September 1929
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1 “TO TH E JEW F I R S T ” B y D avid L. C ooper & il($ JP ^tB S *< âm sS 4 tiü K B i4ttK isM tiaia !> *ta yK B yK s& tâ > K tsS 4ttK tsi4 ^K B i4 ^K s!4 tii)K B iïla i> 1 C Q S )Îi Dedication of B’nai B’rith Temple at Los Angeles sidered as a quantity subject to change with the coming of a new environment, it is refreshing to read the following para graphs from B’nai B’rith Magazine :
est, was drafted by the government to be protected by law. The list comprises three thousand sites. —o— The Dead Sea Concession to Moses Novomeysky and Major Tulloch for the formation of a company to exploit the mineral salts, will be signed within a week, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learns from good authority. The Amer ican members of the board of directors will include Felix M. Warburg and Ber nard Flexner, as vice-chairman and chair man respectively of the Palestine Eco nomic Corporation; and Israel Brodie and Edward Friedman, representing the American group which has subscribed to ward the company’s capital, the report states. —o— The Chaim Weizmann Chair for In ternational Peace has been founded at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem by an anonymous donor, who gave $45,000 for this purpose. Dr. Weizmann has ex pressed pleasure that the Chair should be named after him. —o— R ussia —Measures to further the de velopment of collective farms instead of individual settlements have been taken in various parts of the Union by local village Soviets. The Soviets voted to expropriate land now held by individual peasants, in cluding Jews, and to transfer it to Col lective farms, in the case of Jewish peas ants to Jewish collectives. T urkey —A drastic law, barring all aliens in the country from various pro fessions and trades, is now before the Turkish parliament. If passed, the bill will affect a large number of Jews resi dent in this country. —o— Immigration and emigration figures for the month of April, published in Jerusa lem on June 1, show that 322 Jews en tered the country and 70 left Palestine during the month. The birth and death statistics published showed that the birth rates per thousand were: Christians, 49; Moslems, 75; and Jews, 42; whereas the death rate per thousand was: Christians, 22; Moslems, 37; and Jews, 12. Moses Novomeysky, holder with Major Tulloch of the concession to exploit the salts of the Dead Sea, arrived in Pales tine on June 5 for the purpose of mak ing a topographic research of the region under the concession, states a Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatch. He plans to spend a month in the country and on his return to London will form the com pany to work the concession. The report states that actual operations will start in October.
“T H E dedication ceremonies of the new A B’nai B’rith Reformed Temple at Los Angeles took place June 7 to 9. It is the last word in architectural design and in magnificence, and is a model, from the standpoint of conveniences and equip ment, as a center of social, cultural, and religious activities. The mural designs are very attractive. Below is a descrip tion of the west wall frieze, which ap peared in the Scribe of June 21: “It shows in turn ‘The Roman Domi nation; Josephus in the Cistern; Romans destroying the walls of Jerusalem; Akiba Ben Joseph in prison; Hanina wrapped in the Scroll of the Law; Rabbi Meir with his wife Beruria; Rashi the com mentator ; and Maimonides, philosopher and physician. Jewish Ceremonial Ob servances during the Middle Ages are seen by the ram in the thicket (the tra ditional origin of the Shofar), the Seder ceremonial, the Bar Mitzvah and the blessing of the Sabbath Lamp. Imman uel of Rome may be seen reading to Dante, while other figures represent Jew ish contributions to philosophy, mathe matics, and medicine during the Renais sance. Other scenes show the Spanish Inquisition; Jews carrying _the Torah over the world; and the Spiritual Light of New Hope: America beckoning west ward, with figures under the strata of the earth pushing upward in a representation of opportunity, opulence and abundance. The final scene shows the Light of Is rael’s Faith bursting f o r t h upon the world.’” —o— Rabbis Urge that Real Needs of People Be Met Rabbi Newman of San Francisco sounds a timely warning to the effect that it is not sufficient to have a plant with all modern equipment, but it becomes neces sary to have that which will meet the needs of the people. He sees the danger of the dying out of the enthusiasm and interest which have been sustained dur ing the period of construction; therefore he urges all his fellow Rabbis to be very diligent in meeting the needs of their con gregation. At the same time Rabbi Silver of Cleveland has taken a step which is a very serious departure from the ideals of a temple and its activity in vogue at the present time. He feels that the temple should not be a place for social entertain ment but that the spiritual and religious elements should be the dominating at tractions and influences in the temple houses. On account of his radical de parture from the present standards in Reform circles he is being criticized. Ex perience has taught the sober-minded, Christian thinking world that the resort to worldly amusements, as a drawing power to influence people to serve God, is a practical failure. Notwithstanding the fact that morals and ethics are by the average man con
“True, the Ten Commandments are not regulations that cover in detail the prob lems of our times; they are a Constitu tion builded on foundations as deep as the moral experience of man. - “If the modern says : ‘We must have a code governing decent social relations,’ the Constitution of the Ten Command ments answers that man must have only one God. And if he is to have only one God he may not serve the god Greed, the god Self, the god Prejudice and any of the other vicious gods whose worship is the cause of most social ills. We think that in the first commandment is the sum of social morality, for only when men put aside their private gods do we approach social justice. “In all parts the Constitution of the Ten Commandments remains as unshaken, as solid, as lasting as Sinai itself. In a time when the private morality of the Ten Commandments is being challenged and when its social morality is made the object of intellectual sneering, it is good that the Jews still set aside a day to cele brate the birthday of the Commandments —Shovuos.” The author feels that the Ten Com mandments fathom the depths of man’s nature and his needs. This conception, I think, is true. They, like the Golden Rule, bespeak finality in the field of ethics. Jewish News Notes According to the Scribe of June 7, Re form Judaism has changed its attitude toward Zionism, the manifestation of which change is evidenced by the fact that the Hebrew Union College conferred an honorary degree upon Dr. Chaim Weisman, President of the World’s Zion ist Organization. In years past Reform Judaism seems not to have been very heartily in sympathy with the program of the Zionists. — o — Judaism is deeply entrenching itself in America, according to an editorial in the American Hebrew of May 17. Last year thirty-one synagogues were completed and dedicated and forty others were either planned or under construction. A great effort is being made to keep alive the ideals of Judaism at the present time. —o— Since 1914, according to the American Hebrew, the Jewish people in America, through their various agencies, have con tributed $100,000,000 and administered it through the Joint Distribution Committee for the Relief and Rehabilitation of the Unfortunate War-ridden Jews Across the Seas.
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A list of the historic sites of Palestine, in which archeologists may have an inter
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