Jewry in America; World’s Fair, Detroit Convention

Executive Director of Jewish Day at A Century of Progress

Jewish Day at A Century of Progress in Chicago (slated for July 3) is beginning to loom in the minds of American Jews as something much more than the pageant and demonstration originally planned: it is, in fact, taking on the aspect of a folk outpouring of sentiment and religious and national pride such as has seldom been witnessed in the country.

The evidence of this is not to be found so much in the official pronouncements of those who are arranging “Jewish Day” as in the wide-spread talk in plain homes, in restaurants, on the streets, and at all Jewish gatherings. Originally Jewish Day was planned as a replica, though on a much larger scale, of the dramatic mass presentation of Jewish history which created a furore in Chicago last Chanukah, evoking enthusiastic comment in non-Jewish circles.

But as Jewish Day proceeds, it takes on the character first, of a Midwest Jewish expression of solidarity and, spreading beyond the Midwest, of a genuine national enterprise. Jews who have never taken the slightest interest in public affairs, to whom the battle cries of Zionist, anti-Zionism, Reform, Orthodoxy, Assimilation, are absolutely alien, find themselves caught up in the wave of curiosity and pride.

NEW CONSCIOUSNESS

Much of this unexpected interest is to be traced, no doubt, to the sudden jolt which has been given to Jewish consciousness by the appalling news from Germany: tens of thousands of simple, indifferent Jews, who are neither political nor national minded, find themselves anxious (for reasons which they probably cannot analyze) to associate themselves with something which is outstandingly Jewish, and which will offer to the Jewish, as well as the non-Jewish, world affirmative evidence of the fact that Jews “can do something” side by side with other peoples.

It is also very likely that there has been a repercussion, in Jewish circles, of the interest which Jewish Day has awakened in the non-Jewish world. “The Religious Educational Association,” a national organization for the encouragement of cooperation between religions, (including Catholics, Jews and all shades of Protestants) has offered its services to Jewish Day for the purpose of making that occasion not simply a Jewish achievement at the World Fair, but a striking manifestation of the friendly interest of the non-Jewish world of America in the welfare of the Jewish people. Christian clergymen are anxious to bring Jewish Day to the attention of their congregations, and to see to it that a solid representation be sent to Soldier Field on July 3. Their viewpoint is, first, that the achievements of American Jews have an interest for Americans of all religions; second, that the pageant which is to be enacted on Soldier Field is, from the Biblical and religious point of view, of primary educational interest to everyone.

THE ENLARGED SIGNIFICANCE

The result has been that the Jews themselves have realized that the enterprise is of much larger significance than they at first suspected. A response has now come from scores of organizations (benevolent, charitable, religious, social and educational) which hitherto have never manifested any desire to step outside the limits of their particular programs. More significant still, scores of private inquiries pour daily into the offices of Jewish Day, from individuals who have simply caught on to the idea that something of Jewish importance is afoot and who want to know “what it’s all about.”

It is probably not more than the simple truth to say that a great part of the Jewish public is “fed up” on the old, mechanical and somewhat worn-out activities—such as drives, mass-meetings, appeals for funds, protests and so on. Only those with a highly developed sense of duty can be persuaded to keep up the regulation work. What is characteristic of Jewish Day is that it appeals frankly to the masses, without having in the slightest stepped down from the high standards which public leaders demand.

Twenty-five thousand Jews attended the Chanukah pageant in the Chicago Stadium, and several thousands were turned away. Those who were interested, for special reasons, in the composition of that audience, know that, conservatively speaking, more than two-thirds of it consisted of “the man in the street.” For the first time plain folk, factory workers, small shopkeepers, chauffeurs, carpenters, salesmen, were tempted to attend a specifically Jewish affair.

THRILLED BY THE SHOW

Instead of being treated to long philosophic speeches and to appeals, they were offered, in dramatic and colorful form, the substance of a part of Jewish history. They were not told that it was noble to be Jewish, and that it was their duty to sustain the Jewish tradition (which, in any case, was unfortunately a blank to most of them.) They were thrilled by a direct and brilliant reproduction, by a thousand actors, of striking episodes in Jewish history.

No one with even a rudimentary knowledge of the superb material of Jewish history can doubt that, skilfully handled, a Jewish pageant can outdo, in thrills, almost any other material. And the skilful handling of this Jewish Day is ensured by the fact that the man who trained the thousand actors and actress for Chanukah—Isaac Van Grove, of the Chicago Civic Opera, who recently produced “The Emperor Jones”—is also training the three thousand five hundred Jewish boys and girls who will present the episodes from Jewish history on Soldier Field July 3. It is possible that an art and educational form hitherto sadly neglected by the Jews (or made the subject of amateurish experiments) is being fully developed by this means, opening up new possibilities for those who are concerned with the transmission of Jewish tradition.