The Denver Jewish news., 1923-11-29
Our Nelu York Weekly
Current EUents
Driving for the TorahThe Drivers and the Driven The
Haves and the Have NOts-The Hebrew Reading
Public Which Does Not Read.
BY GERsHoN AGnONsKY

Posts description of the American
methods of going after certain thing.
The American method of doing things
ty drive is held by this sober news
paper to be entirely in line with Amer
icnn psychology And II is so because
without The concerted effort. and with
nut the parade of forces which are
brought into play. and without the
cI, ions and conspicuous side of GER
lain purposes, being paradcd before
view. and without the compelling
reasons for the achievement of the oh
ject marshalled In full and sometime
gaudy array-witliout these things 1t
is difFcnlt to imagine how any pub
lie activity could bc anything hut lost
in This chaotic city OF ours
For the rest Of the community are
for all Jewish purposes not In til" COM
mnnity The Jewish world not I'M
part. could he divided roughly into
three sections: Those who are willing
10 help. can help and do: those TINT
cau help but are unwilling and do not
those who would If they could but cnn-
rat and therefore do not. Except in
extraordinary circumstances the call
always finds the first. is never regard
ctl by the second: and no cause is ap-
prccially and ma, ,erially advanced by
the third.
to the numerous drives under wsly In
New York and In other parts of the
country at this writing. Take the
r,,rst impressive nj tl,cm-.he campaign
f~e the million dollar endowment for
the Jewish Theological scrninnry.
Every c6nceivcallc rhase or the
Seminary has hrcn brought to the at
tcntioa of the public. Even the pro-
SerhIal reserve and humility Of jew
ish aelsNa rsiip has been sacrificed OH
From the roll Of the Rahbinical grad
yates Of the Institution. the distinguish
ed men on its faculty, even down to
the literary treasures in the Semin-
.ary's rare collection OF hooks every
thing utilizeablc from the publicity
stunt mans point Of view has been
utilized, as indeed It had to Ike utiliz-
cti. 10 bring into stark and sudden
prominence an institution which had
been scrupulOusly guarded against pop
ulnr view and intrusion. The result
was what was intended to he great
public shOw-the dinner Wednesday
night.
But though the appeal was wide
spread the response was desultOry. or
the three elements who constitute our
community representatives of two
came-thc handful Of "haves" who
knew they would he asked to give
came to give and stayed to give: and
the rather large delegation Of have
nOts who are so utterly certain that
under no circumstances could anyone
suggest that they give anything for
anything. The haves who will not give
could not he dragged to the function
or had they been dragged, drugged into
giving.
1t wns a dlsheartening spectacle
destructive OF many fond delusions. a
show auguring Ill for the overwhelming
ma jOrity OF individuals Of the cOmmun-
ity. 1t must have been particularly
distressing to the representatives OF
orthodox .Jewry to have had it dem
onstrated so clearly that an institution
cOnsecrated to conservative Judaism
il in imminent, danger but for the
headship of Reformed Jews. The mag
nnnimity of Reformed Jews like Louis
Marshall, Felix Warburg. Mortimer
Scliiff and the dozens of others who
overlooked their Temple affiliat lions to
come to the rescue of the Conservative
Seminary, must have lashed the con-
sciences of conservative and orthodox
Jews with the reproach and the warn
ing implicit in this very magnanimity.
To have Reformed Jews foot the bill
for the training of orthodox rahbis
shows the low price orthodox leaders
place on conservative or Observant
Judaism.
Mr.. Marshall made 1t clear. of course,
that his pleading for the Seminary did
not preclude an appeal at another time
for the Hebrew Union College. With
generous gesture he indicated it did
not preclude an appeal for the Yes
hivOth or any institution which aims