On another page of today's Courier, the reader will find a resolution adopted at a meeting called by the Rabbinical Association. The resolution stresses the need for an Educational Council in the city to stimulate Jewish educational work in Chicago, to improve the existing educational institutions where they need improvement, and to develop intensive educational propaganda among all classes of the Jews in Chicago.

An Educational Council should have been established long ago, but it is not yet too late. The sooner it is founded, the better it will be for Jewish education. The educational budget of the community has increased considerably of late. The Hebrew Theological College alone has a budget of seventy thousand dollars a year. This budget will grow from year to 2year. The charities give forty thousand dollars a year to Jewish education. The entire budget is about two hundred thousand dollars a year, which means that four-fifths of the budget is covered by individuals. It is, therefore, clear that those who bear the chief burden have not only the right, but also the duty of worrying about Jewish education and of trying to settle the problem of education in Chicago satisfactorily.

The charities can work only with the material they have. If the Jewish masses themselves are indifferent to Jewish education, if they themselves do not attempt to build more Talmud Torahs, better Talmud Torahs, if they do not persuade the parents to send their children to Jewish educational institutions, then the young generation will grow up without any knowledge of the Torah and without any respect for the Torah, and the Chicago Orthodoxy, which is today the bulwark of American Orthodoxy, will disappear.

The United Jewish Charities have the organization and the organizational 3setup to regulate the institutions already in existence, and to improve them organizationally and formally, but they cannot create the movement which is necessary to solve the educational problem. This movement must come from the Jewish masses themselves. When the movement becomes active, then the task of the charities will be easier. The charities must have an organization with whom it is able to work. An Educational Council, consisting of representatives from synagogues, Talmud Torahs, and the Rabbinical Council, is, therefore, an absolute necessity.

The Educational Council, as a community organization, will also have another important task to perform, and that is--reintroduce one standard for Judaism in Chicago.

Thousands of West Side Jews have moved, during the past few years, from the West Side to the North Side. They have formed new congregations in 4their new community, or have become members of congregations already in existence.....The congregations on the North Side are not the same as the congregations on the West Side. The West Side congregations are the centers of all Jewish activities, such as charity, education and so on. The North Side congregations are simply places of worship. It is only when a rabbi of a congregation is a very active Jew that the congregation does some general Jewish work; otherwise it is only a house where once a week, on Saturday, Jews go to pray. No representative of any seminary has any access to those synagogues; no representative of the Kosher Food Council has any access to those synagogues because they are modern synagogues (Lord save us). They are formal, they are unspiritual, they lay the chief emphasis upon the ceremonial part of God's worship, which is an entirely non-Jewish conception of the function of a synagogue, which should be a community center and a theological institution, as well as a place of worship.

There will be an organized body in Chicago with an all-embracing Jewish program, when the Educational Council is set up, as a result of the resolution. All Orthodox and Conservative congregations will have to be represented in this Educational Council. The greatest efforts should be made to enroll the Conservative congregations. When they are represented in the Educational Council in proportion to their number, when they are in close touch with the educational movement, they will lose their present formality. In the Educational Council, they will discuss not only Talmud Torahs, but also seminaries, and they will discuss higher Jewish education. The Conservative congregations will have to take an interest in general educational work when they listen to the report of their representatives in the Educational Council as to what the Council is doing and expects to do for [Jewish] education. They will begin to realize that by prayer alone, one does not wholly discharge one's duties as a Jew.

It is, therefore, a matter of great importance to everyone that the representatives 6of Chicago Jewry pay attention to this resolution and carry it out as soon as possible. An Educational Council, to represent all the non-Reform elements of the city, will restore Judaism to life in Chicago and will help the charities to put Jewish education upon a solid foundation. This is not a question of money but of organization and moral responsibility--a responsibility for the Judaism of the future generations of Jews in Chicago.

We hope that the committee which the meeting appointed to work out plans and to issue a call for the next big meeting, will finish its work quickly, and will set a definite date for the next meeting. We hope that the representatives of all synagogues, Talmud Torahs, Teachers' Associations, and all other organizations, who will be invited to the meeting, will not fail to attend, and will do the work they have to do.

If the Educational Council of the Rabbinical Association is able to realize 7this [plan] of an Educational Council, then it will have accomplished [something for which] every thinking Jew of Chicago should [be grateful].

[Translator's note: The words in brackets were supplied by the translator as the original words are torn out].