Jews in the United States “know virtually as little about Judaism as the Christians do, ” Rabbi Louis Finkelstein of the Jewish Theological Seminary declared in a study on religion in this country conducted by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions founded by the Fund for the Republic, Inc. “We have a terrific problem just trying to explain Judaism to Jews, ” he said.
“Jews, as Jews, ” he asserted, “have no great spiritual or moral influence on America except insofar as individual Jews who are very close to their tradition might influence others by their example.”
“The Sabbath day, ” Dr. Finkelstein stated, “was the day set aside by Judaism for Jews to be Jews and nothing but Jews. It was strictly observed as a day for study and for living as a Jew. It is a day on which Jews should mingle with fellow-Jews on a spiritual plane, on which they should contemplate, on which they should sit home with their families, a day of complete rest, of cessation of work, cessation of worry and anxiety. If you abandon that to play golf or to go shopping or to go to work or to do a million and one other things, that is a great calamity, and it has befallen us as Jews.”
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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.
