Sees Rabbinate As Business and Congregations Unconcerned with Learning of Rabbis

Six new rabbis were graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary at the graduation exercises held at the Town Hall. They are: Elias Charry, Jacob Freedman, Edward E. Gelber, Jacob Kraft, Philip Lipis and Joseph Zeitlin. Abraham L. Lassen received the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature. Diplomas of the Teachers Institute were awarded to 43 men and women.

Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the seminary who conferred the degrees, announced that among the gifts received during the past year were $7,500 from the estate of Abraham L. Erlanger for the library, $250,000 from the estate of Conrad Hubert and $500,000 from Julius Rosenwald. The Rosenwald gift, said Dr. Adler, will be used in the establishment of a Louis Marshall Memorial Fund, if an equal sum is contributed by friends and admirers of Mr. Marshall, according to the intention of Mr. Rosenwald when he donated the $500,000. Dr. Adler also announced gifts by Felix M. Warburg of the painting “The Rabbi”, by Joseph Margolies, of a portrait of Louis Loeb by Leo Mielziner, presented by the artist.

That religion and the rabbinate today are regarded as a sort of business and that congregations are not concerned over the amount of learning possessed by their rabbis, was the statement made by Professor Israel Davidson of the Seminary in speaking to the graduates. Professor Davidson said:

RABBI SUPPOSED TO BE OMNISCIENT

“Today the rabbi is supposed to be an omniscient, a social worker, a campaign manager, a literary critic, a judge of art—everything except a scholar or a lamdan. You expect him at every marriage and funeral; he must be present at every public function; he must be up to date on every problem, economic, political, literary and social; you expect him to be nice to the ladies, to fondle the children; to shake hands with the Mayor, to pat the Alderman on the shoulder; to be interested in civic affairs; not to be strange to national questions; to pass an opinion on the force of the navy, the strength of the army, the future of aviation and the relation of relativity to the stock exchange; all possible and impossible subjects — but you never question whether you have left the Rabbi time to study the Talmud, the Midrash, Jewish philosophy, the works of Maimonides, Ibn Ezra or Juda Halevy, or the works of the modern scholars, Zunz, Rappaport, Luzzato, Geiger and a host of others”.

NO PLACE FOR COWARDS

Sol M. Stroock, chairman of the board of directors of the Seminary, in a talk to the graduates warned them that the rabbinate was “no place for cowards or weaklings” and that there may be unpleasant and disheartening experiences ahead of them, for which they must be prepared.