Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-01
Double Celebration

double celebration was held yes
terday at the Temple B'nai Birth.
when the local Jewish congregations
held union service in honor of the
day. which also marked the two hum
dred and fiftieth anniversary of the
landing of Jews in America. The
Church of the Unity also united i'll
the service.
Addresses were made by DR.. S.
Hecht, rabbi of the temple; DIR. |.
Myers, rabbi of the Synagogue Beth
Israel, and DR.. Bert Estes Howard of
the Unity church.
Dr. Hecht, although suffering from
severe cold, made an interesting ad-
dress, in which he spoke of the his
tory of the Jewish people. He said,
in part:
Thou two-faced year, mother of
Charge and Fate,
Didst weep when Spain cast forth
with flaming sword
The children of the prophets of the
orG,
Prince, priest and people spurned by
zealot hate.
Hounded from sea to sea, from state
TO state,
The West refused them and the East
No anchorage the known world could
afford,
Close-locked was every port, barred
every Sdle
Then smiling, thou unveildst, o two
faced year,
A virgin world where doors of sunset
part.
Saying: Ho, all who weary, enter here
There falls each ancient barrier that
the art
OF race or creed, or rank devised. to
rear
Grim bulwarl<ed hatred between
heart and heart"
Thus sang, out of the fulness of
heart awakened to joy and pride in
Judaism, Emma Lazarus of blessed
memory, and these words seem to me
spoken for just such an occasion as
we are here gathered to observe. The
poet, speaking of the two-faced year,
does not refer to the conceit of ancient
mythology, representing Janus with a
double face, the one looking backward
the other forward; she has in mind
the year 1892, that year so dark and
dreary for the Jews in Spain, that
year so bright and promising for the
long tried tribe of the wandering foot
and weary breast.
History repeats itself, has repeated
itself in the life of Israel so that
our joy on this great and doubly fes-
tive day. while subdued, indeed. is
none the less intense, and in us ac-
tually lives that hope with which we
would inspire our unfortunate breth-
rem.
THE growth of the American Jew
ish community has been marvellous,
indeed, both as to numbers and to ma
terial prosperity. But greater even
than these has been the progress of
the Jewish people in thought and phi
lanthropy so that while the world has
a right to expect great things from
the Jews, they have more than met
those expectations during the compar-
atively short period of their American
existence. Indeed, when the cause of
the oppressed and prosecuted abroad
called for a champion, when the pro-
motion Of every good cause or worthy
enterprise at home needed faithful eX-
ponents the American Jews easily take
the lead of older Jewish bodies.
What the Jew i'm America has done
and is doing for the promotion of
knowledge. for the amelioration of
suffering, for the protection of the
helpless, is testified to by the mag
nihcent institutions of learning. OF
charity, of industrial and agricultural
cultivation. in many parts of our COM
mon country.
with good reason, therefore, we
may joyfuly and with profound graft
tude look back upon our achievements
in this country during the past two
hundred and Atty years"