1ft CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW U, 1917 '; Cvery frid Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary, told the rabbis at the twelfth annual convention of the Rabbinical Seminary last month that: all men who undertake to be religious guides can do this best by example; no selfish man can preach unselfishness; no intriguer can preach straightforwardness; a rabbi must be what he wants other people to be; self-cultivation of the noblest conduct and of the highest standards of honour should be what the rabbi ought to strive to make himself; that all this is the purpose of the seminary training. Then Dr. Adler said: "I have an idea that some of you have grown a little uneasy this year by reason of attacks made upon your own body and upon the clerical profession in general in publications that call themselves literature." Evidently "Elmer Gantry," called the most powerful attack of the year upon the clerical profession, and billed as literature, has not been without its sting as far as the Jews are concerned. Whether or not "Elmer Gantry" is literature, it is a thought-provoking book, powerful whether trashy or artistic, a stirring book about which people seem unable to speak with much detachment. At first glance there appears to be very little in "Elmer Gantry" to cause the Jews uneasiness. Sinclair Lewis makes small mention of them, their religion, their rabbis. There is no reason wrhy any preachers or the supporters of any churches should feel self-conscious about Elmer Gantry, the character. A Protestant minister, he is a lewd, cunning, filthy-minded person, treacherous and without a shred of decency, an extreme type of human rottenness. He would be an accident in any profession. No one can say he knows Elmer Gantrys by the peck in the ministry or rabbinate or outside them. The Gentile churches may object because Sinclair Lewis has revealed the evangelist business with all its hocus-pocus or because he has shown ministerial students with uninhibited libido or because he may have weakened the influence of the church by making fun of its ministers and so on. But surely no religion or sect need fear that people will want to regard every preacher or rabbi as they would an Elmer Gantry. So they must be sensitive about something else besides the picture of Elmer Gantry acting the part of what is so often lightly called "a spiritual leader." Perhaps the real reason "Elmer Gantry" infuriates so many church-goers is that it shows how responsible a community is for the kind of ministry it has. Without a flock a man could not be a rabbi or a minister. Whose fault is it except that of the people that the curtain goes down on Elmer Gantry's triumph in a career of devastation? Whose fault is it that Frank Shallard, an honest preacher, is driven from the ministry and destroyed at the hands of Christian men who lash and mutilate him and leave him crawling about blindly in a stubble field? How free can a "spiritual leader" be in his talks to his congregation and still hold his job? There are very few who can go right on saying everything they want to say. Most members of most congregations want to hear wrhat they agree with, just as they love to see in print the opinions which they hold dear. And most preachers and rabbis learn what to avoid. It is only human that they compromise between what they want to say and the fact that they are fitted for just one career and that it took a long time to fit them. There is so little intellect in the average congregation, so little real spirituality, so little appreciation of what a religious guide should be. Rabbi William Eineshriber, of Philadelphia, said before the Reform rabbis last year that "The rabbis can't think because they are becoming tools in the hands of the laymen." Also the rabbi i-s assessed by his value to the community as its spokesman. S. Herbert Golden, newly-elected president of the United Synagogue of America, in speaking of what laymen can do to further effectiveness of the American rabbinate, said: "The rabbi is regarded as an employee of the board of directors representing respective congregations. He must be a good fellow and a good mixer." And see the look of displeasure on the face of a mother in the congregation when the rabbi asks how her daughter got over the measles when it was really her son who had whooping cough! All as a spiritual leader! The world calls a rabbi successful when he has eloquence that appeals to Gentiles and when that'eloquence is audible to a large congregation in a large temple in return for a large salary. Are these the rewards always of the man of high principles and greatness of character, the person whose spirituality revives souls? Or do they more quickly to the man who keeps fris ear to the ground for Make Your Fuel Bin Earn a Every ton of Coke or Coal you store in your bin* during the summer earns a profit of from 12 to 20 per cent, on every dollar invested. Your savings bank account pays you cent, interest. per Would it not pay you to fill your bins with SEMET-SOLVAY COKE while summer prices are in effect? It's Up to You The Standard Fuel Co. 79 King Street East ELGIN 71 SI CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW AN IMPARTIAL MEDIUM FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH NEWS AND VIEWS PublUh�d W�*klr by th� Canadian Jewish R�yi�w MONTREAL Suite 10, 2S8 St. Jamea Street Phones Main 4079, 6341 and 2285 TORONTO 2 Suit* 109, 319 Bay Street Pixm� Elgin 1436-7 Entered as Second-daw Mail at the Post Office La Toronto, Oat., in December, 1921 Subscription Price, $3,00 per Year. United Sates, $3.50 To injure publication, all correspondence and news matter must reach this Office by Tuesday evening of each week. F. F. Cohen, Editor G. W. Cohen, Manager Rabbi Ferdinand M. Is8erman, Contributing Editor AUGUST 12, 1927 VOLUME VIII, NUMBER 42 news of that "wider field of usefulness" that means more :-. and more power and bigger headlines? Even though "Elmer G v is a story of the bankruptcy of institutionalized religion and supersedence of "churchianity" over Christianity and even t. its main figures are Christian there is, after all, enough in th< to make some rabbis squirm and look about furtively. The: some habits they have in common with the Christian mini?' Lewis's book and their relation to success. And they ma; about the things of the spirit forever, but the rich in the congrt... run less risk of neglect than the poor. Ministers may regar work as ample within the confines of their churches, but thi no publicity hounds under the canopy like most men of the The Christian rnmistera in "Elmer Gantry" are less and as American Jewish congregations become more and more tkmaliaed akmg th� Hnts of Christian congregations. ' -' h. 3lone �Ion* �'��:, T^-- 1 I'C j C ',., | the f.f.c.