15 - George (Gedaliah) Silverstone, ‘On the Terrible War of 5675’, 25 October 1914, Washington, DC

Summary

AT the outbreak of what would be known as ‘the Great War’ and then ‘the First World War’, British and American Jewish preachers sounded a note quite different from that of patriotic fervour we have seen in the sermons from the Spanish–American and Boer wars. Instead, the dominant motif—undoubtedly influenced by the German origins of many in the congregations of both countries—is one of dismay, discouragement, confusion: a sense of devastating failure that undermines cherished beliefs in progress, even possibly in divine providence. This is in striking contrast with the nationalistic elan evident in the sermons by French, German, and Austrian rabbis at the beginning of the war. Thus the report by the Jewish Chronicle on 21August 1914:

Devoting his sermon to the subject of the War, the Rev. Morris Joseph preached as follows from his pulpit at the Berkeley Street Synagogue last Saturday [15 August]: We resume our Sabbath Services this week in circumstances all but unparalleled in the history of mankind … The lust to destroy and slay has taken possession of minds hitherto chiefly concerned to heal the hurt of the world, and to set the feet of mankind more firmly on the high-way of progress. It is a terrifying paradox, a cruel blow to our optimism and our most cherished ideals. It makes us doubt the value, the reality of our civilization, the stability of righteousness, the fixity of purpose of God himself.

Not unexpectedly, Joseph insists that our first duty is to ‘brush such doubts aside’, to keep one's faith in God, and to ‘rally to the help of our beloved country in her hour of need’, but the psychological anguish inflicted by the fighting— even at this early stage—seems genuinely acute.

In the United States, the official policy of the government was neutrality. Yet with the approach of the High Holy Days of 1914, many rabbis felt that the war in Europe had to be addressed.