Liberal Judaism
I just happened to open a book of the eighteenth century and the following lines met my eyes: “Zoroaster, says Pliny, was reported to have laughed on the day of his birth. Sir Thomas Moore laughed in the hours of death.—Which was the most extraordinary?”” * * * Dr. S. S. Wise and Mr. Claude G. Montefiore, with their handful of followers, seem to laugh on the day of birth of their so-called Liberal Judaism. In their case this is to my mind most extraordinary. Let us pause for a moment and think. —— Would to God the Jewish people would think: of the fallacy of men—no matter how much they are saturated with modern thought— Juggling with the antiquarian customs and holy tenets of the Jewish religion; that it is not the Hebrew language, the form of the ritual or the length of prayer, that keeps some Jews away from the synagogue; that it is only lack of courage to hold their own that men like Mr. Shy- novsky and Mr. Timid-ovsky are rather bashful to don their Sabbath clothes to go to the synagogue lest their gentile friends may think of them as being rather too much Jewish; that it was not a Mr. Montefiore or a Dr. Wise, but the awakening of National Consciousness, race pride and the true pure Jewish character that has brought a Dr. Herzl, a Dr. Nordau and a good many more back to Judaism; that while other nations find themseleves involved in the strife of ferocious religious parties, we Jews must keep guard on our Holy Torah with our very lives and that in spite of despotism of public opinion, our Holy Law has served us, for nearly 2,000 years, as an anchor in golus!
If Mr. Montefiore and Dr. Wise are really earnest in their endeavors to bring those gone-astray Jews back to Judaism, there is only one remedy to answer this
purpose and that is to imitate the Zionists and try and infuse the hearts and minds of the Jewish people with enthusiasm for national aspirations and the promotion of Jewish culture, and the raising of the moral, spiritual and political status of the Jew in the eyes of the world will follow as a matter of course.
I believe in the bottomless depth of Jewishness in the heart of every Jew, therefor I think that it is only the want of Selbstbewustsein and the overzealousness to please our non-Jewish neighbors that keeps the spiritually-poor Jew from his religious duties. Reawaken in him the first and do away with the other and we shall have a religious Jew.
Yours obediently,
N. S. BURNSTEIN.
97 Albany Road, Roath Park, Cardiff.
Dr. J. B. Sapir, a member of the Larger Actions Comite, has been arrested in Odessa, on the charge of the collection of moneys for the National Fund. No appeals for the mitigation of the "offense" by a money fine have availed, and Governor Tolmatcheff declares that he will proceed similarly against all the Zionists. Zionists in Odessa are in a state of great alarm. An appeal for help has been sent to headquarters. When Herr Wolffsohn was in St. Petersburg, Stolypin gave him categorically to understand that no obstacle would be placed in the way of Zionist work. The Russian government in other sections has molested Zionists engaged in the collection of Zionist funds.
The Anglo-Palestine Company, at an ordinary general meeting held in London on April 18th, declared a dividend of ten pence on the pound for the year 1909. Coupon No. 3 can now be cashed in at the office of the company in London, Brook House, Walbrook, London, E. C., in New York., at the office of S. Jarmulowsky, banker, 54 Canal street, N. Y.