Full Friday evening Shabbat service with sermon by Rabbi Gittelsohn, “Can Jews Accept Jesus?”, December 23, 1960. Wyner Archives of Temple Israel of Boston.

TI-AV_90058-001

Item Information

Title:
Full Friday evening Shabbat service with sermon by Rabbi Gittelsohn, “Can Jews Accept Jesus?”, December 23, 1960. Wyner Archives of Temple Israel of Boston.
Description:
Full Friday evening Sabbath service at Temple Israel led by Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn with a sermon, “Can Jews Accept Jesus?” Rabbi Gittelsohn begins his sermon by referring to an article by Norman Cousins in American Judaism on “The Jewishness of Jesus”. Rabbi Gittelsohn believes Cousins had “the best of intentions” when he wrote that Jews should open their heart and minds to Jesus because he was a Jew. However, Rabbi Gittelsohn takes issue with Cousins because, he postulates, there are three Jesuses. The first is the Reform Jew of two millennia ago who taught ancient Jewish ethical doctrines. Gittelsohn accepts the first Jesus as a Jew but questions the need for Judaism “to recapture what it already possesses.” The second facet of Jesus, according to Gittelsohn, promotes celibacy, turning the other cheek, and non-resistance to evil, which he sees as irreconcilably foreign to Judaism because, in Judaism, evil must always be resisted and justice pursued. Gittelsohn also argues that the third Jesus--the Christ, God incarnate, born of a virgin, the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy of the Messiah--is very complicated because it is central to Christianity and so many Jews have suffered for it over the years. Ultimately Rabbi Gittelsohn agrees with Rabbi Milton Steinberg that there is no need for the two religions to coalesce; each should be “pure and strong in its own character”. Choral music performed by the Temple Israel Choir, Herbert Fromm, conductor.
Speaker:
Gittelsohn, Roland Bertram, 1910-1995
Musical director:
Fromm, Herbert
Creator:
Congregation Adath Israel (Boston, Mass.)
Date:
December 23, 1960
Format:
Audio recordings (nonmusical)
Location:
Temple Israel of Boston
Wyner Archives
Collection (local):
Past Voices, Audio Recordings, 1934-1979
Subjects:
Religious broadcasting
Radio sermons
Jewish sermons--United States
Reform Judaism--United States
Jesus Christ--Jewish interpretations
Antisemitism
Cousins, Norman
Steinberg, Milton, 1903-1950
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Extent:
1/4" audio tape (1 hour, 29 min., 20 sec.)
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/4168b680t
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License (CC BY-ND).
CC BY-ND icon
Language:
English
Hebrew
Preferred Citation:
Full Friday evening Shabbat service with sermon by Rabbi Gittelsohn, “Can Jews Accept Jesus?”, December 23, 1960. Audiovisual Collection, Audiovisual Collection, Wyner Archives of Temple Israel of Boston.
Notes (funding):
This project was supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Notes (historical):
Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn (1910-1995), social justice activist, Zionist, and writer, was Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel from 1953-1977 and Rabbi Emeritus thereafter. He served as founding rabbi of Central Synagogue in Rockville Center, NY from 1936-1953. During WWII, he became the first Jewish Marine Corps chaplain, and, in 1945, he delivered a moving, oft-quoted eulogy on brotherhood at Iwo Jima. After his retirement he was a co-founder of ARZA (the Association of Reform Zionists).
Herbert Fromm (1905-1995), Temple Israel’s organist and Music Director (1941-1973), was a German-born conductor and composer forced to leave Germany in 1937. A prolific composer of religious music, much of which became part of the standard synagogue repertoire, and secular works, he also published many articles and essays and several books.
Identifier:
TI-AV-90058.001