The Decennial of the Menorah Movement
The Menorah movement enters upon its decennial with the beginning of the present academic year, the first Menorah Society having been organized at Harvard University in 1906.G From this Society with an original membership of sixteen, the Menorah movement has grown throughout the country so that at the close of the last academic year there were Societies at thirty-seven colleges and universities with a membership of some three thousand. Every Society has arisen upon the initiative of the students themselves, inspired by a desire to pursue the objects embodied in the Menorah. In January, 1913, the Intercollegiate Menorah Association was formed for the purpose of mutual encouragement and co-operation among the several Societies, and also to carry out enterprises beyond the scope and power of any individual Society—such as the publication of The Menorah Journal.
On the threshold of the decennial, and especially since the present number of the Journal will come into the hands of many new students and readers, it may not be amiss again, in brief terms, to review the purposes of the movement.
The Three-Fold Purpose of the Menorah Organization
THE Menorah Societies have been organized by the students in response to their desire first of all to know more about the history, literature, religion—in a word, the culture and ideals of the Jewish people, and the conditions and problems which confront the Jews in the world today. Being thus educational in primary purpose, every Menorah Society is open to all the members of its university who have an interest in Jewish life and thought. And inasmuch as the great majority, if not all, of the students who have such an interest in Jewish knowledge and Jewish aspirations are themselves Jews, the Menorah organization cherishes the second purpose of strengthening the Jewish idealism and noblesse oblige of the Jewish students, so that by understanding and carrying forward their Jewish inheritance they may become better men and women by becoming better Jews. And from this moral aim there flows still a third purpose, that of patriotic service to the Republic; for by enriching the common treasury of American culture and ideals with the spiritual resources of the Jewish people, the educated Jews of the country may serve America to the profoundest degree. Animated thus with the spirit and broad purposes of our universities, the Menorah Societies have been warmly welcomed and generously assisted by the university authorities.
The Distinction Between Menorah and Other Student Societies
THE purposes of the Menorah movement will appear in greater relief by comparison with the objects of other types of Jewish organization—social, political, religious—that have arisen at our colleges and universities. The Menorah Societies are all-inclusive, non-partisan, non-sectarian. Hence they are to be distinguished in the first place from the exclusive social organizations, such as the Greek letter or Hebrew letter fraternities. Being rather educational in spirit and purpose, the Menorah Societies make no social test for membership, nor do they pursue any convivial activities except such as are deemed desirable for the most agreeable and efficient pursuit of the Menorah objects. Again, the Menorah Societies are clearly distinguishable from the Zionist Societies, which were united last June in the Intercollegiate Zionist Association of America; whereas the Zionist Societies are devoted to a specific political program in confronting the so-called Jewish Question, the Menorah Societies, being non-partisan, are neither Zionist nor anti-Zionist, but perfectly free and open forums for the discussion of all points of view. The Menorah membership consists of men and women of divers convictions, as well as of those who have not yet made up their minds but come to the Menorah for enlightenment and inspiration. Finally, just because the Menorah appeals to every student who has a liberal interest in Jewish life and thought—to every Jewish student particularly, whatever his present beliefs and ideas—the Menorah Societies are not to be regarded as specifically religious organizations. Therefore the observance of religious services and practices is left to those students who desire them, individually or in appropriate organizations, such as the Jewish Students’ Congregation organized recently under reform auspices at the University of Michigan. The Menorah Societies are neither reform, conservative nor orthodox but broadly inclusive of all elements.
The Catholicity and Comradeship of the Menorah
INDEED, next to the Menorah idea—the sum of Menorah purposes—the peculiar strength of the Menorah Societies lies in this catholic spirit which determines the Menorah “open door.” Thereby the Menorah Societies are enabled to perform more and more an incidental but most important service apart from the objects to which they are formally dedicated. With the growth of various Jewish organizations in our universities—which, whatever the opinion as to their value and propriety, tend to divide the Jewish students rather than to unite them—a most important service performed by the all-inclusive Menorah Societies is to bring the students together, in spite of their various differences, on a common high plane. As stated over a year ago in the Association’s book on The Menorah Movement: “Where, as in almost all large universities, there are Jewish students of diverse antecedents, it is one of the most important functions of a non-partisan organization like the Menorah Society to bring all classes and parties together upon an academic plane, in order that they may learn each other’s points of view, in order that their prejudices against one another which are founded on misunderstanding and snobbishness may wither away, and in order that they may pursue in generous comradeship the knowledge of their common tradition and the hope of their common future.”
The Graduate Phase of the Menorah Movement
IT is becoming increasingly evident, moreover, that such a unifying force is called for outside of the universities among the graduates and other educated Jews; and it is hoped that through the graduate phase of the Menorah movement, this need may be subserved by graduate Menorah groups in various communities. To quote once more from The Menorah Movement: “Such graduate Menorah organizations, while academic and non-partisan in their nature, like the university Menorah Societies, might yet, if properly constituted and conducted, be of practical as well as of ideal service to their communities. They could bring together, upon the lofty basis of Jewish idealism, men of different views in the community, who approach practical Jewish problems in different, sometimes in mutually antagonistic, ways. Devoid itself of any sectarian or fraternal or political bias, a graduate Menorah organization should be ideally fitted to serve as a kind of intellectual clearing house of the Jewish community, and thus promote on all sides a deeper understanding of one another, a clearer vision of the common problems, a greater concord in Jewish life.”
In any event, it is hoped during the present year to bring the graduates and other public-spirited Jewish citizens into closer touch with the activities and aspirations of the students. At the fourth annual Convention of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association to be held during the coming midwinter recess, the idea of graduate Menorah committees and other forms of possible graduate association with the Menorah movement will be carefully considered.
The Year Ahead
IT may be added that at this Convention, which promises to be the most important thus far held by the Menorah Societies, there will also be given a full review of the activities of the Menorah organization since its inception and a survey of the present opportunities and demands for Menorah work throughout the country. More and more emphasis will be laid upon the quality of accomplishment of every Menorah Society; upon the active participation by all Menorah members in one phase or another of Jewish study and labor; and, in general, upon an even greater utilization of the lectures, libraries, study courses, and other means provided for the accomplishment of Menorah ends.
In this terrible time for Jewry, amid the general catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Jewish young men are offering their lives heroically in the contending armies, the members of the Menorah Societies in this favored country cannot but enter upon the new year with a solemn sense of added responsibility. More than ever in this decennial year of the Menorah movement is intellectual and moral consecration to Jewish ideals demanded of Jewish students in America.
Henry Hurwitz, Chancellor
I. Leo Sharfman, President
Footnote
G It should be noted that in 1903 a Jewish literary society was founded at the University of Minnesota which was later changed to a Menorah Society and is now one of the constituents of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.