The 100th anniversary of The Temple, of which Dr. Abba Hillel Silver has been the spiritual leader for the last 35 years, was celebrated here tonight with John Foster Dulles, Foreign Adviser to the State Department and prominent Protestant lay leader, as one of the principal speakers at the gathering. The Temple, which now counts a membership of about 2,000 families, was founded in 1850, as Tifereth Israel, with 47 charter members.
Emphasizing that inter-faith cooperation and goodwill are essential for maintaining world peace, Mr. Dulles said that the anniversary of the founding of The Temple "is an event of national, indeed international significance." He pointed out that at the celebration "leading citizens of our country, not merely those of Jewish faith, but those of other faiths, unitedly extend congratulations of the past and best wishes for the future" of The Temple. "We do so even though many of us do not share the faith that is taught and practiced by Jews," he emphasized.
Dr. Silver said in his address that he has been asking "with increasing concern" in recont years whether Jews in the United States are not becoming, "Jewishly rootless and Jewishly illiterate." "I am afraid that if we yield to the minimalist trends, the reducing of Jewish life to some bright surface facade, we shall be under-writing our own death," he declared. He pointed out that "a temple cannot feed the minds and the hearts of absentee members" and called upon American Jews to be not only temple members and temple builders, but also "temple goers and temple worshippers."
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.
