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.]

That the problem of Reform Judaism in America is “how to shake itself free from the rationalism which gripped it from its beginnings in the German speaking lands,” is the opinion voiced by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who, in an article appearing in the New York “American” of July 11, discusses the present day position of Reform Judaism and the International Conference of Liberal Jews, now taking place in London, which Dr. Wise is attending.

“Rightly and inevitably protestant though Jewish reform was against formalism and ritualism and ceremonialism,” Rabbi Wise declares, “it has too much reformed rather than reinspirited the life of its disciples. In a word, the mystic touch, which at its best somehow flourishes in the midst of orthodoxy, has passed out of and away from Reform Judaism, and a religion which does not quicken its disciples into the mystic quest cannot remain of vital and tidal force.”

Discussing the relation of Reform Indaism to Zionism. Rabbi Wise expresses the fear that the Liberal conference in London may turn into a schism over the question of Zionism.

“A union of Liberal Jews of many lands is in truth a desideraturn, provided Liberalism be held in the foreground. There are those who fear, and I. too, am touched by the fear, that the conference may take on a schismatic coloring. Thus, at Asheville, North Carolina, the Central Conference of American Rabbis in one and the same breath declared in favor of a Liberal Jewish Movement in Palestine and the destruction of the Zionist Movement, which has been the maker of the new Palestine. Palestine will never give countenance to any liberalism which is anti-Palestinian, even though it condescend to ‘missionize in Palestine.’

“Palestine may some day behold the rise of a real liberalism. But that liberalism will grow from within–out of the soil and soul of the people and will hardly harken for counsel and inspiration to them that have through the years thwarted the recreating of the land and the life of Israel. The London conference may prove epochal in the history of Israel.”

The belief that the plan of the American Reform Jews to establish a Reform Temple in Palestine is based on mistaken assumptions is entertained by the “Jewish Times” of Baltimore.

In its July 2nd issue, the “Jewish Times” observes:

“The plan to establish a Temple in Palestine is based on the theory that Jews in the Holy Land are irreligious and need guidance. It is our impression that this is a mistake. We are told that the very life, the spirit, the work of rebuilding is saturated with a prophetic vision, an inspiration, a new hope that is Religion itself. Of more concern to American Jewry should be the proper direction and the speedy rebuilding of a Homeland for those Jews who need and want it. The slogan for the Palestine Reform Temple by Rabbi Wolsey, the President of the Conference, ‘Let us bring Judaism to the Jews,’ strikes us like bringing coals to Newcastle.”