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30
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
New Fall Frocks
have just arrived
at Davis’. . .
Woolens, Crepes, Satins, and
velvets at this new moderate
price in our Better Dress Shop,
$
16
.75
Others up to $39.50
In Davis Pin Money Shop
NEW FALL FROCKS
$5.95 $7.95 $9.75
R. H. Davis & Co.
199 PEACHTREE
All of us
at our house
wish all of you
at your house
A HAPPY
NEW YEAH
A
Bigger
Better
BAM BY
BBEAB
made HiHi Wllh 1*1 IIE SWEET <11 LAM
Atlanta Baking rompaiiy
Makers of
HAM ItY lilt EAHS
Tune in for the Hamby Baking Hoys over WSB,
Every Sunday, 7:15 I*. M. i
HOOD OIL COMPANY
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS OF QUALITY
400 Lambert Street, N. W.
MA. 3196 Atlanta, Ga.
HOOKS GREETING CARDS GIFTS
JEWISH NEW 1 FAR CARDS
MARGARET WAITE BOOK SHOP
119-123 Peachtree Arcade
PICTURES BRIDGE NOVELTIES
FRAMING
The Chosen People
(Continued
yieldingness, though vaguely I felt
that in our united striving for the
truth he set himself above me and
that the essential recognition which
we finally reached did not bring him
the liberation and relief that it gave
me, to whom it opened a door and
pointed out a goal. I sensed a sub
terranean warfare, a shadowy tension,
and knew that more and more he was
becoming my opponent.
The so-called emancipation undoubt
edly marked an epoch in the life of
the Jews, he continued; the nineteenth
century movement of humanity ended
their pariahdom. Every decade
brought them closer to us, binding
them to us with the—let us admit,
external—ties of common political
and economical interests. But save in
the case of exceptional individuals the
relationship never become uncondition
al. Why? Is it because they try
none the less to preserve their iden
tity as Jews? Again, why? As long
as they were despised it was their
privilege and their duty, their armor
and their weapon to isolate them
selves, to develop their narrow com
munity, to nurse a half illusory and
hence all the more fascinating na
tion hood. After the way to a com
mon life with us had been cleared
their intellectual character changed
with amazing rapidity; with amazing
resilience they made our needs theirs
and theirs ours, followed the dictates
of the common weal, devoted their
marvelous gifts to art and science and
social progress. But fundamentally
they remained Jews. I do not say
they should have become Christians,
though many did so for reasons of
expediency, or because they no longer
felt bound to their people, or even
out of conviction. The question is
whether they can become Christians
in any but the superficial sense, as
the majority of Christians are; the
question is whether they have, after
conversion, stopped being Jews in the
deeper sense. We do not know, and
have no way of finding out. I believe
that the ancient influences continue
effective. Jewishness is like a strong
flavor; a minute quantity suffices to
give a specific character—or, at least,
traces of it—to an incomparably
greater mass. True, they have, in a
certain sense, become Germans. But
something opposes this. What might
it be? Is it their peculiar spiritual
inflexibility, in contrast to their in
tellectual mobility and fluidity? That
explanation is inadequate and incom
plete. Nor is it the power of tradi
tion—not exclusively, at any rate, or
no longer. The demands of life modi
fy and overcome tradition; and the
discipline of tradition erects a useful
barrier against extremism, against
radical changes, against excessive in
dividualism with which the Jews are
charged. What, therefore, is that op
posing force ?
I told him that his dangerous mis
take lay in generalization. There are
Jews of various sorts. All lump judg
ments are distorted and lead to ex-
F. M. DAVIS WOOD &
COAL CO.
496 Miller Alley, S. W.
MA. 0512 Atlanta, Ga.
from page 28)
ploitation for partisan i lrposes
Why not look humanly at ihe indi
vidual human being? Faub-findinp
frequently gives rise to faults, and
exaggeration is bom of repetition.
The Jews must be given time. Many
of them, hounded and intimidated,
hardly know of their right to breathe;
others are intoxicated by the unac
customed expanse of space and
abundance of opportunities.
Yet all the time I felt that my de
fense could not parry my friend’s
blows, for I spoke from a much lower
standpoint. Only much later, after
decades of inner struggle, was I able
to answer his question, his “What is
that opposing force?”—that question
whose justification I had denied, but
which none the less drove me to sin
cere self-analysis .
From the earliest times the Jews
have designated themselves the
Chosen People. The proclamation of
their faith in their election occurs
in all their myths. Without examining
the sufficiency or insufficiency of
their reasons for this belief one can
yet see clearly that on the one hand
conviction clung to so obstinately for
thousands of years involves unusually
great obligations which the group can
never wholly fulfil and that it en
genders an abnormal state of moral
tension whose inevitable result is a
series of reactions that fill the
group’s life with catastrophic occur
rences; and, on the other hand, that
such an axion, when made the basis of
a national existence, paralyzes moral
development and supplants it with
moral quietism, which leads to arro
gance and self-righteousness.
The tragedy in the Jew’s life is the
union in his soul of a sense of uper-
iority and a sense of inferiority. He
must live and find a balance in the
friction between these two emotioal
currents. I have found this in almost
every Jew I have met; it constitutes
the most fundamental, most difficult
and most important part of the Jew
ish problem. ,
From the simple, human point of
view, however, the fact that one is
a Jew makes for neither superiority
not inferiority.
I have come to realize that a race
cannot be permanently the Chosen
People, and that it cannot permanent
ly designate itself as such, wit ou
conglicting with the proper order o
things as seen by other nations,
chosen individual always is in a po
sition to assume responsibility for is
acts; but in the case of a chosen
people the individual gradually ta 'e.
on a role to which he is not witi
and for which he is not fittot . u
which leads him to claim for hnnse
the advantages of the group P 0>1 10
the while he shifts his responsibilities
upon the group. Even if we "'; ’ u
grant that a single magi
achievement might entitle a pc .
call itself the Chosen People
time—how can such a claim *
cured and defended against ci
(Turn to page 36 please)
EDGEWOOD MATTRES-
COMPANY
1546 DeKalb Ave., N. E
DE. 4538 Atlanta, t. ■