Letter from Drachman, Bernard to Piza, David M. Jersey City, NJ; Dec 1885
- Title
- Letter from Drachman, Bernard to Piza, David M. Jersey City, NJ; Dec 1885
- Date Created
- 27 December 1885
- Format
- 4 pages on 1 sheet
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 3, Folder 12
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3pr7nd0p/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3pr7nd0p
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx3FF12_35.xml
- content
-
יוםא לפר[?]תרחרה
Jersey City, Dec. 27"85
Rev. S. Morais
Most esteemed Sir
I was very pleasantly surprized by the unexpected receipt of your letter and felt myself extremely honored to be asked to cooperate in such a valuable and desirable undertaking as the estab-lishment of the Rabbinical Seminary in question, by one whose long and faithful services have gained him such a good and widely extended name, The pleasure which the receipt of you letter gave me was much heightened by the fact that I have been ex-tremely anxious to enter into correspondence with you, dear Sir, upon this very subject and similar ones and would long since have done so had not a natural diffidence lest such action upon the part of one so comparatively
young an unknown in American Judaism as I be looked upon as unbecoming and out of place presented me. But now that you, Reverend Sir, have opened the matter I feel happy to assure you that I am entirely willing, in fact eager to do all in my power to further the matter in hand as well as any other move-ment tending to unite and strengthen the cause of Conservatism. It is my firm conviction that the cause of a true and faithful Judaism can only be jeopardized and injured by whole and or partial alliance with Radicalism as it shows itself in this land. Radicalism has entirely departed from the historical path, it is entirely our of sympathy with the past, it is practically nothing but the ratification of caprice and license. Theor-etically the Union of the conservative elements in this country is possible and I hope and pray that personal or particular consideration will
not be allowed to render it practically impossible. We know now what conservatism means, it in-cludes all who acknowledge the bindingness of revelation and the Law, מאהאפת ותורתו אמת and it would be a great pity if petty differences of a subordinate nature would render impracticable the fusion of these elements. If the proposed Rabb- inical Seminary be established, I hope it will be modeled upon the Breslau Seminary ^ at which I have had the honor of going through my course of studies and whose methods I am convinced are the best adapted for doing jus-tice both to the spirit of the age and of Jud-aism. But this is merely a suggestion. In any event I am prepared to ^ do all I can in the way of teaching or financial assistance as far as my time, the location of the institut-ion or the means of the congregation will allow. As for my personal convictions you may be sure that they are in full accordance
with my writings and I have always en-deavored to live as far as possible in the way ^ which the examples of our ancestors have made dear to believing and observant Israelites. My congregation, Oheb Shalom of Newark, is managed on strictly conservative principles and according to the [Hebrew] with no change except the introduction of family pews, kaddish by both sexes & the omission of some [?] on the holidays. Even these changes were made before my election and I shall use every effort to keep the congregation on the old lines. Thus far I am happy to state that I have the sympathy of the congregation which numbers[?] contains quite a number of sincerely pious and well informed members. Thanking you for the favor of your letter and assur- ing you of my cordial cooperation, I am very truly & sincerely yours
Bernard Drachman
22 Newark Ave Jersey City
P.S. Please send any communication to this address which is my parents address and will always find me.
B.D. - Identifier
- p3pr7nd0p
- identifier
- SMBx3FF12_35
Part of Letter from Drachman, Bernard to Piza, David M. Jersey City, NJ; Dec 1885
Drachman, Bernard and Piza, David M., “Letter from Drachman, Bernard to Piza, David M. Jersey City, NJ; Dec 1885”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed October 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/85991