JEWISH FAITH IN DANGER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1153, 14 June 1911, Page 4

JEWISH FAITH IN DANGER.

$ The Rev. Dr. Abrahams, who officiated at the Bourke Street Synagogue, Melbourne, on June 2, delivered a sermon on the subject of "Our Safety." Having related the circumstances that attended the giving of the law, the preacher proceeded to impress upon his hearers that just as God had set boundaries round the sacred mount, so there were boundaries set to the ancient revelation made upon it. ' There was especial need to bear "that in mind at the-present time. Iu the days of persecution the Jews wero confined to the Ghetto, but with the spread of liumanitarianism and toleration thero was a great danger facing the Jewish race, which could be expressed in one word—assimilation. Tho Jewish race was everywhere templed to forsake the distinctive tenets and religious observances of the ancient faith, and this tendency, if generally yielded to, would mean the eventual obliteration of Judaism and the Jewish race. As an illustration of the realty of this danger, Dr. instanced the recent case of the Jewish liabbi, Dr. Schindler, of Boston, who was for over ■10 years one of the champions of the faith in America, but who recently renounced it on tho score of ils assimilation to more popular religions. AYliile urging his hearers to be exclusive in their religious observances, however, he would have them co-operate fraternally with the rest of Iheir fellow-citizens in •all matters of a social and philanthropic character.