THE MACCABAEAN
Published once every month by The Maccabean Publishing Company. M. B. Lande, President; D. H. Lieberman, Treasurer; address for the business of the corporation, 547 Broadway, N. Y.
DR. WISE AS A ZIONIST.
We confess, the position of Dr. S. S. Wise is not convincing. That Dr. Wise is a Zionist, we are bound to assume from his former activity in our movement. But since his entrance into the reform Jewish movement, it has become a very difficult matter to place him. He now stands out prominently as a vigorous exponent of radical reform Judaism; he is just as advanced, in every thing but ability to abuse, as Dr. Emil G. Hirsch; he does not profess to great reverence for the Jewish Sabbath, for he does not hold Sabbath services; but as yet the relation of Sabbath observance to his theology, has not been expressed. He is bold and effective in his plea for a free pulpit, but how he intends to use his freedom is not clear to the ordinary reader of his many addresses. His plea for the Jewish workmen, his insistence that religion and civic ethics must go hand in hand, is expressed with great eloquence and conviction. But what does Dr. Wise, former secretary of the Federation of American Zionists, once our boldest and most eloquent orator, now say about "Zionism"? What are the views of this "free" spirit on a subject, for which he sacrificed much when he was less known than he is to-day?
If he is still a Zionist, does he believe that the reform Judaism of the recent rabbinical conference is his reform Judaism? Does he believe that the Jews have a mission to forget Jerusalem and Zion, and be scattered over the face of the earth? Are we merely creatures of a sinful past, condemned therefore, to wander over the face of the world, carrying everywhere our monotheistic ideals? Must a reform
Jew abandon all hope for a return to the land of our forefathers, and must he become a permanent citizen wherever chance places him?
The time is ripe for a revision of the reform Jewish creed. It is now apparent that reform Judaism without Palestine is bound to extinction. Does it not appear necessary to Dr. Wise, once one of our leaders, to tell us what he thinks of Zionism, now, and whether his Free Synagogue movement is also to be the cradle of a reform Judaism, which shall include Zionism?
THE REFORM CONFERENCE
The reform rabbis who met in New York recently, must have felt that they were facing an antagonistic public; what has followed the conference is ample evidence of the fact. The Conference did not disperse; it retreated, followed by an aroused public opinion, which must have convinced the leaders of radical, denationalized Judaism that, if the voice of majorities is identical with the voice of God, then God has condemned them.
No one believes that the general discomfit of reform Judaism, as represented by its rabbis, is due to disagreement with liberal thought in Judaism. Reform Judaism has been found wanting in sincerity, genuine piety, and manliness. It has been found wanting in loyalty to principles, loyalty to the essence of Jewish tradition, loyalty to the facts of life. For years reform Judaism has been speaking in the name of the higher virtues, of liberalism, progress, prophetic ethics, but the record is black with treason against all the virtues, common or superior. There has not been a question, which reform Judaism, after having consulted its own conscience, has decided on manly, liberal lines. It has been driftwood in the life of the Jewish people; it has been a splinter in the rapidly flowing stream; it has been an imposition on Jewish life because it never referred back to life for its mandate; it