The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-25
THE JEWS OF ENGLAND.
As Described by a Boston Rabbi

As Described by Boston Rabbi. Picture to yourself my dear reader,
 if you chance to be a resident of any of
 your large metropolitan centers, the
 situation of affairs within your own
 local Jewish community and it's outly-
 ing dependencies, and you will have
 fairly accurate likeness of such situ-
 at ion as it exists in Boston and New
 England, or, for that matter, any large
 center of Jewish life in this country. It
 is true of people generally that they are
 pretty much the same the world
 over" and 1t is equally true of us Jews,
 especially if we used the word world"
 here in the restricted sense of Ameri-
 ca. We have about the same propor-
 tion of earnest, devoted, truly religious
 members of the synagog, and the same
 proportion of their indifferent, apathet-
 ic, and even "dejudaized" brethren here
 In New England as you will find in the
 community with which you may be
 particularly acquainted. We have the
 same spectacle presented to the eye of
 the large majority of our male Jews,
 strangers to the house of God on ordi-
 nary Sabbaths, gathered there on the
 high holidays almost to a man, as you
 will have offered to your view in your
 respective temples on the forthcoming
 Rosh Hashonah and Tom Kippur. We have the similar composite community, representing worldwide native origins and extractions, and views" of every variety of shade, from the most ultra orthodox to the most extremely radical, with the former, as sponsored by our Russian co-religionists, largely the dominating views, if we accept num- bers as our criterion. We have the similar social lines drawn between those who either in themselves or their parents had or lacked the singular pre- cocious prenatal foresight of selecting as their place of birth or ancestral some special portion of Gods fair earth where Superior" Jews are raised and the similar humorous, if they were not often too serious, in stances within our own ranks of "Rishuth" which exercises us so much when manifested by the outside world. And. as the outgrowth of these condi- tions, we are met with the similar diff culties and perplexites, the similar en- and discouragements, the similar hopes and fears. and cherish the similar optimistic or pessimistic view of the present and Is outcome in the future, as may you whose eyes these lines may meet, according to your
 individual mood and its susceptibilities
 Speaking for myself who am an op- timist. I find ample reason for encour- agement in the situation here in New England. Some discouraging features
 indeed there are The major portion of our people are not as much in earnest about their religion as we should like to have them. They give us frequent reason to complain about their attend ance upon divine worship; they do not stand as ready as they once did to make sacrifices for their religion. Still, despite such circumstances, an appeal 70 their Jewish consciousness where the veal of Judaism and it's institutions nay be in question, when we have had occasion to make such, has revealed the | Jewish feeling to be still as deep, as strong and vital as ever. The peculiar l Y Jewish institutions are well support | ,d--the temples, the religious schools, | he various eleemosynary organizations l