Education & Liberalism - 10/16/1908

[fol. vi.]

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that it represents over 1500 years of the most sacred aspirations of a priest-people. However as a living organism & Judaism is this -- it must be necessarily be subject to the law of change which it cannot escape. Education too has broadened the mind the & impressed upon it what the ancient Greeks have called the stern law of Necessity by which in the course of time the non-essentials what is unessential & useless to the working life of man & to his moral & spiritual enlightenment & development is naturally dropped off one by one & swept aside like the dead leaves of a tree the Religion of the Jew has undergone an The religious evolution of Israel marches on apace & nothing in the world can possibly retard check its progress any more than one can for one second suspend the eternal law of gravitation -- it is the eternal law of life. In Eng. Engl conserative England, Campbell with his new theology has recently for some time been the hew of the hour for though an iconoclast though he has deemed it wise in the interest of man's spiritual life to tare down the very bulworks of belief & to uproot

[fol. vii.]

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destru destructive corroding poisonous theories that narrow the mind cramp the soul & thwart true progress towards an enlightened Religion (of Justice Love & truth). he has built up a Religion of Liberalism based upon truths that none will dare dispute. He has thus been the means of opening the eyes of thousands of men that have hitherto been blinded & walking in Egyptian darkness.

It is a tremendous stride in the direction of our own great Faith. In that same country as in France in spite of stagnating forces among the very leaders of Israel the tide of Reform could not be stemmed & congregations have been formed [ ] who will no longer suffer themselves to be hedged in by & manacled by senseless useless forms & customs unintelligible to the masses, h but have determined to revise their service & join in the great onward movement of American Jewry. And many a time & oft Europeans who were born & reared in a narrowing enviromment have come to our great Temples of worship to scoff but remained to pray, for they quickly came to the conclusion that Americanism

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contains many a virtue that may well be emulated by our brethren across the sea. There is no doubt about it, Liberalism is a healthy sign. & It this is the very key note of modern times, the pride of the century. But as I recently said in my lecture at the CCAR just as heartly & sincerely as we can advocate a liberalism that is upbuilding [ ] like that of Geiger Zung Einhorn & one beloved pioneer of American Reform Isaac M. Wise of Blessed memory, a liberalism with a profound reverence for the rich ethical & spiritual legacy of the ages, in like manner should we condemn with all the strength of which we are capable that kind of liberalism that seems amuck & destroys everything the sacred as well as the profane. This is the danger that besets attendant upon the liberalism of the modern American Jew.

A general school or academic education will never tend to make the Jew proud of his Jewish origin & ancestry stop the Jew in his unthinking, ruthless destruction of many of the most inspiring elements of our Faith -- nothing will produce the highest type of Jew but a knowledge of what the Jews has done for the benefit of mankind -- an exceedingly important part of every man's

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education & an indispensible pact of every the Jew's. If the higher education can do nothing more for the Jew than make him change his name it is truely a sorry result. And to say that one religion is as good as another because each contains in its essence the elements of truth is to my in my opinion the statement of a coward who lacks the manhood to stand by his colors. We like men of culture, who does not but let us not forget that one many be a veritable master of all the refined conventionalities of better society. he may be faultless in attire & the graceful in manner, & speech -- a perfect Chesterfield & yet be a snob of the worst kind & a scoundrel at heart. Hence we need men of sound moral & religious convictions the acquisition of which will turn our academic knowledge to the highest value & make one's education comparatively almost complete. Let us be liberal in our opinions by all means but let us not align ourselves to the liberalism of those men who would relegate remove the sacred [cursive Hebrew] the sacred scroll of the Law

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from our Houses of worship & religate it to the muse museum of ancient relics for whenever the time comes when the Torah ceases to be the object of the Jew's reverence he will surely bring upon himself the deserved contempt of the non-Jewish world who that respects us only when we respect ourselves. [cursive Hebrew] Let there be Light has ever been the watchword of the Jew. In the darkest The Jew has a splendid prestige for he has always been even in the darkest ages he has ever been the bearer of Light -- Education & Liberalism went hand in hand but blended with & purified by inviolable principles of Religion & morality. [ ] which the light is but a false glare & the Education. Our task is glorious, our prestige can be retained regained -- let us not shine by reflected light but toil on & hope on till we & our cherished sons made sturdy and strong by positive Jewish convictions & the noblest Jewish Virtues shall become once more the torchbearers of enlighteded faith the lightgivers Saviors of the world.