Rabbi Eliezer Lipschitz, president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in Poland, sailed yesterday on the S. S. “George Washington,” following a stay of three months in the United States.
Rabbi Lipschitz, who came here to attend the annual convention of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, was received by President Coolidge on April 29th, when he expressed the gratitude of Polish Jewry for the President’s address on tolerance, delivered in Omaha.
“The positive side of Jewish spiritual life in America is at present greater than the negative.” Rabbi Lipschitz declared in an interview with press representatives, before his departure, summing up his impressions of American Jewry.
“In the field of education, great success is to be recorded for the last twenty to thirty years. Much has been done by the establishment of Talmudic Academies, Talmud Torahs, parochial schools, etc. However, ‘much done’ does not mean ‘everything done.’ Much is to be improved, I must say with regret, in the field of religious education, in the activities of the Rabbinate, in the questions of Sabbath observance and kashruth.
“I found among American Jews, a large number of brethren who, as excellent men and Jews, could serve as an example of achievement even in our European countries. I have great admiration for these Jews of the rank and file who, as I am told, have never violated the laws of the Sabbath since their coming to this country. I consider them heroes, remembering how great are their temptations and how severe the tests they had to undergo. When they came to this country, poor and lonely, they had to fight their way through under American conditions.
“A thing which must be noted is the fact that the influence of leading Jewish citizens on general Jewish life in this country is small. The main reason for this is, I believe, the prevailing ignorance of things Jewish, the lack of Jewish education, of the knowledge of the Torah and of Jewish ethics among a large part of our masses. Of course, this can be explained by the circumstance that when our people came to this country thirty or forty years ago they came as immigrants, without means and without education. The majority, who were compelled to emigrate under the pressure of life, came without a Jewish education and for this reason felt inferior. Amounting to only one per cent of the general population, they have unwillingly given up their own culture, giving preference to the culture and language of non-Jews or of the rich Reform Jews whom they found here, imitating their customs and mode of life, whether good or bad. This weakness remained with them even in later years when they grew richer and became independent.
“In their blind respect for all that is English-speaking, a certain part of our Jewish immigrants look down upon themselves, even before their own minor but English-speaking children, believing that the language itself spells wisdom.
“This weakness for giving preference to other cultures is nowhere so widely spread as here. The great number of semi-Reform synagogues is the best proof of this. The synagogues which are built and the charity which is given often comes not out of an inner conviction, not dictated by one’s own desire and taste, but as an imitation of fashion,” Rabbi Lipschitz stated.
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