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Hartwell Garment Company
AND
Bellcraft Manufacturing Company
Manufacturers
MEN'S and BOYS'
WORK CLOTHING
SPORTSWEAR, PANTS, SHIRTS
and SPORT SETS
•
HARTWELL, GEORGIA
New York Office
350 Fifth Avenue
Empire State Bldg.
Compliments of
2)u.m Wilt;
INCORPORATED
GRIFFIN, GEORGIA
Makers of Quality
Towels Since 1888
Showrooms: 40 Worth Street, N. Y. C.
these very minutes when I speak
to you, Israel, or at least a portion
of the people of Israel who are now
gathered in their ancient homeland,
is once again in the focus of the
world’s moral and political field of
vision.
Yet there is an insistent demand
by Jews that we proclaim to the
world and to ourselves that Jews
are not different from anyone else.
Why this insistence today when all
signs point the other way?
Perhaps it is well to consult the
teachings of psychology. The de
sire to be like other people is very
deeply rooted in every human being.
Thus it is with childhood experi
ences. Every child wants to be like
someone else. This “someone”
changes as the child grows up.
In the first stages of a child’s life
it is the parent whom the child
tries to emulate. The child wants to
conform because in conforming to
the personality patterns of the
grown-up most closely identified
with him, there lies emotional sec
urity. As we pass into adoles
cence, this same need for conform
ity persists: only the people with
whom the adolescent tries to con
form changes. Now the adolescent
no longer wishes to conform to his
parents and to their sets of stand
ards, but rather to his peers, the
people with whom he associates.
A book on the psychology of per
sonal and social adjustment by Hen
ry Clay Lindgren has this to say:
"A person who has this overwhelm
ing desire to conform is in the posi
tion of the twelve year old girl
who was being interviewed about
her attitude toward comics. She
said: "I like Superman better than
the others because they cannot do
everything Superman can do. Bat
man can fly and that is very im
portant.” When asked whether
she herself would like to fly, she
replied, "I would like to be able to
fly if everybody else is, but other
wise it would be kind of conspicu
ous.” For her even the joy and
the freedom of flight would be
dangerous because of its non-con
formist aspects.
Psychology tells us that those
amongst us who have the strong
need to conform, who fear the dif
ferent and who fear being different,
will develop an emotional system
which becomes fixed and rigid.
The latest psychological studies in
prejudices have shown us that al
most all prejudiced persons are per
sons whose psychological pattern
tend toward conformity. The per
son who is a conformist to the last
degree is also a person who will
resent differences and is therefore
likely to be prejudiced.
Now let us return to our speci
fic area of inquiry. In America
Jews, like many of the new immi
grants into this country, discover
ed for the first time the opport
unities of total freedom. Their
greatest fear was that they might
be cast back into that unhappy
past from which they had escaped.
In this respect, the immigrant ex
perienced a strong need to conform
to majority patterns. Insecurity
lay in that which reminded him of
yesterday; security in that which
fastened America to him and him
to America. Around the turn of
the twentieth century there devel
oped in this country the idea that
America was the great melting pot
of all the peoples of the world.
In this melting pot everyone would
be alike, everyone would be the
same, more or less indistinguish
able one from the other. This lack
of distinction and differentiation
would be security to all. Later, as
stresses lessened, a new idea arose
that America was not necessarily
the melting pot which would mold
all into the same pattern, but
rather that America presented
something different, something al
together new. Here each person
could develop his own individuality,
his own tradition, his own culture
and religious pattern. The glory of
America lay not in making all alike,
but in allowing people to be dif
ferent.
Today, we Jews find ourselves
under new emotional stress. Every
Jew feels emotionally involved in
the fate of Israel. Even though he is
a citizen of the United States there
is this strong bond which takes us
back to the beginnings of our his
tory, the days of the Bible and the
prophets. Brothers of ours, famil
ies of ours, live over there. Israel
necessarily has an emotional part
in our thinking and in our life.
Today, as Israel suffers a great deal
of criticism, it is natural that many
American Jews feel insecure and
draw back. In this attempt Jews
may tend to over-conform and in
effect say: “My Jewishness is really
very small. Therefore there is no
real identification between the
things I care for and Israel and its
problems.”
Of course it is true that in im
portant areas we are not different
from anyone else. As human beings,
in our human and civil rights, we
are like everyone else. Every hu
man being, of every religion, of
every creed, of every color, of every
nation is the same in this regard.
And yet we are different. We are
different because we are individ
ually different one from another.
There are no two human beings
who are alike. Not even identical
twins are really identical. We want
to be different in areas in which
human beings should differ. And
that is where it counts. In the areas
of attitudes and philosophy. What
is life? What do we want to do with
our lives? What do we think of
God and the world and the future
of man? Is ours an approach of op
timism or is ours an approach of
pessimism? Do we say yes to life,
or no?
All these questions are taken up
by a variety of religions. Some cry
yea and some cry nay.
Judaism has its own answer. It
is a Jewish answer and it is dif
ferent. It impinges upon the things
we say and the things we do. It has
to do with the way in which we
conduct ourselves personally, be
cause unless this ethical and phil
osophical and religious approach to
life affects our personal habits, it
is useless as is a book covered with
20
The Southern Israelite