Religion: Honor the Torah

” Honor the Torah ”

Jews are to be taught that every observance laid down in the Law is essential to the life of a believer. The World Congress of Orthodox Jews, Vienna (TIME, Aug. 27), concerned purely with spiritual affairs, came strongly to this conclusion.

The Congress announced its intention of promoting on an extensive scale the study of the Torah,* education of Jews, and the Jewish spirit in the daily press and literature. It announced its intention, furthermore, of obtaining for itself recognition as the authoritative spokesman for all that part of Jewry which seeks inspiration from the Torah and lives by its precepts. It will attempt to help the Jewish masses in impoverished countries and in Palestine, but it professes no interest in political matters in Palestine or elsewhere.

The Congress was founded eleven years ago for the purpose of preserving the religious traditions of its scattered race. Being nonpolitical, it enjoys the good will of many Christians, including members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

The American Jewish Congress assembled in New York. It became historic by reason of the address of Israel Zangwill, which he described as “the greatest labor of his life.” He said that the psychological moment for the creation of a political Jewish state has passed; it is a vanished hope.

Tumult followed in the Congress. Interpreting Zangwill’s assertion, ” Political Zionism is dead,” to mean ” Zionism is dead,” Nathan Straus, Honorary President, repudiated his guest’s entire speech. The rupture was salved by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, chairman, who prepared a resolution defining Zangwill’s attitude as that of one who ” spoke to, not for, Israel.”

* Torah—name applied to the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — a group otherwise called the Pentateuch.