The Jewish Monitor (Fort Worth-Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, May 6, 1921 Page: 2 of 16
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Page Two
THE JEWISH MONITOR
:; Friday May 8 1921
Jewish Problems Viewed Through
Gentile Glasses
BY WALTER HURT
'0 wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel's as others see us!"
Burns.
NOTE Be It understood that this ter.
lea of articles preienta Jewish questions
purely from the non-Jewish viewpoint
and neither the editor of this Journal nor
any Jew should be regarded as responsi-
ble for or necessarily agreeing with
any opinion herein expressed excepting
quotations of Jewish origin. W. H.)
CHAPTER III.
Sociologlc Function of the Jew.
Regarding the Jew's place in the
work of world-reconstruction I am
constrained to present as a curious
exhibit a magazine article of mine
written In 1904 entitled "Sociologic
Function of the Jew." It is a casual
composition hastily written without
preparation as an emergency "filler"
and bears abundant evidence of im-
maturity; yet in the light of today it
appears strangely prophetic. While I
would not now write quite in such
fashion I have not revised my opin-
ions except in detail and have not de-
parted far from early essentials.
My sense of relative values has
strengthened with the years. I now
can see that the spiritual significance
of Judaism is more than the utilitar-
ian importance of the Jew is to be es-
teemed because and to the extent that
he personifies Judaism.
Concerning the problem of Zionism
I am not at present so confident. The
impracticability of the movement does
not appear to me quite so unquestion-
able. I am not prepared to say even
that I am not pro-Zion. Certainly I
now would write with less of the cock-
sureness of youth. I had then given
the matter no serious attention; it
will be noted in fact that I had but
a vague notion of what Zionism
might mean. At best the presenta-
tion of the subject is one-sided. In
subsequent articles I shall go into
the proposition more extensively giv-
ing both its pros and its cons.
This article elicited wide comment
in the Jewish press. The Jewish Cri-
terion characterized it as "remark-
able" while an editorial in the Jew-
ish Spectator proposed that the Jews
undertake to have me elected to Con-
gress to conserve Jewish interests.
At that time my views were regarded
as novel and radical but they since
have been adopted by so many writ-
ers that they have become familiar
place .The article is here given for
what it may be worth:
"Zionism as it presents itself to
me is a beautiful but a barren dream.
It is the noble conception of a splen-
did sentimentalist born from the
grand brain and nursed in the great
heart of Theodore Ilerzl and well cal-
culated to inspire the imagination of
a people that has cherished through
the centuries its imperishable ideals.
It is the flower of a mighty love that
never can know a momentary frulti-
tion. "Factiousness indicates infallibly
the weakness of any cause. At present
the house of Zion is to hopelessly di-
vided against itself that it is most
difficult to determine what is the pur.
pose of the movement
"Ostensibly the object of Zionism is
to afford a sanctuary for refugees of
the Hebrew race who flee from the
gentle babarisms of their Christian
brethren. This is to be done by colon-
ization in specially acquired territory.
"Leaders of Zionism delude them-
selves into the belief that such is
their purpose. But in subconscious
depths of their being stirs the death-
less dream of national rehabilitation
of the return of the Jew to his own
of the restoration of Israel's ancient
power and glory. The Jew is true to
his traditions he is unable to shake
off the shadow of the past The Ju-
dean never yet has relinquished the
hope that some day shall see once
rr-oie his towering temples ris9 by
Jordan's storied stream.
"Were not nationalization in full-
fillment of prophecy the hope and
purpose why should the Unpromising
LiiPr of exhausted po labilities )o
considered as fit territory for coloni-
zation? What is there about the bar-
ren hills and impoverished plains of
Palestine to tempt the Jew thither!
Rather would he turn his longing eyes
toward some virgin land whose undo
veloped resources offer a fit field for
the exercise of his industrial genius.
"Have the promoters of Zionism
reckoned fully the results? The 'Scat-
tered Nation' scattered before the
blasts of persecution as autumn
leaves are driven by winter's harsh-
est winds never more may be con-
gregated. The Jew is essentially a
citizen of the world intimately iden-
tified with the life of every civilized
nation. He can not be divorced from
his destiny. Colonization would mean
the gathering of the ignorant and de-
praved and incompetent into one
great ghetto. Removed from the sav-
ing influence of the cultured element
retrogression inevitably would result.
The leaven of the best in any race is
necessary to enable the masses to
rise.
"Zionism as an accomplished fact
would mean a turning back of the
hands on the dial of human develop-
ment "Colonization is an archaic idea
not consistent with the integrities of
modern civilization. It is a sociologic
' anachronism in this day of world in-
tercourse and national interdepend-
ence. Instead of building new walls
we should demolish the barriers that
yet remain.
"It now is too lato to establish a
sanctuary for any persecuted people.
Before the aim could be accomplished
the last suggestion for such a need
will have disappeared. Civilization is
making forced marches and the ves-
tige of human savargery that now
scourges the Jew will vanish very
soon. Society is preparing to protect
its weakest and most inconsequent
member
"There is no need of colonization
so long as the sun rises on this con-
tinent The gate of America stands
wide ajar and here the door of oppor-
tunity is forever open. Here is room
for all refugees and a welcome for
every Jew. Here .escaped from the
barbarity of the East that has bruis-
ed and brutalized him he will come
into the Promised Land of a greater
progress and find the Canaan of a
wider culture.
"Another instinctive influence is
back of this colonization scheme. The
Jew is loath to lose his distinctive
identity. He wishes to remain a social
integer. Stronger than all else in his
impulse to perpetuate his relgious
exclusiveness and his racial insulari-
ty. He desires to escape dissemina-
tion in the social body. Intermarriage
is increasing rapidly and he sees his
blood that for ages has run in a single
channel now mingling with the com-
mon tide in the veins of the world
even as the waters of a river flow into
the sea.
"But the Jew can not dodge 'man-
ifest destiny'. He is powerless to es-
cape the fate of amalgamation. His
function is the most glorious ever
vouchsafed to any race and vindicates
the proud claim of the Chosen People.
His mission involuntarily though it
be is to unify humanity and bring
about the broader brotherhood. There
is a luminous significance in his hard
and pathetic history. In view of his
character and capacities the persist-
ent persecution to which he has been
subjected through the ages can be ac-
counted for only on the theory of
cosmic conservation f tting him for his
destiny. Crushed by the hand of hate
to a cohesion never known to another
race his strong and superior fibre will
run like an enduring thread through
the endless serial of a thoroughly
amalgamated humanity. And it is
meet that the character which has
evolved from the bitterness of his suf-
fering should be a pillar in that
strong new structure of a universal
race. In the refining process that ac-
companies amalgamation it is phil-
osophical to suppose that his faults
(which are not few) will largely be
lost while hs virtues will survive in
their fullness to grace the character
of the composite human type.
"The Jew is by no means a paragon.
He has his proportionate share of un-
desirable qualities. But to that Wed-
ding of the World from which is to be
born the Coming Race he will bring
a dowry not to be despsed.
"In almost every field of human en-
deavor the Jew excels. There is a
philosophic reason for this which has
no relation to essential superiority.
The Jew is thorough. He is so as a re-
sult of long necessity. The world
vainly has sought to deprive him of
the means for existence. He was
quick to understand that with merely
equal merit he could not hope for an
even chance ne perceived that his
only promise of survival under the
handicap of race lay in superior qua)
locations. He applied himself. He
learned to master difficulties and sur-
mount obstacles. Discounted by prej-
udice he realized that his work must
carry a premium of value in oi
der to reach parity in the open mar-
ket As the problem grew more diffi-
cult his capacities increased propor-
tionately for Nature responds unfall-
ngly to every demand of Necessity.
"Thus has 'the Jew evolved to ex-
cellence and worthy will be ha con-
tribution to the character of the New
Race.
"The amazing vitality of the Jew is
his chiefest vrtue when we consider
his sociologic function for it is need-
ed to vitalize the rest of the world.
Other races less ancient have risen
and ruled and perished and paased
from the memory of man. But the
Jew with a tenacity that tends to
prove Ms mighty mission has surviv-
ed every struggle and clung to all
kL.i L- -1.1 J LI.
uint ne viauneu hb ms uwn
"Not only has he survived but ha
has triumphed. His greatest victory
is his self-vindication. His virtues also k
have survived. Robbed the world over 7
with ruthless hand and deprived to
all possible extent of the privilege of '
acquiring wealth today he holds the
treasure keys of every land. And
whoever masters the world's finances
is potential master of that world it-
IS
BCU.
"No humiliation ever put upon the
Jew has humbled his pride of race.
Never has he forgotten his faith that
he is of the Chosen People; and al-
ways has he been sustained in his
tremendous trials by the promise of
deliverance in his Lord's good time.
This faith this promise have held
him steadfast to his destiny. .
"In this pride of race rests the hope
of the world; but a hope that can not
reach its realization until the Jew
neither proudly proclaims nor makes
cowardly denial of his blood caring
not that he is a Jew but content that
he is a man; yet respecting his blood
enough to regard it well wherever he
meets it and meeting it everywhere.
"In this clannishness of the Jew
engendered by ages of persecution
we find the philosophy of conditions
that appear to us as cruel. His has
been but a preparatory experience.
The strongest bond of brotherhood in
the world today is that of Jewish
masonry founded on a community of
suffering and its ritual is written
large upon each heart in letters of
pain. And this it is that at last will
weld the world together. With the in-
fusion of Jewish blood into the uni-
versal social body a blood became
so distinctive that it will tincture the
whole vast volume men will meet
from the ends of the earth and look-
ing each other in the other's face will
recognize a clansman.
"This is the destiny reserved for
the Jew this is his sociologic func-
tionto break down the barriers of
race that partition society into na-
tions and give to the world a homo-
genous humanity."
(Next installment "Prejudice and
Persecution")
4
' CORSICANA. .
Buy It at Home Slogan Won By Mia
Dorothy Kaufman.
The winner of the Slogan Contest .
for the "Buy a Home" campaign put
on by the Advertising Division of the
Chamber of Commerce was announced
at the regular meeting of the Club
recently by Chairman J. N. Royall of
the slogan committee.
The prize was awarded to Miss Dor-
othy Kaufman whose slogan was ac-
cepted as the best one sent in out of
great number received by the commit-
tee during the contest '
The slogan adopted was "Buy ai
Home you'll be 10 per cent; buy
away and youll repent"
This will be the official slogan for
the "Buy at Home" campaign and
all of the advertisers of the city are
urgently requested to adopt same and
carry it regularly in their advertise-
ments. The selection of the slogan wasp
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Fox, George. The Jewish Monitor (Fort Worth-Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, May 6, 1921, newspaper, May 6, 1921; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth296811/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .