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SAVINGS
At ^ Oyr\ Compound
a, - ' /fJ Semi-annually
Backed by Conservative
Standards of Safety
ORGANIZED 1919
Hamilton Douglas, Jr., President
Dr. Willis B. Jones Vice-President
Rebecca Shuman Secretary-Treasurer
QUAKER SAVINGS
ASSOCIATION
93 Pryor Street, S.W.
Office Hours: 9 A.M. to 5 PM.
Save II'hrre You Con Borrow
The Aetna
Life Insurance
Company
s. M. CARSON,
General Agent
41 5 Grant Bldg.
Atlanta
Associates
'A r H. WISEBERG
Atlanta
' FUSSSTEINHEIMER
Savannah
C. M. HARRIS
Augusta
nam Welding Shop
Kinds of Acetylene
Welding
6 FORSYTH ST, S.W.
Main 6574
The Southern Israelite
racial habits in imitation of the Gentiles.
But the process is going on in many
directions and must be running up its
total all of the time. We see it, for
example, in the business world, where
prejudice again and again denies employ
ment to members of the Jewish race.
It is hard enough as it is to get a job.
even under the best of circumstances.
Why is not one justified, if one is a Jew,
and thus finds it difficult to earn an
honest living, why is not one justified,
I say, in meeting the world on its own
terms, beating it at its own outrageous
game? We see this, also, in the social
world, where ambitious men and women
of the Jewish race seek escape from the
arbitrary and cruel discriminations en-
fored against them by the arrogance of
Gentiles. I shall never forget the beauti
ful woman who came to me some years
ago and confessed frankly her desire to
get out of the Jewish world by joining
my church, and thus save her children
from the humiliations which she had
suffered as a Jewish woman all her life.
I had to tell her that I could not receive
her for such a purpose, and I had to in
form her that she was laboring under a
serious misapprehension in thinking that
she could get away from Jews by coming
to the Community Church. But 1 saw
her point, and pitied her plight.
There is a reason for such actions.
But a reason is not an excuse—least of
all, a justification. I can understand how
a Jew, in his moment of weakness, can
seek to escape from the burden of suf
fering long laid upon his tribe. But I
find it difficult to understand why this
Jew, in the hour of his strength, does
not see the challenge that is offered to
the best that s within him by the peculiar
destiny of his people. Who is he that he
should ask to be excused from the dis
abilities of his race, and thus delivered
from sufferings which his fathers did not
refuse to endure? Why should he seek,
or under any conditions be willing, to
miss the opportunity to face the injustices
tnd cruelties of the world as they arc
visited upon his race, and fight them until
they are conquered and done away? If
there is discrimination in the economic
world, who better than the Jew can battle
against it not only for himself, but for
others who suffer equally with himself?
If there is prejudice and hatred in the
social world, who knows so much about
it as the Jew and is thus so perfectly
equipped to overwhelm and overcome it.
It is a tradition of humanity that no man
can do a nobler deed than to identify
himself with the downtrodden and op
pressed among his kind. Garrison, when
he dedicated his life to the slave—
Gandhi, when he escopsed the cause of
the untouchable—Debs, when he stood in
court and cried out to his judges: “While
there is a lower class, I am in it, while
there is a criminal element, I am of it,
while there is a soul in prison, I am not
free!” But the Jew is already there in
the haunts of misery and oppression. By
right of birth he is endowed with this
opportunity to share the degradations of
his fellows which other men must seek.
Just by staying by his kindred and endur
ing with them the discomfitures and
limitations of their lot, he is fulfilling
within himself the highest and holiest
mission of humankind. Think of his
seeking to escape, while his kinsmen, and
millions of other helpless souls, are still
in prison! It is the Jew's destiny to
suiter, said a Jewish friend to me. His
destiny to suffer, that he may understand
injustice and have it, that he may taste
oppression and rise up against it, that
lie may discover prejudice and dream of
brotherhood! The second Isaiah under
stood this well as he worked out his
sublime conception of Israel as "the suf
fering servant of Yahweh.” “Despised
and rejected ... a man of sorrow and
acquainted with grief . . . wounded for
our transgressions . . . bruised for our
iniquities; the chastisement of our peace
is upon him, and with his stripes wc arc
healed!” This is the doom, and also
the glory, of the Jew. Who is there
worthy of the name of manhood, who
would forfeit the glory for the sake of
escaping the doom?
Yes, if I were a Jew, I would not deny
it. I would proclaim it. But not too
loud ! I would have no defiance upon tny
tongue, no chip upon my shoulder. I
would remember that the very struggle of
my people for survival has bred within
them ugly qualities of aggression. I
would recall that, just because I am a
victim of prejudice and contempt, every
fault of my personality, every exaggera
tion of my spirit, is blamed not upon
myself as an individual hut upon the race
to which as an individual I belong. It
is not I who do anything wrong, but
always the Jew! Therefore, while not
denying my heritage, I would not flaunt
it, nor blast it, nor trust it forward.
Rather would I be quiet, gentle, patient,
uncomplaining, unaggressive, unassertive.
I would let other people know who I am,
hut, like a gentleman, without striving
or crying in the streets. It was not
Jesus hut the Psalmist who first declared:
“The meek shall inherit the earth, and
shall delight themselves in the abundance
of pace.”
If I were a Jew, I would live the life
of a Jew. I would move in Jewish so
ciety, I would he active in Jewish in
terests, I would belong to Jewish clubs, I
would keep contact with Jewish syna
gogues. I would live in my home, in
other words, and I would associate with
my family. I would do this, first of all,
because it is human. I would do it, for
the second and very particular reason, that
there is something precious in the Jewish
tradition which the world cannot afford
to lose, and that is an inheritor of this
tradition I am appointed, so to speak, to
transmit to the future what I have re
ceived from th past. And I would do
this thing not only because of what I owe
to my people and to the world, but also
because of what I owe to myself. For
(Continued on page 44)
A SAVINGS PLAN ESPECIALLY
DESIGNED TO KEEP MONEY
WORKING EVERY DAY AT ...
Resources over $1,500,000.00
66 Pryor Street, N.E.
Walnut 5283
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