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The Southern Israelite
stinct to preserve ourselves makes us
feel a challenge in the very existence
of anything' foreign. Therefore, the
native has always resented the alien;
and the majority has always sought to
crush the minority.
If the ancient Jews were preyed
upon, for instance, by the Assyrians,
it was not because those Jews talked
loudly on hotel verandas or owned all
the theatres, but simply because they
were not Assyrians. All the other lit
tle Levantine nations for example,
the Philistines and Edomites and
Phoenicians and Arameans—were also
prey upon by the Assyrians. Their ex
perience differed from that of the
Jews only in that after a while these
other little nations tired of the strug
gle and let themselves be crushed out
of existence; whereas the Jew stub
bornly carried on.
Even after the Jews lost their land
and ceased to be a nation, they con
tinued to carry on. They carry on to
this day. Why? No one can say for
certain. Perhaps it is because once
upon a time we Jews believed in our
selves.
Centuries ago we got the idea into
our heads that we were the Chosen
of God. That was not unique with us,
for almost all other peoples, from the
ancient Egyptians to the modern Cali
fornians, have at one time or another
been obessed with a similar idea. What
alone was unique with my ancestors
was that they interpreted their elec
tion to mean that they were destined
not to fatten on God’s favors but to
suffer for His cause.
Centuries ago there arose in their
midst certain strange men called
prophets who told them they were
chosen for a holy mission unto man
kind. These prophets said to my fath
ers that they were the “suffering ser
vants of the Lord," a folk graced
with a supernal duty—to teach the
nations of the earth to do justly, to
love mercy, and to walk in the ways
of peace. And my fathers believed it.
Every other conceited nation imagin
ed it had been chosen only to enjpy
riches and power; and the moment it
was robbed of those boons it ceased
to be conceited—and died. But the an
cient Jews, because they imagined the
very opposite, thrived on disaster—
and lived. The more they suffered, the
stronger grew their belief in them
selves; the closer they came to death,
the nearer they thought themselves
to eventual victory. And that was why
they were able to survive: they be
lieved in themselves.
Of course, it would be absurd to
maintain that the average Jew in
America today persist as a Jew be
cause he still consciously cherishes
that old Messianic conviction. But it
is indisputably true that in earlier
days the average Jew did cherish it.
His whole thought was steeped in the
Holy Writ, and all his life was bound
up with the prophecies. For centuries,
therefore, he survived because he felt
it his God-given duty to do so. And
now we can’t help surviving. We are
traveling on momentum. The will to
remain Jewish has become a habit
with us—as has also the world’s will
to keep us Jewish. For it must be real
ized that our present persistence is
not all of our own volition. You non-
J$ws contribute not a little toward
preserving us as a separate folk. Even
in America you discriminate against
us. You close certain residential dis
tricts against us, and certain clubs,
colleges, even religious institutions.
Well-founded rumors has it that at
least one church on Fifth Avenue ac
tually refuses to receive any more
Semitic converts because its Jewish
quota is filled!
However, whether the cause be in
the Jew or in the Gentile, the result
is the same: the Jew has to remain a
Jew whether he wants to or no. And
that does something to him. The mere
ordeal of keeping alive in spite of the
world’s hostility gives him that dis
tinctive manner about which we’ve
been speaking. The fact that he is
considered different compels him to be
different.
Now, the first and most pervasive
symptom of this manner is a certain
hyper-sensitiveness. We Jews are
quick to see a slight, so quick, indeed,
that often we see one where none in
intended. But that is not to be won
dered at. We’ve been harassed for so
long that now our flesh is chronically
raw, and we wince at the least gesture
in our direction. We all admit this is
a grievous fault in us, but we realize
we are helpless to remedy it. For it is
a fault not really of our own making.
So long as we continue to be attacked
or disdained, so long must we remain
a chip-bearing people.
A few r years ago many Jews in
America showed signs of being in a
fair way toward losing that sensitive
ness. But then Mr. Ford began his
anti-Semitic attacks, and the recovery
was set back at least a generation.
Mr. Ford has since apologized and his
attacks in the Dearborn Independent
have ceased; but the damage he did
will not soon be remedied. I do not
refer to the damage he did to many
non-Jews in that he loaded their minds
with ridiculous fears and filled their
hearts with suspicion. I refer only to
the greater damage he did to us Jews,
in that he reopened in our flesh our
half-healed wounds and reawakened
in our souls our old terrors. Those
who want to preserve the Jews at any
price, have a right to be grateful to
Mr. Ford. He did more for their cause,
at least in America, than they were
ever able to do for themselves. Any
number of Jews who had drifted far
out on the Gentile seas, suddenly dou
bled in their course w’hen they heard
the tinny thunderings from Fort
Dearborn, and came racing back in a
panic to the ghetto. The Jewish fra
ternal orders took on a new' lease of
life, and the synagogues were crowded
as perhaps never before in the history
of American Israel. Our most appro-
pi iate coat of arms during those years
would have been a tin shield bearing
two Jews ramphant over a Ford sin
ister! . . .
It is because anti-Semitism contin
ues to crop up even in this supposedly
enlightened day that we Jews continue
to be sensitive. And also because of
anti-Semitism w'e exhibit our second
most significant trait—intensity. We
Jew's are anything but an easy-going,
leisurely folk. On the contrary, it is
characteristic of us to attack life with
a rush and a fury, for we realize that
—Photograph by V. Laviosa, N. Y.
Lewis Browne, Jewish scholar, author of “This
Believing World,” “The (trophic Bible,” “Strang
er Than Fiction,” “The Story of the Jews,” and
other books, was born in London thirty-one years
ago. He came to America in 1012, and for a time
urns a rabbi in Waterbury, Connecticut, and in the
Free Synagogue at Newark, New Jersey. Several
years ago he resigned the rabbinate to devote
himself to writing.
mi in I
a Jew must push twice „ 3 hard to
half as far as a non-Jew Then t ?
whatever we attempt, be it the ama”*
ing of wealth or the measuring Ji
stars characteristically we attempt?
impatiently. Of course, that does Jv
us of grace at times; it does sometime
make us a bit over-aggressive. But w
simply have to be that way l n t u
first place, it is part of our heritae*
to work fast. For two thousand year!
we have been involuntary gy psies f
ever driven from city to city and’land
to land. In the past if a Jew wanted
to have his own house, he had to build
it quickly, for he knew that otherwi*
he might never be able to live i n it
He was in incessant danger of depor-
tation, and he dared not take h«
time.
It has become part of what one
might call our inherited wisdom to
be in a hurry. I do not mean that a*,
gressiveness is to be found in our
chromosomes, and that we inherit it
like the color of our eyes. I have no
doubt that a Jewish child reared from
the moment of birth in a complete!'
non-Jewish environment would, if
never told of its origin, never grow
to be especially aggressive. But if
reared in the home of its own parent?,
the trait would have to crop out al
most inevitably. Why? Simply because
nervous haste is in the air in the Jew
ish home. From infancy we see par
ents and friends about us who act
with a peculiar impulsiveness and re
act with a striking intensity, and from
them we learn by imitation and emu
lation to do likewise.
And fortunate it is for us that we
do learn it, for even today we still
need to be excessively vigorous. The
odds are still against us everywhere;
not merely socially, but—and this is
an infinitely graver matter—econom
ically. Jewish stenographers are find
ing it increasingly difficult to obtain
positions in New York, and Jewish
professors are finding it almost im
possible to receive their deserved pro
motion in most colleges in the land.
Many banking establishments, not a
few industrial corporations, many hos
pitals, innumerable law firms, exercise
a quite obvious boycott against Jews.
Of course, that boycott is rarely ab
solute, and an able Jew can almost
always break his way in. But there s
the rub: he has to be able, inordinate
ly able.
It is our clear knowledge of this sit
uation that makes us as eager anC
ambitious as we are. We realize tha.
only by becoming indispensable can we
make ourselves acceptable, and there
fore we work with such prodigious
vigor. Undoubtedly we overdo it a-
times, pushing and crowding with ob
noxiously indecorous haste. But
must expect that. After all, if
won’t be fair, how can we be deci-
rous?
isitiveness and aggressiveness.
are the two major traits in u*
—and both are patently a resut
ir age-old struggle to survive
hostility. Similarly, all our n»-
;raits have their origin in *
gle. Take our socalled clannisn*
for example. In reality we *
t all inordinately clannish,
ony there is within our own ®
initely negative, not P° sitl ' e ‘ . r
3 one only in our reactions- 1 i
ctions. We squabble among
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