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The Southern Israelite
$
89
is the net price
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Westinghouse
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Georgia
POWER HsjR COMEANY
A CITIZEN WHEREVER WE SERVE
Reform Judaism
and IF'hat It Means
A friend, who is a nominal member
of the Synagogue, recently asked me
why the Rabbis of the Reform Synagogs
cannot come to terms with the ortho
dox community. He referred to a num
ber of sermons in which certain Re
form Rabbis expressed their approval
of nationalistic Zionist policies. My
reply was that in twenty-five years, I
had not heard of any Reform Rabbis
attacking or criticizing the beliefs or
practices of our orthodox brethren.
These things had ceased to be contro
versial issues for a generation or long
er ; some Reform Congregations had
re-adopted customs and rituals which
an older generation had discarded, and
and some conservative and orthodox
congregations had introduced such Re
form innovations as the organ, and
family pews, late Friday evening Serv
ices, and even one Sunday morning
Service. Zionism, however, if it be
spiritually interpreted, was essentially
an economic and political policy, which
found adherents and antagonists among
both factions. When occasionally con
troversy occured, it had been by ob
servation that it arose from an attack
on Reform. Recently, these attacks
have issued, not from the orthodox
ranks, but from that section of Jewry
which, for want of a better term, has
been called the Intellegenzia.
The latest of these is from the Edi
tor of the Menorah Journal. In the
October number of that Journal, which
has never been friendly to the Re
form Movement, we find an article,
"Chaos or Creation”, in which the Edi
tor attempts to prove that the theory
of Reform has been mainly instru
mental in the breakdown or chaos of
our Jewish communal life. Let it be
noted at the outset that the article is
no vulgar "attack”, in the journalistic
sense of the word. With considerable
urbanity, a show of fairness and sym
pathy, the author traces the Jewish
debacle to the influence of what mod
ern Jewish writers like to call Reform
“Ideology". What, indeed, the author
lacks in historical knowledge and logi
cal power, he compensates by his tol
erance and warm-heartedness, as wit
ness the following quotations: "The
adherents of Reform are infinitely bet
ter than their theories.
Their theories may be Govish but their
hearts are Jewish". And again: "I
believe that it would be difficult to
find men of higher character, of more
genuine piety and public spirit, of
broader-handed generosity, than count
less ‘German Jews’ of the older, and
happily, still living generations in
America." One ought, of course, to
be grateful for these eulogies, but I
can’t suppress a queasy recollection
of speeches to Jewish audiences by
Christian politicians that ended with
the immortal phrase, "some of my best
friends are Jews.” Timeo Danaos et
dona forentos.
All these fair-seeming phrases lead
to what was intended as a devastating
critique of Reform Judaism as a
tanschauung. The argument may be
summarized as follows: Social and
religious forces in the Jewish com
munity have reached an impasse
Philanthropy, Zionism and Reform
Judaism have failed in solving their
respective problems. The main cause
goes back to "Jewish Emancipation in
Western Europe, that is, to the 1-rcnch
Revolution and Napoleon, and to the
German constitution of 1848.” Con
sequently, "a breach was made in the
yvorld-community of Israel which was
the basic fact of Jewish history ever
since the Dispersion." "Reform”, con
tends the author, "did not arise out of
an inner evolution of Judaism itself,
but was formulated in answer to pres
sure from without.” "Reform was an
attempt to pour the rich old Jewish
wine into a narrow Christian bottle."
"Reform was a movement of assimila
tion in the sense that it adopted the
notions of Christian Reformation as
regards State and Church." “Essenti-
ally, therefore, in Religion itself, also,
the Reform Jew assimilated to the
Christian by accepting his theory of
religion as but one interest in life,
instead of religion’s interpenetration
and governance of the whole of life,
as in the Jewish tradition.”
As a consequence of this assimilation,
Jewish temples are empty, Rabbis have
become ministers, and the laity (Re
form, of course) found a compensatory
outlet in philanthropy. "The budgets
of our Federation of Jewish Charities
mount, while Jewish education starves
and Jewish learning and culture gasp
for life." The solution of these pro
blems is reserved for another article
by the author, but one can infer that
since the dominant cause is the theory
of Reform Judaism, that we are Jews
only by religion (sic), the remedy is
for Reform to repudiate that vicious
doctrine to embrace the “historical con
ception of Judaism", to believe in the
ideals of Zionism, and to foster He
brew Education.
The article contains a good bit ot
pointed and valuable criticism. I ^ n< *
myself in hearty accord with the author
when he points out that “criticism of
Jewish leaders—have been regarded as
a kind of lese majeste, precisely as in
any dictatorial regime." “Boards
Charities and Relief Committees nave
long considered themselves immune
from criticism of their acts." “Ami now
even discussion of larger principle?- an
ideals of Jewish life was to be sti 1L d
on the surface at least—by the so-
ed union of Zionists and non-Zior
We should welcome vigorous,
tempered criticisms, both of '
and movements, as necessary co ^
tives.
We welcome also his strong pR
intenser application to the pro ?>