Thirty-six graduates, the largest class to be graduated in the history of the Seminary, received diplomas at the commencement exercises of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary yesterday. Nineteen rabbis were granted degrees and seventeen teachers were graduated.
Dr. Bernard Revel. President of the Seminary, in his address to the graduates, strongly criticized Jewish leaders who do not adhere to Orthodox Judaism.
“Some of ### spiritual leaders know Judaism, its message and significance, from its reflection in ### irror of distortion,” Dr. Revel declared. “They were not brought into intimate contact with the comprehensive sources of Judaism and they derive their knowledge of Israel’s past and Israel’s ideals mainly from biased sources. They lack therefore a proper sense of the true values of Israel’s spiritual heritage. They teach and preach an ‘essential Judaism’ of their own making.
“Such distortion has brought about the aping of non-Jewish ideas and practices in our spiritual lives.” Dr. Revel continued. “It has resulted in the negation of much that is vital and unique in our religion which has been one of the greatest civilizing factors in the history of mankind. This tendency carried to extremes leads to the ultimate abandonment of our faith in ourselves and in Israel’s unique and ultimate destiny and to the ultimate loss of our spiritual selves and identity.”
According to Dr. Revel, Jewish life cannot survive if the leaders of Israel continue to follow the line of least social and economic resistance and forsake the principles which past generations lived by and died for.
“All serious minded Americans,” he continued, “recognize that American culture is enriched and advanced not by the submergence of all the cultural forms and phases of its varied and component parts into one cultural metting pot, but by each group contributing its best to American cultural values. The unique contribution of America to civilization is that it made possible the dwelling and working together of diverse cultural groups in harmonious blending, all united by mutual fervent devotion to the fundamental ideals and traditions of the Republic.”
Dedication of the Bay Ridge Jewish Center. erected by the Congregation Sh’erith Israel, Brooklyn, N. Y. took place yesterday. Rabbi Solomon Goldman of Cleveland. Ohio. delivered the dedication address. A dedication banquet and installation of Rabbi B. Leon Hurwitz will take place next Sunday.
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.
