(By our Chattanooge correspondent)
The recent dedication here of the Julius and Bertha Ochs Memorial Temple and Temple Center, erected by Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of the “New York Times,” in memory of his parents, was an outsanding event in the religious life of the Jewish communities of the South.
Barriers of sect and creed were laid aside in the community services celebrating the dedication. Rabbi Harry W. Ettelson, of Memphis, Tenn., Rabbi Samuel R. Shillinan of Mizpah congregation, the Rev. Dr. Thomas S. McCallie, city chaplain and a Presbyterian, and Bishop Wilbur P. Thirkield, Methodist, joined in the dedication services.
Mayor Ed Bass brought greetings from Chattanooga’s citizenship.
When the last anthem had been sung and the last words of praise and benediction had been uttered, Adolph S. Ochs, donor of the temple, erected in loving memory of his parents, rose to express his appreciation of the community service. “I want to stand in this presence and in this holy place, and thank God that I have been privileged and enabled to see this structure erected in Chatta nooga. And I want to say that whatever may have been involved in placing it here, so far as I am concerned, I have been fully compensated in the meeting we have had this morning and the messages that have gone to you,” Mr. Ochs declared.
Dr. T. S. McCallie, speaking as the representative of the city churches, probed deep in the heart of interdenom-inationalism and found but one God for Jew and Gentile alike, in his address of greetings on behalf of the community churches. His touching tribute to the “finest sentiments of the human heart,”honor of God and of parents, brought tears to the eyes of his auditors as he developed a theme of father love and filial respect and obedience.
No proofs that religion is being out-grown were found by Rabbi Harry W. Ettelson. He stressed the need for religion in an age of intellectual “cocksureness,”and called for a union of forces against a common enemy.
Bishop Wilbur P. Thirkield paid tribute to the “intangible” utilities of the Memorial temple and to the man whose vision made it “not a maunsoleum, but a temple of the living God.”
The Jewish Agricultural Society has granted a loan toward the erection of a community center in Flemington. New Jersey, where an established Jewish farm community exists, the Society announced. Loans for the same purpose have heretofore been granted to Jewish farm communities in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and California.
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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.
