Jews -- Periodicals; Jews -- United States -- Periodicals
INDEED, next to the Menorah idea--the sum of Menorah purposes--the
peculiar strength of the Menorah Societies lies in this catholic
spirit which determines the Menorah "open door." Thereby the Menorah
Societies are enabled to perform more and more an incidental but most
important service apart from the objects to which they are formally
dedicated. With the growth of various Jewish organizations in our
universities--which, whatever the opinion as to their value and
propriety, tend to divide the Jewish students rather than to unite
them--a most important service performed by the all-inclusive Menorah
Societies is to bring the students together, in spite of their various
differences, on a common high plane. As stated over a year ago in the
Association's book on _The Menorah Movement_: "Where, as in almost all
large universities, there are Jewish students of diverse antecedents,
it is one of the most important functions of a non-partisan
organization like the Menorah Society to bring all classes and parties
together upon an academic plane, in order that they may learn each
other's points of view, in order that their prejudices against one
another which are founded on misunderstanding and snobbishness may
wither away, and in order that they may pursue in generous comradeship
the knowledge of their common tradition and the hope of their common
future."
_The Graduate Phase of the Menorah Movement_
IT is becoming increasingly evident, moreover, that such a unifying
force is called for outside of the universities among the graduates
and other educated Jews; and it is hoped that through the graduate
phase of the Menorah movement, this need may be subserved by graduate
Menorah groups in various communities. To quote once more from _The
Menorah Movement_: "Such graduate Menorah organizations, while
academic and non-partisan in their nature, like the university Menorah
Societies, might yet, if properly constituted and conducted, be of
practical as well as of ideal service to their communities. They could
bring together, upon the lofty basis of Jewish idealism, men of
different views in the community, who approach practical Jewish
problems in different, sometimes in mutually antagonistic, ways.
Devoid itself of any sectarian or fraternal or political bias, a
graduate Menorah organization should be ideally fitted to serve as a
kind of intellectual clearing house of the Jewish community, and thus
promote on all sides a deeper understanding of one another, a clearer
vision of the common problems, a greater concord in Jewish life."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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