JESUS AND JUDAISM

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 156, 30 December 1925, Page 4

JESUS AND JUDAISM

TO IHI IDITOK

. Suv-An interesting cable from New York published in your issue of the 21st inst. stated that "Rftbbi Wise, New York's Jewish leader, shook Judaism to its foundations When he declared that Jesus Was a great moral and ethical leader."

In view of the startling assertion regarding the stability of the Jewish religion contained la the Cable, whereby Judaism is assumed to be reeling under the blow, I would crave the indulgence of your columns in an endeavour to elucidate an otherwise misleading message. '

In th* first, place, \h* statement that one of the oldest of religions, one that has been the plaything of various civilisations throughout the ages, one that has survived innumerable conquests, and whose conquerors have long since faded into the forgotten .past, one that has survived the vicissitudes of the Spanish Inquisition and of the later European pogroms, a religion that has withstood the persecutions of two thousand years and withal stands immutable, femes finally, in the twentieth century, to be "shaken to its foundations" by the statement of a man of whose existence fully two-thirds of living Jewry is, completely unaware, is on the face of it, ridiculous. Apart>from that fact, however, the Statement of Dr. Stephen Wise, who k, as stated in the cable, a leader of American Jewry, is no new contribution to Jewish thought, and is in reality the attitude taken up by intelligent and "broadminded Jews throughout the wOrid. .

Jewish teachings do not deny the existence of Christ, and he has a recognised place in Jewish literature and legend. That Jesus of Nazareth was a great moral and ethical light will not be denied by anyon:; who has studied his sayings. Notwithstanding the fact that we Jews co not accfept Christ as the Messiah, We can appreciate the faot that his teachings were essentially humanitarian and at the same time essentially Jewish. Jesus said, "I have not come to take away the Law of Atoses, but to add to it," and his teachings throughout in their broadest sense were parallel with the teachings ot preceding Jewish prophets such as looinh and Micnh.

One of the keynotes of the Jewish religion is tolerance, and serious thinking Jews throughout the world respect Christ for the sublime intellect that ho undoubtedly was, while failing to recognise his claims tO be the Messiah. Where, ignorance prevails, however, tolerance cannot be, and any discussion .aroused in America by the remarks ofj ft abb i Wise will probably be found to emanate from those of our Faith who have not been 'fortunate enough to luivo the advantage of an intelligent and bfcadminded education.—l am, etc., BEN GREEK, Editor, "The Jewish Times."