El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-05
Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch and How He
Conducts His Church.


! Conducts His Church.
| To ask OF the Hebrew people of the
| United States: Where is the most lib
| eral church of your faith there is no
| doubt OF the answer. In Chicago. Fol-
| lowing up the query. the church would
| be named as Sinai congregation and
| the exponent of Slnai's liberality for
more than twenty years has been Rab-
! bi Emil G. Hirsch. AS the only Jewish
congregation in the United States
gious service. Sinai is remarkable. AS
gious service. Sanai is remarkable. AS
paying $4,000 a year to its minister
probably the largest salary paid to any
preacher in America-it has another
| distinction. Again. as leaving its
house of worship on occasion open to
any voice of any creed it is depar-
/ ture from conventional Judaism. And
| so far as Sinai stands alone in it's
| broad liberality, it is the reflex of the
man. Emil G. Hirscn.
Reform had come to Sanai cOngrega-
ton before the rabbi came TO it in 1850.
but it was the conventional reform
| The young priest and his gentle fixed
ness of purpose. won its love and con-
! fidence. and has since led it where its
own impetus of reform never could
! have carried il.
| Emil G.. Hirsch was born to the
priesthood and liberality was in his
blood. His father was Rabbi Samuel
Hirsch. who was q power in the Duchy
OF Luxembourg before Kennesseth Is
rael OF Philadelphia called to him
across the seas.
His father came to the Quaker City
in 1866. bringing with him the son
Emil. then thirteen years old. The boy
entered the academy of the Episcopal
church in Philadelphia. preparing for
the university of Philadelphia. From
! tnat university he was graduated with
the degree of A. b. in 1872. While in
school he had been studying langua ges
with his father and after graduation
I from Pennsylvania he returned to Ger
many. where he spent three years in
study in Berlin and one year in Leipsic
| He returned to Phila delphia in 1876
with his rabbinical diploma and ready
I to assume the duties of the ministry
! His first call was TO the Jewish Re
! form Congregational of Sinai. in Bal
timore. from which city. fifteen years
before. his father-in-law had been
| chased by mob because of his stand
against slavery. After one year in Bal
timore the Reform congregation at
Louisville nearly three years when
Sinai congregation in Chicago bid for
| his services. His work in Louisville
| had attracted the attention of the Re
| form congregation in Chicago. He had
its confidence before he came and he
took up its work in a neld which he
felt was to widen beyond his expecta-
lions.
When he came-on August D. 1880
/ Sinai congregation numbered sixty
| families; today it has $40 families. He
came to it for a ten-year period in the
! beginning. but when he had been with
the church only two years he was nam
ed for an additional ten years. and
only recently the temple body has
chosen him for a NE period, after
Temple Emanuel in New York had of
| fered him the title of chief rabbi and
I salary that had no limit.
! In Rabbi Hirsch's ministrations at
Sinai temple he has always led a will
, ing flock. II not willing from point
of creed. they became willing as the
follower of the man they loved When
in the rabbits judgment it became ex-
pedient for his church to discard the
jewish 81. bba;h and accept the Chris
tan Sunday. i'll 1856. not all of his
flock was ready for the innovation on
| the abstract merits of the proposition
! but it was the rabbits wish and his
wish Was law. And just how much
| a departure this was from precedent
| may be understood when it is recalled
that only fifteen temples in the United
States have included Sunday services.
while retaining those OF Saturday All
the rest stick to the Jewish Sabbath
of Saturday.
| In these years OF his ministry Sinai
| temple has grown as a building no less
| than as congregation. 1t has been
| remodeled and rebuilt three timee. In
the latter SOS a gallery was put in, and
| in 1892 more property was purchased
and the ground spread of the building
| greatly added to. Today there is a dis
tinct feeling in the temple that it's fell
of usefulness would be enlarged by q
removal to n new site on which "A new
| and modern temple might be construct
ed. In this the rabbi has had his
| dream" as i. has been called. That
| dream has been of downtown tenn
pie that shall be as utilitarian as NAV
| be, containing an auditorium for wor-
| ship that shall have all the dignity of
the exclusive tabernacle and yet house
| in rooms above the Offices and meeting
| rooms OF all the associated organiza
. int ~r h.,