Texas Jewish Herald (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 17, 1936 Page: 1 of 42
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STACK 3
1
er Published In the Southwest--Thirtieth Year
MEW TEAR EjEITIOM
S JEWISH HERALD
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Jews of Texas, Their Interests and Ideals In Judaism
Sixty-First Volume, No. 12
HOUSTON, TEXAS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1936
Per Yeer, M—So per Copy
tfiOD rprt'-rvs in .t«t jid3 o^bm mnto mm
Diarrts nrui kwi D'inn
Table of Contents
Bringing Judaism to
Isolated Districts
Regional Work of Union
Hebrew Congregations f
Makes Judaism Easier |
for Isolated Families
and Communities
By LOUISE WOLK ANTICK
In isolated sections of the
United States where little of
Jewish culture has had a chance
to penetrate, Jewish residents are
now being offered the opportun-
ity of becoming acquainted with
the religion, the history, and the
literature of their own people.
The door which leads into the
vast realm of Jewish knowledge
is being opened to them by the
regional work of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations,
the pioneer Jewish religious ex-
tension service of the world.
The regional work of the Union
symbolizes one of the organiza-
tion’s most important raisons
d’etre; therefore its history is as
old as the history of the parent I
body. The first Council of the
Union in 1874 stressed the need
for bringing Jewish teaching to
the small town Jew by means of
circuit preaching. The necessity
for developing Jewish education
was discussed at this Council and
plans were made for improving
the standards of the religious
school, hr MP the- firm se* «*
pamphlets containing holiday ser-
mons for congregations without
rabbis was issued by the Union.
Since the beginning of the
century, the extension work has
expanded, and includes, in addi-
tion to developing new congre-
gations and congregational activ-
ities, spiritual work among Jew-
ish university students, Jewish
inmates of institutions, and pro-
motion of good will between Jew-
ish and non-Jewish organizations
in communities throughout the
(Continued on page 10.)
Guarantees of Faith
Hands Across Creeds
'Oar Country Is One Home
in Which the Interests of
lEach Member A re
Bound up with the
Happiness of Alt **
Franklin Delano
This article by the
of the United States on the oc-
casion of Rosh Hashonah is a
compilation of excerpts from
several of his addresses, state-
ments and messages during the
period 1934-36
The Seven Arts Feature Syn-
dicate has obtained special per-
mission from the President for
the use of these utterances in
the form presented herewith.—
t \
a
And Tomorrow —the Living Isaiah
And it shall come to pass . . . that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be firmly es-
tablished.....And He will judge among the nations, and decide for many people; and they
shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-knives; nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall not learn any more war. . . . And the
pride of man shall be bent down, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled; and ex-
alted shall be the Lord alone on that day. . . . How beautiful are upon the mountains the
feet of the messenger of good tidings, that publisheth peace, that announceth tidings of
happiness, that publisheth salvation, that saieth unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.
GulturalProgress
Jewish Contribution to Intellectual Development
DR LOUIS FINKELSTEIN
It is one of the fundamental
principles at true Americanism
that all religions are entitled to
equal respect Freedom far every
man to worship God according to
the mandates of his conscience
implies the political, social and
intellectual freedom which is the
very foundation of our national
life.
In the United States we regard
it as axiomatic that every person
.shall enjoy the free exercise of
his religion according to the dic-
tates of his conscience. Our flag
for a century and a half has been
liberty of conscience, of religious
freedom and equality before the
law; and these concepts are deep-
ly ingrained in our national char-
acter. It is true that other nations
may, as they do, enforce contrary
rules of conscience and conduct.
It is true that policies that may
be pursued under flags other than
our own are beyond our juris-
diction. Yet in our inner Individ-
I ual lives we can never be ia-
] different, and we assert for our-
selves complete freedom to em-
brace, to profess and to
(Continued on page 7)
SECTION L
Rosh Hashonah—
Ludwig Lewisohn _
Rosh Hashonah
Blow the Great Horn for Our Freedom
By LUDWIG LEWISOHN
The contribution of the Jews to
the world has been discussed
from many aspects. Their signifi-
cance in the history of Western
religion ■ and Western ethics is
generally recognized. Every one
knows how much of Christian
and Mohammedan theology is
drawn from the Hebrew Scrip-
tures and how much of our con-
duct today is determined by the
ideal set up in ancient Judea and
Galilee.
But there is one aspect of Jew-
ish activity which has, I fear,
been overlooked to a large extent,
and that is the contribution of
the Jews to the intellectual de-
velopment of mankind. I do not
mean by this the contribution of
individual Jews, of philosophers
like Philo, Maimonides, Spinoza,
Herman Cohen and Henri Berg-
son, of physicians like Isaac Is-
raeli and Donolo, of astronomers
like Rabbi Abraham Zacuto
(whose astronomical tables Co-
lumbus used to navigate the un-
known Atlantic), of mathematic-
ians like Georg Cantor and physi-
cists like Einstein. I mean rather
the contributions of the Jewish
people as a group and of these
individuals who have been its
group-spokesmen.
The history of world intellec-
tual activity, properly consider-
ed, begins with the Hebrew pro-
phets, who were not merely ethi-
cal and religious teachers, but
discoverers of great social truths.
The significance of this fact is
only now becoming apparent
Until fifty years ago history was
written as a record of human
wars; today it is regarded as a
record of human inventions.
Fifty or one hundred gears from
now I venture to predict that his-
tory will become the record of
the development of the human
mind. And then Elijah, the foun-
der of later prophetic school, will
no longer be regarded merely as
a man who worked singular mir-
acles, but as the first man to
analyze the problem of the small
farmer and peasant; Isaiah will
cease to be revered merely for
the majestic cadences in which
he defends the rights of the low-
ly, but more especially for his
discovery of the great social
truth that man can obtain happi-
ness and make progress only in
a world of universal peace. Jere-
miah will no longer be remem-
bered as the author of stirring
lamentations and maledictions,
but as the person who first rec-
ognized distinctly the signifi-
cance of human intention. The
unknown prophet whose works
are included in the last 27 chap-
ters of Isaiah will be seen to have
opened up a new realm of
thought in his discovery of the
unity of the universe. And the
authors of Job and Ecclesiastics
will be recognized as among the
(Continued on page 11)
Hands Across Creeds—
Franklin D. Roosevelt____1
Bringing Judaism To Isolated
Districts___ 1
Cultural Progress _ 1
The Messianic Hope _ 3
Where Life Means Death—
A Story of Poland _ 4
Synagogue Worship _,_ 5
Jewish Contributions to Science 9
Old Customs for the New Year 10
The Farce Behind Dictatorship 3
The Black Jewess of Ethiopia 2
SECTION n.
Greetings__~~~~~ i. 2
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise—
A New Year Message ___ 1
If Europe Went Aryan _ 3
The First Two-Fisted Jew_ 5
Kedusha—A Short Story _ 6
Literary High Lights _ 8
Detainers of the Constitution. 12
Meet the German Chalutzim _ 9
SECTION m.
Stars of 5696 _ 7
National Jewish Hospital _ 1
Ask Me Another—An Article
for Children ___3
Review of the Year In Russia . 2
The Jewish Balance Sheet_____ 1
Fascism at Our Gates _ 1
Review of the Year In
Latin America _ 2
A Review of the Year in the
Balkans _ 6
SECTION IV.
All the Regular Features
America's outstanding Jewish
man of Letters dedicates this
article to his thoughts on the
New Year. An inspiring docu-
ment.—The Editor.
It is the virtue and the pathos
of man that he aspires endlessly
toward a better world; it is his
weakness and his tragedy that he
does nothing to bring such a
world even one step nearer. No
one not wholly bereft of any
! critical sense will deny that,
though airplanes have flown fast-
er and all machines become more
efficient, the sum of human mer-
cy, tranquillity and both moral
and physical well being have
been immeasurably diminished
during the last twenty years. Up-
on each Rosh Hashonah we ob-
serve i world more torn and
riven, more filled with hate and
pain, more scorched by suffering
and conflict. Utopias are pro-
claimed and are found upon im-
partial examination to produce
over again all the classical vices
and miseries of mankind: injus-
tice and need, oppression and
hatred, conflict and greed for
power. “God hath made man up-
right.” said Koheleth. the preach-
er, “but they have sought out
many inventions.” The word in
the original for upright is yashar,
from a stem meaning “straight-
ness,” “the right direction” and
in connection with the word for
heart “sincerity.” Man was meant.
according to Koheleth, to guide
his life in a certain fashion. In-
stead he invents machines, con-
trivances, systems, methods. He
renounces the government with-
in and builds pyramids or sky-
scrapers and engines of war and
deadens the inner voice with the
clangor of his material achieve-
ments.
This process of the substitution
of outer activity for inner change
can be defined and explained in
the terms of Koheleth and other
classical moralists: it can also be
defined and explained in terms
of the Freudian phychology. The
psyche has its own economies; it
seeks to save itself trouble; it
chooses the easiest way Now to
hustle and bustle in the outer
world of material things is not
only easier than to channge the
heart and achieve the correction
of the will, it also deflects the
attention from that other and
more difficult duty. Doing is so
much simpler than being. Activ-
ity brings a glow and the leader
of a revolt may feel the ecstasy
of mass leadership and the con-
sciousness of being a liberator
the while he plunges his fellow-
men into s still darker oppres-
sion.
The sensual and the dark rebel
in vain.
Slaves by their own compulsion!
In mad game
(Continued an page •)
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Goldberg, Edgar. Texas Jewish Herald (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 17, 1936, newspaper, September 17, 1936; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1102879/m1/1/: accessed June 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .