Preached in City Pulpits

Rabbi William Margolis, Congregation Ohab Zedek, 118 West Ninety-fifth street-“If a popular vote were taken on the question of justifying war, there is no doubt what the result would be. It is growing increasingly impossible for civilized humanity to sanction wholesale murder or other methods of physical compulsion as a means of social control. As far as our glorious fleet is concerned, there is one thing which even the most passionate pacifists among is must admit. The fleet is in; It took billions to build; It takes millions to maintain! And truly it stirs the hearts of the countless thousands of American spectators with a sense of pride and safety. The fleet represents that ever present bulwark of national defense against attack from without; its message to American citizenry is that every man may sleep peacefully within the castle of his home surrounded by his loved ones growing up to a full measure of freedom. The fleet symbolizes an American sense of physical security.

“Yet our vociferous hat-waving and flag-flaunting in tribute of welcome to the Navy were a joking gesture in truth. Our faces were turned to the incoming fleet-our staunch protectors against enemies from without; but our backs were turned upon a bitter, bloody American war from within! The integrity of vital American principles is threatened by a dangerous outlaw at large in one part of the country; mob-striking; rioting and bloodshed in another part of the land; the recrudescence of bigotry and intolerance in still another portion of the nation! American laws are being flagrantly flouted; authority and discipline are being made a mockery; democratic principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for an equal citizenry, are badly threatened.”

AMERICANS AND JEWS

Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Eighty – eighth street west of Broadway – “I have spoken before of inflated and deflated egos with reference to personal relationships. Let me carry out the idea to our relationship as Americans and as Jews. There is the type that are Self-exalting and self-appreciating Americans. It is difficult to see which is more objectionable. There is the boastful, flustering, imperious, magniloquent American for whom there is no other paradise except these shores, no other civilizations, ideals heroes, statesmen, thinkers, except here. There is on the other hand, the abject, cringing type of citizen who scoffs at American institutions, berates American ideals, cap in hand is ready to hail every land before his own, admire every writer, statesman rather than his own, and lavish his good dollars upon those who come here from foreign lands to lecture to Americans on what ###illy people they are. We need ###-respect.

In the Jewish scene, we also see both types. There is the jingoistic Jew who keeps drumming into the ears of the world that the Jew is the greatest artist, poet, philosopher, scientist, who frantically endeavors to discover a Jewish genealogy for every great man who appears.

“Far more detestable is the Jew of the inferiority complex, abject, bootlicking. Such a Jew has a kink in his soul.”

CIVILIZATION IS TOTTERING

Rabbi Joseph Zeitlin, Temple Ansche Chesed, West End avenue at 100th street – “Ever since the beginning of time, light and darkness have been identified ###n religion as referring to what is ignoble and what is ignoble. Light ###presented what was good; it portrayed enlightenment and culture Darkness characterized evil ignorance and moral degradations.

In its literal sense. education means a leading out and therefore it becomes the duty of the educator to lead out and destroy from man’s mental make-up those attributes that our base and vile. Civilization is tottering today because much of our culture has been used to destroy rather than to develop humanity. If our knowledge is employed to invent poisons, gases, ammunition and war, then our future is dismal indeed.

“It must rather be our duty therefore to strive for a cultural life that will truly be a light and a source of blessing to mankind. Idle resolutions against warfare can effect little good but a sound, cultural life which teachers the sacredness of man and leads him Godward will be most beneficent in its accomplishments. War can be destroyed most effectively through the light of education.”

JEWISH INFLUENCE EXAGGERATED

Rabbi Louis I. Newman, Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 West Eighty-third street – “Many Jews believe in the importance of strong labor union organization, but they ask this program in terms of persuasion rather than of force. It is significant to note that the outbreaks of violence in the United States have occurred at Minneapolis, Toledo, San Francisco, and other mid-Western centers, where the Jewish population is small and highly conservative. Moreover, the embattled farmers of the Middle West who resorted to the threat of the rope against the holders of mortgages on their farms and possessions were typical American stock, uninfluenced by any so-called external agitation and propaganda. They have had grievances which they have had grievances which they have attempted to rectify by the ‘direct action’ which has always marked certain aspects of the American tradition.

An endeavor is under way to discredit the entire Jewish community by seeking to pin upon them the responsibility for the acts of a few extremists who happen to be Jews by blood but by no other ties. It must be remembered in considering this question that Jewish influence in needlessly exaggerated, and that the majority of the population, looking around for a scapegoat, is only too ready to pick upon the minority, namely the few Jewish participants. The best cure for radical doctrine in this country is the increase in the financial rewards of the working class. A contented proletariat is not inclined to listen to paid agitators.”