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.]

The attitude of American Reform Jews to the Yeshiva College and to the new developments in Orthodoxy generally is stated in an editorial of the “American Israelite”, Reform organ, in its issue of May 12. The “American Israelite”, the paper says, “finds it in its heart to congratulate Orthodoxy upon its final awakening.” Further we read:

“For too many years the Orthodox group has been moribund. Considering the large number of its adherents the leaders should long ago have awakened to the necessity for more efficient organization and the assumption of responsibilities.

“There surely is no objection to Orthodoxy strengthening itself in America where there is room for every religious cause that seeks to influence the human heart in a worthy manner. In this enlightened age we would not go out of our way to wish the Dunkards or the Disciples, for example, a lesser measure of success. Why should we feel less friendly toward our own flesh and blood ? This is a free country ; every organization attempting to do good work has the right and the duty to organize so as to do its work more efficiently.”

SOCIALIST PAPER CRITICIZES NEW JEWISH HISTORY

The new Jewish history by Professors Margolis and Marx, published by the Jewish Publication Society of America, which was recently subjected to severe criticism from the orthodox Jewish point of view, in the “Jewish Daily News”, is now criticized from another viewpoint in the “Jewish Forward”, Socialist paper.

In an article by Dr. A. Ginsburg (“Forward”, May 14), the charge is made not only that the history of Margolis and Marx was written entirely from the Reform angle, but that important phases in modern Jewish history were glossed over with scant attention or entirely ignored. Thus, Dr. Ginsburg complains that the whoic Jewish labor movement, both in old Russia and in America, is not even mentioned, despite the fact that the Jewish labor movement had a vital bearing on Jewish life and influenced the historical revolutionary developments in Russia. Likewise, Yiddish literature, with its host of luminaries, such as Peretz, Sholom Aleichen, etc, is totally ignored, Dr. Ginsburg declares.

OBJECTS TO PROPOSAL FOR ABOLISHING ZIONIST CONGRESS

Objection to the proposal put forth recently in the “New Palestine” by Isidore D. Morrison that the Zionist Congress be abolished and replaced by a body of experts responsible not only to the shekel payers but also to the providers of the Palestine funds, is voiced by the London “Jewish World”. In its issue of May 5, the paper writes:

“He (Mr. Morrison) ascribes all Zionist troubles to the Congress and the representative Committee which it elects to act during the periods that elapse between its sessions. Mr. Morrison’s arguments do not appear to me worth setting down, and still less worth contesting; because, given a sufficient dialectical skill, it is possible to prove anything.

“Whatever the failings of Congress, as at present constituted, surely nothing could be worse than the sort of pinchbeck plutocracy which he would substitute, or less in accord with the ideals of the Movement. And Mr. Morrison’s one idea in his proposal is homogeneousness which seems just now a regular craze in America–homogeneousness, harmony, jazz ! Mr. Morrison cries for ‘results’, but about that I imagine there is no controversy!”

ON RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND

The maintenance of the statutes in the laws of Maryland based on religions prejudice against the Jews is the subject of an editorial in the “Jewish Exponent” of May 13, which remarks:

“Maryland is one of the few States that has maintained for the longest period of time some of the outworn blue laws. Mr. B. H. Hartogensis, a prominent Baltimore lawyer, complains in a recently published article of the many restrictions of a religious character that are still on the statute books and especially of the prejudices against Jews, rampant in social circles. The State is the aggregate of all the in habitants thereof, and the attitude of the Christian majority must not be that of toleration, but of sharing equally in the privileges and duties of citizenship with all the other inhabitants. It is regrettable that we should be compelled to emphasize these truths at this late hour, especially in a large and enlightened State which has such noble traditions and in which Jews have played so important and honorable a part.”

Julius Rosenwald has given the last $10,000 needed towards the erection of a $35,000 Chicago building for colored people at Fort Valley-Ga. The building is part of a school under Episcopal auspices.