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Page 15 The Southern Israelite \ H. J. Redavats County Commissioner 4th District JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA qA. T. c Bro f wn COUNTY COMMISSIONER Second District Jacksonville, Florida JOE F. HAMMOND County Commissioner THIRD DISTRICT JACKSONVILLE . . . FLORIDA JOHN L. HALL City Tax Assessor Jacksonville, Fla. MY VIEWS ON THE PRESENT SITUATION IN RUSSIA (Continued from Page B) ficient efforts. But circumstances and unfavorable environment and in ternal suspicion and reaction checked this movement and narrowed its in fluence. Then to the masses Zionism came and brought a buoyant hope and a stimulating, life-sustaining vision. To some, however, Zionism either did not appeal deeply or it seemed a mere palliative. For with the outbreak of the Russian Revolu tion, or even some time before, athe ism, extreme, aggressive, virulent and anti-Jewish began to manifest it self upon a large and steadily in creasing scale. It was the expres sion of a rabid, resentful, destructive hatred of everything that had char acterized the old regime of oppres sion, even of these very institutions of that oppression, hatred of Judaism and of Jewish separation of national ism, and Zionism, of the Hebrew lan guage and literature and of every characteristic creation of Jewish life and culture. It is, of course, fanati cism, cruel, uncompromising, raging. Yet there is no reason, just because the Yevsek movement is ruthlessly inimical to all the things which we hold sacred and dear, and because we must combat it relentlessly, and be cause, too, its protagonists seem to be actuated by fiendish and resentful cruelty, that we should profess not to understand what we may easily un derstand, and to impute to them only the lowest and most repellant of hu man motives, cowardice, selfishness, subserviency and a sadistic cruelty and thirst for destruction. They are Jews like ourselves, and the forces which drive them forward, even though along a strange and errant path, must be much the same as those which animate us, above all the hope for a truer, richer life and happier social adjustment. They represent a movement in Judaism so extreme that for the present we must admit they have taken themselves com pletely outside of Judaism. But the pendulum will swing backward; it always does, so history teaches, even Jewish history, and that again and again, and the first of Yevsek fanati cism, too, will burn themselves out at last. Extremes are meeting today in Russia, and especially extremes with in Judaism there, the extremes of the old, dignified, sanctified, but unpro gressive orthodoxy, and of the new, ultra-modern, intolerant Yevsek fa naticism. If only conditions in Rus sia had been normal for the last cen turies, or even for the last century, and Judaism had been permitted to enjoy a natural growth and a steady adaptation to modern life, knowledge and culture, if only the reform move ment, begun under the influence of Haskala, had been allowed to work itself out steadily and progressively, this appalling Jewish tragedy, one of the most sorrowful in all our tragic history, would surely have been averted. And this suggests the only possible eventual means of terminating the tragedy, a true, reform movement within the ranks of Russian Jewry. I am pleading not for the introduc tion of American Reform for Juda ism into Russia. I am surprised that even my bitterest and most vindictive critics should have attributed such a foolish, impossible thought and pur pose to me. I ask them to believe that this was the thing farthest from my mind. I am pleading for a true reform from within, a reform which must be and will be the creation of Russian Judaism and Russian Jewry themselves, and which will bring them completely abreast of the mod ern world in all aspects of life and thought and of religious, social and economic theory and practice. The extremes, so far apart at present, must meet at last, through natural growth, mutual understanding, ex change of ideas and realization of common fate, hope and purpose. A healthy, creative, unifying reform must come into the theories and prac tice of both extremes. There is no other solution of the problem; nor will the laws of history and human existence permit aught else. Now what can we do to aid and ex pedite this solution? Here is one of the saddest parts of the great tragedy that, eager to do so much, we here in America cun ac tually do so little. We are in the un happy position of having to watch a loved one, racked by a devastating, torturing disease, suffer and writhe in agony, ’frith naught that we can do except to speak an occasional word of cheer and guidance' and helpful counsel, which may encourage the pa tient to resist and to help himself as much as possible. Shrieking aloud and summoning the neighbors to shriek with us will avail little, if any thing. The one concrete thing we can do in this grave crisis is to provide, to the utmost of our ability, the food which the patient needs and can as similate. We may not let him perish for want of such nourishment. Trans lated into practical terms and plain language, this means that we must labor and sacrifice to the utmost for the economic well-being and rehabili tation of our brethren in Russia, and thereby also for the economic rehabil itation and well-being of the Russian people and nation. Religious fanati cism and oppression cannot thrive in the midst of economic prosperity. That makes always for responsibility, conservatism and steady, systematic, constructive progress. Whenever eco- haps if our American government could be induced, even through Jew ish persuasion, to recognize the Sov iet government, and to bring to bear upon it and its policies the influence and pressure of a friendly power, something, even much, might be ac complished. It is indeed a counsel of desperation; but has anything better been proposed? Meanwhile we stand upon the threshold of the new Six Million Dol lar Campaign of the Joint Distribu tion Committee and the Jewish Agen cy for Palestine. Through it we can solve completely neither the Jewish problem in Russia nor the Jewish problem in Palestine. But through it and through our generous support of it, now and for all the years in which this may be needed, we can contrib ute mightily to the eventual solution of these problems. That is the one concrete, worthwhile thing we can do now in the present crisis. But in it we dare not fail. It calls for a united front by a loyally united Israel. John T. Alsop, Jr. M A Y o R J AC KSONVILLE F L O R I n A GREETINGS; WISHES; Frank Brown CIRCUIT Duval County JACKSONVILLE. FLA.