplines of Judaism—if it
will recapture the wisdom of our ancient
teachers who admonished us that the
study of the Torah outweighs all other
commandments for it leads directly to
them all—then American Jewry is des-
- tined to enjoy a resplendent century of
spiritual growth in this gracious land.

7. The Shearith Israel Synagogue

Text by DANIEL ELAZAR

Copyright, 1954, by American Jewish Press

Illustrations by MAURICE del BOURG°

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