World Press Digest

The London Morning Post, in an article on Maimonides, writes:

“From Moses unto Moses there arose not one like Moses” has long been the verdict of posterity on Moses Maimonides, the 800th anniversary of whose birth is now being celebrated by Jewry throughout the world, and not least in Spain, the land of his birth.

Dr. Hertz, the Chief Rabbi in England, referred to him in a commemoration lecture as “Israel’s most universal mind and its greatest spiritual force since the close of Bible times.” Maimonides achieved greatness in at least four capacities: as philosopher, writer, jurist, and organizer, and in the versatility of his genius was fit to rank with the great figures of the Renaissance.

Readers of Walter Scott may remember that Maimonides was personal physician to Saladin, and declined the offer of a similar post to Richard Coeur de Lion.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL URGED FOR PITTSBURGH

The necessity of organizing Jewish community councils in America is emphasized in an editorial in the American Jewish Outlook of Pittsburgh. The paper writes:

The city of Cleveland has just formed a Community Council consisting of the 100 senior Jewish organizations in that city. Its purpose is to unite all the organizations and thereby establish a medium for discussing all major communal problems. There is much to recommend a council of this sort.

In Pittsburgh we have scores of societies, auxiliaries, and organizations. Some have local projects, some national, and some international projects. Some are service groups while others are primarily money-raising. Some are affiliated with larger organizations while some are not. But they are all worthwhile and in each there are leaders whose services are of great value. There could be no finer unifying force than to get these leaders together in a council concerned with the problems of the Jews.

SEES TEMPLES FAILING TO SPUR YOUTH

The Synagogue Review of London, commenting on Jewish religious life in Europe, states:

A recent meeting of the governing body of the World Union for Progressive Judaism received a report upon Jewish religious conditions in Poland and Latvia. A dreary picture of apathy toward and ignorance of Judaism among otherwise cultured youth was portrayed; and it was suggested that while desertion from Judaism was often for the sake of convenience, yet it was not infrequently due also to the lack of any real religious stimulus from within the Synagogue.