The Jewish Herald (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 40, Ed. 1, Thursday, July 1, 1909 Page: 4 of 10
ten pages : illus. ; page 10 x 13 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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THE MISSION OF JUDAISM
The Mission of Judaism as de
ilned by the Rev Dr Philipson Rab-
bi of Temple Bene Israel Cincinnati
and president of the Central Confer-
ence of American Rabbis who
preached at Temple Israel on Sunday
a week ago
The idea of the Jews being the
chosen people still holds good but
not in the way formerly supposed
not for favoritism but for service and
obligation The sraelites are servants
of God to carry out the ideals of
righteousness and justice
The Mission of Judaism implies
as a matter of course the mission of
the Jew and is carried out only if
every Jew will recognize his obliga-
tion to be in the forefront ot every
endeavor for the betterment of man-
kind and the furtherance of high ideals
of religion and morality
The Mission of Judaism therefore
is to be understood in a broad uni-
versal sense For this reason the Jews
are scattered throughout the world
Judaism then will not end in a small
political state in the western part of
Asia This would mean a turning
backward of the dial on the clock of
Israel
We may not be confounded by the
reactionary cries whereof the air is
now so full The reactionaries say
Back to Ghettoism Back to a narrow
past But our cry is Forward to the
mount of God Forward to the realiza-
tion of the prophetic ideals
We believe that freedonm is the
world Messiah Even the lands
which are today the abodes of persecu-
tion and oppresion will in due time
come under the influence of this Mes-
siah the spirit of freedom This will
usher in the golden age
ORTHODOXY IS DEAD
Orthodox Judaism is so completely
quiescent as to be completely dead
said Dr S S Wise of the Free Syn-
agogue in New York City recently
Who will dare say that the Jewish
reformation is not a cry for more
Judiasm England Germany Austria
and Russia have been spared the ef-
fects of the Jewish reformation
Have these Jews been so much better
off
THE JEWISH HERALD
Close the reform Synagogue today
and you will not have any Judaism
Our people will crowd the Unitarian
churches If there is room for any-
more Jews in tho Christian Science
churches they will go there They
will fill the Protestant Episcopalian
churches In short they will leave
Judaism altogether and become con-
verts
Those who are advocating a coun-
ter reformation have lost faith in
Judaism The men who stand back
of the counter reformation dont know
what religion means
We want to retain realities not
shadows or flitting ghosts The
trouble is that Judaism today lacks
contact Who is going to decide what
forms and ceremonies shall be re-
stored to saye Judaism There is not
one of these men who favors the coun-
terreformation who will accept rab-
binical law
What are they going to do about
the Sabbath in the counterreforma-
tion Do you think you can return to
the Orthodox Jewish Sabbath You
know that in America the Jewish Sab-
bath virtually does not exist The
Jewish Sabbath cannot be reestab-
lished because of economic conditions
CLEAN THE THEATRES
Dr M H Harris spoke to his con-
gregation Temple Israel of Harlem
recently taking as his subject the con-
dition of the theatres in that city He
said in part
The theatre of today is not to be
despised because it is amusing alone
That was the Puritans mistake But
the theatre is becoming depraved as
it was in the latter days of Rome and
Pompeii Some of our modern plays
are immoral although they are thought
to condemn sin Instead they stir the
lowest imaginations
This appears in two ways In the
musical farces there is a tendency to
treat lewdness with levity and to
make a joke of immorality No play
is immoral that treats life seriously
In the second place that sort of play
is most popular today which deliber-
ately and with malice aforethought
by indecent gesture obscenity and Im
moral exposure corrupts the morals1
of the young
The moving picture shows serve as-
a kindergarten foi the children in the
education for immoral stage produc-
tion They are not as bad here as they
are in some cities notably Chicago
where they would make even Paris
blush but they are too bad not to be
discountenanced and controlled
The whole rotten system ought to
be cleaned out It is not a question
whether or not we have plays seven
days a week They should all be
made good enough for any day in the
week There should be a general
housecleaning and purging of the
theatres by means of the law
A JEW SS APPOINTED STATISTIC-
IAN FOR THE STATE OF OHIO
Miss Stella Schanfarber of Col-
umbus Ohio has been appointed stat-
istician in the office of the Commis-
sioner of Labor of the State of Ohio
by Governor Harmon This is the first
time in twenty years that Ohio has had
a Democratic Governor and the first
time in those years that a Jew has
been appointed to a State office al-
though the Buckeye state has upwards
of from 50000 to 75 > 00 Jews Gov
Harmon selected Miss Schanfarber to
fill this office because she was thor-
oughly competent to do so She was
selected out of a large number of ap-
plicants The lady is a sister of Rabbi
Schanfarber of Chicago
RUSSIA LEGALIZES ITS WORK
It is reported that the Jewish Terri-
torial Organization has received a tele-
gram from Dr Jochelmann its repre-
sentative now in St Petersburg stat-
ing that the Russian government has
now legalized the emigration bureau
which is charged with the emigration
to Galveston
It is hoped said the report that
with the increasing resumption of em-
ployment in America tho Galveston
emigration may gradually be restored
to its old level
I
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Goldberg, E. The Jewish Herald (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 40, Ed. 1, Thursday, July 1, 1909, newspaper, July 1, 1909; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth84775/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .