The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-05-18
REFORM OF JUDAISM.
Felix AdIcr'S Opinion Of tIe Liberal
uovemen az, EsrncI.

ana CHRISTIAN churches. Inc REQUIRE
said: "Of all the forces in society there
is none more conservative than rellglon:
No opinion Is as strenuOusly maintained
As a religious opinion, no institution IS so
slow to yield as a religious institution
How powerful, then, must be the cur
rent of liberalism when its influence Is
already seen in the church and In the
synagogue in the attempt made TO re-
concile'Teligion and reason. Ho' inter
esting is such a movement Let US al
vide our subject into two parts, namely
liberal Judaism and liberal Christianity,
and let us take the former rs our theme
for to-day" Beginning with the asser-
ton that the liberal movement among
the Jews had begunin Germany and that
its leaders have been almost exclusively
Germans, the lecturer gave a brlei ana
prehensive sketch OF the rise ana
progress of Jewish reform. lie described
in graphic words the terrible prosecutions
inflicted upon the Jews IN the middle
ages, their massacres. eXiles and oppres
sions, and said "The theory OF the
| Christian church, carried out by the
/ Christian rulers, was that at the time OF
| the cruciiXion of Christ the Jews Tor
/ feited allrights to existence. lettering
to their social and political ostraclSm, he
| added: " Nothing was lett them but
the petty traffic of the pedlar or the as
! honorable calling OF the money lender.
! The Jew of the middle ages has been
held up To mOder9.ehIyalry as an object
of loathing 1t f. but trick of the
/ Philistines who first deprived Samson OF
his sight and then led him out to taunt
and deride him. 1t is most wonderful
| that, with all the trials and hardships
they endured though centuries Of re-
lentless persecution. they preserved their
purity unsullied II was their religion
| which enabled them TO do this, and 1t
| was this religion which made the com
mon bond that held them together, scat
tered as they were TO the four corners of
the earth. The Jews walked through
/ history rs in a dream; war ragged, EN-
pircs fell. customs changed; but it was
nothing to them, they preserved their
iron stability and remained changeless.
At the end of the last century. however,
a new feeling came over mankind with
the new birth of poetry, philosophy and
humanity. and the hand of fellowship
was at length extended 10 the Jews.
| Mendlessohn, the author of Jewish re-
/ form, began thework with his translation
of a part of the bible into German, a
stem which the rabbis were not slow to
perceixe would be followed sy many
other Innovations The emancipation OF
the Jews of France brought about by
the labOrs of men like Able Gregoire
and Mirabeau. came soon after, and the
victorious French armies carried liberte
eealte. fraternte, into the ghettos OF
Germany. The services OF Jewish sol
diers on the battle field of Waterford
and Leipsic sealed with blood the cove
nant Of the new emancipation for all
time to CONF This new state of things
changed their attitude-theY lived no
longer in the past as they had done in
the darker DAYS They began to take an
| interest in the present. Great changes
were needed to bring Judaism into har-
| monv with The new conditions and their
history is the history of the reform
| movement" DIR. Adler referred briefly
| TO the salient points In the reformation,
namely, the educational work and the
reform in public worship. lie alluded
TO the introduction of choirs, organs and
| sermons into the synagogue, and TO the
| establishment of the carly temples, es-
| pecially that of jacobson in Hanover,
and the Leip-ic temple, of which the now
veteran Dr. Zunz was rabbi and the com
! poser Meyerbeer the musical director.
He spoke next of the new legislation in
the science of Judaism, begun by A bra
ham Geiger and his c0-workers, and con
tinued Changes were made not only
in externals. but doctrines long esteemed
fundamental were boldly challenged.
Patriotism was the lever of reform. The
Jews said, If we belong TO the father
land, to return to Palestine were treason,
! a NJ 81 =. hoo
ideas were abandoned They said, II
we are TO mingle with the world, the
dietary laws which wereintended to keep
Us separate and distinct must GO 50
they were abolished. And when It was
said that these rest on the talmud. it was
answered, Then the talmud must go.
Or on the bible, Then the bible must
90, too Even so important an ordi-
! nance as the rite of the covenant was
called in question, and other equally fun
damental roints If YOU ask, then, what
remained of Judaism, this remained
First. the belief in the monotheism OF
the prophets: and, second the MessianiC
mission of the Jewish people. These arc
the pillars OF the reform movement to.
day. What these reforms did was this
They cleared Judaism Of the external.
which had grown up around it during
the dark ages of persecution, they sim
plified its doctrines they purged it,
ceremonies, they cut off many fasts and
feasts and waged manful warfare against
superstition. They raised the mora
level of the people. Their mission wa
to emancipate religion from the thraldon
of th6S past, and to fix it firstly in tn,
present. The first they did; did they
accomplish the second 1t were un
grateful to blame those who have don,
so much with not doing what they coulC
not accomplish. We cannot deny tina
the movement at present lacks magnetism
and vitality. The old leaders are pa 5
ing away, and their successors have no
even scholarship. True, they have hand
some temples and impressive ceremonies
but such outward pomp is often the sigl
| of inward decay. 1t is not sufficient I,
cut off few prayers here and there, an,
remove a few obnoxious passages of th
liturgy if what remains is equally re
- mote Abraham, Isaac and Jacob II,
2 longer aroused any enthusiasm in lii
: breasts of the people, and as to the stOr,
J of the Red sea, why even the children
) in the nursery have ceased to believe ii
? The contrast between profession an,
practice, too, is striking. Look at tin
wealthy reform Jewish merchant in hi
counting house ON Sunday, discoursin,
, on the sanctity OF the Sabbath, and oh
iecting to any change in its observance
forgetting the saying of the old rabbi
that the Sabbath was made for man, an'
) not man for the Sabbath. Is this con
, sVlting the needs of the time? Th
, people are tired of hearing of the iced
of Moses and Joshua; there are live
practical questions which demand treat
ment in these times. As for ourselves
we, in this work, are related neither t
Judaism nor to Christianity for us tn
, time has come to unite for those urgen
! practical purposes which demand GU
! attention" In conclusion, DIR. Adle
r referred to the attacks made upon hin
4 in the public prints, and said: " a wore
! to the reiormers. That their leading
men should join in the hue-and-cr,
against us is ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, no
| | for us but for them, as showing thel
weakness. On what plea can they re
E sist the new methods tried now to &C
complish what they have attempted an,
f failed to accomplish? Our sole crime
! a difference of conviction from theirs.
! implore them not to lessen the value
) convection, which is the alphasnd omeg
! of morality, implore them to remem
Der their years and dignity and the trial
by (which they were beset when the
preached their then new doctrines but