The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-28
A JEWISH CONGREGATION.


hdDD1 ElSenDerS OF Butte last nigh
took the first steps toward organizing q
Jewish congregation in this city. IT |.
proposed that the rabbi conduct serv.
ices in Anaconda once a month. The
services last evening were held at the
NJ. T.. church, which edifice contained a
large number of Christians as well as
Israelites.
After reading from the prophets the
rabbi delivered an address on Religion
and Its Function" After conveying his
congratulations to the Jewish people OF
the organization Rabbi Eisenberg pre-
sented the various views entertained by
most people of religion. To some re-
ligion is a talismanic word, a kind of
an eXorcism; to others again it deals
| principally with dogma. doctrine, ritual,
form and ceremony. BY believing, GER
tain articles of faith and by religiously
ostracizing, heaping contempt and con-
demnation upon the heads of those diff
fering with their narrow, dogmatic and
| blgoted views, they imagine that they
| nave thus carried into spiritual effect
the requirements of our Father. Over
/ ana about these credai literalists are
found the so-called emancipated agnos-
! ties, VINO can see nothing in this hal
! lowed institution but a fossilization and
| a fungus growth, foreign to an age of
culture and educational advancement
| They imagine that by plucking off a
| meager fig leaf they thus succeed in
| tai deficiency.
The rabbi reminded his hearers that
in the psychological development of
man there is ample provision for the re-
ligious faculty; that man is not a mere
intellectual animal. He possesses a
moral and spiritual faculty. He dis
claimed that religion was made for God,
but for man. The highest endeavor of
the human soul has ever been the ac-
QUESTION of that God-likeness to become
one with the life-giving essence that
creates force that molds and sustains
the universe. We are surfeited with
theology. We need little homology.
The burden of religion as phrased upon
the lips OF the prophets was Uncompro-
missing righteousness, eternal justice
and universal benevolence. Notwith-
standing the iconoclasm of the present
age, it remains a fact patent and uncon-
tradicted that Moses engrafted upon his
lnlm1table constitution the truest prin-
ciples for the guidance of the race. The
plea for justice swells into a melodious
symphony by the prophets who would
make no compromise with oppression,
but who, in stentorian tones, clamored
Tor universal right, justice and truth
He reminded his hearers that the re-
lglon OF Christ, which was the religion
OF love and peace taught by his prede-
cessors, the prophets of Israel, the re-
ligion of the meek and lowly GaIiIean
rabbi, if not. unhappily, the religion that
sways and dominates the world practi-
cally. Building churches, singing
hymns, Hosannas and hallelujahs, while
nations are ready to massacre each
other, is not accentuating the spirit of
the founder of Christianity whose new
commandment, to quote his own words.
is Love We one another" by this shall
the world know that We are My disc-
pies; that We have love one for the
other. A FESTIVE wave is lashing itself |
INTO tempestuous fierceness, threaten
ing the peace of our transatlantic |
brethren. The European powers are cen |
terlng their forces upon the celestial |
kingdom. ready to devour a nation |
hoary with age, peaceful and indus
trious. Devour this people not for the
love of God not for the PRONUNCIATION
OF the message of the Prince of Peace.
but for ACKNOWLEDGMENT and for ig-
noble purposes. He called attention to
the present anti-Semitic agitation in
france, the land whose soil has been
tertilized with the blood of patriots who
desperately fought for liberty, equality
and fraternity. France. who, a hundred
years ago, inscribed upon her escutch-
con freedom of thought, liberty of con-
science, and on whose battlefields the
plood or the Jew was readily and cheer
[uily shed. whence flowers of hope
sprung and liberty sheltering trees
and flourished these decades.
is heard to roar against a people
VINO have been the pioneers in all the
avenues of progress and enlightenment
1t is not the religion of Jesus that domi-
rates, pathetically said the rabbi, the
world: it is not the religion that shows
mans fnter-responsibility with his fell
ow man, whether he be Jew or Chris
ian, white or tanned, but the religion
alsely so-ealled. that teaches that might
makes right and men and minorities
lave no rights which majorities ought
O respect
me rabbi said that the greatest uni
ying FACTOR in civilization is the religion
when teaches one God and an undivided
brotherhood. The function of religion is
o open mans eyes, teaching them that
ne soui is not in the stomach; not in
measures; not in sensuous enjoyments .
nut in the service we enlist for the bef
erment of society: for the Improvement !
1 mans condition. Its function is to
mango the motto of to-day uttered bv !
he first murderer. Am | my brothers ,
eeper? TO the more glorious one, Il !
eek my brothers."
He had every faith in the ultimate /
flumph of universal religion: he be- :
eyed that time is coming when man T
al have better appreciation. truer
onception of duty. He exhorted his
udience, both jew and Gentle to work
for the noble end and To
1row off the cloak of Indifference and :.
estir themselves for the yanuuishment u
I humanity's foes. e