Newspaper Page Text
r »*e Two
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, July 30, 1965
PLAIN TALK by Allred Segal
How Much of A Jew Are You?
(A Seven Arts Feature)
The man had signed his letter
“A Most Faithful Jew” and was
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finding fault in me as Jew . . .”i
How much of a Jew are you, any!
way?” he asked.
He doesn’t like my style of
being Jewish ...” A so-called
Jew who follows his own way of
being Jewish” he says of me.
“And can a Jew really keep on
being Jewish . . . away from his
fathers? They created the eter
nal Judaism for us, but a lot of
their descendants choose their
own direction of being Jewish.”
He describes himself as Jew .
. . “I am not one of the old men
either . . . still quite young, I
say. As Jew I was brought up in
America by parents who all
through their lives lived the Ju
daism they had received in their
small birth-town in Lithuania;
they taught me to be faithful to
their old style of Judaism, and
I have kept the faith.
“For me, attendance at the
synagogue is not just an occasion
for Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kip-
pur. I am in schul every Sabbath
and I am away from my business
all day. The demands of business
keep me from joining the minyon
in the synagogue each morning,
but I perform the morning serv
ice at home in t’fillim and talith.
'T’ve taught my children to go
along in the same direction, and
they are following me; each
morning they take up their t’fil
lim, each Sabbath they’re in
schul with me. Thus they keep
going on the good way of life
that is the true Judaism. But
what sort of Jew are you, Segal?
You are one who wanders atound
by direction of his own home
made doctrine, but still calls him
self Jew. "Wake up Segal.”
I had started thinking up a
reply to this man “What sort of
Jew are you, Segal?” . . . when in
my coat pocket I came across a
fairly short answer to the ques
tion, “What is a Jew,” and a
much brighter and livelier one
than I could give. It was out of
the high wisdom of the great
Russian novelist and Christian
philosopher Leo Tolstoy. It had
been found among his books by
Rabbi David Indich (Orthodox)
of our town.
Mr. Tolstoy began with the
question “What is a Jew?” and
he replied: “This is a question
asked by many individuals, both
Gentiles and Jews. Is a Jew one
who by accident of birth was
born of Jewish parents? More
over, why is it that for thousands
f years this small tribe has out
lived mightier and more influen
tial empires than itself? What
kind of peculiar creature is the
Jew whom all the rulers of all
nations have together or sep
arately abused, molested and
persecuted, trampled and butch
ered, burned and hanged . . .
and in spite of all this is yet
alive. What is a Jew who has
never allowed himself to be led
astray by all the earthly posses
sions offered by his oppressors in
order that he could change his
religion?”
Then Mr. Tolstpy goes on to say
just what our religion is made of.
Says he: “The Jew is that sacred
being who has brought down
from heaven the everlasting fire,
and has lighted with it the en
tire world. He is the religious
source, spring and fountain out
of which all the rest of the peo
ples have drawn their beliefs
and their religions.
“The Jew is the pioneer of lib
erty. Even in those olden days,
when the people were divided in
but two distinct classes . . . slaves
and masters . . . even so long
ago had the law of Moses pro
hibited the practice of keeping a
person in bondage for more than
six years.
“The Jew is the pioneer of civ
ilization. Ignorance was con
demned in olden Palestine more
even than it is today in civilized
Europe. Moreover in those wild
and barbarous days, when neither
life nor death of anyone counted
for anything at all, Rabbi Akiba
did not refrain from expressing
himself openly against capital
punishment, a practice which
today is a highly civilized way
of punishment.
“The Jew is the emblem of
civil and religious toleration . . .
‘Love the stranger and the so
journer’, Moses commands, ‘be
cause you have been strangers
in the land of Egypt.’ This was
said in those remote and savage
times when the principal ambi
tion of the races and nations con
sisted in crushing and enslaving
one another. As concerns religi
ous toleration, the Jewish Faith
is not only far from the mission
ary spirit of converting people of
other denominations, but, on the
contrary, the Talmud commands
the rabbis to . . . point out to
would-be proselytes that the
righteous of all nations have a
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE
share in immortality. Of such
lofty and ideal religious tolera
tion not even the moralists of our
to produce the oracle of God, he
who has been for so long the
guardian of prophecy, and who
transmitted it to the rest of the
world . . . such a nation can not
be destroyed. The Jew is ever
lasting as eternity itself.”
That’s about all of Mr. Tolstoy’s
idea of what a Jew Is, and I
thank him for answering my
question. I hope I’m that sort of
Jew, though I must confess that
from time to time I fall down
from being the high-up human
being whom Mr. Tolstoy presents
as Jew. But I do pick myself up
and start running toward the
high-spot again.
And thanks to Rabbi Indich for
introducing me to Mr. Tolstoy.
& 'emts %■%
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