Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

238

THE CHURCH

THE SOCIAL TRAINING OF RABBIS
Sidney E. Goldstein, Director of Social Service, Free Synagogue and Instructor
of Social Service, Jewish Institute of Religion, New York
After these addresses by Father Kerby, Dean Mathews, and Dr. Brackett I feel
a very real sense of embarrassment. These men represent institutions long established
and with a splendid record of service; the institution I have the honor to represent is
really an infant in your midst. The Jewish Institute of Religion was founded by
Dr. Stephen S. Wise just a year ago and opened its doors for the first session in October,
1922. Though the institution itself is young the curriculum and program we have
developed is derived from many years of our own experience and many consultations
with experts. As a result of our experience in the Free Synagogue of New York and
of conferences with other congregations and leaders of religious and social thought,
we have decided to make social service one of the departments of study and practice
in the Jewish Institute of Religion. The Social Service Department is co-ordinated with
all other departments and the courses included are required for every student preparing
for the rabbinate.
A number of reasons have urged us to incorporate the Department of Social Service
in the curriculum and to require these courses of all students. First, the faculty and
the executive council of the institute both believe that the minister today is expected
to function in four ways-as a pastor, as a preacher, as a religious educator, and also
as a social worker or leader in community service. This is especially true in the smaller
communities where there are no highly trained social workers. If the minister is to
be equipped for leadership in community service it is necessary to prepare him as
carefully for social work as for preaching or for work in the field of religious education.
Therefore we have extended our program to include research, religious education, and
community service.
The second reason is this: We find all over America that our churches and synagogues alike are endeavoring to reconstruct themselves and to re-establish themselves
as social agencies. The synagogue in the beginning was a social institution, and so,
I understand, was the church. It was a place in which people gathered not only for
worship but for communal activities. We have lost our power and prestige as social
agencies chiefly because social work during the last twenty-five years has become a
scientific procedure and the synagogue and the church have failed to follow. We
now realize that in order to retrieve our position in the social field it is necessary for
us to train ourselves and to become as far as possible experts. The hospital is a medical
center for community service, the school is an educational center for community service; the church and the synagogue, in our judgment, should be religious centers for
community service. The church and the synagogue must be brought into closer
contact with society and must learn to serve society more directly and efficiently than
they have done during the past one-quarter of a century.
The third reason must be evident to everyone today. Religion has a social meaning and a social message. The center of religion, the very soul of religion, is communion-communion with the Oversoul, communion with God. When this central
religious experience is translated into the accents of the intellect it becomes a creed;
when it seeks to embody itself in forms of beauty it becomes symbols and ceremonies;
when it endeavors to express itself in conduct it becomes service. Service, in other