Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

An attempt to justify his position in teaching the New Testament as part of the regular educational curriculum of the Reform Temple in Chicago, is made by Rabbi Gerson B. Levi in the “Reform Advocate” of Chicago (Feb. 27 issue) of which he is editor.

Replying to the severe criticism levelled against him by the Union of Orthodox Congregations Rabbi Levi charges that the attitude of his critics in seeking to keep the discussion and teaching of such subjects as the New Testament out of Jewish schools and temples is “disloyal to the whole of Jewish tradition,” and proceeds:

“It is a slur on the character of the Jewish people. To assume that ignorance has kept us where we are, that a knowledge of the thought of others would per se take us away from our own moorings, would leave us in a swamp. And we have never allowed such a condition in Israel.”

Further on, contending that the Orthodox Rabbis are attempting to keep Jewry in a state of seclusion from the outside world, Rabbi Levi writes:

“The children of the prominent men who are concerned with the attempt to make the New Testament clear to the rising generation, live in the world. Maybe they are members of the Masonic fraternity and they have recited a section of the New Testament at funeral services of brothers of the fraternity. What attitude should a Jew assume to the so-called Lord’s Prayer? They have contacts with the Christian world; is there never a word of question about the teachings that have kept Jew and non-Jew apart? Perhaps the children are students of the university and as such may have taken a course in the Bible. What is the Jewish attitude towards all of that literature which the Christian includes in his Bible? The encouragement of an attitude of ignorance is unforgivable, no matter how prominent the men are who would assume it. And we, at least, will keep on teaching the New Testament, making the effort to make clear its departures from Jewish traditions, its use or misuse of Jewish tradition, and using it as a peg to point out the salient differences between Judaism and Christianity, between Reform Judaism and Paulinism. And we shall still hope that we are rendering useful service in the cause of the Jew and his law.”

ENDORSES BIALIK’S PROPOSAL

The proposal made by Chaim Nachman Bialik. famous Hebrew poet, on his arrival recently to this country, that a special fund be established to be known as the Keren Hatarbuth for the promotion of Hebrew culture and education in Palestine, is endorsed by “Hadoar,” Hebrew paper of New York, in its issue of Feb. 26.

“We believe the fund prposed by Bialik would prove of much greater value than is imagined.” the paper avers. “In the first place, it would mean that through the Keren Hatarbuth there would be set aside within the Zionist work a special fund for the support of the educational and cultural institutions of Palestine which would ease the situation for educators and education there. In the second place, it would introduce a new spirit into the reconstruction work. Those Jews who have been at a distance from the fundamentals of the work for lack of knowledge regarding the facts would understand that there is a Hebrew culture and that Palestine is being built in the Hebrew spirit. There would also be this advantage: the Hebraists would henceforth feel that their noblest dreams and aspirations are being realized in the rebuilding work.”