Stephen Wise's New Role
THE chameleon-like leader of the Free Synagogue, of New York, has changed colors again. The versatile Dr. Stephen S. Wise, the great actor of the Jewish or rather un-Jewish Reform pulpit of America, is appearing in a new role. It is a conspicious, striking role and the player thereof is attracting much attention, which, it is believed, is not altogether distasteful to his sensitive soul. There is, after all, some merit in the star system and according to certain crude notions of the time it is no longer dramatic to challenge the opinions of the many, to confront the rabble, and to uphold the exalted ideals of a chosen minority: it is not melodramatic anyway, and it leaves the occupants of the gallery indifferent. Only a few appreciate the really dramatic in life. Virtue is its own, if not the only non-sensational reward, and the performance of one’s duty is such an ordinary spectacle in the world that it seldom causes a stir, and at any rate does not “bring the house down,” right away.
And the great performer craves for the extraordinary; he feeds on excitement and lives on applause. There must be something new all the time. So Dr. Stephen S. Wise now plays the new part of a sort of Conciliator of Christendom. For a rabbi to stand up and preach in a synagogue—why that is an ordinary sight. Any Jewish minister can do that. But for a rabbi to preach in a church— that is an wunusual achievement. To arrange a series of “union services extraordinary” with two Christian churches— why that is a brave and glorious attainment. And Dr. Stephen S. Wise feeling thoroughly at home in the church, is proud, indeed, of his achievement.
What is the great Jewish distinctness, what is the value of our separate identity, what is the meaning of our sacred traditions of the past, what is our glorious heritage of faith and hope and the incomparable Jewish wisdom of life—what is it
all against the chance to flirt with Christianity on fifteen successive nights? What are the martyrdoms of centuries, what are the sufferings of our own people to preserve the purity of race and creed—what are they against the opportunity to coquete with some Christians and to show them that we are not different from them—not even in religion?
Dr. Wise feels at home in the church. A man of poise and self-possession and a strong sense of the fitness of things, he feels at home everywhere. Nothing that can interest the newspapers is alien to him. He can preach and he can tell funny stories and he can talk politics from New York to San Francisco. With the talent and training of a good performer he can go through any transformation without a jolt either to his conscience or to his principles. Leaving an orthodox congregation, the B’nai Jeshurun, in New York he went straight to an ultra-Reform temple in Portland, Oregon, and went the radical Reformers one better in expounding anti-Jewish mission and sect theories. Then he came back to New York and organized a nondescript Free Synagogue which was neither a Synagogue nor free and proceeded to divest the Jewish religious service of whatever distinctiveness the Reform temple had left it and to expound views that had no consistent as- soeiation with any Jewish camp and that violated the feelings of every self-respecting Jew. Jumping from one sensationat pronunciamento to the other he finally landed in a church. For many years an active worker in the Zionist organization, Dr. Wise easily drifted into the camp of the opponents of this movement, and soon was voicing the views of the anti-Nationalists and assimilationists and receiving in return their support for the “freak” Synagogue. He ignored absolutely the vital problem of the future of the Jewish people.