He followed Horace Greeley's advice, "Young man, go West." He was determined to obtain a classical education. After a hard struggle, that perseverance and determination to conquer all obstacles always a component of the Jewish character, enabled him, in 1901, to graduate from Redfield College, South Dakota. He afterwards returned to New York, and entered the Union Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1904. June 12, 1905, he received a preacher's license from the New York Presbytery.
While pursuing his regular academic course he made a speciality of sociology, literature and history. Especially was he interested in Hebrew history and the present social, religious and political status of Israel. He supplemented this study by personal observation as a worker on the East Side of New York. This training enabled him to write for "The People, the Land and the Book" some very choice articles. Several secular papers quoted from one of his articles, "Moses and Jesus."
The production of this article was due to the following incident. Dushaw called upon one of the leading reformed rabbis to discuss the general condition of the Jews in the Ghetto. This rabbi was so much impressed with his insight into the situation, and also with his information on many facts pertaining to Israel's development, that he advised him to return to the Hebrew ranks. Israel, he said, would appreciate his ability, whereas the Church would simply cast him out, because he was a member of Israel. He thought Dushaw was foolish to waste his time in the Church. On separating, the rabbi gave him a lecture, "Moses and Jesus," delivered in his temple. Dushaw then decided to write one on the same subject, from his own point of view. We quote from it.
"If Solon belongs to Athens, Lycurgus to Sparta, Moses belongs to humanity. He is the greatest among the great, the deliverer of his people, the world's legislator, and the apostle and prophet of Monotheism...."
"I wonder how much Jesus, the brother and pupil of Moses, did to make Moses as popular as he is to-day? It was Jesus who inspired the men to translate the writings of Moses into so many tongues. Yet this does not in any way belittle Moses. What if the pupil is greater than the master! Surely Moses would not envy Jesus if he accomplished more. Moses, the most unselfish man that ever lived, would be only too glad to see a brother the Saviour of the world. Did he not wish that all Israel were prophets? What right has the Jew to reject Jesus? Has he not made Israel the most known people? What if his followers did persecute Israel? Persecution is contrary to the spirit of Jesus.
"Jesus has proved Himself to be the greater Moses. He has been a light to the nations, guiding them to Moses, to the prophets, and unto God. Wherever Jesus is proclaimed, there the Monotheism of Moses is established, and the ethic, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' is given a wider interpretation."
The article "The Ghetto and Its Relation to Jewish Missions." The substance of this work was delivered at the "First International Hebrew Christian Conference," held in Mountain Lake Park, Md., July 28-30, 1903.
The article, "Hebrew Christian Literature," was written at the request of the editor.
As he came in contact with both cultured and uncultured Christians, and discovered how little they appreciated the work of Israel, he was led to write the two articles, "Salvation is of the Jews—Jesus," and "Let There Be Peace." We quote from the first one:
"I am anxiously awaiting the hour when there will be a new nation—'a nation born in a day'—when the martyr nation, the suffering nation of Isaiah, will awake from its cruel slumber and perceive that for the last nineteen hundred years a fountain of life has been flowing for it from the heart of one of its own sons—the best son of Israel—Jesus Christ. What a spiritual revolution will then take place in the world! Heaven and earth shall resound with joy! For Israel, the Prince of God, shall clothe himself in robes of righteousness and go forth in the might of Jehovah to conquer the earth for the Lord—to set up everywhere the banner of social, political and spiritual freedom. Then, and not till then—when every one shall serve his brother faithfully; when all barriers now separating Jew and Gentile shall be no more; when every man shall dwell unmolested under his fig-tree; when God shall be worshipped in the Spirit of Jesus; when the old order of things shall pass away and the whole earth shall be known as the temple of God,—then shall Israel's mission end. For then there will be no more Jew, but all shall be called children of God and brothers of Jesus."