“Perhaps the Hitlers in the world today are preparing the agony through which our culture shall be reborn,” declared Prof. Mortimer J. Adler, of the University of Chicago, in an address today before an audience of 600 meeting in the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
“If I dared to raise my voice as did the prophets in ancient Israel,” Prof. Adler asserted, “I would ask whether the tyrants of today are not like the Babylonian and Assyrian kings–instruments of Divine justice, chastening a people who had departed from the way of truth. A civilization may sometimes reach a rottenness which only fire can expunge and cleanse. Seeing the hopelessness of working peaceful reforms among a people who had shut their eyes and hardened their hearts, the prophets almost prayed for deliverance through the darkness of destruction to the light of a better day. If it is part of the Divine plan to bless man’s temporal civilization with the goodness of democracy, that civilization must be rectified.”
Prof. Pitirim A. Sorokin, of Harvard University, said that “the crisis we face today represents one of the greatest transitions in human history, from one of its main forms of culture to another.”
“The new culture,” he said, “will not mean a physical disappearance of the Western population; it does not mean the destruction of all the material wealth of western civilization; it does not mean the disintegration of our total culture. It means an increasing poverty in our natural and social sciences, our philosophy, our law and ethics.”
That we have taken democracy too much for granted was the contention of Professor Harry J. Carman of Columbia University. “Clearly the time has come for something more than phrases,” he said. “We must put our house in order by ridding it of political corruption, intolerance, unemployment and poverty. We should hold tight to legal prescriptions and procedures; trust only to leaders committed by instinct and belief to the defense of civil liberties, and deal summarily with those who band together to destroy them. We should zealously guard all those who further the cause of human justice and liberty and do all in our power to work cooperatively with others to this end.”
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
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.
