Resolution Referred to Incoming Executive; Ludwig Vogelstein, in Annual Report, Points to Union’s Financial Plight; Says Orthodox Congregations Are More Successful in Raising Runds; Decision, to Affiliate with World Union of Liberal Judaism Ratified; $500,000 Raised for Hebrew Union College, Following Appeals Made by Adolph Ochs, Rabbi Jonah Wise, Alfred M. Cohen and Dr. Morgenstern (Jewish Daily Bulletin)
In the presence of over 2,000 delegates the thirtieth biennial convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations opened Monday morning at the Hotel Cleveland.
Divided into different sections, the convention proceeded immediately to work. It was opened by Nathan Loeser, as temporary chairman. The convention elected a nominations committee under the chairmanship of Max Meisel of Cleveland, who brought in a report with the following permanent convention officers:
Edward M. Baker, Cleveland, chairman; Adolph S. Ochs, New York; Judge Joshua Cohen. Pittsburgh; Charles Stahl, Cincinnati; Herman Weil, Buffalo and M. E. Meiscl, Cleveland, vice-chairmen; Rabbi George Zepin, secretary and I. D. Schwartz, assistant secretary.
The report of the Nominations Committee was unanimously adopted.
W. R. Hopkins, City Manager of Cleveland, welcomed the delegates. The chairman, in a long address, analyzed the present religious situation in America and called the delegates to more devoted work.
Ludwig Vogelstein, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, read the annual report from which the growth of the organization was evident.
Mr. Vogelstein called attention to the financial plight of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
“This Union in order to live needs more than $500,000 at present,” he said, “and a 10 per cent increase from year to year.”
Last year, he continued, there was a deficit of $68,400. Comparing this with the success of orthodox Jewish congregations in raising funds, Mr. Vogelutein warned the delegates that “unless you come forward voluntarily, liberally and generously, you or your children may be compelled to witness the downfall of liberal Judaism in this country.”
David A. Brown appealed for the support of the Union and the Hebrew Union College.
RESOLUTION URGES U. S. ARBITRATION IN MEXICO CONTROVERSY
Rabbi Edward L. Israel of Baltimore presented a resolution urging the United States Government to arbitrate in the Mexico controversy in order to avoid any war complications. A question of jurisdiction to consider this resolution arose in which Rabbis Frankel, Foster, Heller and others participated.
After a long discussion, the resolution was referred to the incoming Executive Committee for immediate action.
Rabbi Louis Wolsey president of are Central Conference of American Rabbis, reported on a resolution of the Central Conference to join the World Union for Liberal Judaism.
The decision to affiliate with the world union was ratified after a discussion by the delegates, some of whom said they regarded it as an epochal forward movement in American Jewish history.
The afternoon session was devoted to the Hebrew Union College. Adolph S. Ochs, chairman of the session, emphasized the achievements of the College and appealed to the delegates to aid this institution.
Rabbi Jonah B. Wise and Alfred M. Cohen, president of the Independent Order B’nai B’rith, supported Mr. Ochs in his appeal for the College. Dr. Julian Morgenstern, president of the College, made an appeal for the College fund. He declared that the centers of Jewish culture at the present time are Palestine and America, and that Jewish scholars must measure up to the new requirements. The amount of $500,000 was raised for the College Fund. The contributors were:
Mr. and Mrs. Adolph S. Ochs, $200,000; Ludwig Vogelstein, $50,000; Murray Guggenheim, $50,000; Mortimer L. Schiff, $25,000; Mr. and Mrs. Philip J. Goodhart, $25,000; anonymous contribution in memory of Dr. Jacobi, $10,000; Herbert H. Lehman. $10,000; Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation, $10,000; Mr. and Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, $5,000; Emil Pollak, $5,000; S. G. Rosenbaum, $3,000; James Speyer, $2,500; Adolph Zukor, $2,000; Isaac Kuhn, $1,000; Paul Baerwald, $600; Abraham Udell, $100; Henry Toch, $5,000; Samuel Untermyer, $50,000; William Fox, $50,000.
The National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods and the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods are holding their annual meetings simultaneously with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The majority of their plans consist of social and cultural activities. A special meeting was held by the Rabbis under the chairmanship of Rabbi Frisch at which different methods of activities as international relations and others, were discussed.
MR. VOGELSTEIN OUTLINES ACHIEVEMENTS OF UNION
In his address Mr. Vogelstein stated that the presence in Cleveland of about 1.500 men and women traveling from all parts of the country was in itself disproof of the claim that Reform Judaism was losing its hold on the second and third generations. He traced outstanding achievements of the Union which he said “is over fifty years old but has not grown stale nor sterile but true to the ideals of its great founders has adapted itself to the ever-changing conditions of American Jewish life.” He traced the achievements of the Union during the last two years, and pointed, as outstanding accomplishments, to the formation of the Synagogue Council of America, “to find a point of contact with cur orthodox and conservative brethren, and take united action, whenever possible, without sacrificing or compromising individual religious principles”; to the World Union for Liberal Judaism, in which the American Union is participating; to the Christian-Jewish Good Will movement, undertaken since the last biennial council to destroy anti-Semitism by better mutual effort. Reviewing the status of Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, one of the major activities of the Union, he made a pea both for adequate support of the institution and for the students.
“If the graduates of our College are to become influences in American homes,” he said, “we need students who come from typical American Jewish homes, imbued with Jewish tradition and enthusiastic idealism. There was a time,” he said, “when a wealthy Jew was proud to have a son or son-in-law who was a teacher in Israel. Considering the large number of Jewish boys who graduate from various secular colleges in the country, it is notable how few come from old Jewish American families.”
FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE UNION
Reporting on the financial condition of the Union and the College, he said: “There are not 30 congregations out of 278, nor 25 individuals out of 55,000 who show their appreciation of the work of the Union by generous contributions. It is true that from time to time we have found benefactors who have and still do make liberal donations for specific purposes, such as purchases of books for the library, publications, etc. However, this Union in order to live needs over $500,000 per annum at present and a ten per cent increase from year to year. We had to cut down the budgets for the current fiscal year from $600,000 to $525,000. We incurred a deficit during the last fiscal year of $68,400, which we fortunately could cover out of a reserve fund previously accumulated. However, unless our member congregations and the Jewish public at large assume a more generous attitude toward the Union and the College we shall be unable to maintain our present activities, not to speak of expansion which is absolutely imperative.”
Mr. Vogelstein outlined the purpose of the symposiums on the perpetuation of Judaism which are to feature the conferences.
“We are fortunate that the pioneers of the Reform movement clarified our position a hundred years ago on the subject of modernism and fundamentalism,” Mr. Vogelstein said. “The founders of Reform took the attitude that true religion can never be in conflict with true science. Religion must take cognizance of the real facts of life. This is an answer to those of our critics who feel that somehow Judaism may still be intellectually ‘old-fashioned’.
“The pioneers of Reform even went a step further to link us up with the modern development of the social consciousness. They insisted that the finest thing about religion was the emphasis on the moral life. For this reason they sought their inspiration in the ethical teachings of the prophets of Israel and Judah and their interpreters and followers.
“We have avoided the danger of rust inasmuch as we have followed the footsteps of the Fathers of Reform, but is it possible that we have gone to the other extreme in the process of liberalizing our thought and of discarding ceremonials and religious customs? In our desire to emphasize the ethical side of religion and to stress the moral aspect of life, have we not obscured for ourselves the beauty and value of spirituality.
“Again in emphasizing the moral life, there is the ever present danger of lapsing into a vague universalism in religion which makes men question the value of religious differences and which produces the types of men who, attracted by the apparently similar ethical teachings of the religion of the majority, may disappear from our ranks. In truth, of course, we cannot escape our past. We are the products of environment and history. These influences may be too subtle for easy definition but they are too evident for complacent denial. Our past is part of us. Something in us crossed the Red Sea with Moses, stood at Mt. Sinai, listented to Isaiah, fought with the Maccabees, pronounced ‘The Shema’ in the auto-da-fes of the Inquisition. That past is a very real part of us. Tradition is more than a memory. This part of us and its subtle but deep rooted influence stirs us to become the advocates of liberty, justice and peace, and softens our hearts to the woes of mankind. We feel that we still have a reason for separate existence; we still have a message to bring to the world; that our conception of how “to do justice” and how “to love mercy” and how “to walk in humility before God” is worth preserving and “presenting to the world.
“The Jewish prophets, although they preached truths which form the basis of all religions did not counsel the Children of Israel to lose themselves in a shallow universalism. Nor would our souls find satisfaction in the dead level of spiritual mediocrity. We must maintain the doctrines of one religion and live by them. We must not permit ourselves to succumb to the ideal of barren uniformity, which sacrifices what is excellent and remarkable for the suprious comfort of being like all the people round about us. The justification of our separatism lies in the fact that Jewish idealism has not died and this truth will save us from the materialism of our age. This in brief is the object and purpose of the symposium on the ‘Perpetuation of Judaism.’
“The grave danger of our period lies in the fact that too little thought is given to these matters. The freedom from oppression and our prosperity contain in themselves a danger for the next generation, if we do not succeed in fortifying their character by high ideals and spiritual aims.”
Mr. Vogelstein also paid tribute to Louis Marshall, whom he designated as the “foremost Jew in America”. At the mention of Mr. Marshall’s name, the delegates applauded. Mr. Vogelstein paid tribute to the late Dr. Kaufman Kohler of New York, Isaac Shoen of Atlanta, and Samuel Straus of Cincinnati.
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.
