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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 The Southern Newspaper Enterprises, Inc. Subscription Rates: 15 Cents Single Copy, 11.50 per year in advance. The Southern Israelite invites correspondence and literary contributions, but the Editor is not to be considered as sharing the views expressed by the writers except those enunciated in the Editorial columns. Established 1925. All communications for publication should reach this office not later than 1st and 16th of each month. EXTRA EDITION