Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Created for the New York World’s Fair of 1939, the “Temple of Religion” was designed to be a symbolic representation of American religious freedom that also avoided privileging or even recognizing the specificity of any one faith tradition. This paper explores the “Temple” in the context of its historical moment on the cusp of World War II, considering parallels with, and implications for, our own contemporary challenges with increasing polarization, xenophobia and intolerance. A focus on the “unity” and “brotherhood” of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews was deemed especially important in the context of political unrest and religious persecution in Europe; in particular, the Jewish community was grappling with increasingly dire reports from Europe, and severe limitations on the number of refugees permitted to immigrate to the United States. My presentation will focus on Jewish participation, which met multiple challenges, including the Temple’s calendar, designed to accommodate Christian praxis without consideration either for the Jewish sabbath (observed each week from sundown Friday to one hour past sundown on Saturday) or the multiple Jewish holidays that fell during fair season. Yet, despite this lack of what would now be termed “cultural competence,” archival correspondence suggests Jews of all denominations were eager to participate. I argue this enthusiasm stemmed from a desire both to encourage a positive view of Judaism during a time of rising antisemitism, and to draw attention to the increasingly ominous plight of Jews in Nazi Germany and Europe in general.

Presenters

Naomi Yavneh Klos
Rev. Bienvenu SJ Distinguished Chair of Humanities and Professor, Languages and Cultures, Loyola University New Orleans, Louisiana, United States