[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does indicate approval.–Editor.]
“We were brought up in the Orthodox Synagogue; we brought up our children in the Reform Temple; our children’s children–what of them?” asks Cyrus L. Sulzberger, in an article entitled, “For Our Children’s Children” appearing in the April-May issue of the “Menorah Journal.”
Believing that the Jewish children have “little contact with Rabbi or Temple” because Reform Judaism’s doctrinal teachings “appeal neither to us nor to our children,” Mr. Sulzberger further postulates the question: “Can Judaism be made alive for the generation to whom it is about to be handed as a heritage?”
Mr. Sulzberger believes it can and the solution, according to him, lies in a readjustment of the present-day formalism in the Jewish religion to conform with the requirements of the times and a renewed emphasis on the essential principles of Judaism, i.e., the belief in One God and “the only eternal sanction for right conduct: ‘Be holy for I your God am holy'” Judaism, Mr. Sulzberger contends, is still pregnant with spiritual truths, and these truths, running through Jewish history like a living current “that has served to unite those of each present generation with its predecessors,” offer a satisfactory religion for the rising generation.
“Here, then,” we read in conclusion, “is the doctrine for our children’s children. They are not alone the children of their parents. They are the children of centuries of Jewish religion and culture, religion and culture always having gone hand in hand. In all the past ages the philosophy of Judaism was in harmony with the best thought of those ages. For this day and generation a like harmony is demanded and can be obtained. In which of the several branches of Judaism will it be secured? Who among our teachers is sufficiently alert to see the new faces at the door, not quite determined to leave and far from decided to enter?”
SEES ELLIS ISLAND BOGEY VANISHING
Announcement that the system, first tried in Great Britain and the Irish Free State, of examining 3rd class immigrants to America at the ports of embarkation and landing them directly on arrival in New York without the Ellis Island procedure has been extended to Belgium and Holland, is greeted by the “Ocean Ferry,” organ of the International Mercantile Marine Company.
Commenting on the new system in its May issue, the “Ocean Ferry” remarks:
“Ellis Island, a bogey in other days to the would-be citizen, is now passed by; an arrangement that is quite as satisfactory to the immigration authorities at this legal portal to the country as to travelers themselves.
“Thus uncertainty is removed from the minds of many who seek homes in the new world, and hardships wrought by the old system, now happily superseded, are avoided.”
The 15th Annual Convention of the Federation of Polish Hebrews of America opened at the Y. M. H. A., Newark. N. J., last night and will continue today.
Representatives of fifty branches in New York City and delegates from Chicago. Pittsburgh. ### and other cities are attending the convention.
Representatives of the Joint Distribution Committee, American Jewish Congress. Karen Hayseed and the what will address the convention. Rabbi Es######, President of the Union of ### Rabbis will also speak.
BREVITIES
Eli S. Silberfeld of Osborne Terrace, Newark, N. J., will deliver the Latin salutatory address and G. Chadbourne Taylor of Petham, N.Y., will be the valedictorian at the commencement exercise of Princeton University in June. They were appointed by the faculty committee.
Mr. Silberfeld, who is a son of Rabbi Julius Silberfeld, has been an honor student through, out the four years and was elected last year to Phi Beta Kappa Society. As a freshman he led his class with a score of 98 in the psychological entrance tests. He also has received his letter in athletics and is a pianist in the Princeton Musical Club. Mr. Silberfeld, who is a graduate of Barringer High School and of the Thirteenth Avenue Grammar School, plans to study law at Columbia University in the fall.
A bequest of $20,000 to the national organization of the Council of Jewish Women and $5,000 to the Brooklyn chapter of the order, together with $5,000 each to the Jewish Hospital and to Adelphi College, featured the will of Miss Rose Brenner filed for probate in the Brooklyn Surroagte’s Court.
Miss Brenner, who died April 5, left an estate of $100,000. After the disposal of $35,000 to philanthropic purposes, $5,000 to each of two brothers and minor sums to other relatives, the remainder of the estate is left to two sisters, Miss Rica and Miss Caroline Brenner, who lived with her, in her home at 45 St. Paul’s Place, Brooklyn.
Ignatz Weiss, butcher, at 305 East Eighty fourth Street, New York, was sentenced to thirty days in the workhouse for violating the kosher meat law. A city supervisor of markets testified in Special Sessions that Weiss offered for sale in his shop meat falsely represented to be kosher.
The court, in sentencing Weiss, warned that all shops selling kosher meats, but dealing also in non-kosher meats, must announce the fact in a sign with block letters at least four inches in height.
The Trenton Board of Education granted the request of the rabbis and clergymen of Trenton, N. J., to release elementary school children for one hour each week for religious instruction. The board appointed a committee of three to work out the details. At present there are at least 300,000 school children throughout the United States attending week-day schools of religion.
Kansas City; Dayton. Ohio; Rochester, N. Y., and Bridgeport. Conn., are among the cities having such schools.
Meyer M. Dantzig, graduate of the Academy of Beaux Artes in France, will exhibit fifty-two of his paintings at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, New York. during the two weeks from May 9 to May 23. Of special interest are the two large paintings, one of Mattathias on his death bed pronouncing his last will and testament, and the other of the great Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, ministering to the sick. In the collection is also a portrait of President Coolidge.
Jacob Billikopf. Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Philadelphia, will deliver a series of lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. The Lectures will be given in the Fall and will be concerned with the human elements in Capital and Labor.
The invitation to deliver the lectures was extended to Mr. Billikopf following a lecture be delivered to the Faculty of the Wharton School of Finance of the University.
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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.
