The Skehinah Wanderers – as early as 1,700 years ago one of the Jewish chroniclers recorded with both pride and resignation the wandering of the Skehinah to and from ten successive centers.
What is the Skehinah? Every generation has had its own Skehinah, representing in the final analysis the genius of the nation. Since the Kabbalah, beginning with the twelfth century, became deeply rooted in the Jewish mind, the Skehinah grew into a conception of the all-embracing, supreme intelligence of the universe. So it happened that the Skehinah was not satisfied with ten changes of its center: it continuously accompanied the Jewish people in their wanderings. Jerusalem, supplanted by Baghdad, Baghdad by Cordoba, followed by Montpelier, Wurms, Lublin, Vilna and again the German Jewish communities.
If Skehinah is to be taken as the expression of the thing which is peculiar to the Jews, it is nothing but the study of the nation’s genius, the search into the past, the understanding of its literature.
German Jewry has to its credit the creation of a modern system of Jewish research, the clarification of the darkest corners in Jewish history, the rendering accessible of the sources of old inspiration. It produced men like Geiger, Zunz and Jost, who laid the foundation for the Wissenschaft des Judenthum. It is owing to the scientific efforts of German Jewry that the monumental building of Jewish history could be erected and that the romance of Jewish transformations and adaptations could be retold in a precise manner. Much criticism has been voiced against those who occupy themselves with historical research and confine their interest wholly to the past. However, no real understanding of present-day Jewish life and no possibility for a continuation of Jewish thought is imaginable if this work is neglected.
It would seem that in the last few years this has stopped. The war, with its attending impoverishment, uprooted the old established Jewish centers. Scientific research into Jewish learning stopped; publications of this nature were suspended.
The Skehinah of Jewish research has now landed in America through Cincinnati. It should be sincerely welcomed by American Jews.
The first Hebrew Union College annual, containing many valuable contributions towards Jewish lore and philosophy, has appeared under the editorship of David Philopson, K. Kohler, Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Julian Morgenstern, David Neumark and William Rosenau. The nature of the newly issued annual cannot better be expressed than in the words of the chairman of the board of editors: “It offers convincing testimony to the universality of Jewish learning. Here all diversions of opinion and party merge in the friendly fellowship of true scholarly endeavor, and all geographical and national lines are obliterated.”
Indeed they are.
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Both reform and orthodox seem to be determined to make rapid steps in the advancement of American Judaism.
The Rabbi Isaak Elchanan Seminary, a strictly orthodox rabbinical seminary, now located on the East Side of New York, with very poor accommodations, has bought a site for the erection of a modern college building for its students. It is stated that the Seminary intends to construct a building which will be large enough to accommodate 1,000 students, with classrooms, study rooms, an auditorium, a senior high school, a library and a dormitory. There will also be a campus with playgrounds. This should be encouraged. A Yeshiva with a campus and playgrounds adapted to the tastes and aspirations of American Jewish youth is a promising innovation.
Perhaps the time is not distant when the prediction of many close observers of Jewish life in America will come true. American Jews are perhaps approaching the period when, besides dollars for the material relief of distressed communities, it will send to other Jewish communities spiritual encouragement and highly learned leaders as well.
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