100 years ago in The Record

Sunday, Sept. 2, 1917

Mayor Cornelius F. Burns rarely welcomes convention delegates to Troy on a Sunday, but makes an exception today for the New York State Federation of Young Men’s Hebrew and Kindred Associations.

The mayor shares a platform at the Rensselaer County Court House with local Y. M. H. A. president Joseph Hormats and state president Haskell Marks as Rabbi H. M. Lasker gives an opening prayer.

Lasker praises the God who delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and the Spanish inquisition. The same Lord “brought us to this land of liberty, the United States of America, where no distinction is made between Nation or Nation, Religion or Religion.

“Help us to instill into [ our children] the desire to be good Jews and good Americans,” Lasker prays, “Help us to lead them to see the right, that as our forefathers have lived and died for Thee and Thy principles, they may also sacrifice themselves for the principles of Liberty, Justice and Humanity which You gave forth to the world through Thy prophets ages ago.”

Mayor Burns gives President Marks the key to the city, noting that “whenever he called upon the Jewish people for assistance in communal or other relief work they gladly responded.” He assures delegates that “they would always find the old Trojan spirit of hospitality prevalent.”

WAR SERMONS

Lasker’s call to sacrifice for liberty and justice is a reminder of the nation’s new role in the world war. Churches across the country have been asked to pray for “divine protection for the army and sailors” today. At Second Presbyterian Church, pastor emeritus Rev. Hector Hall denounces the pacifists who “had become quite numerous throughout the land” since the April declaration of war against Germany. “Doctor Hall asked what the pacifists had done to ameliorate the suffering of the unfortunate people of Europe, what had they done to stop the slaughter of thousands of men, women and children in Belgium, Armenia, and other countries,” The Record reports. “Had their voice ever been raised against the taking into white slavery of thousands of girls from France and Belgium? Had they ever protested against the murder of Americans, men, women and children?” At Christ Episcopal Church, Rev. George Carleton Wadsworth includes the war in his holiday sermon on the “Dignity and Responsibility of Labor.” Wadsworth condemns the “slackers” who “by means of strikes and riots [ attempt] to stab in the back the man who has gone” to war. “Labor can well afford to call a truce with capital until after the war,” Wadsworth says. The working man must do “everything that is in his power to aid the government.”