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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
A Magazine Perpetuating Jewish Ideals
Volume 5
FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1930
Number 10
Five Years for Providence
Today the interest of the civilized world is centering upon
-religious storm that has arisen in Russia, and religious
ities have taken steps as active and persuasive as their
j]uenee from the outside might possibly permit. From all ap-
however, the logical attitude seems to be reasoned out
v the following editorial on the situation which the New York
imes voiced recently, considering a point of view which is both
interesting and adequate.
Nearly every phase of life in Soviet Russia must be reshaped
and perfected in accordance with a Five-Year plan. The organized
Militant Atheists are no exception. A year from now we may
perhaps read figures from Moscow showing that in the first four
mths of the fiscal year, beginning October 1, 1930, no less than
5.476,856 Russian men, women and children wholly lost faith in
:h** existence of a Supreme Being, 12,345,478 persons lost between
<i per cent and 75 per cent of their faith, and around 25,000,000
persons were slipping; all this being an increase of 235 per cent
over the corresponding period in the fiscal year beginning Oc-
"her 1, 1929, and no less than 867,000 per cent over the average
annual growth of religious disbelief in the years immediately pre-
'eding the outbreak of the World War. Minutely parallel to the
great Five-Year Economic Plan, with its precise allocation of per
centages, tons, bushels, square meters and kilowatts year by
year, are the details of an anti-religious campaign which in five
to win 18,000,000 adherents between the ages of 8 and
. means of seven planetariums, three anti-religious operas,
operettas, eleven revues, thirteen musical comedies, twenty
vaudeville sketches, thirty anti-religious paintings and sculptures.
- not minimizing the serious and painful interest with
millions of people outside of Russia are following the Corn-
campaign against religion to suggest that there is in the
procedure much of the essence of farce. Physical suffer-
: K for appreciable numbers of Russians of all creeds, and spirit-
ifFerings for much greater numbers, are involved in the be-
r of the “godless,” but the mind
theless insists on thinking of it
circus rather than a campaign,
though the Soviet Government
•\vmpathy with the atheist activi-
it' part of its larger aims, the im-
i of a “stunt” persists. A lot
■ Vn -up children, among whom are
Aw vicious children, have got-
1 of exciting formulas about dic-
hip and propaganda and mass
ion and public education and an
of 37 per cent in the output
°sene over the corresponding
last year, and are now all set
God out of Russia in five
or < if somebody thinks up an
nal effective anti-religious pot-
operetta, perhaps even in three
ah years. One hundred million
1 x peasants who ten years ago
• v ing, in the matter of religion,
piety of the Middle Ages; mil
lions bred in the solid Roman Catholic discipline; evangelical
believers whose state of mind today has been illustrated in the
case of the Mennonites; three million Jews, always tenacious of their
faith—these are all to be spiritually reconstructed in five years by
the methods of a glorified automobile accessories sales campaign.
So strong is the ultimate impression of farce and futility
about this anti-religion crusade that the Soviet Government
itself is bound soon to awaken to one unpleasant consequence.
A world that smiles skeptically, even if bitterly, at the Five-
Year atheists with their 18,000,000 converts and their seven
planetariums and their fourteen anti-Creator operettas and the
rest of the scientific balderdash—such a skeptical world may
transfer its doubts to the Soviet arithmetic about collectivized
farms and grain crops and petroleum and pig iron and boots and
shoes and lumber and imports and exports, all responding in their
preordained goose-step percentages to the command of the Five-
Year Plan. When Russian atheists begin to draw charts about
human souls in quarterly periods they are helping to portray the
whole Communist experiment as something carried on by a crowd
which has gone more than slightly mad.
Overfed with Praise
Here are some of the phrases which orators used at the
Washington Conference to describe the generosity and daring
and vision and wisdom and self-sacrifice and whatnot of American
Jewry. “American Jewry has been a giant brother to the Jews
of Eastern Europe, hewing his way through a forest to rescue
his own flesh and glood from extermination . . “We are unde
feated. We carry on. This allied effort of American Israel will
again become a glorious indication of Jewish pride and solidarity
and a shining testimonial to the invincible, to the unquenchable
spirit of Israel ..." “This conference is the embodiment of a
hope, a vision and a dream, cherished by many of us, that the
day will come when Israel shall stand united to do the work
before it. . . .” You would imagine, reading words like these, that
the Jews of America were being asked to risk life and limb,
break up their homes, trek into the
wilderness, conquer the North and
South Poles and shed their blood in
torrents. But all these magniloquent
phrases, oozing honey at every letter,
are just the prelude to a campaign
for $6,000,000, a sum which represents
but a tiny fraction of what American
Jews spend annually on pinochle, fur
coats, holidays, automobiles, cosmetics,
candies, etc. Is it quite necessary for
the leaders of American Jewry to ad
dress their followers in this toadying
language? Is it absolutely necessary
to make every man who gives money
feel that he is a combination of Judas
Maccabaeus and Moses Montefiore?
And if we have to come down to this
when we have to raise six million dol
lars, what language will we have to
use if, God forbid, we were to ask the
Jews of America for a genuine sacri
fice?—Maurice Samuel.
CONTENTS
the man WHO MADE POLITICAL ZIONISM
A REALITY
By Meyer W. Weisgal 4
MY VIEWS ON THE PRESENT SITUATION IN RUSSIA
Hu Julian Moryenstem 5
LUDWIG VOGELSTEIN, LEADER OF JUDAISM
Hy P. W. Wilson ®
FEATURES OF LOCAL INTEREST 1
SOCIETY AND PERSON A LS 8
YOUR FEDERATION
By Edward M. Kahn ®
NATIONAL NEWS 10
FOREIGN NEWS . 12
GOSSIP AND NEWS OF JEWISH PERSONALITIES
By Martin Golde
IN THE LIMELIGHT 14
CHILDREN'S CORNER
By Sister Miriam *»
M. STEPHEN Scmrr«R. Managing Editor
Entered as second class matter at the Postoffice at Atlanta.
Ga under the Act of March 3rd. 1879. Published monthly by
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Israelite invites correspondence and literary contributions, but
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by the writers except those enunciated in the Editorial columns.
Established 1925.
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not later than 1st and 16th of each month.
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