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A rejoinder to criticism directed against American Jewish leadership in general and American rabbis in particular was made by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver in an article, “Why Do the Heathen Rage?”
The article is a reply to criticism contained in essays by Prof. Horace M. Kallen, Eliot E. Cohen and Henry Hurwitz in the “Menorah Journal.” The “Menorah Journal” refused to publish Rabbi Silver’s reply, which appears in the “Jewish Tribune” of July 23.
Rabbi Silver, taking exception to the criticism of the writers in the “Menorah Journal,” defends American rabbis and the building activities of the Jewish communities throughout the United States.
“American Jews have built and are building at an astounding rate synagogues and temples,” writes Rabbi Silver. “Judging from the jeremiads of our critics this is to be taken as positive proof of Jewish decadence and disintegration. We beg to differ. Not so long ago one heard the justifiable complaint that our synagogues were physically unattractive, and that they were repellent to the aesthetically minded young American Jew. It was said, and rightly said, that these shabby structures were uncomplimentary to a people as prosperous as the American Jew. The plaint of David was repeated: ‘Shali we dwell in houses of cedar, but the Ark of God dwell within curtains?’ Now that American Israel is erecting sanctuaries, which in their outer form seek to body forth the beauty of the faith which they enshrine, now that we are bringing a bit of the charm of Japheth into the tents of Shem, the cry is raised, ‘The Stone Age!’ In building spacious and beautiful synagogues American Israel is following an authentic Jewish tradition. For whoever Jewish found peace, security and prosperity, they raised noble religious edifices and attempted to express their religious life aesthetically.
“It should be borne in mind that the most pressing tasks which confronted the Jewish ministry heretofore have been those of organization and upbuilding. Millions of Jews in the brief period of a generation or two were transplanted from the four corners of the earth to these shores. Communities, some small, some enormously large, sprang up, as it were over night. They were structureless and disjointed. They possessed neither philanthropic agencies, nor schools nor synagogues-in fact, none of the facilities which go to make up a community life. All these had to be built and it fell largely to the share of the American rabbis to build them. Accordingly, most of the thought and energy of these men went perforce into this indispensable groundwork of organization-a tiring and exactim employment which is not yet ended.
“If, therefore, the American rabbi has not been more of the scholar, ? in many instances his preaching has not measured up in intellectual quality to that of his European confrere. it is due not to his inherent mediocrity, but to the nigh endless time-and-energy consuming community responsibilities which the conditions of Jewish life forced upon him. The European rabbi, as a rule, is head of an old established community, possessing its full quota of religious, educational and eleemosynary institutions, and in which the necessary functions of congregational life are well distributed. This had not been the case in America, and in most instances is still not the case. Our communities are recent and unformed. New schools new synagogues and new Centers are needed, with all their attendant needs of program, curricula, coordination. etc. Drives must be launched-and it seems almost daily-for new hospitals new orphanages and new homes for the aged; drives for foreign relief local relief, Falasha relief; drives for Palestine, for Hadassah, for the Jewish National Fund; drives for the Union, for the Seminary, for the Yeshiva, for dormitories, for libraries; drives for the Menorah Association for Student Congregations for Bureaus of Jewish Education, for the Chautauqua. In each instance the rabbi is appealed to first for his active cooperation. In some cases he is compelled to initiate these drives himself; in others he becomes their propagandist and in still others he is the actual solicitor.
“Furthermore, Jewish congregational life, far from being departmentalized is sadly centralized. The rabbi, especially in the reform congregation is Darshan, Melamed, Chazan and Shamus all in one. In view of these multitudinous and harassing responsibilities, it is not surprising that the rabbi’s hours of study and meditation are few in number, and that this paucity reflects itself in the quality of his preaching and writing.
“Still a creditable list may be drawn up of American rabbis who have done meritorious work even in the field of Jewish scholarship.
“When the press of community work will ease up when Jewish laymen will in larger numbers take over the administrative tasks which are rightfully theirs, and when congregational life will have become more departmentalized, American rabbis will be able, as they are eager, to devote themselves more definitely to their essential prerogatives-‘To learn and to teach’.”
Announcement has been made that the B’nai Amundah congregation of Los Angeles Cal., has had plans prepared for a new $60,000 synagogue. The auditorium will have a seating capacity of 750
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
