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The Southern Israelite
Many Good
Wishes For
the
NEW YEAR
<> -
HARTSFIELD
Company
235-7-0 Peachtree Arcade
ATLANTA, GA.
Seasons Greetings
B
WE EXTEND
Heartiest
GOOD WISHES
FOR THE
NEW YEAR
“PURVEYORS
OF
HAPPY MOVES”
ZABAN
STORAGE AND TRANSFER CO.
12 SPRING ST., S. W.
WAInut 2701 ATLANTA
WHY ARE JEWS LIKE THAT
(Continued
selves outrageously and show no more
internal union than does the Demo
cratic Party. Indeed, as someone has
wittily put it, there is only, one thing
any two Jews can agree on, and that
is how much a third ought to give to
charity! Solely when we are attacked
from without do we achieve any sort
of solidarity within; for, like any
other herd, we realize that when one
of us is attacked, all of us are men
aced.
That explains our intense family
loyalty. It likewise explains our com
parative extravagance in giving to
charity. Finally, it explains our per
sistent tendency to live near each oth
er and frequent the same gathering
places. We feel more comfortable
among ourselves. In a measure we re
act as did the pioneers when they
pushed out across the prairies. They,
too, clung together, and befriended
each other, and huddled together be
hind stockades. For we feel, even as
did they, that there is danger, or at
least hostility, abroad in the land.
And again only on the ground of
the prejudice against us can one ex
plain another of our secondary traits
—our radicalism. There is no denying
that we Jews as a group are espe
cially prone to favor change in the
present order. But what else can you
expect? If the present order won’t
accept us how can we accept it? In
this respect we are like most other
vigorous minorities. Take the poets
and artists for example. Predominant
ly they are radical and for precisely
the same reason. They find themselves
“outsiders” in this world of Philistin
ism; they are rejected and neglected
and allowed to starve. Therefore they
are opposed to this world as it is and
they want to make it over into some
thing they think better. The Jew is
remarkably like the artist. He too suf
fers the recurrent fate of being stoned
while alive and enthroned when dead.
It is no accident that in the eyes of
the world the only good Jew—I am
thinking, of course, of Jesus of Naza
reth—is a dead Jew. . . .
Yes, there is ample reason why we
Jews are rarely to be found among
the conservatives. It is because the
world we see around us is not all
worthy to be conserved. It is still nar
row and fearful and vile with preju
dice; and not until it becomes clean
of these ills can we be expected to
think it worthy.
Finally, there is that most adver
tised of our traits, our intelligence (or,
if you will, our shrewdness)—and
that, too, can be explained by the life
we have led. It is no wonder if we
Jews seem to exhibit inordinately
sharp wits, for, after all, during al
most two thousand years we have had
naught else to live by save wits. While
all the other peoples on earth were
toughening their muscles to fight their
way out of danger, we Jews had to be
developing our brains so that we could
talk our way out of it. For we were
always and everywhere too few in
numbers, and too scattered, ever to be
able to protect ourselves by force.
No, we always had to rely on our
brain for our salvation, never our
brawn. As a result, intelligence be
came one of the primal virtues in our
code of values, and the only aristocra-
from Page 8)
cy we cared for was that of the mind.
While you folk hurrahed for your
warriors, we Jews made heroes of our
learned men. Love of learning became
part of our tradition, and going to
school—even centuries ago, I mean—
seemed as natural and proper to us
as going to war was to you.
There was another element, aside
from our lack of numbers which forc
ed us to develop brain rather than
brawn. We Jews for centuries were
utterly unable to live on the soil.
Once we were driven from our own
homeland in the year 70 A. D., we
were left with naught save trading as
our means of making a livelihood. In
most of the countries to which we fled
we were not permitted to own land
and become farmers. And even in
those places where no such restrictions
were put upon us, we felt in too great
jeopardy to dare tie ourselves up to
the soil. For centuries we were never
sure from day to day whether our
hosts might not turn on us and deport
us bag and baggage. Therefore, we al
ways had to have our possessions in
an easily portable form. Fields and
barns were not as easy to roll up and
carry off in a sack on one’s back;
cansequently, even in those few lands
where we were not forbidden to own
real property, we preferred to lay
up our treasures in other forms.
Nor was it feasible even for the
poor among us to stay on the soil, for
as farm laborers they found them
selves too remote from each other,
and too exposed to the world, for
safety. Poor or rich, we preferred to
live in the cities, where our existence,
even though less healthy, was at least
less insecure.
And this protracted separation from
the soil helped not a little to develop
our mentalities. In the cities we were
forced to live by trading, for prac
tically all the industries were con
trolled by guilds which discriminated
severely against Jews. We had to eke
out an existence in the cracks between
the boulders in the social structure;
we had to be the middle-men. It was
a hazardous profession, and to a high
degree demeaning; but we were de
termined to keep alive and that was
the one way we could do it. So we be
came the hucksters of civilization.
We bought and sold in all the mar
ket places of Europe, settling down
and opening shops, or else peddling
with packs on our backs. Chiefly we
dealt in objects which were easily
portable and not fixed in value—as
jewelry and textiles—for these we
found most profitable. And that is
why still to this day so many Jews
deal in diamonds or have clothing
stores.
Or else we took to money-lending,
which for centuries was forbidden to
Christians by the church. We became
fly-by-night financiers for the pretty
princelings of Europe, and sometimes
even for the kings and the popes; for
though pious Christians considered
moneylending a sin, they were right
glad to have the Jews around to com
mit it. And that is why still to this
day so many Jews go in for pawn
broking or banking. We’re old hands
at the game of finance; we served our
apprenticeship in it when most other
folks were still trading in kind.
But it must not be imagined that
we Jews are good for nothing in tv
world but trading. Given the oprJ
tunity we can and will go down £
the soil and labor in it tenaciously
any other people. The best proof of
this is the amazing degree t 0 which
Jews have taken up farming with "
the last generation. In Palestine there
are now thousands of Zionists tilli ne
fields and planting vineyards in wha-
was arid widerness until they Cam ‘
there. Enormous tracts of unculti
vated land in Russia have been taker'
up and colonized by Jews within the
last decade. Or, to come closer home
in New England you will find many
hundreds of Jewish farmers who have
bought up old homesteads, abandoned
as useless, and have made them flour
ish magnificently. It is absurd to
think we are congenially and incorri
gibly averse to the physical. Give ui
the chance to live normal, vigorous
physical lives, and we can produce
farmers and fighters and football
players and even circus strongmen.
If we Jews are still prevalently a
folk living in cities and subsisting by
trade, it is only because we haven’t
yet been able to outgrow our past
Everything about us, our vices as well
as our virtues, our sensitiveness, ag
gressiveness, clannishness, and com
mercialism, as well as our progressive
ness, sobriety, decency, and intelli
gence—all these traits are the result
of the life we have been made to lead
So if you, like my friend, ask: “Why
are Jews like that?” I can only repea
what I answered him: “Because we
can’t help it!”
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Happy New Year
FROM THE
Arcade Restaurant
I 10-1 12 N. Forsyth St.
ATLANTA
My Sincere Good W ishes
For the IS civ I ear
ISAAC N. RAGSDALE
MAYOR
Happy IS etc Year
FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT
The
Metropolitan
Theatre
movietone
VITAPHONE
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