public kitchens conducted by them non-Kosher meat is used and this notwithstanding the fact that camel meat is probably no cheaper than kosher meat would be. And has the rabbi never heard of circumcisions and religious marriages being performed wholesale only after the strong insistence of religious leaders, that to fail in these observances would leave a bad taste with the civil authorities? These are facts. And does the rabbi not know that in their schools class struggle is incalculated in the young minds as part of the curriculum?
And this mostly with the money of the “middle class” who, after they have given, become “bourgeois.”
STAY IN OWN SPHERE
Now I do not intend to minimize the great good which the Histadruth has accomplished in the development of the country, and far be it from me to detract one iota from the honest purpose behind it, but why do they not stay in their sphere? Trade unionism in this country and elsewhere has probably done much worse. Why should they predominate the whole political field to the aggressive exclusion of everyone else?
May I suggest that the rabbis take as their text the social justice of our Torah and the prophets. There is enough in these to excoriate the speculator and his ilk. It would be far more fitting for men of the cloth to approach the matter in this manner, without the necessity of swallowing the whole Marxian philosophy.
America being, thank God, a free country, there is no reason whatever why would-be Socialists should not start congregations and have rabbis who agree with those programs.
CONSIDER BOOKKEEPER’S POSITION
If my bookkeeper does not approve of my method of running my business, or he tries to cultivate trade for my competitor, he resigns or is dropped. Being an honest and simple man—I have just talked it over with him—he would get out before undermining me because he does not think he is entitled to oppose me at my expense.
The truth is the rabbis say what they please because no one cares very much individually. Their service counts and is appreciated. When, however, 241 band themselves together to issue a pronouncement clothed in their rabbinical robes, they imply that they are speaking representatively. Do they so speak? Being a fur dealer, I might as well claim that I write this on behalf of the furriers. Stuss.
Far be it from me to desire to lower the dignity of the rabbi, but if he is trying to force Socialism on me via Palestine, in which I have no interest and about which I know nothing, then I have a perfect right to consider whether I should pay for my own destruction.
The ICOR is trying to wheedle us into Communism via Biro-Bidjan and the Zionists into Menshivism via Palestine. Must we middle-class Jews who supply all the funds be fooled into this either by the J. D. C., the Jewish Agency, the Histadruth, the Gewerkschaften or the multitude of other Zionist appeals?
The 241 rabbis, all of whom eat middle-class bread, have emphasized this: Let’s have the facts—far more important to us than what the Rambam did 800 years ago.
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.
