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The Southern Israelite
Have Christians Forgotten the Golden Ruled
By MRS. ESTELLE M. STERNBERGER
In recent months, increased emphasis has been
placed upon Good-Will between Christians and
Jews. Mrs. Estelle M. Sternberg, executive secre
tary of the National Council of Jewish Women, is
also a member of the executive committee of the
Conference of Jews and Christians. In this article,
she suggests some ways in which Christians may
help stem the tide of anti-Semitism in Europe, and
of employment discrimination against Jews in
America.—The Editor.
-£g)l-=r= ■■ =. —
There arc Christian preachers
who are seeking to throw over-
hoard the attitudes and habits that
retard the spiritual unification of
the human race. 1 he Reverend
Doctor Fosdick has set up in the
Riverside Church the statue of a
Jew of our day, in recognition of
his worth to the human race. Dr.
John Haynes Holmes has chal
lenged the Jew to display a simi
lar breadth of spirit, not by set
ting up a statue of Jesus in the
synagogue, but by inscribing his
name in golden letters upon its
walls. 1 le asks the Jews to reclaim
Jesus as one of their great sons,
even as England has reclaimed
George Washington by placing his
statue in front of the National Art
Gallery in London’s Trafalgar
Square. I, for one, would be ready
to have Jesus recorded in the an
nals of Jewish history as one of
its great men, just as we record
that of Spinoza, overlooking the
fact that he taught many doctrines
that arc opposed to those of Juda
ism. but only on two conditions:
The first condition is that Chris
tianity cease teaching that the Jews
crucified Jesus, and the second con
dition is that Christianity remove
from the highways and byways of
the world, especially in the coun
tryside of European lands, the
figure of Jesus on the cross, his
body dripping with blood—a
spectacle that stirs up and perpetu
ates bitter and vengeful judgments
of the Christian toward the Jew.
The plea of Doctor Holmes, to
restore Jesus to his rightful posi
tion as one of Israel's gifts to the
humanizing of the world, should
first be addressed to Christianity.
T he Jew will view the character
of Jesus differently only when he
is no longer a symbol that permits
his followers to perpetuate a libel
of well nigh 2,000 years.
I ask Christian men and women:
“Do you want the Jew to end this
conflict of the centuries by run
ning away from his past, by being
disloyal to it and by throwing
overboard his entire heritage? Do
you believe that the only solution
lies in the surrender and disappear
ance of the Jew?” Surely no
Christian believes that the human
race can be enriched by making
cowards of an entire people, trait
ors to the faith that gave the world
two great religions of Christianity
and Mohammedanism.
We are entering upon a new
calendar year. During its days
there will be born Christian chil
dren who will live to see the year
2000, marking the second millen
nium of the birth of Christian
ity’s founder. Upon their Chris
tian parents and teachers depends
whether these children will, as sep
tuagenarians, greet the year 2000
as a year in which the Golden
Rule shall be a practice and not a
mere pronouncement.
What a glorious triumph for
humanity if these years would be
hold the Christian Church marshal
its forces toward leading Rumania
out of its present mire of anti-
Semitism! Practical religion rc
quires its application to the con
ditions and affairs of men. World
Christianity should point an ac
cusing finger at Rumania in thv
striking way it once pointed it at
Turkey for its treatment of Chris
tian Armenians. Christian and Jew
recently joined in protests against
abuses of religious freedom in Rus
sia. I call upon the Christian
churches to stage such vigorous
protests against the people and
government of Rumania.
Will Jew and Christian behold
one another successfully fulfilling
the preachment of Hillel and the
declaration of Jesus? For Chris
tianity, such a century would be
a glorious prologue to the second
millennium of its founder’s birth
For the Jew it would be a crown
ing vindication of its prophet, who
asked: “Have we not all one Fa
ther? Hath not one God created
We inquire whether Christian
ity has scrapped the Golden Rule,
not in a spirit of criticism, or com
plaint, but as one who believes it
is our common duty as Jew r s and
Christians to lead the human fam
ily to a spiritual fellowship that
shuts out no race or religion.
During this period of tremen
dous unemployment, more than
ever, we have learned, discrimi
nation is practiced on the sole
grounds that people’s names, their
race, and their religion are differ
ent. There are offices, stores,
trades, and industries that discour
age the use of Jewish personnel
There is a phase of this employ
ment discrimination that is really
tragic, namely, that of Jewish cm
ployers refusing to engage Jewish
workers because they have allowed
themselves to believe that their
non-Jewish patronage requires it
By silent consent, the Jew and
Christian are thus united in this
injustice to the Jew who seeks an
opportunity in commercial and in
dustrial life. I appeal to both Jev
and Christian to face this prob
lem and to solve it. Let them join
hands, not in crushing the Jewish
worker, but in uprooting the mo
tives and prejudice that make tb
employers forget the teaching of
Hillel and the teaching of Jesus.
(Copyright, 1931, by the J. T. A., Inc.)
Pogelstein Receives Golden Cup
Left to right, Benjamin Altheimer, Ludwig Vogelstein, and Mr*. Maurice Steinfeld
A golden cup, in tribute to services in behalf of Reform
Judaism in America, and to his 60th birthdav, observed
recently, was presented to Ludwig Vogelstein. of New York
City, at the recent XXXII Biennial Council of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations in Philadelphia. Mr. Vogcl-
stein was re-elected to the Chairmanship of the Executive Board.
The committee on presentation consisted of Benjamin Al-
theimer, of New York; David A. Brown, of New York, chair
man of the Union’s Board of Finance; and Marcus Rauh, of
Pittsburgh. Mrs. Steinfeld, of St. Louis, is president of the
National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods and a member of
the Union’s Executive Board.