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The Southern Israelite The Religious Situation Among Small Town Jewries By JACOB J. WEINSTEIN The recent census of religious bodies taken by the Department of Com- meYce reveals the interesting fact that the Jewish population is in creasing in the rural communities of America. More recently a Field Day held by the Jewish farmers of Con necticut nt Rockville brought into bold relief the hitherto unsuspected evi dence that the Jew is going back to the soil of America as well as of Rus sia and Palestine. The vague im pressions conveyed by statistical re ports are amply confirmed when one tours the small cities of America. Th< mania for siRn-advertisinR which cor responds also with a store proprietor s possessive instinct to see his name em blazoned over his premises has sup plied a convenient directory of Jew ish names for the Jewish organizer and solicitor. Even where the store is one of a larRe chain that bears a most Nordic name, the investigator is almost certain to find it managed by u Jewish merchant who was himself a boss before the pressure of big com bines squeezed him out of the game. If the investigator is so fortunate as to be working in the interests of a Jewish cause that is not seeking funds, his announcement, like the call of 1 ri- ton’s wreathed horn, will quickly gath er the Jews from every nook and cav ern of the town. It is true, however, that the simple announcement, “ab solutely no funds solicited” is hardly sufficient to assure our skeptical kins men of the small towns. For the last ten years the small town has figured in the annals of organized Jewry only as a source of income. Innumerable drives and campaigns have so condi tioned the Jewish merchants of Main Street that the moment they see an unfamiliar Jewish face bearing a smile and a facile tongue, their hands shoot automatically to their pockets and they ask, with more or less surli ness, “How much is it this time and what is it for?” When you introduce yourself as a representative of the Department of Synagague and School Extension of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations interested in organizing a religious service and a Religious School for the community you are met with a look of stunned gratefulness. It is hard for the Jew of Keokuk and Janesville to believe that, after these many days, the bread which he cast upon the waters of philanthropy is returning unto him. And when you further explain to him that you are not interested in organ izing only a “Reform” service and Religious School but the type of ser vice and school that will best serve the needs and preferences of the com munity, you have convinced the Israel ite of Main Street that the bread, he cast upon the waters has returned— sandwiches. It is pathetic to notice the hungry eagerness with which the Jews of the small towns greet anyone with a re ligious message. It is tragic to real ize the utter neglect and chaos of Jewish life in cities of less than 50,- 000 population. Rome fell when she neglected her villages. Her successor, the Roman Church, has not committed a similar blunder. She has erected re servoirs of the faith in every country side where a handful of Catholic fami lies may be found. She is coming against the day when Mammon con quers Metropolis. One cannot help but contrast the organized religious life of a community-of HO Catholic families in W with that of a similar number of Jewish families there. The former has two fine Ca thedrals, with a parochial school, com munity center, hospital and a ceme tery while the latter has only a frame synagogue, formerly a Methodist meeting house, wedged between the railroad tracks. Of course, there are obvious reasons for such a contrast. One community has behind it a World organization with uncounted resources and with a technique of work perfect ed by 1500 years of practice. The other community has an overhead or ganization which is but a few years in existence and which is working with a people who have always practiced local autonomy in religious matters. One community is unified in matters of religious belief and practice while the other community has almost as many beliefs and practices as there are individuals. One need not delve into the historical causes of the unity in the one case and the diversity in the other, nor enter into a philosophi cal consideration of the relative merits of each. We can summarize the situa tion by saying that while Catholic dog ma has remained unchanged, its in stitutions and facilities have kept steady pace with the particular needs of its devotees in their particu lar surroundings, while on the other hand, though Jewish dogma has con stantly bent to every new breath of science, its institutions have hardly changed from the days of the first Synagogue in Bablyon. The same lit tle “Bet Hakneset” which served the needs of a community of exiles in Persia and Greece is expected to serve the needs of the average community of sixty to a hundred families in our towns of the mid-west and the south. The Anatomy of a Small Town Jewry Since we can never expect an enor mous overhead organization to step in and build permanent institutions for all present and future needs, we must depend on the will and the capacity of each community by itself, to es tablish an institutional life that will give its religious yearnings that ex pression without which they stagnate and die. Both the desire and the ability are to be found, but the ogre of internal dissention sprawls ath wart the honest desire and. the real ability. Some of this dissension is due to personal envies and the ran cour that always oozes between glory seekers who, unless they have things their way, will let no one else have his way. But much of this divisiveness that paralyzes the organized life of the small town Jewry is due to the natural differences between the ele ments of which it is composed. For in every small town, one invariably finds at least three groups. First, there is the small group of German Jewish families who were among the first settlers. Some of them were affiliated with the first reform con gregations in Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville. They retain a Platonic loyalty to the memories of the “pre- digten” of a Wise, a Felsenthal and a Hirsch. But the sons and daughters of these pioneers who have not suc cumbed to the lure of the big cities have little Jewish loyalty. They have become closely identified with the civic and social life of the town and, in a small town, social life is often synon ymous with Church life. When small streams of the later Russian immi gration trickled into these towns, the resident Jews, fearful of being iden tified with the newcomers, identified themselves even more closely with non Jewish community. These “old-timers” are ever ready to help a Jewish Charity and give liberally to the national drives. They often contribute to the upkeep of a local “Shochet” and a Synagogue. Some of them retain membership in the Reform Temples of the cities from which they or their parents came. But for all other purposes of Jewish life, they are non-existent. It is only in the few instances, where a deep local prejudice keeps this class socially and civically isolated, that they are willing to co-operate actively with the more recent arrivals in building a commu nity life. The Fundamentalist Orthodoxy And at the other extreme, there is the small but ever active group of Orthodox fundamentalists. They be lieve that as long as they have kosher meat at their table, and an occasional minyan at the synagogu'e, a Chazan for the High Holy days, and a Me lamed to prepare their boys for “Bar- Mizvah,” they are preserving Juda ism and gaining for themselves that portion of the world to come promised to the faithful. Besides a more or less dilapidated “Schul,” these communi ties boast of a tireless “Parnass” who is generally the one of their number who has amassed a bit of money, and a “Shochet,” who is most often, “Sha- mas,” “Melamed” and “Chazan” as well—a sort of Jewish Poo-Bah as it were. The upkeep of this little syna gogue and the support of his ecclesi astical Jack-of-all-trades furnishes the motive for the most of the com munity “riches” and the raison-d’etre for the Ladies Aid and the various male “Vereinen.” These dyed-in-the wool orthodox are not worried about their children. The evidence of their ignorance of Jewish life and the in difference and apostasy in the wake of such ignorance only confirms the elders in their own stiff-necked right eousness. They feel certain that had their children observed the Taryag (613) Commandments, they would have remained faithful and upright Jews. They do not care to discuss the difficulties of living according to the old discipline in the new world. They have identified Judaism with their old-world habits and, therefore consider the modern forces in Ameri- ca as inimical to Judaism. The man who speaks to them of an American- Judaism arouses only their contempt The Large In-Between Class Between the indifferent old-timers and the fundamentalist elders, there is the large group of the children of immigrant parents and those immi grants themselves who came here early enough to get into the swing and tempo of the new country and who are trustful enough of the new land to let it mould their religion accord ing to its dominant forms. This group supplies the active blood of the Jewish life in the small communities. They compose its B’nai B’rith and Hadas- sah organizations, and occasionally are able to bring an English speak ing student or rabbi to deliver ser mons on the High Holy Days. In its religious attitudes, this group is log ically conservative. It is swayed by the memories of the orthodox customs of their childhood for which they have an emotional attachment. But from the facts of their own life and that of their young children they realize that Judaism must be progressive. It must take on those thought forms and externals that will give it meaning to the rising generation of young Ameri ca. Out of respect for their parents, mainly orthodox, this younger element has supported the institution of or thodoxy. They have contributed liber ally to maintain “Shochetim” and Melamdim for whom they have little use personally. But they realize now that it is wrong to neglect their needs and that of their children to satisfy the ritualistic scruples of their elders. Shuttled between the graves of their elders and the cradles of their chil dren, this group needs the assurance that it can have a religious life that satisfies both. But so far, all attempts at a compromise witnessed by the pres ent observer, have been wrecked on the rock of orthodox obscurantism. The entrenched interest of the Parnass. who fears his glory is endangered and the Shochet-Melamed, etc., who fears that his livelihood is menaced, and the natural obtuseness of the sincere > orthodox to any innovation have made impossible all attempts at a unifie religious life for the entire small town community. What Then Can Be Done? It has become apparent to this o server, at least, that the rigidly ort o dox should be left to their own ® vices. Those of the indifferent o timers who can be brought back _ active identification with Jewish i should by all means be encouraged But the greatest emphasis must placed on the large in-between 1^° described above. They are e . a ^ e ^, t co-operate with any organization - • will help them to establish an ganized religious life. And that^ ganization which is willing to ? ^ merge its own particular tenets to > needs of the community will be m (Continued on Page -- 1 F,