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Th? Southern Israelite Page 7 The Year 5690 In Retrospect A Bird s-Eye View of a Year of Jewish History By JOSEPH SALMARK 5f>‘H)th year in the Hebrew calendar has been one of the most eventful since .rh 1 War. And when Jewish history is in the making tragedy usually leers background. The twelve months that have passed have been no exception. ,nts, disillusioning events have transpired in one section of the globe after There can he no doubt that 5b90 marks the beginning of a new epoch in history whose finale is unpredictable. Rut that gloomy prospects are in the cannot lie denied by any one who reads portents carefully and who is ready ii.,re optimistic slogans and reassuring formulae. countries that have occupied the limelight during the year have been Palestine, i. Rumania, Germany, South Africa and the United States. With the exception jot me, all these countries have, to a greater or lesser degree, been confronted single problem: anti-Semitism. It is not by any means a new manifestation lewish life*: but the graph that it describes is always dependent on the situation . world at large. The most important factor to be considered in analyzing what v happened in the Jewish world during the past s the universal economic depression. The , r.t'h in Wall Street in October, followed by .mpathetic debacles in the bourses of London, I'.tn- and Merlin, has had a devastating effect on lewi-h people. The results have been two- !; economic and moral. In the first place, the I a- >t the United States, comparatively the richest unit in world Jewry, have been stricken to aii iiini-iial degree by financial disaster. In the ■end place, world-wide economic depression has l.o i d men and women in the frame of mind which - them to look for explanations, excuses. In hniiaina the peasants vent their despair on the With the world wheat market at its lowest, tanners of Rumania are suffering accordingly. U idi enmnmic conditions bad, Jewish bankers in nia must protect themselves with high rates ' 1 1 e-t. Inevitably the entire Jewish population nr- In the United States the first victims of m u economic currents are the Jews. The u growth of the chain idea, the expansion- combines, the unification of every type of has removed the very foundations of __ m-Ii mercantilism. The middleman becomes and less a factor in the American economic scheme. other most important incident of the year has been the severe setback suffered oni'in and Jewish nationalism. The riots of last August (1929), which aroused horror of the entire world, have had consequences which could never have been ted. Instead of being a prelude to new conditions which would bolster up rights in Palestine the disturbances have been followed by political decisions ii incorporated into international law by the League of Nations, may forever the idea of the Jewish National Home which most Zionists have held, iragement has been the outstanding characteristic of Zionist groups every- but they have proved powerless in the face of a determined policy on the the British, which might be called indifferentism. critics of Zionism have identified the rising tide of anti-Semitism as the i of sentiment stirred up by Zionism. Whatever Ik* the truth of that allega- it seems false—it is obvious that the Jewish people are living through one nio>t dangerous periods in their history. The United States 11 life in the United States, ordinarily tranquil, has been stirred by forces ,( 'd and disturbing. Organized anti-Jewish feeling, which seemed on the with the passing of the Ku-Klux-Klan and which was thought to have been '\vept away with the recantation of Henry Ford, has assumed threatening A covert numerus clausus is being strictly enforced in the professional f the universities, particularly in the East. Large public utilities and •le department stores have placed greater restrictions than ever on the • nt of Jewish help. Everywhere the feeling has grown that social and discrimination against the Jew seriously menaces his place in the American ity. intense anti-Jew r ish feeling has become is evident from the fact that the movement, which was ushered into existence with great jubilation by both and Jewish divines, has become the target for criticism from even its i he efforts to stimulate more harmonious relations between Jews and iave proved a futile gesture in the face of the direct and unmistakable anti- which has cropped up in a great many phases of American life. If'(itch in;/ the Xew Pawn und ent i pro >ch. emt Chr friv Geti Sen I he year started off very inauspicvusly. The death of Louis Marshall, which aroused wide sorrow among Jews, has proved to be a more serious blow than was at lirst realized. His powerful leadership, his ability to dominate any situation aifecting the Jews here or abroad have been sadly lacking. In his absence American Jewry has been treated to a disquieting scene of struggle for leadership. There is no one in America today who can be said to displace Louis Marshall. Some of the hesitation and floundering which have been characteristic of Jewish life in America during the past year are directly ascribahlc to the absence of Marshall’s authoritative presence. Simultaneously with the passing of Louis Marshall, American Jewry was called u P°n to provide leadership of a high order in the only international Jewish cause nf importance: Zionism. I he birth of the Jewish Agency for Palestine at Zurich last August was to have provided the occasion for non-Zionist accession to the forces tor the upbuilding of Palestine. With the Jews of Palestine on their back, so to speak, it was believed that the Jews of America, offering a united front, would quickly bring moral and financial reinforcements. These expectations proved to he vain, however; the facts have shown that the Jewish Agency is an entirely unimportant factor in American Jewish life. In the first place, the Zionist rank and file have felt hostile rather than friendly to the Jewish Agency. This has been due to their belief that the Jewish Agency tended to whittle down Zionist principles. In the second place, the non-Zionists in the Agency have not been as representative of the feeling of non-Zionist American Jews as Zionists had been led to believe. Everyone who had a part in the ceremonies at Zurich more or less retained his interest in the Jewish Agency. It may be said, without exaggera tion, that not a single new non-Zionist of import- ance has been recruited for the cause of Palestine during the year. Those who have not been insen sitive to the inarticulate views of the great lx»dy of Reform Jews arc convinced that anti-Zionism is as powerful as ever in the United States. In fact, it may be said that the past year has seen an intensification of anti-Zionism. Previously the Reform rabbis were the medium for expressing this anti-Zionism. In deference to Felix Warburg and his associates they have now largely kept silent, if they have not wholeheartedly subscribed to an economic upbuilding program for Palestine. But the members of the congregations are still as averse to the doctrines of Zionism as they ever were. Moreover, the income sheets of the Allied Jewish Campaign definitely show that non-Zionists have not contributed this year as they have in previous campaigns restricted to Russian relief work. Despite the restrictive immigration laws almost 13,CMH) Jews entered the United States during 5690. Most of them came from East European countries. It is these thousands which help maintain the ebbing power of such institutions as the Yiddish press and the Yiddish theatre. Coming from economically |>oor elements, these immigrants have not been of the type to exert a wide influence on their new country of residence. The stock market break of last October has had an effect not only on the individual earning power and capital of the Jew, but on the Jewish community as a whole. With one exception—and that was in Detroit—not a single campaign in this country during the past year has been an unqualified success. A city like San Francisco, for example, was only moderately successful in its welfare drive. Phila delphia and Boston must be debited with miserable failures. Even New York City, with the greatest charity federation in the world, has had an increasing deficit for the Jewish Federation. The individual contributions have been smaller; the range of givers narrower. Jewish education has suffered as a result, many yeshivas in New York City, for instance, being compelled either to close down completely or to restrict their activities. There is one outstandingly favorable tendency that was to be noticed during the last year: that was the genuine desire by Orthodoxy, Conservatism and Reform to meet on a common religious platform. That is the only field in which the good will movement has been notably successful. This is due, no doubt, to the fact that the Reform pulpits of this country are being manned more and more by the scions of Orthodox families. They have the basis for an understanding with the more tra ditional religious points of view. But the Jewish faith in America has experienced a series of rebuffs that have fixed the attention of many disinterested observers.