Letter from Sulzberger, Mayer to Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA; Oct 1895
- Title
- Letter from Sulzberger, Mayer to Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA; Oct 1895
- Date Created
- 31 October 1895
- Format
- 4 pages on 1 sheet
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 7, Folder 8
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p34x55269/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p34x55269
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx7FF8_17.xml
- content
-
29 South 6th Street.
My dear Sir,
I thank you for the courtesy of sending me Mr. Solomons' letter and enclosures for perusal.
While the ends he proposes to attain are desirable, I cannot see any probability that we will soon arrive at them. If the comparatively few Jews of the United States, having a certain homogeneity of manners, customs and modes of thinking, find it almost im-possible to form a union, it would seem Quixotic to hope that the Jews of the whole world, standing on different planes of civil-ization even, could ever come to an agree-ment, until their conditions became more nearly equal.
I understand Mr Solmons' reluctance to limit his efforts to the United States merely. He fears the triumph of innovation,
But even that is more an apparent than a real danger. If the sentiments of our people are firm in favor of abandoning old systems and adopting new ones, no show of authority whether emanating from rabbis or councils will avail to stay there. Our habits of thought are not reverential. We transfer the underlying principle of our political system, to wit, that our rulers are our servants, into every affair of life. Hence an ecclesiastical authority will never prevail by force of its numbers, or integrity or learning or by pre-eminence in any other characteristic, unless it have at the same time a repre-sentative character.
If the lovers of Judaism deem it impossible or irreligious to submit it to a test of this kind, they must go on leaving to the future the question of what will become of their religious system, and remain inert themselves. If on the other hand, they believe
that the masses of the community are conservative and will abandon none of the essentials of Judaism, if they assume full control of the subject, the true course seems to be agitation until something practical is done.
At all events intelligent public discussion will do good and if Mr Solomons is dis-posed to continue his labors, I know of no way in which he can act more usefully than by contributing his thoughts to our Jewish press.
In conferences of individuals I have no faith. Unless they represent a constit-uency their efforts will be fruitless. Of course I could not assume to be one of the leaders in a movement like that suggested by Mr Solomons, because as I said before, self-elected dignitaries wield little power, and in addition, a truly representative body would probably contain more wisdom than any picked number of men.
During next year, the opportunities for a good meeting at Philadelphia will be better than ever before or perhaps ever again for a long time. Let Mr. Solomons direct his efforts to utilizing that time and he may achieve some of that practical good which he so earnestly desires.
I should be pleased at any time to hear from him on this subject, and in the meantime you are at liberty to make such use of this note as you may deem best. Faithfully yours Mayer Sulzberger
Revd S. Morais. October 31. 1895. - Identifier
- p34x55269
- identifier
- SMBx7FF8_17
Part of Letter from Sulzberger, Mayer to Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA; Oct 1895
Sulzberger, Mayer and Morais, Sabato, “Letter from Sulzberger, Mayer to Morais, Sabato. Philadelphia, PA; Oct 1895”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed October 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/90370