The Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary, an organization of 200 rabbis, occupying pulpits all over the country, in a statement issued Thursday expressed satisfaction with the disavowal made by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, of newspaper reports of the sermon which he delivered before the Free Synagogue on December 20th. Dr. Wise made his disavowal in response to a resolution adopted by the Rabbinical Assembly inviting him to do so and specifically denied having said “Jews must accept the teachings of Jesus” and “the teachings of Jesus are an unparalleled code of ethics.”
The Committee which presented the resolution to Dr. Wise and which has now declared itself “happy that Dr. Wise has published his statement” consisted of Rabbi Jacob Kohn of the Congregation Anshei Chesed of New York; Rabbi Max Drob of the Washington Heights Congregation of New York; Rabbi Max Klein of the Adath Jeshurun, Philadelphia, who is also President of the Philadelphia Board of Jewish Ministers; Rabbi Louis Finkelstein of the Kehilath Israel, New York; and Rabbi Norman Salit of the Shaare Tfilah Congregation, Far Rockaway. Rabbi Max Drob is President of the Rabbinical Assembly.
The Rabbis’ statement reads:
“The Rabbinical Assembly is happy that Dr. Wise has published his statement which, we believe, should allay the controversy. Dr. Wise was glad to be given the opportunity of denying his authorship of the statements erroneously attributed to him, an opportunity presented by the resolutions of the Rabbinical. Assembly which were brought to his attention by the Committee.”
The resolution of the Assembly was adopted at a special meeting of its Executive Council which took place last Monday and was as follows:
“WHEREAS, it has been alleged in the press that Dr. Stephen S. Wise, Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, made the following statements in a recent address, namely: ‘Jews must accept the teachings of Jesus.’ “The teachings of Jesus constitute an unparalleled code of ethics.’
“AND WHEREAS up to this time Dr. Wise has not made any public disavowal of these statements,
“AND WHRERAS we nevertheless question their authenticity
“We invite Dr. Wise to deny his authorship of these statements.”
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