Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-11-14
JEWS OF NEW ENGLAND.
AS Faithfully Described by a Boston
Rabbi

Picture for yourself, says Rev.
senger, if you chance to be a resident
of any of your large metropolitan cen
tiers, the situation of affairs within
your own local Jewish community aud
it's outlying dependencies, and you
will have a fairly accurate likeness of
ton and New England, or, for that mat
ter, 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 It is
equally true of us Jews, especially If
we used the word WORLD here in the
restricted sense of America. We have
about the same proportion of earnest,
devoted, truly religious members of
the synagog, and the same proportion
of their Indifferent, apathetic, 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
ordinary 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 forth
coming Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kip
pur. We have the similar com
posite community, representing world
wide 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 dOminat-
ing views, if we accept numbers as
our criterion. We have the similar
who either in themselves or their
parents had or lacked the singularly
precocious prenatal foresight of Sc
lecting as their place of birth or an
cestral hailing some special portion Of
Gods fair earth where superior"
humorous, if they were not often too
serious, instances within our own
ranks of "Rishuth," which exercises
us so much when manifested by the
outside world And, as the outgrowth
| of these conditions, we are met with
the similar difficulties and perplexities,
the similar encouragements and dis
couragements, the similar hopes and
fears, and cherish the similar optimis-
tic view of the present and it's out
come in the future, as may you
whose eyes these lines may meet, &C
cording to your individual mood and
its susceptibilities
Speaking for myself, who am an
optimist, | find ample reason for en-
c0uragemCnt in the situation here in
New England. Some discouraging
features, inueed, there are. The ma
ior portion of our people are not as
much il earnest about their religion
as we should like to have them. They
give us frequent reason to complain
about their attendance upon divine
worship; they do not stand as ready
as they once did to make sacrifices
LII IuC1I 4CIA51O41s ELIA1, dCCp4bC quill
circumstances, an appeal to their
Jewish consciousness where the veal
of Judaism and it's institutions may
be in question, when we have had oc
ICasion to make such, has revealed the
Jewish feeling" to be still as deep
as strong and vital as ever. The pc
Culiarly Jewish institutions are well
supported-the temples, the religious
Tchools, the various eleemosynary or
CARNATIONS and enterprises, the or
phanages, the foster homes, the free
burial societies, the dispensaries. the
immigrant relief associations, and, OF
course, the Jewish clubs. We have
read, the last twelvemonth, of a mum
Der Of Jewish synagogs in New Eng
land which were in course of construc
ton or finished and dedicated. Massa
chusetts possesses number Of these
and but lately, the present summer, n
Lfact, witnessed within the confines OF
Greater Boston the ceremonies Incl
dent to the laying Of the cornerstone
of TWO snch structures by congrega