Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-11-14
JEWS OF NEW ENGLAND.
AS Faithfully Described by Boston
Rabbi.

Picture for yourself, says Rev.
senger, if you chance to be a resident
of any of your large metropolitan GEN.
ters the situation of affairs within
your own local Jewish community and
its outlying dependencies, and you
will have fairly accurate likeness of
such situation as it exists in Bos-
ton and New England, or, for that mat
ter, any large center of Jewish life in
this country. 1t 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 "deiudaized' 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 extractlons.
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
social lines drawn between those
who either in themselves OF their
parents had or lacked the singuiarly
preoocious prenatal foresight of Sc
4 lecting as their place of birth or an
cestral hailing some special portion of
! Gods fair earth where superior"
Jews are raised. and the similar
humorous. if they Were not often too
serious, instances within our own
ranks of a "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 encoura gements and dis
couragements, the similar hopes and
fears. and cherish the similar optimis-
tic view of the present and its 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-
couragement in the situation here in
New England. Some discouraging
features. indeed, there are. The ma
jor 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 attendance 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 to their
Jewish consciousness where the veal
OF Judaism and its institutions may
be in question, when we have had oc-
easion 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
schools, the various eleemosynary or
carnations and enterprises, the or
phanages, the foster homes. the free
turiEl societies, the dispensaries. the