Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1877-05-12
REFORM OF JUDAISM.
FeIiN AdIer's Opinion of the Liberal
MOVemen In Israel.

HONPmPn III NAfaeI.
Professor Felix Adler's lecture yester-
day was listened to by an assemblage so
large that it packed Standard hall to its
utmost capacity. The subject Of the
discussion was "Reform in the Jewish
and Christian churches The lecturer
said: "Of all the forces ia society there
is none more conservative than religion.
No opinion is as strcnuOusly maintained
as a religious opinion, no institution is 50
slow to yield as 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-
concilc religion and reason. How inter,
esting is such a movement Let us di'
vide our subject into two parts, namely
liberal Judaism and liberal Christianity,
and let us take the former as our theme
for to-day" Beginning with the asser.
ton that the liberal movement among
the Jews had begun in Germany and that
its leaders have been almost exclusively
Germans, the lecturer gave brief and
comprehensive sketch of the rise and
progress of Jewish reform, He described
in graphicwords 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 for
feited allrights to existence" Referring
to their social and political ostracism, he
added; Nothing was left them but
the petty traffic of the pedlar or the dis,
honorable calling of the money lender.
The Jew of the middle ages has been
held up to modern Chivalry as an object
Of loathng. 1t is but trick of the
Phiistines 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 through centuries Of re-
lentless persecution, they preserved their
purity unsullied. 1t was their religion
which enabled them to do this, and it
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 as in a dream; war ragged, EN-.
pires 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
new feeling came over mankind with
the new birth of poetry, philosophy and
humanity, and the hand of fellowship
was at length extended to the Jews
MendessOhn, the author of Jewish re-
form, began the work with his translation
of part OF the bible into German, a
step which the rabbis were not slow to
perceive would be followed by many
other innovations. The emancipation Of
the Jews of France, brought about by
the labOrs of men like Able Gregoirt
and Mirabeau, came soon after, and the
victorious French armies carried liberte
egalite, fraternite, into the ghettos Of
Germany, The services of Jewish sol
diers on the battlefield of Waterlood
and Leipsic sealed with blood the cove
nant Of the new emancipation for al
time to CONT. This new state of thingl
changed their attitude-they lived ne
longer in the past as they had done il
the darker days. They began to take az
interest in the present. Great change
were needed to bring Judaism into har
mony with the new conditions, and thei
history is the history of the reform
movement" DR.. Adler referred briefly
to the salient points in the reformation
namely, the educational work and thu
reform in public worship. He alluded
to the introduction of choirs, organs ant
sermons into the synagogue, and to til,
establishment of the early temples, es
pecially that of jacobson in Hanover
and the Leipsic temple, Of which the nov
veteran DIR. Zunz was rabbi and the com
poser Meyerbeer the musical director
He spoke next of the new legislation il
the science of Judaism, begun by Abra
ham Geiger and his co-workers, and con