A rabbi and a cantor aided materially to the spirit of interdenominational understanding in San Francisco last Sunday when they appeared in a Protestant church and conducted Jewish services there.
They were Rabbi Morris Goldstein and Cantor Benjamin Liederman of Temple Sherith Israel. Their partcipation in the service was in response to invitation from the Rev. Dr. Jason Noble Pierce, pastor of the First Congregational Church.
“A Jewish rabbi and his cantor conducting a Jewish service for a Protestant congregation,” said the Dr. Pierce, “is, so far as I can discover, an entirely new thing. Union meetings with noth Jews and Protestants taking part have been held frequently, but I do not know of just this kind of service ever having been held.
“The purpose of this unique service is to enable Protestants to see the beauty of the Hebrew ritual and receive inspiration from modern Jewish leaders. It will illustrate also the American ideal of sympathetic understanding and good will. It will show our common heritage of faith.”
Rabbi Goldstein discussed the subject, “What it Means to be a Jew.” Dr. Pierce assisted in the service and Cantor Liederman led the choir in singing traditional Jewish melodies.
Visiting San Francisco on a lecture tour, Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of The Nation and noted publicist, declared he had studied the Hitler situation closely and feared the growing feeling of anti-Semitism in this country.
“There is more danger at home of Jews being stabbed in the back than there is of their being harmed in the streets,” he said. “There is no factor in this country, so far as I can see, which would prevent an outbreak of anti-Semitism. I am very much concerned with the development of anti-Semitism in the United States and Canada.
“The times, full of peril for the Jewish minority, place a tremendous burden and duty upon all who believe in justice and humanitarianism.
“The situation calls for the utmost in solidarity on the part of the Jews. And that solidarity, I fear, is in many cases lacking.
“The Jews must learn to resolve their differences and not slander one another. They must achieve solidarity. By ‘solidarity’ I do not mean something political or social, but rather, that all Jews should stand by one another.”
The Pacific Coast regional conference of Hadassah will be held in San Francisco from March 10 to 12, with delegates from chapters in all parts of the western zone attending. Sessions will discuss plans for furthering the progrom of Hadassah.
SISTERHOOD CARD PARTY
Mrs. Murray Wollan, 290 Riverside Drive, is the sponsor of a card party to be given by the Junior Sisterhood of Temple Ansche Chesed at the Community Center, 100th street and West End avenue, Wednesday evening. Proceeds will be devoted to a destitute Jewish family.
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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.
