Jewish Community Center Essential to Meet Need Synagogue Does Not Fill, Says Rabbi Loeb

Julius T. Loeb, “Jewish Community Center Essential to Meet Need Synagogue Does Not Fill, Says Rabbi Loeb,” Washington Herald (Washington, DC), Nov. 11, 1923.

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER ESSENTIAL TO MEET NEED SYNAGOGUE DOES NOT FILL, SAYS RABBI LOEB

By RABBI J. T. LOEB

    There is a long-felt need for a Jewish Community Center in Washington. The purposes of such an institution are manifold, and they have already been brought to public view in various ways. Social welfare, physical recreation, Jewish fraternity, civic duty, education, religious and communal advancement, in fact, everything in line of human endeavor are provided for in the concentrated scheme of the now proposed Jewish Community Home.

    No civilized community can exist without a common meeting ground. Jewish life is practically impossible without such rallying place for interchange of opinions and thought amid the various sections of Jewry, and the fostering of sociability and common interest.

Prepare for Citizenship

    The needs of a community center are perhaps greatest among the Jewish people. We Jews hail from different countries, and our problems are complicated and difficult of solution. Our position is therefore the more precarious.

    We are gradually merged and molded into the great mass of American citizenship often without preparation, guidance or instruction as to civic duty and the rights of citizenship. Our children, educated in the American public schools, and rising out of our midst to mingle with the world, are the least prepared to meet the requirements of citizenship. 

    Escaping Judaism they leave behind the ethical concept which constitute the quintessence of Americanism, as well as of the Jewish faith, namely, reverence for God and moral duty. They are left to drift aimlessly in the current of surrounding circumstances, and are rarely identified with the problems of the Hebrew race. Such said plight if allowed to continue can only result in the disintegration of the race.

    Perhaps it may be thought within the province of the Jewish synagogue to provide for the religious and social needs of the Jewish people, and to raise up a Jewish generation worthy of its name and calling. In truth, the synagogue did serve all purposes and functions of Judaism in times past.

    But times and circumstances have changed. Because of the loss of the Bible’s Sabbath among the Jews of this country, and for various other reasons, the synagogue in America has found itself unable to cope with the situation. The line of demarcation between religion and social life among all races in this country has had its effect upon the Jewish people also, and the synagogue has thus been impelled to relinquish its hold upon the more active and major portion of its constituents.

    In the face of such circumstances it was the part of wisdom in many a modern community to build up a social, or communal, center, to which the young would flock for purposes of recreation and entertainment, and there, under the proper guidance, endeavor to instill into their minds a better understanding and more correct appreciation of their ancestral faith.

    The community center, wherever established in due and proper form, has proved itself a saving grace alongside the Jewish home and synagogue. It serves everywhere to reclaim the Jewish youth, to bridge the chasm between the old and new generations, to “restore the hearts of the fathers unto their children and the hearts of the children unto their fathers.”

Importance Vital

    Within the confines of the community center there is a wholesome atmosphere of Jewish environment, a medium of regulating and standardizing Jewish life, so the attendants therein, conscious of their Jewishness, may be imbued with a sense of responsibility, and better suited for their task of life as men and as Israelites. 

    It is to the interest even of the outer world that the Jews be made more self-conscious and loyal to the cause of their religion. A Jew could never be classed among the “enlightened citizenship” of which President Coolidge speaks, unless he ceases to be ignorant of himself and his own, and unless he learns to know something more about Judaism and the hopes and aspirations of the Jewish race.

    Leading men and women of the Jewish race throughout the country recently have sounded the alarm concerning the utter lack of regard for Religion by the rising youth in America. A Jewish Educational Association was formed in an attempt to remedy the situation. In his message to this association President Coolidge says:

    “Teach the ancient landmarks to the youth of the Jewish race. Let them learn to venerate freedom by coming unto a knowledge of the truth. That learning and wisdom which has been a sustaining influence to the Jewish race through all the centuries must be preserved for the benefit of mankind. The youth of your people can associate themselves for no more patriotic purpose.”

    We heartily subscribe to President Coolidge’s powerful admonition and his pronounced truth that “no more patriotic purpose can be served.”

    Hence, no better improvement nor larger asset in any locality than the educational facilities afforded by means of a Jewish Community Center. No charity work can prove any greater value than the one intended for the guidance, guardianship and wholesome development of the living, growing generations in Israel. 

Demand Greatest Here

    And in no other city is the demand for such an institution more imperative than it is in this National Capital of the United States. In this grand center of western civilization, of international culture, and of universal influence, fame and glory, the recognized Jerusalem of the modern world, let it not be said or spoken that the Jewish people, the old-time “people of the Book,” are behind the times and backward in their Hebrew cultural progress. 

    We shall therefore indulge in the hope that with the rise of the Jewish Community Center in Washington the youth of the Jewish race will learn how to value and venerate the blessed heritage of Sinai, and how to preserve and persevere in the divine knowledge carried through the centuries as the sustaining influence of Israel and the world. 

    We, whose lot is bound up with the community cause in the city of Washington for some years past, have been anxiously awaiting the happy outcome of this Jewish Community Center movement. And now viewing the wonderful enthusiasm displayed by the many, and the continuous flow of encouraging messages from the country’s foremost statesmen and leaders of thought, it is safe to predict that this building fund campaign will be highly successful, and soon the grand edifice of the Jewish Community Home will be erected in this National Capital as a monument of glory for American Israel.