Jews -- Periodicals; Jews -- United States -- Periodicals
I happen at the present time to be teaching at the University of
Michigan, at Ann Arbor. We have there a Menorah Society, devoted to
the general object to which all our Menorah Societies are devoted. We
listen to speakers and engage in discussions on Jewish history, Jewish
literature, Jewish religion, and current Jewish social, economic and
political problems. Side by side with the Menorah Society there exists
a Jewish Student Congregation, a body of men and women of which I feel
it a privilege to have been one of the organizers and to be a member
at the present time, which devotes itself entirely to religious
activity, to regular weekly worship. The two organizations do not
conflict in any way. It is significant that about ninety-five per
cent, if not more, of the members of the Michigan Menorah Society
attend regularly the services of the Jewish Student Congregation.
Unfortunately, not so large a percentage of the members of the
congregation attend the meetings or are members of the Michigan
Menorah Society. In the course of time, the relationship between the
two organizations will doubtless be adjusted more satisfactorily. But
in the experience at Michigan we have a concrete illustration of the
spur to religion which Menorah men derive from their participation in
Menorah work.
The ideal of the Menorah Societies is a non-partisan ideal. We do not
stand for Zionism or anti-Zionism; we do not urge the acceptance of
reform Judaism or conservative Judaism or orthodox Judaism; we do not
favor the German Jew as against the Russian Jew, or vice versa, nor do
we appeal to one social class as against another. We want the Menorah
ideal to be broad enough to include every Jew. We do not exclude
religion as such from the scope of our interests; we but exclude any
insistence upon a particular sect or branch or kind of Judaism. We
avoid all partisan activity which may tend to disorganize our Jewish
students, which may tend to divide them. That is all.
_A Plea for Tolerance_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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