Re-orientation of Jewish Life Stressed at Seminary Conferences

On a keynote of re-examination of Jewish values and re-orientation of Jewish life to the vast changes of the past fifty years, the First Seminary Conference on Jewish Affairs opened today at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in connection with its semi-centennial celebration.

In opening the conference this afternoon, Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Seminary, explained that it was called “because the semi-centennial of the Seminary seemed a fitting time for the Jews of America to take stock of their position, to re-examine the essence of their spiritual lives, to weigh the contributions of their people to ethics and citizenship and the general advancement of mankind, to consider their relationships with the general community and, perhaps most important of all, to view with intelligent concern the problems and responsibilities that lie ahead.”

The afternoon session was devoted largely to round-table discussions on various aspects of Jewish life and the relationship of the Jews to the rest of the world. In the evening a public meeting was held, the speakers’ list including President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University on “The Cultural Contributions of Judaism,” President Henry Sloan Coffin of Union Theological Seminary on “The Religious Contributions of Judaism,” and Arthur Oppenheimer, of the semi-centennial committee.

Dr. Coffin stressed that American democracy, “which we have taken far too casually,” rests on the threefold faith in the capacities of the common man, in truth and in the universe as favorable to a society based on brotherhood. This faith, according to his prepared address, “came of the religious heritage which Jews and Christians hold in common. It is a response to God’s self-revelation in Israel. And we would add in that figure which is at the center of our Christianity.”

In the conference sermon this afternoon on “The Jew Looks at Tomorrow, Rabbi Israel Levinthal of Brooklyn Jewish Center stressed the need for revaluation of Jewish thought and the task of fashioning the Jewish personality of today. Describing the changes in Jewish life in Russia, Germany and Palestine in the past fifty years he said:

” All our pet theories about the future of the Jews require new orientation. And the great tragedy in Jewish life, especially here in America, is the fact that we seem to go on in the same routine, repeating the old Shibboleth of a generation or two ago, as if no change had marked the status of the Jew in the world, as if the spiritual life of the Jew was beset with no problem other than those that faced the immigrant Jew in the days of the founding of this institution.”

The round table discussions and their chairmen were: ” The Place of Philanthropy in Judaism, ” Dr. Solomon Lowenstein; “The Jew in Relation to the Larger Community,” James Marshall; “The Jew in Community Organization,” Judge Bernard L. Shiontag; “The Organization of Jewish Education, “Judge Samuel I. Rosenman; “The Scope and Ideals of Jewish Education,” Dr. Maurice J. Karpf; “The Synagogue, “Louis J. Mess; “The Place of Palestine in the Development of Jewish Ideals, “Dr. Israel Goldstein; “Jewish Books,” J. Solis-Cohen Jr.;”Judaism and the College Student,” Mark Eisner; “Judaism and the Adolescent,” Henry W. Braude.