Induct Rabbi Newman As New Leader of Temple Rodeph Sholom

Rabbi Louis I. Newman, for six years rabbi of Temple Emanu-el, San Francisco, was formally inducted as Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom on Friday evening. Rabbi Nathan Krass of Temple Emanu-el and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue delivered the addresses of induction. Alexander Pfeiffer, chairman of the induction committee, made the opening remarks, and Ernest J. Wile, president of the congregation, gave an address of welcome. Rabbi Newman then delivered the induction sermon, entitled “The Indwelling Presence of God.”

Rabbi Newman, before his ministry in California, was associated with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue, and with the late Rabbi Maurice H. Harris in Temple Israel, New York City. He is a graduate of Brown University, University of California and Columbia University where he received his doctorate for a volume entitled “Jewish Influence on Christian Reform Movements.” He is the author also of “Studies in Biblical Parallelisms,” two volumes of poetry and essays in the field of Jewish scholarship. He is the author of a weekly column of comment in the Anglo-Jewish press, entitled “Telling it in Gath,” and for several years was associated with the San Francisco Call-Bulletin as a feature writer. He is a former president of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.

In his induction sermon on Friday night, Rabbi Newman declared that economic restoration in this country will follow religious reconstruction. “Chaos in religion has brought chaos in social and economic life,” he stated. “The gambling mania was merely a symptom of America’s irreligion. We are paying the penalty today not only for disaster on the exchange, but for prior disaster in our spiritual outlook. Restoration of religion as a central force in modern life will give man control not only of himself and his intellect, but of all his energies as an economic upbuilder and a social organizer.”