Judaism as understood by the exponents of Reform cannot be described by any other concrete definition than “the religion of infinite progress.”
This view was stressed by Dr. Samuel Schulman, Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, New York, one of the leading exponents of Reform Judaism, at the close of the symposium held by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in convention here. Summarizing the views expressed on “Judaism and the Modern World,” as the symposium was termed, Dr. Schulman told the delegates that the symposium had failed to positively define Judaism. “Judaism should be considered from the standpoint of modernity. To Judaism, Messiah has never arrived. This means that Judaism is the religion of infinite progress,” Dr. Schulman stated.
The speaker stated that he would found a new order of modern priesthood of Israel, with the youth devoted to piety and sincerity. Science, he stated, has failed to supply more than an outline of the world. Modern man is starved for God. Science can explain neither the meaning nor the purpose of the world, nor the complete processes thereof, he stated.
“In the first place God is not nature and in the second place God is not man,” said Dr. Schulman. “If nature is not God, then genuine science holds no danger for religion. The business of religion is to lead man to God, to whom nature is an instrument.
“The genius of Judaism is not to describe God exhaustively. Judaism continues the consistent invitation to man to discovered more and more about God. It does not see the realization of the ideal in the past; it looks always to the future.
“In the days from Febraury 12 to February 22, which bring to our mind through the memory of Washington and Lincoln the genius of American democracy, its liberty, its order and its vision, I would like the American people to use these days as days of reflection, somewhat as the Jewish religion uses the ten days from the New Year to the Day of Atonement,” Dr. Shulman declared.
At the conclusion of his address the audience rose, according an ovation to Dr. Schulman.
The convention heard a preliminary (Continued on Page 4)
report of the Commission on Research, of which Dr. Lee K. Frankel is chairman, on the questionnaires sent out by the Commission on religious observance. The questionnaires were directed to the members of Reform congregations in eleven cities in the United States having a Jewish population of over 50,000. A. N. Franzblau, director of the Commission, stated that twenty-nine congregations had consented to submit membership lists for the study which seeks to determine “the nature of our constituency and their Jewish attitudes and practices.”
More than twenty-seven thousand questionnaires have been sent out. So far 1% have been returned. The report and recommendations are to be ready for submission by August.
Mayor Rolph of San Francisco addressed the convention, tracing the history of the local Jewish community Following his address, Adolph S. Ochs, chairman of the Hebrew Union College Endowment Fund, announced that another $250,000 had been raised for the Fund throughout the country during the day. Of this sum $47,000 had been raised in San Francisco. The total raised since the beginning of the convention is over $300,000, Mr. Ochs stated.
Rabbi Morris M. Feurlicht of Indianapolis spoke at the final symposium on “Judaism and Personal Religion.”
A resolution was adopted urging the Executive Board to “Recreate the Committee of Social Justice designed not for the solution of specific factional controversies but for the pronouncement and promotion of the sympathetic attitude of Judaism toward those who are struggling for more equitable and just conditions of life in fields of industry, commerce and social relations and toward progressive efforts in the realms of industrial economic and sociological aspects of human relationship; and
“That the achievements of the ends in view be subserved by fostering, through cooperation and financial assistance whenever and wherever the same is deemed fitting and proper, the efforts of the Central Conference of American Rabbis to apply to the solution of modern social problems the lofty idealism of Judaism.”
A scholarship at the Hebrew Union College will be established by the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, which held its eighth biennial assembly in conjunction with the Union convention. The Sisterhoods voted to establish the scholarship in the name of Mrs. J. Walter Freiberg of Cincinnati. The Sisterhoods also appropriated $5,000 for the Federation of Young People’s League, affiliated with the Sisterhoods.
Twenty-one new members were named to the Executive Board of the National Federation. They are: Mrs. Myer Kirsh, Cleveland; Mrs. Samuel Kubie, Far Rockaway, N. Y.; Mrs. J. Jaffa. Denver; Mrs. Oscar Robinson, Detroit; Mrs. Max Epstein, St. Louis; Mrs. Stanley Blumenthal, Seattle; Mrs. Edgar Herzberg, Milwaukee; Mrs. Simeon Lazarus, Columbus, O.; Mrs. Milton Gundershimer, Baltimore; Mrs. Sam Schoen, Atlanta; Mrs. Herman Marks, Newark, N. J.; Mrs. Jonas Frankel, Cincinnati; Mrs. Hugo Hartmann. Winnetka III.; Mrs. Saul Lavine, Pittsburgh; Mrs. Arnold Hartman, Nashville, Tenn.; Miss Jeannette M. Goldberg. Philadelphia; Mrs. Adolph Rosenberg, Cincinnati; Mrs. Harry Reinberger, Brooklyn; Mrs. Ben Isaacs, New Orleans; Mrs. Benjamin Lowenstein, Cleveland; Mrs. Joseph Stein Cleveland.
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.
