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Vol. IX.
TORONTO, ONT., FEBRUARY 17, 1928
No. 17
Editorials
SOME REACTIONS FROM THE EXCHANGE OF PULPITS
SIMPLE RELIGION
By Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman We have derived a great deal of pleasure from the reactions that we heard about the exchange of pulpits between the minister of the Carlton Street United Church and the rabbi of Holy Blossom Synagogue. We want to share our pleasure with the readers of the Canadian Jewish Review and are publishing some of them. Both sermons are soon to be published together in pamphlet form and will be available to the public. Dr. Creighton, editor of "The New Outlook," has written the introduction, and all readers of the Review interested will be able to have in permanent form the record of two historic services.
Some of the letters which follow were received by CFCA, the broadcasting station of "The Toronto Daily Star":
"As part of a non-church-goer's gratification at the exchange between Rev. Hunter and yourself, at both sessions of which I was very happy to be present, I hope you will not feel it intrusive if a stranger offers a suggestion that is born of the realization that he is very much nearer yoHr own apprehension of religious light and power than he is to the orthodoxy in which he was reared.
"It seems to me that there is"room for something wider than a fellowship limited to the enrolled churchman of the fine Hunter type and the liberal Jew, the reasons for wrhich, of course, are too voluminous to be sketched in a letter. Could not a door be opened to an avowed entente between men of as many schools of religious and social thought (and of no school at all) who could meet together, without prejudice, but with deep and wide appreciation towards each other's attitudes and searchings? It has struck me that, in this region, a leaf might be taken out" of the Service Club's book, beginning with a few individuals, who would not lay down a scheme at the beginning, but might hope for the growth of a periodical luncheon, under some such name as the Goodwill Club.
"My name will not be known to you, but you may judge that my interest is not of recent origin from the fact that I had something to do with the first open steps that were ever taken to promote a better understanding between Ontario and Quebec, and this in the midst of the war, which seemed likely permanently to embitter the relations of the two peoples."
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"Many thinks for your helpful service at Carlton Street United Church last Sunday evening. My dear friend the Rev. E. Crossley Hunter and you will some day see good results of your work in respect to co-operation between Jews and Christians. I came to this country from one of the smallest countries in the world, Denmark, inhere Jews and Christians are co-operating not alone in affairs of
business but also in social affairs."
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"Rabbi Isserman was fully justified in describing that united | service in Holy Blossom Synagogue an historic event. It was really Bore than that. It should mark the dawn of a new era not only in
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The greatest discoveries and inventions are often the simplest. After they are accomplished, the wonder is why nobody had ever thought of them before. Take for instance the motor car: All you needed to make this boon available for the public was the engine and the body and good salesmen. And strangely, the world had to wait until the twentieth century before it was brought into being. Or the radio�the whole thing is simple�microphones and receiving sets and static. And the dunderheads of our clever technicians could not produce the device .until these last two or three years when people became too lazy to play the piano or select victrola records, and something had to be done to entertain them.
These profound reflections occurred to us the other day when we read our inspired neighbour's joysome ebullitions regarding his discovery of a new technique of making Jews and Christians fall in love with one another.
We all know that this world was primarily designed to be a love-bower. Every refined person is either a child or a brother or a sister or a parent, arid as such is a centre whence and whither radiate love currents. The only fly in the ointment, as it were, is that in addition to having relatives we are also blessed with a couple thousand million of total strangers to whom our affection-rays cannot reach. So we do not do the impossible�we do not pine away with love for them. And they likewise do not transcend the limits of their capacity, and do not emote lovingly for us. A sad perversion of the original scheme, to be sure!
Another unhappy deviation from the first plan is the habit that people have acquired of viewing things from the angle of their personal focus. Undoubtedly it was the intention that all eyes shall refract external objects in an identical manner, and that all minds shall order their impressions in one common fashion. The things of nature, the concerns of the body, the interests of the mind and of the spirit were to be illuminated by one unvarying play of light, without corners, or shadows, and bear one unchanging aspect for all of humanity in all generations. �
But from the very first, people persisted in cherishing tneir peculiar individual bents. Each looked at the world and each saw a different arrangement of phenomena. Groups, influenced by special conditions, achieved agreement on certain matters. But such harmony was limited in scope. Other groups saw the same things differently. When the differences pertained to unimportant things, the result was not serious. When they touched vital subjects, the consequences were far-reaching. Thus arose disagreements and misunderstandings, and the emotional play of jealousies and hatreds and wars.
Men living in the world, and observing the action of mind and spirit in life, have concluded that there is a force which is rational and spiritual in the world giving it significance and value�in other words, they apprehended the presence of God in their midst. It is many thousands of years since this idea struck the humanjntelligence. But agreement as to the character and manifestation of this force^has
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