"CRISES" Rabbi James G. Heller The Judge of the Universe "Israel, Servant or Master?" "Beyond the Horizon" 'The Lion and the Lamb" Philadelphia, Pa. 1917-1918 Stack Annex Oo A DISCOURSE AT TEMPLE KENESETH ISRAEL. By RABBI JAMES G. HELLER. Philadelphia, December 9, 1917. According to the classical teaching of ancient Buddhism, the history of the universe is divided into cycles. These are of protracted duration, and in each r Civilization occurs a similar spiritual pageant, a similar Moves man development from the invincible inspiration of a Buddha to the gradually accumulating murmurings of mankind. Man is fettered to the Prome- thean rock of time. He is lashed to the slowly rotating wheel of the instability of all things. And as he lies there, every muscle taut, the sweat of anguish starting from his brow, he is forced by inexorable Fate, Karma, to view again and again, with every turn of the wheel, the slow dsintegration of each new-born hope. The idea is not confined to Indian mysticism. Bertrand Russell tells the same story, a satirical and adamant God who has created man only to watch his antics, rainbow- winged butterfly though he may be, on the end of the needle that pierces the very vitals of his spirit. But we may dissociate this view from its pessimistic tinge. There does seem to be a certain periodicity in human thought, in the great movements of the human spirit. Evo- lutionists and philosophers of history are wont to picture life as an ascending spiral. Life seems to return again and again to the same station, but it is only in point of horizon- tal position, not of vertical elevation. Before Socrates the thought of the Greek sages was centered upon the external world. Socrates turned the eye of mankind inward. It was he who first voiced the idea expressed in our modern 5C07S1S age by Pope, "The proper study of mankind is man." And, superficially at least, throughout the middle ages this ten- dency persisted. But the sfan of the Renaissance broke through the clouds with which the Dark Ages had obscured the light, and once more the race went forward, conquering Nature, centering effort and research upon the world with- out. What momentum the movement gained, how thor- oughly it permeated the art and religion and civilization of western Europe, is common knowledge ! But the pendulum seems again to be at the turning- point, ready once more to begin upon its downward and A crisis Before upward sweep. Even before the war imma- terial, idealistic, even mystical forces had be- gun to struggle for preponderance, and like David they had cast their stone at the brow of the Goliath of monistic materialism. Maeterlinck was lending the drama the haunt- ing melodies of a dream- fantasia. Hauptmann had turned from stark, revolting realism to the realities of inspiration, beauty, good, and faith. The neo-spiritualists, such as Lodge, Wallace, James, Crookes and Lombroso, men of rigid scientific training and thought, were striving to vindicate the soul, to confront materialism with that with which alone it will reckon, "facts." Even the pragmatic school of thought, that was the philosophic, immaculately-conceived child of the scientific method, had slapped its astounded parent in the face and had begun to adopt the ideas of God, immortality and freedom, as necessary postulates, which could be humanly demonstrated by the "will to believe," or, in another instance, by the reality of spirit in the great life-stream. Upon a world already in the throes of a new birth burst the pangs of universal war. At first paralysis ensued. The poets became incoherent; historians and War Intensifies and Hastens philosophers lost all sense of proportion in their insane anathemas; the seventy savants of the Germanic Empire pledged their names to a host of palpable lies; even such a man as Karl Liebknecht forgot his cause for a moment in the stress of partisanship. And while the cannon were bellowing like bulls of Bashan, while scientists were blessing .the world with an edifying spectacle of the genuineness of their boasted "scientific dis- passionateness," while the air was full 'of literary missiles jostling those of steel and iron, men were dying in droves, Europe itself was waking to scalding tears such as it had never known before. The heart that had almost died o fatty degeneration and of emotional atrophy woke under the prick of cold steel. For years and years we had built us a palace, founded upon the ruins of the past. Light and life and luxury radiated everywhere. But in those ruins stirred the ghosts of the past, the ghosts of ourselves lying in wait, hoarding their strength for "the Day," when our gods, our Thors and Wotans should encounter their Mid- gard-serpents, their Lokis, their Fenris-wolves, and all the horde of the nether-world of material things, of things with- out spirit, which they themselves had conjured into being. It was a true "Goetterdaemmerung," a "Twilight of the Gods," the false gods of our own moulding. Yet, as Mr. Wells delineated in his now well-known book, "Mr. Britling Sees It Through," the emotional up- heaval did not end with the terror and the i ,1 T\ r '. ,' Concrete hate and the pam. Men s spiritual reaction opinions Must was immediate and natural. In the realm of Gradually Emerge. religion, of the progress of the soul of the individual and of the mass, as well as in commerce and even art, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Men at once asked, "If there is a God, why does He permit this slaughter?" And pulpit and pew have both been strug- gling with that problem ever since. The solutions thus far proposed, that have come to my attention, have been no so- lutions. Nor do I claim to possess the master-key. My aim is merely to tell the tale and to put the question fairly and squarely. With the lapse of time the problem has crystallized. What at first were vague dissatisfactions and slowly waking religious consciousness have little by little become trans- muted into definite statement. I would that I had the time to bring before you, who must be interested in this spiritual upheaval of our world, the various and separate systems that have been evolved, the hundreds of volumes that have wrestled with the moral and theological ghosts raised by the war. A voluminous work could, and probably will, be written upon the subject. Within the time at our disposal we can but peep into the busy human workshop. I have selected three books as typical and helpful. Even these three must be skimmed through, touching only the most salient points. The first is a very recent Mr. Wells, the Herald of a work by H. G. Wells, entitled "God, the In- visible King." Like a knight of the olden days Mr. Wells has sauntered forth in full panoply. With the point of his doughty spear he spurns the slinking de- fenders of the ancient castles of other gods. He is the herald of a new faith, the champion from whose crest blows saucily the ribbon of modernity. He and the thousands of others who, he claims, defend the same cause (but not one of whom is named) cannot brook the dogmas and supersti- tions of such outworn religions as Judaism and Christianity. Christianity, in the gospel according to Wells, is no more than an absurd mythology, an impossible and unworthy doctrine of "non-resistance," and a criminal exalting of the individual. Judaism is dismissed as being a vengeful, tribal, narrow religion. Thus we see the true mediaeval chivalry with which Mr. Wells jogs about upon his quill-charger and launches fiery and fearless attacks against windmills. Ac- cording to Mr. Wells himself, the greater part of the book is devoted to clearing up misconceptions rather than to ex- pounding the "simple and clear" elements of his own doc- trine. Ever since "Mr. Britling" appeared I have been eager for a more definite exposition of Mr. Wells' views. For, in the early work, he evinced as positive a turn of mind in repudiating other faiths and in apostrophising his own views, views which to my modest faculties appeared strangely lebulous and unsatisfactory. But, to the task! What, then, is "The Invisible King"? Let us assume iiat we have followed our knight in his campaigns, that we have seen centuries topple at each page before HIS criticism his onslaughts. Let us assume that we have of other Faitns - t perused his chapter on "Heresies"; that we have carefully Followed our author's attempts to show the evils of specu- lation, of the doctrines of the trinity, and so on; to show :hat "God is not magic"; that He is not providence, that He does not influence the world at all except through the tninds of men; that He does not desire "quietism," that is, |i life of abstinence, of asceticism; that He does not punish, Is not, like the Jewish God, the author of divine "frightful- less" ; that He does not wish to be feared, nor to frighten :hildren; and lastly that God is not sexual, and has no spe- :ial concern with such matters. Wells claims that there are two distinct ideas implied n the word "God," the one he calls the "Veiled Being," Sod as Nature, the other the "Invisible King," His Positive God as Creator. From this point let me for Teachings as the most part quote Mr. Wells himself. "We to Go"D"s). After an interval Mr. Wedgwood said he thought it had come into his head who our control was. He had some recollection that in the i8th century a man named David Brainerd was missionary to the North American Indians. We sat again and the following was written : "I am glad you know me. I had not power to complete name or give more details. I knew that secret of the district. It was guarded by the Indians, and was made known to two independent circles. Neither of them succeeded, but the day will come that will uncover the gold." It was suggested that this meant heavenly truth. "I spoke of earthly gold." Mr. Wedgwood said the writing was so faint he thought power was failing. 37 "Yes, nearly gone. / wrote during my five years of worn. It kept my heart alive." Mr. Wedgwood writes : I could not think at first where I had ever. heard of Bramerd, but I learned from my daughter in London that my sister-in-law, who lived with me forty or fifty years ago, was a great admirer of Brainerd, and seemed to have an account of his life, but I am quite certain that 1 never opened the book and knew nothing of the dates, which are all correct, as well as his having been a missionary to the Susquehannas. My daughter has sent me extracts from his life, stating that he was born in 1718, and not 1717, as planchette wrote. But the biographical dictionary says that he died in 1747, aged 30. Mrs. R. writes that she had no knowledge whatever of David Brainerd before this. The biographical dictionary gives the following : "Brainerd, David. A celebrated American missionary, who signal- ized himself by his successful endeavors to convert the Indians on the Susquehanna, Delaware, etc. Died, aged 30, 1747." It is perhaps noteworthy in connection with the last sentence ot the planchette writing that in the life of Brainerd by Jonathan Edwarus, extracts given from his journal show that he wrote a good deal, e. g., "Feb. 3rd, 1744. Could not but write as well as meditate," etc. "Feb. 1 5th, 1/45. Was engaged in writing almost all the day." He invariably speaks of comfort in connection with writing. This is a rather convincing case of the appearance ot a personality about whom only one of those present at the sitting had any knowledge, and of the details of whose life, given in the communication, none of them knew. I cite one more of the many interesting cases given in this work: THE ABRAHAM FLORENTINE CASE. In August, 1874, Mr. Moses was staying with a friend, a medical man, in the Isle of Wight, and at one of the "sittings" which they had together a communication was received with singular impetuosity, pur- porting to be from a spirit who gave the name Abraham Florentine, and stated that he had been engaged in the United States war of i5i3, but only lately had entered into the spiritual world, having died at Brooklyn, U. S. A., on August 5th, 1874, at the age of 83 years, one month, and seventeen days. None present knew of such a person, but Mr. Moses published the particulars as above stated in a London news- paper, asking at the same time American journals to copy, so that, if possible, the statements might be verified or disproved. In course of time an American lawyer, "a claim-agent;' who had been auditing the claims of soldiers in New York, saw the paragraph, and wrote to an American newspaper, to say that he had come across the name A. Florentine, and that a full record of the person who made the claim could be made from the U. S. Adjutant General's office. Accordingly, the headquarters of the U. S. army was applied to, and an official reply was received, stating that a private, named Abraham Florentine, had served in the American war in the early part of the century. Ultimately the widow of Abraham Florentine was found to be alive. Dr. Crowell, a Brooklyn physician, by means of a directory, discov- ered her address in Brooklyn, and saw and questioned the wiaow. She stated that her husband had fought in the war of 1812, that he was a rather impetuous man, and had died in Brooklyn on August 5tn, 1874, and that his 83rd birthday was on the previous June 8th. He was therefore 83 years, one month, 27' days old, when he died, the only discrepancy being 17 for 27 days, a mistake that might easily have arisen when recording the message made through Mr. Moses when entranced in the Isle of Wight. Full details of this case were published in Volume ii of the "Proceedings of the S. P. R." Thousands of such instances have been collected in almost every land of the Occident. The pages of written conclusion history and of folk-lore are full of myriads Drawn. more. How are we to explain away the im- plication of such messages, when testified to by the most competent witnesses in the world? If these messages do not prove the existence of a discarnate mind, striving trom its side to pierce the veil that shrouds the two worlds, then I confess that I cannot understand them at all. Nor do these unseen beings confine their attempts to giving details, intimate details, of their lives on earth, that will establish their identity. They try often to tell us of the spirit-world, of its desires and passions, its unfoldings and liberations. But of this I shall not speak this morning. Suffice it for us now that another life does await us, of which this is but the prelude, and that we and our dear ones shall go forward hand in hand into the profounder consciousness that lies beyond the horizon of death. Some one whom we love is taken from us. Our spirit is stunned. We gaze upon the lifeless form with the dumb sorrow of the brute. Life seems worthless; Death without devoid of all meaning. Of what use is all the toil, the sweat of our brow, the straining of our hearts and minds? All the years that we have spent, 39 all for our loved ones, all that they might not have to face the hard realities of life! And 'they must in the end suc- cumb to adamantine Death! We cry out in anguish, and rebelliousness. And no answer comes to our straining souls. God, grant us but to look once more into the eye of our beloved, to hear the music of his voice, to clasp his warm palm in ours! Still no answer! The mouth closed forever will no more be wreathed with smiles of love. .Midnight has passed over the darting light of the soul behind his eye. Ah, my friends, but is there no answer? Does our beloved sleep forevermore? Has his spirit been snuffed . out by Death's icy breath ? Does he no longer If We see us and love us, and perhaps yearn towards Could See! us from his starry heights? No! it is we who sleep, it is we w T hose eyes are closed, whose vision is too dim to discern the butterfly spread its wings freed from the prisoning chrysalis. For him has come the "dawn behind all dawns," gently rousing him to the mystery and the profundity ot the spirit- world. Let me quote you part of an ineffably beauti- ful message, telling of the first experiences of a spirit after what men call "death": "I saw the earth lying dark and cold under the stars in the first beginning of the wintry sunrise. It was the land- scape I knew so well, and had looked at so often. Suddenly sight was born to me ; my eyes became open. I saw the spiritual world dawn upon the actual, like the blossoming of a flower. For this I have no words. Nothing I could say would make any of you comprehend the wonder of that revelation, but it will be yours in time. I was drawn as if by affinity to the world which is now mine. But I am not fettered there. I am much drawn to earth, but by no unhappy chain. I am drawn to those I love; to the places much endeared." Finally, let me make clear two things. First, I do not advocate making a religion of "spiritualism," as many have done. Survival after death is an unanswer- Duty of A11 to able proof of one of the great tenets of every Investi e ate - 40 religion, and should serve to strengthen all. Second, I do not ask you to consult mediums, or yourselves to try to communicate with the spirits of the deceased. I counsel you against the vampires who lie in wait for you, especially at times of bereavement, when one's critical faculty is cer- tainly not at its best. But what I do urge each and every one of you to do is to read the works of the masters, to know what is being done to conquer death's mystery. Whether you are in agreement with all that I have said or not, you owe yourself the duty of sincere investigation. Can there be a question more vital? Would not an answer smooth the pathway of life for you, solace many of your heart- aches ? Do not then scoff and turn away ! Surely the time has come when you must know. And remember that no man who has studied this question, even though from .1 spirit of contention, has been able to escape the inevitable answer. The very air of the sphere today seems alive wita pregnant voices, in the words of Tennyson: ''The Ghost in man, the Ghost that once was man, But cannot wholly free itself from man, Are calling to each other thro' a dawn Stranger than earth has ever seen ; the veil Is rending and the voices of the day Are heard across the voices of the dark." The future opens up before us in infinite vistas ot nobler and loftier life. And the past? May not the ans^ er be in Wordsworth's immortal lines on Immortality? "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting : The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar ; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home. Amen. Stan anb ffiamb? A DISCOURSE AT TEMPLE KENESETH ISRAEL. By RABBI JAMES G. HELLER. Philadelphia, March 10, 1918. I have set myself this morning the task of considering the relationship of two 'great Jewish movements, Reform Judaism and Zionism. And it is with zest Reform j uda i S m and pleasure that the task is undertaken. For and Zionism to it is my conviction that by so doing we shall perforce come to examine the most crucial question in the Jewish life of our day at its "breaking-point." We are drift- ing this way and that. It is well that at least occasionally we take our bearings. The crisis and the conflict are to be seen most clearly by a comparison of the tenets and views of thorough-going Reform and equally thorough-going Zionism. I ami sure that you must have heard Zionism tongue-lashed by some of my esteemed colleagues, that you have heard it excommunicated and banned. Are these two great Jewish movements, then, utterly irreconcilable, utterly incompatible? Are we at the cross-roads, compelled to choose one or the other path henceforward? Must it be another case in which the Lion and the Lamb are to lie down together, only with the Lamb inside? And there is a certain personal poignancy to this ques- tion. It is much more than academic. I have to confess to a Reform Jewish rearing. Try as I may, I cannot plead guilty to the accusation, levelled recently at the heads of Zionists as a class, of being a "Goluth" Jew, of viewing every Jewish problem from the spiritual background of the Ghetto. If I am a Reform Jew, if I believe in the liberal tendencies of that branch of the faith, am I doomed to eternal inconsistency? I confess that I am at this moment utterly unconscious of any such psychic disturbance as would accompany so violent an internal turmoil. 42 Strangest of all, the virus seems spreading; the con- tagion of this alarming illogicality leaps from mind to mind, until it has found lodgment in many men, rabbis and lay- men, who find it possible to be both Reform Jews and Zionists, whose number is legion and growing daily. This is an intensely practical question, which finds a forum at almost every meeting of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. What shall be our procedure ? Shall we read these men out of the religion? Shall we brand them apostates to the cause? Shall we indict them for logical blindness? Or shall we do our own thinking, and examine the situation with impartial liberalism? % Let us, rather, consider this question, as interesting as it is vital, from the two angles of history and logic. \Ye are told by Reform Anti-Zionists that no believing Reform Jew can be a Zionist. Let us see how far this is borne out by facts. I shall, of necessity, treat both aspects of the question much more curtly than they deserve. The beginnings of Reform are to be found in the liberal movements that agitated Gentile Europe, mostly Attitude of ripples from the French Revolution. The Reform Judaism. young an d ar dent and ambitious among the Jews too were stirred by the clarion-call to Liberty, Equal- ity, and Fraternity. But they had a hard struggle, against conservatism and dogmatism within, and against intolerance and hatred without. But the new impulse gained momen- tum as it rolled down the slope of time. The premise of Reform Judaism, its most hopeful contention, seemed to be that only if the Jew would acquire culture, learning, would turn from money-lending to agriculture and art, only if he would strip off all that made him foreign in appear- ance and in custom, only if he would demonstrate his in- tense patriotism, and become a German of the Germans, and so on, would Anti-Semitism disappear. This was the only remedy. The non-Jew had been repelled by the clannish- ness of the Jew. The hand of Universalism, of brother- 43 hood, was stretched out to clasp his. But let the Jew shake off his chains, and grasp that hand, and all political and social disabilities would be forgotten. Rabbinical confer- ences convened to debate and to formulate the new faith. The young, the ambitious, the idealistic, all flocked to the new banner. A generous ardor suffused the souls of those who were re-creating their ancient faith, who were re- kindling its *'Ner Tamid," its "perpetual lamp," at the altar of modernism and progress. In 1885, at the Pittsburgh Conference, the rabbis then and there assembled, proclaimed as the principles of Reform Judaism : the Jewish God-idea ; the Bible as the record of the priestly mission of the Jew; freedom to modify or reject laws unsuited to our own time; progress and liberalism; the approach of the Messianic era, that the Jew desires neither the return to Palestine, nor the re-establishment of the sacrificial system : fellowship with other religions; immortality, no hell or paradise; and finally, social progress and justice. In 1897, at a Con- ference held in Montreal, Dr. Isaac M. Wise, the venerated pioneer of American Reform, voiced his opposition to the new Zionism of Theodor Herzl, and fostered a resolution, passed at the time, rejecting Zionism, and contrasting it with the universal and non-political aspirations of Reform. All the facts, except the divergence of one or two men in early American Reform, such as Felsenthal of Chicago, point in the same direction. If we are to con- sider Reform Judaism as a religion with a fixed theology determined by these various pronunciamentos, which we are not at liberty to change, then Reform Judaism and Zionism are incompatible, utterly so! But I cannot feel that this alone can decide the question. The very nature of Re- form, with its oft affirmed liberalism, welcomes beneficent change. Reform is opposed to dogmatism, to intolerance. Therefore, we have the right to enter further into the ques- tion. In their days the pioneers of Reform tried to revital- ize religion in the light of the need of the times, shall we not have the same privilege, nay duty, in our own? Clearer understanding will perhaps come to us, if we 44 consider Reform Judaism as having two essential aspects. Reform Divided Let us remember that Reform is both a set of into TWO religious convictions, and also a conception of the Jewish "mission." Though partaking of the force of a dogma, the latter is rather a means, a plan, to carry out the other ideas, or ideals, of the faith. In other words, there are, logically, two distinct elements in Reform, which, though historically parallel, can be separated for purposes of our consideration: that is, Reform as Jewish liberalism, and Reform as a typical dispersion-cult. The first tells us what for us Judaism is, the second how best we are to put it into practice as a social movement. The first, that is the evolutionary idea (religion as a plastic and human instrument), gave rise to a new view of the Bible as the work of man, to a change from a personal to a na- tional Messiah, to the abrogation and modification of many customs and practices, and to a change in the social status of the modern Jew, by modifications of language, dress, and habit. The second, which was, as I have said, the ideal of the Mission, of the dispersion, led to the expurgation from the ritual of all mention of a return to Zion. All of this, both these efforts, rose from a desire to gain social and civic rights. The Jews of those days were profoundly con- vinced that all prejudice was due to misunderstanding, and that much of this could be traced to Jewish exclusiveness and peculiarity. Remove then all the barriers, except those of creed, tear down the ancient walls that had shut in the Jew and made him an alien in the midst of all the nations. Religion and progress must be combined, let the Jew be a German among Germans, a Frenchman among Frenchmen. Freedom was spreading like a forest-fire, leaping from na- tion to nation. Racial and national lines seemed disappear- ing in the glow of the conflagration. The Jew, too, argued, these men, must do more than absorb modern notions, than rationalize and culturize his faith, he must become in every sense except his religion a patriotic member of the nations in the midst of which he lived. The point that I wish to make as strongly as possible 45 is that, as closely interwoven as all this is in the sermoniz- ing and the indefatigable writing of that day, The Real it can be divided into two distinct aspects, the one as to the content of the cult, of the faith, and the other as to the best method of its preservation and fur- therance. With the utmost sincerity, having heard or read the views of both sides repeatedly, it seems to me that we have here the real question at issue. The reform anti- Zionist accepts both these aspects. Upon his side he has almost all the weight of aurhority ; practically every dictum, practically every expression by the authoritative bodies of Reform, bears out his view. In the last analysis, the Re- form Zionist, if he define his position clearly, must argue and believe that it is possible to accept Reform as liberal Judaism, as modern and progressive Judaism, without also being compelled to acquiesce in its formula for the preserva- tion of Jewish life. Or, to reduce this complicated abstrac- tion to definite theological terms, that we may believe in an evolutionary idea of customs, adhere to the teachings of the prophets, and still believe that the Jew may best live his life as a Jew, and accomplish his purposes in the social economy of the human race, by some other method than that of the enforced dispersion that has been our fate for centuries. At the present moment, I am not arguing the justice of one view or the other, merely their validity as interpreta- tions of Reform Judaism, or, as I said at the outset, the logical compatibility of Reform True Liberalism. Judaism and Zionism. If Reform Judaism ' were a closely welded church, with a strict and exact state- ment of its doctrines, it would be much simpler to say what can and what cannot be done in its name. Among other sects the problem would be much simpler, Reform Zion- ists would simply be excommunicated as heretics. But Re- form Judaism has again and again refused to sanction any such application of authority, opposed as this would be to the very principles for which it stands. Many of our rab- bis reject angrily the term "Reformed Judaism" as a libel. 4 6 They claim that theirs is no sect with hard and fast dogmas, that it is continually changing, and must by its own protesta- tions be ever changing, ever liberal. There can be no doubt of the sincerity of their wrath upon such occasions, but their practice does not always bear out their conviction. For what can .one say of the attempt to read Zionists and Zion- ism out of the authoritative organizations of Reform Juda- ism in America? One can understand opposition, sincere opposition to the program of the Zionists; one can respect heartily those who hold to the early Reform Mission-Ideal whole-souledly. But it is difficult for one to be patient with these attempts at excommunication, with the fanaticism that characterizes so many of our self-styled "liberals." Our grandfathers, in their day, were striving to revitalize Judaism, to lend it strength and youth by the changes they wrought. Has the day passed, when this privilege may be used? Have we not the same right as had they, to alter, if need be, some of their convictions and conclusions, now that the times and the needs of the Jew are so radically different from what they were when the Ghetto-walls crum- bled in western Europe? We may differ among ourselves as to the advisability, or as to the necessity, or as 10 me nature of the changes that should be wrought; but surely as Reform Jew r s we have not the right to deny a place in our ranks to men who believe with us, who stand shoulder to shoulder with, us in their liberal Judaism, because they have a different conception of how both their and our. con- victions may be effectualized. I plead for a finer spirit of sympathy, of brotherhood, of unity, and of liberalism than has yet been shown. I plead for adherence not to the letter of all that was written in those excited days of the first flush of freedom, they themselves, those pioneers, those hardy, brave pioneers of the Jewish spirit, would not have wished it. They would be the last to demand a servile acceptance of all the principles they formulated under the stress of their own times. True loyalty to them means to carry on their spirit, to apply it to the spiritual needs of our 47 day, to judge our problems as did they by the criteria of duty to our faith, our race, and thereby to all mankind. Let us, then, not trouble ourselves overmuch concerning this question of mere formal compatibility. Much more im- portant for us as men and as Jews is the second division, the second great problem that a comparison of Reform Judaism and Zionism brings to us for serious thought this evening: what is the spiritual relation of Reform Judaism and Zion- ism, what is our status to-day, what is the prospect of our immediate future, how best are we to meet the situation? I shall examine this question from two sides, first, from the negative angle, how far things look dark, in how far Zion- ism is a remedy for the ills of the present ; and second, whether Zionism sets before the Jew an ideal and a project that will supply the lacking force. These are only two phases of the same question, two sides of the shield. An ideal is a rainbow cast upon the celestial vistas of the future by the sun of our purpose shining through the storm-clouds of the present. The strange thing about our situation is that, with all the accusations and counter-accusations of "optimism" and "pessimism," both sides diagnose our situation Forces Mak with remarkable unanimity of verdict. r^, , u r j. Integration. 1 hough we may boast of our attainments in this land, though we may point with justifiable pride to the rapid strides made by the Jew, though we may glow at the names of men like Judah P. Benjamin, Louis D. Brandeis, we all feel at one time or another, when we commune with our own souls in the silences of the night, that all is not as it should be, that with the prosperity that we have found, there has not been to say the least a corresponding effectiveness in Judaism, in the accomplishment of the sacred "mission" we have set ourselves. Nay, to all of us come moments when our observation and experience seem to press us toward the conclusion that not only have we failed to live up to our enlarged opportunities, but that we are steadily and rapidly losing ground. Those who have studied our situation in a thorough-going manner seem con- vinced that it is no less than ominous and fraught with danger. Ruppin, in his famous study of the Jewish life of our times, tries to show that the forces which preserved the Jew in the past are no longer operative. According to the facts, gathered with .great care by this eminent statistician, Jewish persistence was due to three great causes (omitting the greatest of all, that of religious loyalty) : first, economic divergences in occupation, which to a great extent prevented contact with the peoples among whom the Jews lived ; sec- ond, their continual exile from countries where culture wa- growing to lands still at a low state of development; and third, the prevalence of large families and a high birthrate. In civilized lands, where the Jew has attained comparative equality, we find, according to Ruppin, three corresponding causes that are bringing about the rapid assimilation that can be demonstrated statistically in those European lands where the figures are available: first, the economic progrc-- of the Jews; second, the declining birthrate; and third, gen- uine dispersion. Israel Cohen, also, cites figures to show the large amount of voluntary apostasy and of intermarriage in our day, a tendency that began 0/1/3' with emancipation. Rahel Levin wrote to her brother, thirty years after the death of Moses Mendelssohn, that half the Berlin com- munity had been baptized. Exaggeration though this un- doubtedly is, it indicates w r hat the state of affairs must have been. In this country, unfortunately, we cannot obtain statis- tics of apostasy and of intermarriage. Personal observa- tion seems to show that we have not suffered such inroads here, though the proportion is growing daily. This is only because we are not yet as far along the road of assimila- tion as are our brethren abroad. But let us review as briefly as possible our own status here in America. Pittsburgh Jewry was told not so long ago, as has almost every Jewish community, that the only bond be- ReiigiousTie tween Jews is their religion. I shall not Loosening. shirk this issue. A simple calculation will give us some idea of where we stand religiously. The Jew- 49 ish population of Philadelphia is calculated as 200,000. There are nineteen regularly organized synagogues in the city, that hold services the year round. Let us make the most liberal estimate possible, and say that these nineteen synagogues are filled to capacity every Sabbath. They would hold no more than 20,000 men and women, or in other words, not one-tenth of. the Jewish community. I need not assure you that Philadelphia, though it boasts many loyal and effective workers, does not fill every seat in its houses of worship. What conclusion are we to draw? If religion is to be the only bond between Jews, and only so small a minority, such a fragment of the whole, can or will maintain its connection with Judaism, then, indeed, the outlook must be very dark for those who hold such a view. My friends, I feel myself to be in the position of the Norse God, Thor, the Thunderer, who visited the home of the giants in disguise, and was invited to engage in a trial of strength. One of the tests was that he should drain a horn, or beaker of water at one gulp. With all his might he strove, but the water went down not an inch. As, de- jected and vanquished, he was about to leave the home of the giants, he was told that the other end of the flagon had been in the sea. He had tried to quaff the ocean at one swallow. I am longing to tell you in detail of the real con- dition of the American Jew, to bring before your mind's eye a true picture of where we stand. Facts and instances come thronging, and I must confine myself to the briefest out- line. First came the Portuguese Jews to this land of freedom. They gave a noble example of patriotism, and where are most of them now? Except for a few scat- American tered families and groups they have vanished. Jewish Development. How are we to account for this, if we take stock in the argument so often advanced that the Jew can- not disappear, and that we need have no fear, because we have persisted and have survived for so long? How shajl we reconcile this fatuous optimism with the disappearance of such large communities of Jews as those of Egypt, China, 50 Greece, and Sicily in the Middle Ages? But, let us pass on! Next came the waves of German Jewish immigration, bringing with them the germs of Reform. It was the sec- ond, American-born generation that really established Re- form as a religion in America, as it was this generation that insisted upon the use of English and the curtailment of Hebrew. But with success came a new step, the young be- gan to drift away from Judaism almost entirely. Foreign movements made small inroads, Christian Science, Ethical Culture, New Thought, none of them serious, or large, but useful as straws to show which way the mind was blow- ing. The largest losses have been in the towns, where con-- tact is more frequent between Jew and non-Jew. In the cities the process has been delayed by the inertia of the large mass. However, in the cities, too, we have been losing, at the top and at the bottom, in the highest and in the lowest classes. It is the middle-class, the bourgeoisie of American Jewry that supports the synagogue to-day, excluding the obvious exceptions. Social ambition, wealth, the spirit of the age, and innumerable competing abstractions, are alien- ating the so-called upper classes. Social barriers erected across the entrance to the synagogue, natural radicalism, pre-occupation with the business of living, frequent contact with Christians, have had their effect upon the Jewish working-class. And where lies the strength of Judaism? According to those who espouse the Reform Mission-ideal, the Jew is From Angle of to translate the principles of the Bible into practice, to be the servant of the preachments of the prophets. Only a small minority attend any religious school, and one can hardly see that the influence exerted upon these few is very vital or permanent. Even our Re- form optimists deplore the un-Jewishness that seems to pervade even the pulpit when it expounds Judaism to the faithful remnant. Does the typical American Jewish child receive instruction in the home, instruction that might ob- viate and replace all the rest? Shorn of almost all the picturesque ceremonial that even Reform wishes to retain. careless of the abstract truths to be gleaned from Bible- reading, our young men and women go forth into the world with no more than a vague feeling of loyalty to a social group, consciousness of group-prejudices, and of the name "Jew." Many Reform anti-Zionists admit this deplorable state of affairs, but assert that it is only temporary, that inspired by our glorious opportunities we shall recover Only Courage and go forward to a more glowing future, and Action . . . . Will Avail. But where are the signs, no matter how faint, of this revival? As a mere statement, we cannot be con- vinced by it. \Ve ask for the causes that \vill bring about this longed-for rejuvenescence. And w r e hear no answer save that we have always won in the past, therefore we shall recover again. Past experience, no matter how oft repeated, is not an unfallible indication of what the future will bring forth. And, as Ruppin showed, we are facing utterly novel forces in Jewish life to-day. We dare no longer trust to the good fortune that has brought us down the ages. To deserve Our heritage we must ourselves en- sure our continued and revivified existence. In our day, too, we must fight, not against persecution, not clasping the martyr's stake, but against the ghost-like foe of in- difference, of slow encroaching alienation. Did Jochanan Ben Zacchai simply remain quiescent and trust to good luck, when he saw the Jewish nation sinking to destruction before the Roman eagle? No, he laid the foundation for a. Judaism that would survive the long mediaeval night, by a sturdy and hopeful system of Jewish schools. And he schemed, had himself taken out of the besieged city in a coffin, played upon the vanity of Vespasian by predicting that he would soon be called to Rome as "Impcrator," and gained permission to found that little school at Jabne, that little rock upon which Jewish survival was founded. We, too, must be men, must face our problems, must find the means to re-fire our young men, to make them again see visions and dream dreams. Here in this land of liberty the Reform mission-idea 52 has had its trial. Have we converted our neighbors to our The "Mission" strict monotheism ? Have we, indeed, given idea Has r j se to the Unitarian movement, or caused the American Constitution to be? Only ig- norance could dictate such instances. Unitarianism rose first in other lands, as early as Martin Luther, and had its first hold in Poland and Hungary, in England, Scotland and Ireland. The similarity between the Constitution and the Bible comes only because the Fathers of the Constitu- tion were good Christians and knew their Bible, not because they called in a board of Jews as an advisory-committee, or because the small band of Jews here at the time had set their mark upon the soul of the new country. The Jew has done more than' his duty as an American. We stand second to none in our love for this noble land of ours. With the fervor of unspeakable gratitude we are ready to offer all upon its altars. But, according to the typical Reform Jew- ish view, all this is no religious distinction, since we are Americans by nationality and Jews by religion. Nor can this in any way detract from the facts that are staring us in the face, from' the stark realities of our present position as Jews. Our condition is serious. With all our achieve- ments, with all the freedom that has opened the gates of opportunity, duty demands that we realize the seriousness of our situation. After all this I am conscious that it smacks of paradox to ask you not to consider Zionism a form of Jewish pessi- zionism is mism, as it is so often represented, not to con- optimistic. sider it as no more than a revolt against Anti- semitism, as a clutching at a straw, a feeling that we are about to sink in the engulfing waters. Zionism is essen- tially an optimistic movement. Is it not possible to fail under certain circumstances, and to succeed in others? Con- tinued existence is the first thought of the anti-Zionist, a finer and fuller life that of the Zionist. Zionism is actuated by its love of the Jew, and its confidence in his ability, more than by fear of failure. But, at the very least it has 53 a definite remedy to propose, virile action to redeem us from our long lethargy. It is a forward-looking move- ment. That is genuine optimism ! 'By making Judaism all of life, by entwining it with the living fibres of mind and heart and soul, we will be able once more to make it live. If the Hebrew language can be revived after well- nigh two millennia of disuse, cannot the Jew, in whose soul Jewishness "doth but slumber," be aroused to his oppor- tunities? Zionism recognizes the true character of the Jew. Take the finest organism in the world, with the most delicately articulated body, shut it under a glass prison, and remove the air, remove the conditions of life, and it cannot live, cannot continue its surging progress. Zionism re- stores the condition of success, the air which the Jew needs to breathe. It is a teaching of modern science that in this life there can be no function without an organ, no thought without a brain, no sight without an eye, no audi- tion without an ear. And yet we have been trying to make the Jew live without a Jewish body, a soul without an or- ganism, striving vainly to speak to the ears of the living, breathing, pulsating nations and peoples of to-day. If you would win the young Jew, give him an ideal and a project that will call for all his soul and body, that is active, not passive. The shallow universalism of the early mission-idea fails because it cannot stand the rough breath of reality. Wherever the Jewish "will-to-live" burns or smoulders, there is at least a potential prophet. Heap tinder and fuel upon the flame, and the world will be illumi- nated by its darting rays. "If I am not for myself, who will be for mef But, if 1 am only for myself, then who am If" Give us the right to fight our own battles, to identify Judaism with our heart's blood, and as Jews we will give the world an unparalleled spectacle of selfless heroism, of devotion to the cause of all mankind. If you would meet the spiritual needs of the present, if you would with all your hearts restore the an- cient faith, if you burn to vindicate the Jew, then aid the Zionist ! 54 What can we do, scattered over the world as we are, without a "rest for the sole of our foot," without a piece The work of ^ so ^ we can ca ^ our own > without institu- tions or men that we can claim as manifesta- Our Example. . . . tions ot the genius of our people ? Where are the advantages of this vaunted dispersion? The spiritual situation of occidental Jewry can best be compared to the history and the growth of this beloved country of ours. In many lands were the men and women, stout-hearted sons and daughters of liberty, in whose souls stirred the gospel of freedom. They longed for it, they strove to embody it in the laws and customs of their own lands. Why, then, should not these men and women have remained scattera' all over the globe, why should they not have preached and exemplified their gospel among the nations? But no, their love of freedom drove them across the unchartered seas, and built up a new nation. What a nation of paupers and "black-sheep" this country would have been without them, without their precious blood ! Would you have had them remain "stay-at-homes"? Do you not feel the answer in your love of this loved land? Every people has felt the beneficent effects of the American experiment. The torches of the French Revolution were kindled at American fires. A beacon and a haven has America been to all men, an ensign of hope in the heavens. Here the principles of free- dom have been worked out, hither free men have come, have left their birthplaces, have gathered into and created a new nation, that all mankind might be the benefactor. How better can we repay our debt to America than by being worthy children of her spirit, by carrying un the work of humanity! Zionism is another venture in free- dom, in kindling the torch of progress and enlightenment. The trumpets are already sounding, the nations of the world are calling us to our true mission. Shall we not, small and great, Reform and Orthodox, take our place in the ranks of our people ? IMIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES 3 115801066 1 5387 A 000070517 8