IT HAS been reported that Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh, (Sacred Service), which was acclaimed in Carnegie Hall on Wednesday evening, is soon to be produced in Germany. We do not know how authentic this information is. Perhaps the Sacred Service will be presented under the auspices of the Jewish cultural organization which is permitted to give plays and concerts exclusively for Jews. But even under such circumstances the Nazis are sure to feel irritated when the Cantor in the Sacred Service will read in Hebrew:
“The Law of the Lord is perfect.
It doth restore the soul.
His precepts are sure and enduring
And give wisdom to the simple.
The Laws of the Lord are just Laws,
Rejoicing the heart;
The Law of the Lord is holy, Enduring forever.
Behold these precepts the Lord hath shown thee:
Take heed of them neither forsake them.”
These lines are followed by the peace song, sung by the Cantor and the chorus:
“Tree of Life,
Life unto them that receive it, And its preservers are happy, For its ways are ways of beauty,
And all its paths are paths of peace.”
While the Hitler government is discriminating against the Jews and persecuting them on racial rather than religious grounds, it may regard these Hebrew sentiments, accentuated in Bloch’s impressive music, as treason.
If the Law of the Lord is perfect, what are the Nazi laws? And if the Lord’s paths are paths of peace, what are the Nazi paths?
The laws of love and justice and righteousness and peace have been replaced in Nazi Germany by decrees of hate and prejudices and by a psychosis of war-madness. A reminder of this even in a Hebrew prayer may arouse the Nazi ire.
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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.
