Menorah Notes and News
The International Students' Reunion
THE Intercollegiate Menorah Association was represented at the International Students' Reunion, which was held in connection with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco, the University of California, and Leland Stanford University, under the auspices of Corda Fratres Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, from August 16th to 21st, 1915. Intercollegiate Vice-President Milton D. Sapiro read a paper at the session in the Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, on "The Purposes of the Menorah Movement," submitted by the Chancellor. Dr. Horace M. Kallen, of the University of Wisconsin, delivered a discourse at the session at Stanford University on "The Hebraic Spirit." The following is an abstract of his address:
Dr. Kallen on "The Hebraic Spirit"
"A people's spirit is its character, considered not as a cluster of qualities, but as a spring and form of action—action that expresses itself in social institutions, in political and economic organization, in art, in religion and in philosophy; in short, in all that expressive part of human life we call culture. A people's culture is organic. However varied its form and media, the varieties springing from a single source possess an identical and unique quality which is the quality of that source. They express and reveal it, as generative power, a force of creation, having good or evil bearing upon the residual civilization. The process of such revelation is a people's total history; just as the process of revelation of an individual's character is his total biography. To find the Hebraic spirit we must seek its substantial development in the culture and ideals of the Jewish people—in the unfoldment, in the history of their common attitude toward the world and toward man, in their theory of life.
"The Jewish theory of life involves three fundamental conceptions, interdependent, and forming a unit which has no near parallel in civilization.
"The first of these conceptions defines the nature of God. What is significant about it is the fact that it makes no distinction between God and Nature. God is Nature and Nature is God. The two are related to each other as a force and its operation, and what difference there exists between them is a difference in completeness and self-sufficiency, not in kind. God reveals himself thus in and as the cause of Nature, the whirlwind, the process of life and decay, the development of history. His essence is Change, Force, Time. There is hence no Hebrew word for eternal; God's attitude is everlasting. That is, that which changes yet retains its identity, as a man changes from infancy to manhood, yet retains his identity.
"God is one, all-inclusive, everlastingly creative. In consequence, there exists a real distinction between God and man, such that the one cannot be defined in analogy with anything human. Neither wisdom, nor goodness, nor justice apply to him; yet the goodness, wisdom and justice of man depend upon him. Man is a finite speck set over against divine infinitude. His life is a constant struggle for survival with forces which have each an equal claim on divine regard with man. Man's salvation, herein, consists in knowing these facts, in understanding, using them, and guarding against them. The fear of the Lord, sings the chorus in Job, is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.
"To depart from evil is to act as a social being, to be righteous. Righteousness is acknowledgment of the value and integrity of other persons. It is the application of justice in all fields of human endeavor, particularly in fundamental economics. Thus the three historic constitutions of the Jewish state, the Covenant, Deuteronomy and the Levitical code, are all directed toward making impossible other than natural inequalities within the state. Their intention is a social democracy; and all Jewish law, departing from this fundamental intention, aims, under various conditions, to realize it. The prophets, from Amos to Isaiah, preach it; and men like Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Marx, Jean de Bloch, simply enhance their tradition.
"The Hebraic spirit carries the principle of democracy beyond the individual to the group. Men having a common ancestry, history, culture and ideals, living a common life, have definite contribution to make to civilization as a group. They constitute a nationality and the principles of justice that apply among individuals must apply equally among nationalities. Hence Hebraism, through its prophets, formulates the conception of an internationalism, consisting of a co-operative democracy of nationalities, under conditions of universal peace. The great Isaiah, who flourished in the fifth century B. C., is the first to formulate this national vision. His people have never departed from it. In terms of it, they have been the foremost protagonists of a constructive internationalism, in every land and at all times. Recently, as they have begun to find that their service to civilization as a people grows more and more impaired by the Diaspora, they have formulated a program of national reconcentration in Palestine, and of the free development there of Hebraic culture and ideals such as all European peoples carry out in their own homelands of their culture and ideals. This program is called Zionism. It is the practical and most expressive incarnation of the Hebraic Spirit."
California Menorah Society
THE California Menorah Society met on Monday evening, August 30th, for its first meeting of the college year. There was an attendance of 125. Mr. Louis I. Newman gave a short talk on the aims of the Menorah movement. Milton D. Sapiro, first President of the California Menorah and now the second Vice-President of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, spoke on the history of the movement, tracing the development of the Menorah idea and the formation of the Intercollegiate body; and in closing he presented Stanley Arndt, now President of the Society, with a bronze Menorah, which is to be handed down from President to President each year. President Arndt, in accepting the Menorah, said that it suggested the great problem that the Jews are now facing. The great question at the present time is whether this Menorah will be a mere symbol of the past glories, the past achievements of the Jews, whether it is to be a mere monument of a dying race, or the living emblem of a living race, the soul of a living people. As an exponent of the latter doctrine, he introduced Dr. Horace M. Kallen of the University of Wisconsin, Intercollegiate Menorah Lecturer.
Dr. Kallen spoke on "The Jews and the Great War." He pointed out that democracy in its essence was the liberation of individuality; that by being most one's self, a person or a nation does the most for his neighbors. First of all, therefore, we should know ourselves. Dr. Kallen then took up the condition of the Jews in Russia. He discussed the frightful persecutions there as the result of a great anti-Jewish conspiracy to cover up the graft, the corruption and the inefficiency of the government. He spoke on the great drive of the Jews from the Pale by the military authorities and then the drive back again by the civil authorities. This, he pointed out, involved not only a Jewish problem, but a great international one besides. The second phase of the Jewish question was that of a free Jewish life in Palestine. There the Jewish colonists have practically an autonomy of their own; they have established a Jewish stage, Jewish art, Jewish music; and the colonies were founded upon a social democratic basis, upon the same fundamental conceptions of social democracy that the Hebrew Prophets had preached. Dr. Kallen concluded with a plea for the Jew's double responsibility. The Jew commits a crime hot only as a citizen but as a Jew. The Jews who in length of service to the world are surely an aristocracy must carry this responsibility.
In the discussion which followed, Professor Simon Litman of Illinois, who was present, took part.
A Menorah prize of $50. was announced at this meeting. The judges will be Professor William Popper and Dr. Martin A. Meyer of the Semitics Department of the University, and Judge Max Sloss of the Supreme Court of California.
A musical program, followed by an informal reception to the new members, completed the evening.
N. M. Lyon, the Treasurer of the Intercollegiate, formerly of Cincinnati, is now a student at California and a member of the California Menorah.
Dr. Kallen on the Pacific Coast
BESIDES his address at the opening meeting of the California Menorah Society and other informal talks with the students, Dr. Kallen delivered a series of three addresses at the University of California, under the auspices of the Department of Philosophy, on the general subject: "The Hebraic Tradition in Europe." On August 31st, he lectured upon "The Rise and Significance of the Hebraic Tradition"; on September 1st, "Hebraism and Democracy"; and September 2nd, "Hebraism and Art."
On August 30th, Dr. Kallen met a company of graduates and other public-spirited Jewish citizens in San Francisco at luncheon and explained the purposes and activities of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.
Dr. Kallen addressed the Menorah Society of the University of Washington in Seattle on August 14th, on "The Jewish Question and the Great War." He also met at a dinner a company of graduates and other public-spirited Jewish citizens in Seattle, and explained to them the purposes and activities of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.
Dr. Harry Wolfson of Harvard
HARRY AUSTRYN WOLFSON, the author of the articles on "Jewish Students in European Universities," published in the first two numbers of the Journal, has been appointed Instructor in Jewish Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard last June in the field of Semitic Philology, his thesis subject being "Crescas on the Problems of Infinity and Divine Attributes."
During the ensuing year he will give the following courses: Post-Biblical Hebrew, Jewish Aramaic, Jewish Literature and Life From the Second to the End of the Seventeenth Century, and An Introduction to Medieval Jewish Philosophy.
Cornell Summer Meeting
ON August 8, 1915, the Cornell Menorah Society held a meeting for the summer students. There was an attendance of about 50, both Jews and non-Jews. Rev. Dr. H. P. Mendes, of New York, gave an address on "Bible Ideals in Modern Times," and Professor Frank Carney of Denison University, Professor of Industrial Geography in the Cornell Summer School, spoke on "The Inorganic Basis of the Hebrew Contribution to the World." Professor W.A. Hurwitz of Cornell spoke briefly on the scope of the Menorah movement, and Dr. L. L. Silverman played Kol Nidre on the violin.
Hunter Menorah Society
THE Menorah Society of Hunter College, in New York City, begins its third year with a marked increase in the enthusiasm and the number of its members. A program dealing with various phases of Hebrew culture has been planned for the regular monthly meetings, comprising lectures on the Bible, the Talmud, Medieval Hebrew Poetry, Modern Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Music, and Hebrew Art. In addition, the Society hopes to present a pageant and a reception to freshmen in February (for Hunter College admits two classes during the year). The lectures will be preceded by refreshments, and the singing of Hebrew songs by the Menorah Glee Club.
Besides the regular monthly meetings, the Society is organizing courses in conversational Hebrew, Bible Study, and Zionism—the first to meet weekly, the others on alternate weeks.
It is also hoped to have a general informal meeting every week to discuss modern Jewish problems in connection with the reading of various newspapers and periodicals.
College of the City of New York
THE Menorah Society of the College of the City of New York closed its activities during the past year with a very interesting meeting held on May 20, 1915. Rev. Dr. H. Pereira Mendes spoke on "Jewish Ideals of Peace," and he was introduced by the new President of the College, Dr. Sidney Edward Mezes, who presided. Dr. Mezes has come to City College from the University of Texas, and it is gratifying to note that he had already been made familiar with the Menorah work through the Texas Menorah Society.
The new year was opened with a forum meeting on September 21st, in the Menorah alcove, when the Chancellor addressed a number of new men as well as old, upon the significance and the increasing scope of the Menorah movement. The week beginning October 3rd will be known as "Menorah Week" at the College. On Monday, October 4th, the study circles will meet for the first time; on Tuesday there will be another meeting of the Menorah forum; on Wednesday a semi-annual smoker will be held in the City College Club; and on Thursday, Mr. Marcus M. Marks, President of the Borough of Manhattan, will deliver a lecture to the student body under the auspices of the Menorah Society.
Fourth Annual Convention
IMPORTANT matters touching the development of Intercollegiate activities, the work and membership of the constituent Societies, the association of graduates with the Intercollegiate body, the problems and plans of The Menorah Journal, will be among the subjects presented for discussion and decision at the Fourth Menorah Convention, to be held during the coming mid-winter recess. The precise days and place of the Convention will shortly be decided by the Administrative Council, in accordance with Article II, Section 4, of the Intercollegiate Constitution. In addition to the business sessions there will also be a formal dinner and an academic session devoted to the reading of papers by eminent scholars. It is hoped that a large number of Menorah men and women from all parts of the country will be able to attend. Further details will be published in the next number of the Journal.
Informal Gathering of Menorah Officers
ON June 21, 1915, there was an informal gathering at the headquarters of the Intercollegiate Association, 600 Madison Avenue, New York City, of Menorah officers who happened to be in New York. There were present, besides the Chancellor, President I. Leo Sharfman, Vice-President Abraham J. Feldman, and Secretary Charles K. Feinberg of the Association, President Stanley Arndt of California, President Jacob Rubinoff of Pennsylvania, ex-President Leon J. Rosenthal of Cornell, ex-President George J. Horowitz, President Moses H. Gitelson, Treasurer Herman I. Trachman of College of the City of New York, President Bernard J. Reis of New York University (Washington Square), ex-President Samuel Sussman of Columbia, President Sarah Berenson, Vice-President Babette Reinhardt, Treasurer Minnie Weiss, and Secretary Ernestine P. Franklin and ex-Secretary Julia Mitchell of Hunter, and Dr. H. M. Kallen of Wisconsin.
There was informal discussion of the activities of the various Societies, the progress of The Menorah Journal, the program of the next Intercollegiate Convention, and the development of the graduate phase of the Menorah movement.
THE
MENORAH
JOURNAL
| Frontispiece: Theodor Herzl | Etching by Hermann Struck |
| The Menorah | Theodor Herzl |
| The Present Crisis in American Jewry | Israel Friedlaender |
| Our Spiritual Inheritance | Irving Lehman |
| Adam Prometheus, and Other Lyrics | Louis K. Anspacher |
| Sholom Asch: The Jewish Maupassant | Percy B. Shostac |
| A Menorah Prize Essay | |
| Liberalism and the Jews | Joseph Jacobs |
| What Is Judaism? | Mordecai M. Kaplan |
| University Menorah Addresses | |
| Activities of Menorah Societies |
PUBLISHED BY THE INTERCOLLEGIATE MENORAH ASSOCIATION
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