“Jews shared in the glory which was Germany’s; Jews have no share in the same which is Germany’s today,” said Judge Irving Lehman of the New York Court of Appeals at the banquet tonight climaxing the thirty-fourth annual council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, in session at the Willard Hotel since Friday in conjunction with its affiliated organizations, the National Federations of Temple Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods.
“The ideals of liberty, of justice and of brotherhood that have been the traditional heritage of the Jewish religion,” Judge Lehman asserted, “have been the cause of their disenfranchisement in Germany today.
UNWITTING TRIBUTE
“In unconscious tribute to the beauty and eternal truth of Judaism, in unconscious tribute to the spirit of the Jews of Germany, the leaders of the Nazi group have recognized that against doctrines such as these, against a system of government such as they proposed to establish, true Jews would protest forever, and the more dearly a Jew loved his country, the more intense and courageous such protest would be,” Judge Lehman declared.
“The badge of shame which the Nazis have tried to pin upon our brethren has become a badge of honor,” he stated. Continuing, the jurist said:
“I do not fear the spread of such doctrines in this country. This nation was formed in a spirit of love and freedom and of equal justice. The truest service which its citizens can give this country is through the preservation of that spirit. There lies the future of Judaism in this country.
“Only where mercy and justice rule; where men are restrained by the divine law can there be freedom. The obligation of obedience to that divine law is part of the Jewish heritage. Some there may be who, in the future, will renounce that heritage.
STRENGTHEN TEMPLE
“We must plan to strengthen the influence of the synagogue in the lives of those who remain true to it. We must broaden its activities, as the activities of the modern Jew have also broadened. We must make Judaism the commandments of the Lord, given unto Israel, truly the way of life of Jews here. Our fathers received the torch which has given light to the world. Ours is the duty to keep the flame burning till we hand the torch to those who shall come after us. Theirs will be the duty to hold high the torch in the days to come. Only in that way can the American Jew fitly serve his people; his country; his God.”
WOLSEY SPEAKS
Rabbi Louis Wolsey of Philadelphia, maintaing that “the future is not divorced from the past,” gave the rabbi’s viewpoint of the future of Judaism in America.
“As all time was wedded to religious motivations in the past, so in the future our salvation shall come not by a folk culture in a democratic society, but through the total idealism of this historic people, an ideal which we call Judaism.
“We are disturbed but we are not dismayed at the spiritual confusion and moral chaos which beset us and the world everywhere,” said Rabbi Wolsey. And in the spirit of prophecy, he concluded:
“The future of Judaism is not in the hands of those who bring pressure upon our liberty or our livelihood. It is entirely our own responsibility. Judaism may live in spite of its oppressors who, while they oppress, glibly talk of charity and religion; or who say that alienism must be destroyed from the United States, meanwhile allying themselves with the alienism of the Friends of New Germany. But Judaism cannot live without the Jews. We may say that in the future, the only means of salvation for Israel is our religion, in the Lord Our God.”
At yesterday’s session a resolution urging help for German Jewish refugees by placing them outside of New York and other metropolitan areas was adopted by the brotherhoods groups, upon the recommendation of Samuel D. Finkel of Boston, national president. The executive was authorized to formulate a program for each community on how to help the refugees.
Other resolutions adopted urged increased cooperation with the orthodox and conservative elements of American Jewry, and favored the revival of additional ceremonials.
The question of membership in the temples was the center of discussion at the afternoon session of the union’s council. Max Schallek of New York, urged in this connection congregations be made centers of community effort and not lone places of worship or lecture platforms.
Charles W. Morris of Louisville. Ky., speaking on the same topic declared that “if the members of the temple can be made to attend divine services, we need not be disturbed about losing them.”
Rabbi Charles E. Shulman, of Glencoe, Ill., declared that piety was a lost art today and that “if the Jew hopes to receive adequate benefits from his noble tradition he must first recognize the fact that this tradition includes not only the remembrance of great experience and prophetic hopes, but also the discipline which can enable him to approximate even in the smallest measure the ideals of his people.”
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