The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1877-05-18
REFORM OF JUDAISM.
Felix AdIer's Opinion OF the Liberal
MOvemen I'm Israel.

Professor Felix Adler's lecture yester
day was listened to by an assemblage SC
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 in society there
is none more conservative than religion.
No opinion is as strenuously maintained
as 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 religion and reason. How inter
esting is such a movement! Let us di-
J 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 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 cruciGxion 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
1 haId M IN oh olrxy oh
of -lOathing. 1t is but a 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 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.
Mendlessohn, 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 Gregoire
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 battlefe of Waterlood
and Leipsic sealed with blood the cove
nant of the new emancipation for all
time to CONT. 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" DR.. Adler referred briefly
to the salient peints in the reformation,
namely, the educational work and the |
reform in Public worship. He alluded |
to the introduction of choirs, organs and |
sermons into the synagogue, and to the |
establishment of the early temples, es- |
pecially that of jacobson in Hanover, |
and the Leipsic temple, of which the now
veteran DIR. 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 Abra-
ham Geiger and his co-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,
to expect the Messiah is useless so these
ideas were abandoned. They said, If
we are to mingle with the world, the
dietary laws which were intended to keep
us separate and distinct must go' so
they were abolished. And when it was
said that these rest on the talmud, it was
'Then the talmud must CO.
Or on the bible, Then the bible must
go, too Even so important an ordi-
nance as the rite of the covenant was
called in question, and other equally fun
damental Points. 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 are
the pillars of the reform movement TO-
day. What these reforms did was this /:
They cleared Judaism of the externals
which had grown up around it during
the dark ages of persecution, they sim
plified its doctrines, they purged its
they cut off many fasts and
feasts, and waged manful warfare against
They raised the moral
level of the people. Their mission was
10 emancipate religion from the thraldom
Of the past, and to fix it firmly in the
present. The first they did; did they
the second It were un-
grateful to blame those who have done
70 much with not doing what they could
not accomplish. We cannot deny that
the movement at present lacks magnetism
and vitality. The old leaders are pass :
ing away, and their successors have not
even scholarship. True, they have hand
;ome temples and impressive ceremonies,
but such outward pomp is often the sign
IF inward decay. 1t is not sufficient to
cut off few prayers here and there, and
remove a few obnoxious passages of the
liturgy if what remains is equally re-
mote. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob no
longer aroused any enthusiasm in the
breasts of the people, and as to the story
Of the Red sea, why even Jne cnlldren
in the nursery have ceased to believe it.
The contrast between profession and
practice, too, is striking. Look at the
reform Jewish merchant in his {
house on Sunday, discouTsing :
On the sanctity OF the Sabbath, and OBJ |
ecting to any change in it's observance,
the saying of the old rabbis [
hat the Sabbath was made for man, and {
not man for the Sabbath. Is this con- :
.uIting the needs of the time? The '
people are tired of hearing of the deeds /
IF Moses and Joshua; there are live, !
practical questions which demand treat 7
nent in these times. As for ourselves, I
we, in this work, are related neither to I
Judaism nor to Christianity for US the !
lime has come to unite for those urgent !
practical purposes which demand our
In conclusion, DR.. Adler
referred to the attacks made upon him
in the public prints, and said: ga word
10 the reformers. That their leading
men should join in the hue-and-cry
against us is deplorable-deplorable, not
for us but for them, as showing their 8
weakness On what plea can they re- !
> Il Nr, -