Quake in Holy Land Killed 886, But Not One Jew, Says Rabbi

Julius T. Loeb, “Quake in Holy Land Killed 886, But Not One Jew, Says Rabbi,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Sept. 25, 1927.

QUAKE IN HOLY LAND KILLED 886, BUT NOT ONE JEW, SAYS RABBI

Impulse Led Persons to Desert Buildings Before Crash, Declares Loeb.

ANTI-HEBREW OFFICES HIT HARDEST, HE HOLDS

Calls Ford Stupid Instrument of Divine Will for Israel’s Restoration.

By RABBI J. T. LOEB.

    The year 5687 enters into the vortex of the past, forming an historic chapter in the annals of time.

    With us who are of Israel the beginning of a New Year presents an occasion for a practical survey of life and its issues. According to Scriptural designation, it is “Yom Haziccoron”—a memorial day for all the things within Creation—a day marking the “beginning of God’s work.” Hence it is a day of judgement.

    Old-time religion, wherein man learned to be steadfast, true and conscientious in all things, is always more preferable and beneficial to the cause of humanity. The safety of the home and stability of the nation rest entirely upon this basis. 

    The so-called “modern trend” offers no relief to the many ills of society, nor any solution to the problems of life.

    Crimes so shocking and revolting as those of the past year call for most serious attention to our social status. Such record of bloody deeds of murder and suicide, ribaldry, passion and fury, too horrible to mention, all go to show how little we can trust to human nature. All participants in the hideous crimes are of the modern caste who tell the world they can get along without religion. 

Holds Irreligion Responsible.

    Irreligion is responsible for most of the existing evils and the pernicious influences which come to spread havoc in the community. There is no way to preserve the social order, except by training the rising generations in the fear of God and moral duty.

    No amount of exhortation or legislation will avail to stem the tide of lawlessness in human society, save the old-time practice of self-restraint and self-reverence.

    It is time to sound the alarm against the dangers lurking within the very heart of the community. Time to get together. Jew and Gentile alike, with a better understanding and more tolerant view and friendly bearing toward each other, to fight the common enemy of looseness, profligacy, open defiance to decency and the law of all-embracing morality.

    The Shofar resounds in Israel’s dwelling, calling for an arousing of the public conscience, a concentration of our spiritual forces, and a mutual effort to bring about peace and soul’s rest.

    Among the striking incidents of the past year is the Ford apology to the Jews. A startling revelation, indeed. Suddenly, without any expectation, this arch-enemy of Israel calls a halt to the cruel onslaught upon the seed of Abraham, victims of his rage; recants, capitulates, bows his head in humble submission to the inscrutable will of Providence, when realizing the folly and futility of waging an Amalekite war against the chosen race—chosen not for fun or frolic, arrogance or petty pride, but for the fulfillment of a divine plan and purpose. 

Lays Awakening to Ford.

    This man of unlimited wealth and power, has met with a higher power than that of mere man. His confession came, by wonderful coincidence, on the eve of the Sabbath Parashath-Balak, when Israelites throughout the world read from the Holy Scrolls the declaration of Balaam; “How shall I [de]nounce whom God hath not de[n]ounced? And how shall I defy whom [G]od hath not defied?”

    For seven long years this Henry Ford [ha]d persistently and systematically [. . .]rled on his hideous propaganda world, [. . .]ising untold misery upon the Jews [of] Europe, and heaping abuses upon [th]e name and character of the American [Je]ws.

    What made him to engage in such [cr]uel attacks upon the Jewish race? [A]nd what caused him now to retract [th]e slanderous accusations? Nobody [kn]ows. Why, Henry Ford himself does [no]t realize that he acted but as stupid [in]strument of a divine will for Israel’s [re]storation. Many a stray soul from [t]he ranks of the Jews was returned to the fold. 

    Thanks to the Ford agitation, there is today a noticeable awakening of the Jewish soul; a rushing movement in the camp of Israel for more Jewishness. A back-to-the-synagogue movement; a renewal of allegiance to the sacred trust of Sinai; a tremendous effort for the rebuilding of Zion and readopting of ancient traditions; a feverish haste toward the Talmud-Torahs, Hebrew schools of larger and lesser importance throughout the States.

Jews Coming Into Own.

    In the past two generations the Jews in America had been entangled in the wilderness of engrossing materialism seeking in vain to find their way of economic progress along the channels of Jewish life. The Jew may have had everything in this land of freedom and opportunity. Yet, in reality he had nothing at all; for he lost his soul. Imposing temples and synagogues of beauty and art were rising on all sides everywhere in the States; social centers and charitable institutions, brilliantly arrayed, were reared up among the Jews in the whole country.

    And yet, strange to say, real Jewishness was absent. The culture, the traditions, the principles of the ancestral faith were gradually diminishing [a]nd thrust out by surrounding environ[me]nt and he pressure of circum[sta]nces. Nothing was there of value [for] the perpetuation of Judaism.

    But now a miracle ensued. A happy change has set in. Israel is at the end of its 40 years’ journey through the wilderness. The Promised Land is in sight. The spiritual abode of Jacob is in process of formation.

    As we scan through the current events of the passing year we note with satisfaction all the evidences of a new era of Jewish renaissance. A new period in which the best traditions of the “Am-Hassefer” are upheld. A movement tending toward the spread of Jewish education, which is a sign of wholesome development in the life of American Israel. The stronger spirit of Judaism is triumphant.

    The erection of a $5,000,000 Yeshivah College in New York is a true indication of the new progress of Judaism in America. A memorable event was the corner stone laying of this grant [sic] Torah Center on Sunday, May 1, before an august assembly of 25,000 interested spectators and sympathizers of the cause of Jewish education. It was a reechoing of the old academies of Hebrew learning—Sura, Nehardea and Pumbeditha. It was a public demonstration of the fact that, “not on bread alone liveth the man,” and the question of life must receive its proper solution with the provision for the spiritual needs and demands of the people.

No Jews Killed in Quake.

    The practical men of this our modern age believe in no signs, of either Heaven or earth. And yet, should we say that miracles have ceased?

    It was on Sunday, July 11, when a terrible earthquake occurred in the Holy Land with enormous loss to life and property. When the first news of the cataclysm arrived and was published in American newspapers, a famous editor in his daily column philosophized something like this:

    “The Jews certainly have a claim on Palestine. So do the Arabs and the Christians of all denominations. Now the earthquake has hit them all, and their holy places were equally shaken. No preference; no favored religion to claim exemption due to divine intervention.”

    I wonder what that modern sage may have said, or thought, at a latter date, when official figures placed the number of dead through the earthquake in Palestine and Trans-Jordania at 886, besides the many injured, which included men, women and children of all creeds and nationalities, save only the Jewish people who were exempt! Not one dead or injured among the Jews as a result of the earthquake!

    One might call it “Jewish sorcery,” as in medieval superstition; or believe with the moderns in mere “coincidence.” A thousandfold coincidence in this particular case. 

Jews Saved by Miracles.

    Any Jewish person that happened to be in, or near, a building about to fall down by the earthquake was unexpectedly called away or, by some sudden impulse withdrawn from the spot, just in time before the tremor began. Wherever a Jewish child was entrapped in the wreckage, the debris in itself formed a framework all around, keeping the tiny creature in safe inclosure [sic] until freed by the rescuing parties. 

    Numberless instances of the miraculous escape of Jewish people from the fate which overtook those of other creeds, are told with graphic description by Hebrew correspondents from the Holy Land. And they add, that the wonders thus related are not in the least exaggerated or overdrawn.

    Nablus, or Schchem, the hot-bed of anti-Jewish propaganda in Palestine, is reported to have been the hardest hit by the force of the quake. And true to Jewish traits, the first aid to the hapless Arab population, there and elsewhere, came from the Jews. Arab newspapers are profuse in their praise for the Jewish philanthropists who hastened to the rescue of their countrymen. Arabs bemoaning their losses are beating their breasts and praying for forgiveness, because of their ill-treatment toward the Jews. They regard it all a just dispensation from on high. 

    Many of the buildings in the City of Jerusalem, including some historic structures, and some modern public institutions, were badly damaged. Yet, I am personally informed in a letter from my brother, Rabbi Michel Tukazinsky, of Jerusalem, that the western wall and all of the important synagogues in the Holy City remain intact. 

    In vain the worldly wise would try to explain away the palpable meaning of such wonderful manifestation; to assign natural causes to everything under the sun; to account in an ordinary way for the peculiar existence of the Jewish people. 

    Whether one believe or disbelieve in miracles, the matter certainly deserves earnest attention of thinking humanity.