RABBI HORACE J. WOLF
Temple ‘Berith Kodesh’, Rochester, N. Y.
The changing relation of the synagogue and the community is proving the
truth of the hoary platitude that history repeats itself. During the
Middle Ages the synagogue was the heart of the secular as well as of the
religious life of the community; it was a social center as well as a
house of prayer. There the poor man found succor, the stranger
acquaintances, the children their teachers, and the young people “their
fates.” It would be almost impossible to list all the private and public
interests which, clustering about the synagogue, bore witness to the
vital part this institution played in medieval Jewish life.
This prominent role was due to the enforced isolation of the Jewish
community; thanks to the Ghetto walls the Jewish group constituted a
city within a city. Once the Jewish population was concentrated into
separate quarters, the synagogue became to the segregated community what
the home was to the individual family; it was not only a place of
meeting, but also a clearing house for individual and communal joys and
sorrows.
But the intimacy was broken down by the political emancipation that came
to Jewry at the end of the eighteenth century. Slowly, as the old
functions of the synagogue were taken over by special institutions
housed in their own buildings, the synagogue began to be used purely as
a house of worship; aside from this, its sole concern seemed to be the
Sunday school. Applicants for charity were referred to the charity
office across the street; social functions took place at the clubs;
legal disputes were no longer decided by a rabbinical court. True, there
were few large cities in this country in which the Jewish community did
not point with pride to its magnificent house of worship; but in the
majority of cases these gorgeous buildings (I am writing throughout of
the synagogues of the reform wing) were dark six days and nights a week.
In this respect, they differed little from the churches about them.
But the last decade, which has seen the rise of the institutional
church, is witnessing the return of the synagogue to its former close
relationship to communal Jewish life. The change is due to the same
causes that made for the broadening of the work of city churches. The
popular criterion of a social institution’s value, it was seen, is its
working efficiency. Men who judged by concrete and tangible standards,
and their number is legion, were becoming indifferent to religion
because it appeared divorced from life. The leaders of American Judaism
began to appreciate that it was insufficient to proclaim from the pulpit
that religion included charity, social amelioration, good citizenship,
as well as morality and reverence; they began to insist that the
synagogue should “monument its claims.” It was urged that the synagogue
should not only strive to touch the religious nature of the people with
the conventional methods of prayer and praise and preachment, but should
also bring to bear a system of institutional activities, social,
educational and philanthropic which would bring it into contact with its
members’ physical, mental and social nature as well.
As a result of this awakening there is hardly a synagogue in the United
States which has not some form of institutionalism—be it only a sewing
circle. A questionnaire sent out by the Committee on Social and
Religious Union of the Central Conference of American Rabbis to its
various members elicited ninety-seven replies. In these answers
seventy-one report the existence of congregational libraries; eleven
congregations conduct classes for the teaching of the English language
and instruction in citizenship; six maintain settlements; two have labor
bureaus; fifty list philanthropic activities, glee and choral societies,
athletic clubs, kindergartens, industrial schools and dancing classes.
The committee in summarizing its report says: “The majority [of our
colleagues] feel that all these institutional creations have helped to
deepen the interest of the members in the synagogue and in each other;
that they have helped to make the temple a center for Jewish communal
life; ... that they religionize social functions; that they stimulate
the Jewish consciousness; that they prevent disintegration....”
Once again the synagogue is playing a splendid role in Jewish communal
life. Men are beginning to perceive that the ideal synagogue will be in
use at practically all hours every day in the week, will never be dark
and deserted. The impressive appearing edifice that was tenanted by
silence and gloom on every day except the Sabbath is becoming an
anachronism. Our hope is that the synagogues that continue to slumber
may awaken before it is too late, and take their proper share in the
work of communal uplift.