I look with hope beyond the present darkness in Germany”, declared Rabbi Samuel Schulman on the eve of retirement from active ministry of Temple Emanu-El, after forty-five years’ service in the American rabbinate. “Two fundamental ideas have guided my life,” Dr. Schulman revealed in an interview with the Jewish Daily Bulletin. “They are my belief in God and my belief in th indestructability of the Jewish people. An eternal God revealed Himself through a deathless people. That is my creed.”
Hitler’s attempt to turn back the clock will not succeed in the end, Dr. Schlman believes. He cautioned, however, “we must be under no illusion. The Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews i a challenge to the position of Jewry the world over. It aims to overthrow all that has been achieved by the politcal emancipation of the Jews.
“While democracy is now in various ways being discredited in many countries,” the veteran rabbi siad, ‘it will come back with renewed stregth. For democracy is th indispensible instrument for the fostering of human freedom-freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of the expression of personality.
“Jewry gained all through democracy and is now in danger of losing pretty nearly all through its decline. Wherever liberty is increased, the Jew prospers. Where liberty is overthrown the Jew suffers most intensely.”
ROMANCE OF CAREER
Reviewing his own career, Dr. Schulman found something of romance in it. IN 1885, inmediately after his graduation from the Colege of the City of New York, the Temple Emanu-El Theological Seminary Association sent the young student abroad on a loan scholarship. He studied in Berlin at the University and at the Hochschule fuer die Wissenschaft des Judenthums. At th university he pursued philosophical. economic and social studies, preparing himself for the modern ministry. And now Dr. Schulman preaches his farewell sermon before the same congregation which sent him out to study.
Officially Rabbi Schulman will not retire from his active ministry until November 1, 1934, but his sabbatical year begins on February 1.
Approaching 70, Rabbi Schulman is still optimistic. He sees a great future for Judaism. “We are building up in this country,” he siad, “a Judaism rooting in our past, loyal to our religious, and at the same time liberal in its open-mindedness for the new thought of the generation in which it lives.
“Furthermore,”he ventured, “the move for socialization within democratic forms is of the greatest importance to the Jews as a minority in the Western World. The more social justice there is in a commonwealth, the less anti-Semitism. The source of prejudice and hatred is not creed or racial arrogance but, in the last analysis, a hatred of the brainy competitor. Blunt the keenness of competition and you will make men feel their solidarity, ultimately diminishing their prejudice.”
RUSSIAN BORN
Born in Russia in 1864, in a section that is now Lithuania, young” Samuel Schulman was brought to this country at the age of four. Brought up in a most orthodox environment, he began the study of the Talmud, without any expectation of ever becoming a rabbi. After his admission to City College, however, he came in contact with Dr. Gustav Gottheil, who urged him to study for the rabbinate, and who recommended him to the congregation of Tepmle Emanu-El. Upon graduation from college, Dr. Schulman went abroad.
SERVICES IN A STORE
He returned in 1889, and began! his rabbinical career with a first congregation- He conducted services in an empty store on the southeast corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 81st Street, then surrounded only by empty lots, but the young rabbi was fortunate in having a fine group. After four months, however, the congregation was convinced the mission was premature.
So Dr. Schulman went to Helena, Montana, where he was a rabbi from April, 1890, to January, 1893. There he organized a congregation of which he was the first rabbi, and built a temple. From Helena, he was called to Kansas City, where he stayed for six years. In 1899, Rabbi Schulman came to Temple Beth-El, remaining after the consolidation of that congregation with Temple Emanu-EI in 1927.
The retiring rabbi is well known as an outstanding representative of Reform Judaism, yet he’ has never lost sympathy and understanding for orthodoxy and its beauties. Throughout his ministry he has been known as fearless, aggressive and outspoken. He has invariably treated current topics, being one of the first to discuss social justice on the pulpit, hi 1912, when he was president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Dr. Schiilinan recommended appointment of a committee on social Justice, lie has always defended labor and the rights ot properly.
VARIED ACTIVITIES
A hard-working minister, be gave himself linslintingly to all good causes. 1’or many years he was one of seven of the hoard of editors for the new English translation of the Bible. He has been with the committee of the Jewish Publication Society for twenty-five years. A member of the editorial board of Jewish Classics and chairman of the youth eduction committee, and the education commission of American Hebrew Congregations, he has been a director of the Y-M-H.A. for twenty-five years, and its vice-president for ten years. He was president of the Central Council of American Rabbis from 1912 to 1914, and is now honorary president- For five years he served as president of the Association of Reformed Rabbis of New York and vicinity, of which he was one of the founders. From 1930 Wo 1932 he was president of the alumni of City College.
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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.
