Jewish Activities in the Metropolitan Area

Lack of true Jewish leadership and the fact that those at the helm of Jewish communal institutions do not really desire a future for Jews, were charged yesterday morning before the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, the society’s leader and member of the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Discussing what he characterized as the principal fault in American-Jewish life, Rabbi Kaplan said:

“Why is it that the Jewish masses are ignorant of their spiritual heritage? Why do so many Jews consider Judaism a misfortune and so few try to explore its moral and spiritual potentialities? Why do not the most fertile minds and the most creative spirits among the Jews have anything to add to Jewish culture? Why is most of what passes for Jewish training a travesty and a breeder of antagonism toward things Jewish? Why do the Jews fail to rise to the opportunity of reclaiming their ancestral homeland? Why do not even the most cruel persecutions enable them to transcend their petty differences and their snobbishness and to unite in the face of the common enemy?”

LACK OF TRUE JEWISH LEADERS

“The main source of all these anomalous conditions is the lack of true Jewish leadership, of leadership that is representative of all the different callings and abilities among Jews and that functions as a means of furthering Jewish life. Those at the head of Jewish affairs are drawn from among the owners of large business concerns, corporation lawyers, and financiers. They mean well and do remarkably well in a philanthropic way. But by figuring as the only representative leaders of the Jews, they are bound to create the impression that the Jews are a money-minded people, since no one without the money has much authority among them. Why are not labor leaders, writers, artists, educators, even rabbis, found among those who dictate the policies of Jewish life? Claiming to be a priest people, with a spiritual mission to the world, the Jews set a poor example when they pass by those whose distinction is based on the things of the spirit.”

DESIRE TO SEE JUDAISM’S END

“But the strangest paradox of all is that those who are in control of Jewish communal institutions, with very few exceptions, really do not want the Jewish people to have a future. They frankly avow the desire to see Jewish life disappear and would readily double their contributions to Jewish philanthropies if they knew that there by they were relieving Jews of their Judaism. They have a right to their views, and with views such as theirs they ought, as a matter of honor, keep out of Jewish life altogether. What will then happen to the institutions they support? The answer is: If a people is so dependent upon those who wish it were dead, it does not deserve to live.”