Judaism and War

This chapter analyses Hermann Adler's guest sermon on the Boer War. Three and a half weeks after the outbreak of hostilities, Adler chose to address the subject in a visit to the North London Synagogue in Islington. Assuming that the congregation had already been addressed by their own minister on the subject of the war, he nevertheless decided that it was necessary to make this the focus of his guest sermon, citing as a reason the military reversals of the previous Monday, which came to be known as ‘Mournful Monday’. Particularly striking to the modern reader is the preacher's total identification not only with the policies of the government but with the cause of empire. He invokes not only passages of English literature but also the glories of British military history in the recent past.