Between the Lines

The synagogue in America today is no longer a place of Jewish teachings only. It is a platform for general education. It is a place where everything can be preached, whether it deals with Jewish life or not.

This is the attitude taken by Rabbi Louis I, Newman in his reply to my comment on the Strachey case. This is the attitude which may also be taken by other rabbis, although I doubt that their number is great.

JEWISHNESS A BY-PRODUCT

Certain rabbis in America today no longer look at themselves as spiritual leaders of their communities. They seem to forget that the purpose of a synagogue is to guide the members of the community in a Jewish spirit. To them, Jewishness has become a by-product. A lecture by a non-Jewish writer substitutes for their Friday sermon. A speech by a non-Jewish lecturer takes the place of their Saturday sermon.

This misinterpretation of the function of a synagogue is made by some rabbis chiefly for the purpose of keeping the members of the community in closer touch with the synagogue. Anxious to keep the interest of their community members, these rabbis try to replace religion by lectures on modern sociology, Judaism by international politics, Jewish life by contemporary literature.

POVERTY DISPLAYED

But these rabbis, it seems, do not realize that the very fact that they replace their sermons by non-Jewish speakers on non- Jewish subjects displays their own intellectual poverty. A rabbi who, unaided, is capable of retaining the interest of his community will not invite others to do this job for him. A rabbi who considers himself a Jewish spiritual leader, and nothing else, would not consider the introduction of non-Jewish subjects into the synagogue.

With the conversion of the synagogue into a lecture hall for general subjects, many rabbis do not realize that they are commercializing the temple’s pulpit. Similarly, very few rabbis seem to realize that the publicity which they are anxious to get in the press on their own sermons is far from the traditional Jewish principles of modesty and does not add to the prestige of the Jewish religion.

On many occasions I am embarrassed when I am told by colleagues in the general press how rabbis are flooding their editorial offices with advance texts of their sermons in the hope of obtaining publicity. This unseemly scramble for publicity has become almost a competitive institution among a number of rabbis and is far from provoking respect.

The late Louis Marshall, one of the foremost Jewish leaders of American Jewry, long advocated that rabbis should be rabbis and nothing else; that they should not be book reviewers; that they should not be involved in politics; that they should not talk about everything and everybody; that they should be spiritual leaders only.

This view by Mr. Marshall will always be looked upon as the most logical by everybody who wishes to see Jewish religious leaders respected. Only when rabbis cease to pretend to be more than rabbis — only then will they be in their proper place. The Jewish synagogue in America needs a rabbi and not a lecturer. It is an institution for spiritual guidance on Jewish life, and not on Communism, Fascism or capitalism. For general subjects there are platforms other than the synagogue, and every Jew in America knows how to find them.