OF CAUFO% HO' ''A'OjilV.') 30 ^UDNY-SOV^ n i j P r ku E 55 , 'I ^EUNIVERS/A AvlOS-ANCEl * & >i ^? ^^^. . - Stack Annex 5019064 THE APPEAL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE.' AN ADDRESS IN THE RODEF SHALOM TEMPLE PITTSBURGH, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1912. Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye justice and do ye equity. (Isaiah LVI., 1.) It is usually assumed that the great service to man- kind rendered by the founder of our faith was the dis- covery of the existence of one God. There are those among- us who cherish the belief that Abraham, the friend of God, became the father of the Hebrew people because, in his day, it had dawned upon his intelligence alone that the world was the creation of a single, in- finite mind. Many Jews believe in rearing their child- ren in respect for the covenant of, Abraham, because they hold that the keynote of the Jewish religion is the belief in the existence of one God, which, in the last analysis, was the discovery made by our father Abra- ham. Abraham's Service to Mankind. In very truth this is not the greatest feature of Abraham's service to mankind. It is true that we as- sociate with the name of our patriarch the belief in * By the Rev. J. Leonard Levy, Rabbi of the Congregation. Stenographically reported by Caroline Loewenthal. monotheism as opposed to the polytheism which pre- vailed in his day. It is true that we have come to look upon Abraham as the great exponent of a religion based :il)on the idea that there is only one God, a truth which lie preached at the sacrifice of home, family, dear ones and country. Xo doubt he was moved to his mission because he saw the evils which the idolatry resulting from the belief in many gods brought upon society in his age. He saw barbaric cruelty exercised in the social system. He saw the ruthless tyranny characteristic of irovernmcnts uninfluenced by democratic ideals. He saw the wholesale slaughter of the innocent children who were sacrificed to please a celestial ogre. He saw prostitution consecrated as a religious form in Asiatic temples. This the spiritual and keen Abraham attri- buted to the prevailing false conceptions of God; for although Abraham revered God, long before his time, men had worshipped some form of God ; long before his birth the earth had been covered with temples; long be- fore his departure from Chaldea, sacrifices and services were held in places of worship. The Discovery of a Moral God. Abraham bad not only observed that religion, as it was understood in his day, was a public curse, but he also rcali/ed that it ought to be converted into a gen- eral blessing. He not only had a fairly accurate con- ception of this world, for he held that it was ruled by < ne Power and not by many, but he had more, and here- in lies his distinction. lie was the first man in all his- tory, as far as the records show, to believe that God was interested in other things than prayers and sacrifices and offerings and processions and hymns and music and splendid, inspiring services. When in our Scriptures, (Genesis xviii., 19), the writer puts into the mouth of God an expression of His high approval of Abraham, he makes God to say of Abraham, "I know him that he will command his children and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice." God Most Interested in Human Morals. Here was Abraham's contribution to religious de- velopment. Not only did he believe that there was one God, a belief the discovery of which conferred on him great distinction, but he believed that there was only one moral God. That is the great truth of our faith. That is the truth which Judaism preached to an unbe- lieving world' and which still has a world to conquer. Only the few have quite realized this truth yet. Only the few really live by this conviction. But the time will come when the world will be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea ; and when that knowledge will be possessed of all men they will learn its corollary, that if there is only one moral God ruling the universe, the distinguishing characteristic of man, His child, must be that morality which is the marked characteristic of the Father revealed to us through Abraham and his descendants. Morality is not religion, but morality is the high- 3 est expression which religion takes in our daily lives. Nothing can, with the worshippers of a moral God, take the place of morality in the eyes of that God. Not all your priests and leaders and ecclesiastics; not all your magnificent pictures and churches and saints; not all your grand organs and choirs and songs, can be pleasing to God unless those who offer such worship lead moral lives. This is Judaism's view. The son of Israel who docs not live harmoniously with this view is not a true Jew. lie may worship God on the traditional Jewish Sabbath, and keep every ceremony commanded in, or deduced from, any portion of our Scriptures; yet if he denies God by immorality, he rejects the most essential principle of Judaism. Abraham's Discovery a Seed Thought. The discovery made by Abraham would have had little influence on the world if it had dijed with him. From his loins arose a certain people, a certain prophet- class, a certain religious community, as I like to call the Jews, which, by its peculiar views, was set apart to become the witnesses of what became, later on, the be- 1'efs and teachings of Israel. No one can truly say that our people have been false to that purpose. On the whole, Israel has been faithful, and while we have never liad a full opportunity of offering our hopes and ideals to a friendly general community, yet Israel has never forsaken his calling and duty. Within a thousand years of the birth of Abraham, a school arose among the peo- ple of Israel, known as the Prophetic Guild. Thence came the world's spiritual giants who fearlessly an- nounced that their people were departing from the way indicated by Abraham in that they did not live righteously. Once again the Prophets proclaimed the old truth : God loves justice and righteousness. As the Psalmist put it, "The righteous Lord loveth righteous- ness." Every Prophet from Amos to Malachi, from the first to the last of the so-called Prophets of Israel who lived between the period of 800 B. C. E. and 300 B. C. E., arose and emphasized the distinctive teaching of Abraham, that God is best served by justice and right- eousness. Attempting the Impossible. Last Tuesday evening you heard one of the most distinguished living teachers in the house .of Israel, my former preceptor, Dr. Israel Abrahams. In course of his stirring and learned address he told us that perhaps the most interesting challenge to our imagination, as we study civilization, is the attempt made by men to do the thing that seemed impossible ; that whereas any man can do the possible, only a man of worth, of ability, and, of great faith, will attempt the impossible. It was a saint of the Roman Catholic Church who said, Credo quia incredibile est, "I believe because it seems in- credible." Surely if you will put yourselves back a few de- cades and conjure before your mind's eye the picture of the little house in which you then lived, of the tiny store in which you conducted your business, of the lit- tie office in which you practiced; if, in a word, you will consider the time at which, and the conditions under which, your career began, you will now see that you then dreamed dreams and indulged hopes, while fancy painted a picture of what yet might be. It all seemed impossible ; but you never lost heart. The man who had a little store about twenty foot front, dreamed the dream that some day he would own a big department store. The man who had a few dollars indulged the 1'Cjpe that he might increase them into an abundant in- come. The young man who began the practice of law or medicine, or what not, fondled the thought that, Mime day. lie might become an authority among the members of his profession. As young men you indulged hopes; the seemingly impossible has been realized. The Germ of the Messianic Ideal. So in the discovery made by Abraham there was in- finite possibility. The germ took root. The impossible became the actual. Abraham's seed grew in spiritual power. From the seed-thought, "God loveth righteous- ness," there developed the hope that some day a state of society would exist where righteousness and justice would not abide in heaven with God, but would be es- tablished here on earth among men. The Prophets revelled in the hope of that future. They dreamed for us that the day would come when "nation would not lift up sword against nation and when they would learn war no more;" and this ideal they did not express in times like these, when presidents of great republics and kings of great empires had already exchanged mes- sages on such a subject, but at a time when the tramp- ing feet of armies were heard on every side every day in the week. Again, they spoke of the time when "the world would be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea ;" and this hope they did not express in an era when universities adorned the earth and educa- tion was free, but when the world was covered with ignorance and education was denied to the average in- dividual. Again, they loved to dip into the future and dream of the age when the industrial conditions of the world would be improved, when the brute qualities in man would be subdued, when the lion of power and the bull of toil would lie down together, when the wolf of authority and the lamb of innocence would eat side ly side, when the social system would be such that no little child would be hurt by existing conditions, when such reasonableness would prevail that a little child would lead man. The Coming of the Messiah. Thus out of the teaching that God loves moralitv, that "the righteous Lord loveth righteousness," out ot the conception which is associated with Abraham of old that God loves justice and righteousness, grew the great Messianic hope of the people of Israel. The one was the ultimate and natural consequence of the other. If God loves justice and righteousness, and if man, His child, loves that which He loves, the day could not be far distant when the earth would be the sphere in which, universally, these principles would be practiced. In that age the Messianic Kingdom would be established for Israel and for. the nations through the ministrations of Israel. After the Captivity. Again and again Jews believed that the Messiah was about to come. When the exiles in Babylon sat by the river-side and wept for their lost Zion ; when they refused to sing the songs of the Lord upon a strange land; when strangers jeered at them and told them that the Lord had forsaken them; when they pledged that their right hand might lose its ability and their tongues might cleave to their palate if they for- sook Jerusalem; then the Prophet came and said, "Com- fort ye. my people; every valley shall be exalted, and every hill made low, and the path shall be made straight that ye may rejoice in the Messianic kingdom in Pal- estine." The exiles returned, but the Messiah came not. In the Days of Rome's Triumph. In the turbulent days of the Roman Empire, when the Jewish people living in Palestine saw the legions of Rome tightening their crushing grip upon them, the prayer was offered, "Oh that a redeemer would come unto Zion!" In the heart of the average Jew the wish was formed that some mighty man would arise in Israel 8 who, like David, the prototype, would overthrow the enemy which threatened the existence of Palestine; but he came not. A handful of Palestinians did believe that, just about that period, there was one young Jew who was crucified by the Romans, and of whom a few of the people said, so we are told in Christian records, that this was the chosen one, the anointed one prom- ised to Israel, the Messiah. But we stand nineteen hundred years from that day ; warships are still being built. This very day Christian powers are battling with Mohammedans in Turkey. This very day, knowledge is not the inheritance of all men. This very day, all over the civilized world the slaughter of innocent babes is being- continued. This very day, the hatred between the masses and masters, between employer and employee, between capitalist and laborer, is intense. Nearly all over the world today religious intolerance still .exists. Protestant bigotry vents its ugly and unrighteous spleen upon Roman Catholics in this country, while in Russia, the powers that be still condone or permit the massacre of Jews, nineteen hundred years after the advent of the so-called Prince of Peace, nineteen centuries after the introduction of the so-called Messiah's reign of peace and good-will. A Jew was crucified, as Jews have always been ; but the Messiah came not. In the Nineteenth Century. Twenty-five years ago it was believed that the modern Messiah had come in America. If you read the litera- lure of that period you will find that frequent expres- sion was given to the belief that the time was nigh when sectarian doctrines which invite separatism were about to depart, that the idea was current that men were about to agree upon a common basis of religious organization and that upon such a phrase as "the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man," the church universal was about to be established. Men said that there would be no more Protestants, no more Cath- olics, no more Jews, none of the old sectarianism; only one universal church would be needed to house the en- tire army of God. The time has passed; the church is not yet here, and the Messiah has not yet come; and he will not come, and he cannot, come, until we have obeyed this command of Isaiah, "Thus saith the Lord, do ye justice and keep ye equity." Why the Messiah Comes Not. The human mind is so strangely constructed that it can at one time think of one thing, while the body, in which that mind is located, can be performing an act directly contrary to that with which the mind is en- gaged. It is exceedingly difficult to get men to concen- trate and harmonize ideas and deeds. Pharisaism still rules in men's hearts. They will go to church on Sun- day and pray to a moral God, approve a God of love, and worship him in the spirit; yet, until the following Sunday, they will act as if they forget that there is a moral God in the world. Strange, indeed, is this Phar- isaism of the human heart, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 10 in each of us, this self and sub-conscious self of which the modern psychologists speak, this dual nature of man. We assemble in our churches and approve the Ten Com- mandments as they are read to us. "Thou shalt not commit murder;" every one approves. "Thou shalt not commit adultery;" every one approves. "Thou shalt not steal ;" every one apjproves. "Thou shalt not bear false witness;" every one approves. "Thou shalt not covet;" every one approves. Yet, a few hours later, we so act that we prove that we have left them behind in the churches and synagogues. You know the old, old story of the sailor who did not care to bother himself with saying a long prayer each morning. He went to a scribe and paid him to write his prayer upon a large sheet of paper. This he had framed, and he placed it on the wall over his bed. Every morning he used to say, as he jerked his finger toward the frame, "Them's my sentiments." Many of i;s act not otherwise. As we leave the house of worship we point to the two tables of stone saying, "Them's my sentiments ;" then we promptly leave them behind us in the church or Temple and forget them. Moral Life and Religious Belief. In a word, the greatest difficulty with which teach- ers of religion have to contend, and remember that the children of Israel are just as much teachers of religion as I am, is that peculiar attitude of the human mind which approves the good and follows the evil. Thus, 11 many believe that religion has to do with this building, but that it has nothing to do with the store or office; that it has to do with God but not with man ; that it has to do with the Sabbath and not with the days of the week. Many men think that if the week is to be com- pared to a dollar, we owe God 14 2-7 cents while the rest belongs to us to do with as we please; and that, having paid God His 14 2-7 cents on Sunday, He has no right to question what we do with the remainder. Having worshipped Him formally on the Sabbath we presume that we can do as we please in our office or store or in the pursuit ;>r our profession. Many imagine that they have done all that God has a right to ask of them if they concede His demands on His day; on their six days they demand the privilege of forgetting Him if necessary. The Demand of Israel's Prophets. Against this attitude the Prophets inveighed. They wished us to understand that, while every man approves nf justice between man and man, there is a wider ap- plication of the (principle of justice. They described so- cial justice as well as individual justice. Every man who is wronged seeks justice at the law. Society has its claims and they must be granted, say the Prophets. Xo matter how radical my opinions may be as a teacher, I am still orthodox, I am almost a reactionary, from the standpoint of the Prophets who are my masters and teachers. They came to their people and they said in God's name: "1 ask not for your Sabbaths and your 12 sacrifices. I ask not for your songs and hymns. Take away from me the noise of your musical instruments. Bring me no more your vain oblations. I am weary of your fasts and sacrifices. I demand," God says through the lips of the prophet Amos, "that justice flow like a river and equity like a mighty cataract." Social Service and Spiritual Sacrifice. If ever a body of men deserve our mental reverence, our unstinted respect and our cordial love, it is this hand- ful of Jews, who are known as the Prophets of Israel, because they have been the inspiration of every reformer who has lived since their day, in that they indicated that religion has less to do with the inside of the church or the temple than it has to do with the life outside the church or temple. In a word, they desired that men should attend the public service and bring sacrifices; they were never opposed to religious cult or ritual or ceremony, as such ; but they also demanded that hand in hand with such ceremonies should go the observance of social justice. I am anxious to make this exceeding- ly clear to you, for there are so many reactionaries in modern churches, (and therefore the church has lost much of it influence), who do not seem to realize that that which is called true and is approved in the church has no value unless it is practiced outside the church. The Social Implications of Religion. It is all very well for one to give his mental assent to the command, "Thou shalt not steal," but of what 13 value is his assent if he is engaged in a business which proves that he has no moral conception of what steal- ing means? It is all very well for one to say, I approve the command, "Thou shalt not commit murder," but what is the use of his approval if he sells foods which are adulterated and contain poisons which destroy hu- man, life? It is all very well for one to say, I admit "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh- bor," but if he, in speaking of his rival in business or profession, is not truthful in his utterances, if he de- stroys his rival by a word, he perjures himself, never- theless. Do you not understand that these Prophets wished to bring home to our consciousness the truth that while religion is excellent for man's own guidance, cut if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains (food consecrated to idols), neither hath lifted up his eyes to ' the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath denied his neighbor's wife, and hath not wronged any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath taken nought by robbery, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment; that hath not given his money on interest, neither hath taken any usury, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath ex- ecuted true justice between man and man, hath walked in my statutes and hath kept mine ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live saith the Lord of hosts." 16 The Words of Amos. No less emphatic is the prophet Amos when he de- sires to teach the social application of the principles of religion. No man was ever more fearless than he in his denunciation of a people who failed to harmonize religion in its ceremonial aspect with religion in its social implications. Says he, (Amos ii., 6-8) : "Thus saith the Eternal. For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, they crush the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the meek : and a man and his father go unto the same maiden to profane my holy name : and they lay themselves down beside every altar upon clothes taken in pledge." Do you not see the social implication? The Warning of Malachi. Need I Vemind you that, in the only definition of religion given in our Bible, the prophet Micah insists that God demands of us, (Micah vi., 8), "to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God." And when the last of the prophets delivers his undying mes- sage, we find him denouncing ecclesiasticism and formal compliance with ceremonial cult, and instructing his people that God will ever be a witness against "sor- cerers, and against the adulterers, and against the per- jurers, and against those that oppress the hired man in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn 17 aside the stranger from his rights, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts," (Malachi iii., 5, 6.) The Appeal for Social Justice. Is it not clear, then, that our masters, the Prophets, the men who made Judaism, sought to have Jews -un- derstand that religion is, in the first place, a matter be- tween man and his Maker, then a matter between man and his neighbor, then a matter between man and so- ciety? That, while religion ought to bring us its com- fort, its solace, its inspiriting power, its hope, its help, it might to inspire us to act justly towards others, and that no people can be called religious that does not de- mand justice for itself and do justice to others? Surely this is the Jewish point of view, and just as surely it is, in every way. the modern world's point of view! We hear less today about the gospel of emotionalism, the gospel of sickly sentimentality, the gospel of love; and fortunately we hear more about the gospel of justice, the essential element in the foundations of social life. \\ e ought to realize that God is loving and exacts lov- ing-kindness of His children; but we dare not forget that Cod's great attribute is Justice, and Isaiah preaches r> whole social gospel in his utterance, "Thus saith the Lord, Do ye justice and keep ye equity." The Day is Dawning. At last the Prophets are coming into their own. At last men are heeding their messages, and are beginning to understand that their appeal for social justice is the 18 theme upon which insistence should be laid. No man of refined sensibilities and tender heart and the slightest- imagination ought remain contented in the presence of the world's burden of woe. Men must be saved from bondage by an unceasing appeal for social justice. The precarious subsistence of respectable people, the debas- ing poverty of self-respecting men and women, the trials which come with invalidism combined with want and penury, these and ten thousand other ills of society, should move us to call into power men pledged to heljp the masses upward and forward through self-help and even-handed justice. Germany's Propaganda. We may see how this conception of the State's duty to its people has advanced Germany's interests and made it the most .efficient of all the nations of the earth, Already in 1876 Bismarck realized that the workingmen were entitled to a consideration they had not hitherto received. No matter what his motive, his counsel and his efforts were in the direction of social justice. Of course Germany is ready for further reforms but one cannot visit such places as Elberfeld and Essen and not be impressed with the vast advances Germany has made in the direction of removing injustices from the masses. Only through such a conception of the State's duty can we explain how it has happened that a country which was an autocracy when I entered public life, has become the model for the world in the matter of apply- ing the principle of justice to social conditions. 19 England's Liberalism. i The same is true of England in recent years. Egregiously as she failed hitherto, she has made mar- vellous amends recently. The program of such men as Asquith, Churchill and Lloyd George, in spite of the reactionary efforts of the privileged classes, has wrought much good. Of course there may be a revival of oppo- sition, but the work of the British government in the direction of Old Age Pensions, Social Insurance, Civil and Political Liberty, Employers' Liability, is a spur to us iu America to go and do likewise. These matters have left the realm of academic discussion and demand enforcement in our country through the statues of the land. You may seem surprised that I cite England as a model to us in such matters as civil and political equal- ity, let me add in passing. But we have much to learn from the mother country in this respect. There are but n quarter of a million Jews in Great Britain and Ireland, and their influence, as their opportunities is unbounded. Kufus Isaacs and Herbert. Samuels are members of the Cabinet, Sir Matthew Nathan is Permanent Secretary of the Tost Office, sixteen Jews sit in the National Par- liament, and live Jews are hereditary Peers. America has yet much to learn concerning the meaning of equal- ity. Into the minds of millions the idea of equality has not yet entered. The attitude of so-called refined and educated persons in the matter of club life is a foul blot on the escutcheon of American respectability. It 20 'matters not in Pittsburgh, or Philadelphia, or New York, how eminent be a Jewish gentleman graduate of an American university, he cannot be a member of a Uni- versity Club. Our Jewish women in Pittsburgh, in every respect, class for class, the equals of the best women of the community, though through Rodef Shalom and the Council of Jewish Women, they render a social service of the highest order, cannot become members of the Twentieth Century (Women's) Club which arrogantly and despicably closes its doors in their face. Personally I refuse to enter even the buildings in which such clubs are housed, not that I wish to be a member of such or- ganizations for I know that I am neither a graduate of an American University nor a woman, but because I have unspeakable contempt for the snobbishness and arrogance and injustice of the members of such or- ganizations. America's Duty. Moreover America needs greater civil and religious liberty in other directions. A man should not be made to suffer because he is loyal and faithful to his mother's faith, and even the smallest and weakest of religious organizations is entitled to the same consideration shown to the most influential. We must understand that Civil Liberty means more than the right to walk the streets unmolested or to cast a vote at an election. We shall not have Civil Liberty until education has become democratized and equal opportunity is afforded every child in America to receive the best education. There ought to be no favored classes in a democracy, and, if 21 the people can prevent it, there will be no privileged* class once the eyes of the masses are open to the evils of privilege. The New Democracy. We must resist the advance of an oligarchy in America, resist it for our own sakes, resist it for our children's sakes, resist it for the republic's sake. The. appeal for social justice includes in its program the care of the aged poor, of the employee, of the child. It de- mands Peace by Arbitration instead of industrial or in- ternational war. It seeks amelioration of the conditions of the life led by the multitudes. It plans a new de- mocracy based upon the idea of justice. It is the foe of crooked politics. It demands that a public servant be responsible to those who have honored him by giving him a position of honor and trust. It means all this and more ; therefore, when we vote next Tuesday let us give our endorsement to the men who are most likely to produce in American life the harmonization of re- ligion with social affairs, who will most surely give to the people that which is aptly called social justice. Our Obligation. The day is here when, more than ever before, we as Jewish Americans, must understand that we rise or fall with our fellow-citizens of other creeds. Rejected by many of them we may be, but we have not yet been rejected by God. His appeal to Israel of old is still made to us, and through us it should be emphasized in 22 modern life. Like a trumphet should American Israel lift up its voice in behalf of social justice. If any peo- ple should be devoted to this sacred cause it is Israel, who first winged its message to the world through the Prophets, and whose mission it is to live until each man can justly dwell under his own vine and under his own fig-tree. Today, as of old, there comes to us the word of the Lord, and it is our duty, as Isaiah found it to be his, to cry from the housetops, to plead at the street corner, to announce from platform and pulpit, "Thus saith the Lord, Do ye justice and seek ye equity." 23 UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES HI lg iJJUg ^ -.fi U _ OT ' =o be < oe cc. A 000 072 486 4