Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-21
HEBREWS BEGIN
OBSERVANCE OF
! THEIR NEW YEAR
Special SoIemnity to Services
in View of the European
War.

Today is the Jewish Rosh Hash
onah and all of that faith have laid
aside work and business in obser-
vance of the commencement of the
year 1915, according to their calen-
dar Some will complete the obser-
vance today. but the orthodox will
continue their prayers until shutdown
tomorrow.
In the Temple B'nai Jeshurun and
the synagogues of Newark's ten es-
tablished congregations as well as in
many special assemblies, the shofar
was sounded Sunday at shutdown, the
commencement of the Jewish day, as
symbol of the passing of time and
4 the transient nature of earthly af-
fairs.
The custom comes from the time
y the Jews were a pastoral people and
tthe gathering of the harvest closed
}the years work. They settled their
accounts, and spent ten days in pray
{ err, seeking clean hearts for the Day
I of Atonement, which falls an Septem-
Der 30 this year. On October will
come the less wildly observed feast Of
Succoth. something like the New
England Thanksgiving.
Special services were held today in
the Temple B'nai Jeshurun, the
synagogues of the Congregations
Oheb Shalom, B'nai Abraham, Anche
Russia, Adeth Y'Israel and Mish-
hayes. Anche Warsaw, Toreth Emeth,
Elm Jacob Anche Roumania, Ketber
Torah. and Rouse Ahawo, as well as
in many public halls
Special solemnity will attach to the
services one the Jewish holy days this
year in view of the present war in
Europe, in which more than third of
a million Jews are now engaged in
the field.
The chief events of Jewish interest
In the year just past are summarized
in the current issue of the American
Hebrew. In the United States. the
paper records the abandonment OF the
efforts to divert the stream of Jewish
Immigration from the crowded At
lantic seaports to Galveston and the
South, and ascribes that to obstacles
d. put in the way of the work of the
immigration officials. On the other
hand, it adds, the literacy test of the
Burnett immigration bill is still hang
ing fire in the Senate, and one of the
earliest effects of the war in Europe
will probably be to make any need of
immigration restriction nugatory for
some time to come.
In Russia, where one-half of the
Jews of the world live, the year 1914
brought to a close the Bells case in
the acquittaI OF Mendei Bells of a
charge of ritual murder, which had
attracted the attention of the whole
I civilized world On the other hand,
the year saw in Russia further re-
strictions Of Jews in education, the
frpp a zion of nninfnfl
movement in the Pale of Settlement
as well as exclusions from 1T. There
/ was also an extensive boycott or
J Jewish tradesmen throughout Poland,
\ while in Russia laws were passed pre-
iVenting Jews from becoming directors
jim joint stock companies. This re-
striction, however, had such disastrous
consequences that it had to be
dropped.
Restrictions ostensibly aimed at
Russian students, but affecting chiefly
the large number of Russian Jewish
students, were attempted in the year
just past in German and Swiss uni
versities, in legislation designed to
stem the large stream of such stu
dents into the universities of those
two countries. On the other hand,
the year was marked by progress and
calm in Jewish circles in France and
England. In the former special dis
|, tinctions were accorded to prominent
= Jews, including Professor Henry
Bergson, who was elected president
of the Academy of Moral and Politi-
! cal Science, and in the United King
! dom, in spite of the agitation over the
Marconi incident just before Sir Rufus
Isaaes was selected for the position
of Lord Chief Justice of England.
In Palestine itself the work of the
thirty-nine Jewish colonies there was
pushed forward, marred only by the
recent disturbances resulting from the
bitter conflict as to whether Hebrew
or German should be adopted as the
language Of instruction at the Haifa
Technicum-a disturbance which
! threatened to ALLEVIATE the support OF
leading American Jews from the in
stitution.
In the Balkan States, reconstructed
after the recent war, the past year
witnessed an improvement of the con-
ditions of Jews and a safeguarding OF
/ their interests. Chief among the
! events here was the transfer of Sa-
, lopika, with its large Jewish COM
munity, from Turkey to Greece.