Passengers in the subways, elevated trains and surface cars, as well as the motorists and pedestrians within the metropolitan area of Greater New York, cannot help seeing everywhere a sad-faced woman with distinctly Jewish features, who looks on them from posters and billboards. On her face is an expression of limitless pain and suffering. On her lips there is a challenging, hidden smile.
The leaders of the United Jewish Campaign, who have taken upon themselves the task of arousing the sentiment of American Jews to give in order that this suffering people may be helped, have furnished the following text to this, which is understood to be an authentic picture.
“Tired of giving? You don’t know what it is to be tired!”
One must credit the author of this poster with genuine ability and insight into human nature. It adequately describes the situation on both sides of the ocean. When the Joint Distribution Committee decided, several years ago, to discontinue its activity and persisted in going on with the liquidation of its work, it was done not on the theory that all that was ill in Jewish life in European countries had been remedied, but that American Jews had grown tired of giving. When the misery of the situation was again unfolded and focused attention, action was not undertaken before it was ascertained that American Jews, tired as they may be of giving, are, after all, American Jews. The spirit of the Philadelphia conference, despite its dramatic episodes, resting on a fundamental difference of opinion as to the outlook of Jewish life, brought out this fact.
New York is entering upon its United Jewish Campaign with a quota of $6,000,000. It is expected that the outcome will prove that New York Jewry is [in fact] not tired of giving. That it is not tired of giving for a worthy cause was also proven by the successful conclusion of the United Palestine Appeal, which sought to raise the amount of $1,500,000 in New York City for 1926.
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Jewish education is again coming to the fore. On the initiative of the Zionist Organization of America, a national conference on Jewish education will take place in May. A league for Jewish Education in America is to be the outcome of the call for the conference.
Education is not a new Jewish problem. It was only a hundred years or so ago that when the question of Jewish education was discussed, it was understood to mean general education for Jews. With the setting in of the Emancipation period and its accompanying changes in Jewish life, Jewish education has come to mean just the reverse, that is, providing a specifically Jewish religious, cultural or ethical background for what is accepted to be the general standard of education, according to the standards of culture and learning in the respective countries. What a complete change these hundred years in Jewish history have wrought!
There was no difference of opinion at that time as to what comprised Jewish education. Jewish education in the United States is a name into which every group and tendency reads its own definition. To the ultra-orthodox rabbinical group, Jewish education might mean an extensive study in Talmud; to the liberal tendency it might mean religious training of the Sunday school content; to the distinctly Zionist mind, it might aim at acquaintance with modern Hebrew literature; to the less informed, it may mean the ability to recite the Bar Mitzvah prayers at the age of 13 and, of course, the accompanying “speech,” and “after 20 years,” the recital of the Aramaic Kaddish.
What the national conference on Jewish education will decide to define as Jewish education will determine its own success or failure. Should it succeed in handling the problem which affects not only the synagogue and the temple, but also the home and the status of the Jewish community, if judged from a broad viewpoint, and [if it] should succeed in directing its activities toward the provision of a Hebraic background, which is common to all the tendencies and not alien to America, it will make American Jewish history.
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Interest in Jewish sport has been increased with the arrival of the soccer team of the Viennese sport club, Hakoah, and their matches with picked teams of professional players in the United States.
Jews in sport are still a novelty, although since many American Jews have taken their place[s] as leaders in American sport, this should not be so new. Nevertheless, the opinion prevails that Jews are new participators in sports.
Some time ago a well-known writer went to the extent of constructing a theory that the difference between Jew and Gentile is that the Gentile lives for the purpose of sport and play, while the Jew lives his life earnestly. This contention is not entirely based on facts or on historic conception. When the original meaning of the word “sport” is consulted, it is found to mean “amusement.” One can search the early Jewish literature from Aleph to Tav and find not a single injunction against wholesome amusement. The misleading impression that Jews are opposed to sport gained ground due to the recorded fact that the Jews opposed the athletic sports of the Greeks in Palestine during the scission between Hellenism and Judaism. This, however, was due to the fact that it was an hour of national danger. Just as the fact that many countries introduced prohibition during the war cannot be used as a basis for the argument that these countries are permanently in favor of prohibition, so it cannot be argued that the Jews are opposed to sport.
If, however, by sport is meant that the game is to be played fairly, ancient Jewish lore might provide some argument proving the existence of this conception.
The fact in the Bible that Jacob was renamed Israel, following his gallant, singlehanded fight with the unknown “man” who injured him, tells the story. Jacob was named Israel because he “fought with God.” The many references in the Bible to the Book of Yashar, always mentioned when poems concerning the life and achievements of heroes are given, is, in the opinion of many scholars, an indication of the existence of a special “Book of Heroes,” giving thus new meaning to the old name of Israel: Israel-Yashar El, or the Knight of God.
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