It is both unwise and unrighteous for Jews to become theosophists for the benefit of their faith, or as a medium through which their faith is to become clearer or dearer, according to Rabbi Leo Jung, of New York, in a communication published in “Israel’s Messenger” of Shanghai.
“Let me say that I have spent time on reading Mme. Blavatsky in the original and that I have read with attention the pamphlets of some of her disciples,” wrote Rabbi Jung. “It is because of such knowledge as I have been able to glean from these writings, independent of the devastating criticism of authorities, that I consider it unwise and unrighteous for Jews to become theosophists ‘for the benefit of their faith,’ or as a medium through which their faith is to become clearer or dearer or what not to them. It is because I have spent many hours on a fair endeavor to let Mme. Blavatsky speak for herself in her own words, as well as in such persuasive garb as Mrs. Besant and others dress her “revelations” that I consider it a crime against humanity, which needs the unalloyed moral strength of Jewish teaching to forsake Judaism for Mme. Blavatsky, or to substitute for it, the new guidance of theosophy.
“The Jewish theosophists have made of theosophy not only a new religion, but a cause, which (if the contributions to “Israel’s Messenger” are typical) they serve unwisely and unrighteously by perverting, distorting and explaining away whatever an opponent may say,” Rabbi Jung states.
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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.
