Word: petuchowski
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Dates: during 1955-1955
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Should modern Judaism abandon this position and assume a missionary role? The question is being raised more and more frequently. In the current issue of Commentary, Rabbi Jakob J. Petuchowski, young (29), Berlin-born Reform rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Washington, Pa., explores the ground on which a new missionary Judaism might be built...
...modern Jews most sympathetic to Jewish missions to the Gentiles are generally the liberals in the reform group. Yet these, says Rabbi Petuchowski, have precisely the least to offer. "The orthodox Jew could conceivably enter the arena with the Creed of Maimonides in one hand and the Shulchan Aruch [a codification of Jewish law] in the other. He could say to the prospective convert: 'Here is a new way of living. Take it!' And then the convert would really have taken something; he would not merely be moving from one 'branch' of universal religion to another...
...Argue With. A better blueprint for a Jewish mission to modern man, Petuchowski suggests, would begin with the meaning of Jewish history. "What is there in the heritage of Judaism that has enabled the Jew to retain his spiritual and emotional equilibrium under the most adverse conditions?" In this, Petuchowski thinks, non-Jews could find much...