Judge Stern Urges His Plan for Organization of Jewish Community

Maintaining that “extra-synagogal activity is vital to the perpetuation of religion,” Judge Horace Stern of Philadelphia, in an address in Fuld Hall last night, reiterated his plan for the centralization of all Jewish communal activity in the synagogue.

Judge Stern delivered the first of the “Fuld Memorial Lectures” on the occasion of the anniversary of the death of the late Felix Fuld. After paying tribute to the memory of the late local merchant and philanthropist, whom he knew through mutual contact on the American Jewish Committee and in other spheres, the jurist proceeded to explain the scope of the “Stern Plan.”

According to this plan, all Jewish philanthropic, charitable and educational endeavor would be regulated constructively through the synagogue. Charity federations and similar bodies charged with executive administration would continue to exist, he explained, because the house of worship would serve as a propaganda medium, promoter of enthusiasm for these causes, and development of an interested and intelligent laiety. “The latter would in time become specialists in communal fields because each layman could select the particular phase that interests him or her,” he said.

“This would bring a change in the synagogue from a house of prayer to a social institution as well — with healthy rivalry for accomplishment on the part of its respective memberships,” said Judge Stern. “It would mean a change in the hectic, sporadic and harried way of carrying on these communal institutions as they do today. And to the Jewish people generally, it would mean hearkening back to the glorious past when the synagogue originally was the place for all this activity.

“It is not merely an espousal of the philanthropy of raising money. If that were the case, I might say let the state do it. The edict of this plan would be communal activity resting principally on religious sanction. If, for instance, we must have such monstrosities as annual drives, let them emanate at least from the houses of prayer.

“We have been fond of going to the synagogue or temple as a place in which to meditate or for solitude. But youth demands concrete results of religion. Theology alone does not seem to satisfy youth; it wants a dynamic attitude. All these communal institutions represent Jewish life.

“If they were sponsored by members of the temple or synagogue, a person couldn’t belong to the latter unless he took an interest in communal activity. Public opinion would condemn any such lack of interest, as it condemned slackers during the recent war hysteria period.”

During a brief forum period, Rabbi Charles I. Hoffman, of Oheb Shalom Synagogue, in declaring his approval of the general scope of the plan, inquired, however, as to what amount of interest in communal endeavor could be expected from the unaffiliated. Judge Stern, in replying, asserted that many persons who insist on ethical expression in religion, but at present unaffiliated, in seeing the synagogue sponsoring social and welfare projects, would become attracted to it.

Samuel F. Leber, president of the Conference of Jewish Charities, presided. Previous to the lecture, Judge Stern was entertained at dinner by Samuel I. Kessler and other officers of the Y.M.-Y.W.H.A.