The illumination of a perpetual light to burn in the tower of the library building of the Jewish The clogical Seminary marked the opening here today of Rabbi Akiba Memorial Month, during which American Jews will commemorate the death of six million Jewish martyrs and the destruction of Jewish cultural institutions in Europe, while they rededicate themselves to the nurturing of Jewish cultural traditions.
Rabbi Akiba was a second century teacher and leader martyred in the persecution instituted by the Roman Emperor, Hadrian. At that time the schools of the Jews were destroyed and there was widespread slaughter of the Jewish people. Senator Herbert H. Lehman, in an appeal to American Jews, urged them to observe May 23 as “Rabbi Akiba Day” in memory of the martyrs of recent history.
Dr. Louis Finkalstein, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary, declared at services held at the Seminary today that the great traditions of judaism in the western world were the “Lithuanian emphasis on learning, Polish emphasis on piety and German scientific and scholarly study, the chief characteristics of north European Jaddiam.” These, he said, have been truncated, although they ranked among the remarkable developments of the human spirit. “In the proposed study periods we should look not only to the past, but to the future,” Dr. Finkelstein urged. “The great traditions of Kovno, Vilna and Lublin have disappeared; but we hope that through us their influence may be felt in America, and become part of the general American culture pattern.”
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.
