Resolutions urging extension of the small community “adoption” plan like that on Long Island; a survey of the south to enhance its activities for the organization, and urging the cooperation of the Philadelphia and the Eastern Pennsylvania regions were adopted yesterday at the sessions of the United Synagogue convention being held here at the Hotel Commodore. Resolutions of condolences to the family of the late Mrs. Nathan Straus were passed by both men’s and women’s divisions of the convention. A resolution was also passed calling for a Canadian conference to consider the extension of the work of the United Synagogue there.
REGIONAL REPORTS HEARD
At the morning session the convention heard reports from its various regional groups and discussion followed. Rabbi Charles I. Hoffman reported for New Jersey; Rabbi Samuel Cohen, executive director, read the New York report in the absence of Hon. Hyman J. Reit, and Eastern Pennsylvania was reported on by Rabbi Louis Haas of Reading. Other regions which reported included Connecticut, Chicago, Long Island and Philadelphia. Herman J. Koppelman of Hartford, Conn., presided at the session.
HIGHER UNITY TO BE SOUGHT
In behalf of the committee on cooperation with other organizations. Dr. Elias L. Solomon, chairman, opened the afternoon session with a paper on “the United Synagogue and Human Progress.” Indicating that the United Synagogue is pledged, under Judaism, to cooperate in all useful endeavor even outside the Congregational field, Dr. Solomon remarked, “There is a higher unity to be sought, transcending the limits of our own special camp in Israel, the Conservative, and that is the one embracing all congregational groups and underlying all movements having as their goal the progress of the world, the wheel of all mankind. We are men and women as well as Jews and nothing human is foreign to use. We are world citizens and so we help plan for world peace and foster good will—international, inter-racial and inter-religious.”
Dr. A. A. Neuman of Philadelphia. Pa., analyzed the goal and content of the congregation’s interest in Palestine. He called attention to the vital function played by Palestine in the United Synagogue movement, describing the influence of each as “reciprocal.” Lyon J. Cohen was the presiding officer at the session.
WOMEN’S LEAGUE IN SESSION
The Women’s League of the United Synagogue, opened its session with a prayer by Mrs. Charles I. Hoffman, of Newark, N. J., Mrs. Rebekah Kohut felicitated the delegates as did Mrs. Estelle M. Sternberger, secretary of the World Organizations of Jewish Women who described the work of women in other parts of the world. “The wretched poor of Warsaw,” said Mrs. Sternberger, “would not overlook the needs of those whose fate was still more wretched. “Thou are our sister’ is the proclamation of Jewish women in every land. The Jew cannot be charged with being provincial, for the wide dissemination of our people has tendered to make us leap boundaries and to possess a mental horizon that encompasses the world.”
Mrs. Morris Silverman of Harford, Conn., read a paper on “The Women’s League and Sisterhood Problems.” “The individual sisterhood,” counselled Mrs. Silverman, “must have confidence that whatever the nature of its problem may be, the Women’s League is able to find a solution. The national organization, on the other hand, like the modern mother, must keep pace with the needs of her growing children, and be ever alert for new ideas, new methods, new potentialities, in order to inspire this confidence.”
Reports from seven branches, the Midwest, New England, New Jersey, New York City, New York State, Philadelphia and Toronto, commenced the afternoon session. “Mobilize for Peace Instead of War” was the message delivered by Mrs. Theresa Mayer Durlach in her address on Peace.
The joint convention opened Sunday morning with addresses by Nathan Levy, president of the United Synagogue; Mrs. Samuel Spiegel, president of the Women’s League; Judge Hyman J. Reit, of the New York branch; Mrs. Eva Levy, president of the local branch of the Women’s League; Dr. Louis Finkelstein, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Rabbi Samuel M. Cohen, executive director of the United Synagogue; and a report by Samuel Friedenberg, treasurer of the United Synagogue.
SYNAGOGUE COOPERATION URGED
The need for cooperation among congregations if Judaism is to survive in this country, was the subject of Rabbi Finkelstein’s remarks.
Judge Reit expressed approval and gratification that the study of the Hebrew language has been added as an elective subject on high school curricula in New York.
The afternoon session was devoted to a symposium on Jewish life, by Rabbi Max Arzt, of Scranton; Rabbi Alter F. Landesman, of Brooklyn; Miss Sarah Kussy, of Newark and Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, New York. In a brief introduction Dr. Cyrus Adler, speaking of the aims of the United Synagogue, declared, “We have here in America, a struggle between two groups, one representing the movement that grew up in the intoxication of the new freedom; the other not yet emancipated from the days of the persecutions. Our purpose is to tread the main road between the two extremes.”
Sol M. Stroock discussed the new seminary, its place in Jewish life and its need for financial assistance and cooperation. Rabbi Simon Granburg, of Philadelphia, presided at the opening sessions.
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.
