Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-07-16
Tbe Dew as !, Farmer.
Philadelphia Bulletin, l2th.l

The Jew as a Farmer.
Philadelphia Bulletin, l2th.l
The national convention of the
Jewish congregations Of this country,
which has been held in New York
during the present week, brought to-
gether a large number of the leading
minds of the Jewish community from
most of the Southern, Western and
Middle States, and was the occasion Of.
many able debates upon various i'm
portant topics, in the u of which
much interesting information regard
ing the present views and condition of
American Jews was elected. Thus,
in a debate s~pringing out of a motion
that the sabbath should be specified
as meaning the seventh day of the
week, the fact was brought out that
in Chicago and elsewhere there are
Jewish congregations who observe
Sunday as their day of public worship,
instead Of the seventh day Of the
week. and a prominent delegate from
Pittsburg defended the innovation.
upon the candid plea that the ext
gencies Of cOmweree are 50 urgent
that some have not been able to con-
tend with them, although still hold
ing the Jewish Sabbath in as high
reverence as yer.
Another very interesting debate
grew out Of a report of a committee
on agriculture, which recommended
the establishment of an experimental
farm for the accommodation OF fifty
families, having in view the encour-
agement of agriculture as a necessary
outlet for the superintendent popula-
tiOn Of Jews in the cities. The dis
cussion of this topic brought out
widely diverse opinions. The project
was ably seconded by the Rev. DR..
Wise, of New York. Mr.. Hermann, Of
New York, and Mr.. Abrahams, of
Cincinnati, and as stoutly combatted
by the Rev. DR.. Moses, of Alabama.
The latter maintained hat the jew
has gained all his eminence and inhu-
ence, both in America and Europe, by
his residence in cities and his success
in commerce. The argument was al
most wholly directed 10 the purely
economic aspects of the case, only one
speaker, Mr.. Hermann, giving any
prominence to the historic argument,
which might have been expected to
enter largely into the confederation of
any question of this kind. Mr.. Her
mann declared that Isaac and Jacob
we're agriculturists, that AL our fore.
fathers were farmers, and that Moses
knew more about farming than Hor-
ace Greeley"
Everybody will agree with this last
proposition, because 1t would be most
disrespectful to the great law-giyer of
Israel to suggest that he could possibly
know less than Horace Greeley did
about farming. But it does not ap.
pear that anybody challenged Nh.
Hermann's general accuracy as 10
ancient Jewish history. or brought
forward the counter argument that
runs all through that history for
thousands Of years. Isaac aud Jacob
and the fathers of the JeNs. enc
rally, were not farmers, in a n odern
sense. They we're shepherds. In
their earliest known history they were
nomadic shepherds, rowing with their
focks and herds wherever the ext
gency of pasture led them. All Of
Jacobs sons, Joseph aud Benjamin
only excepted, were shepherds, and
their avocation continued TO be one OF
the chief occupations Of the people
for ages after they had a national
residence and name. Moses was
a shepherd, but there is no trace of
his eve having been a farmer. Al
history goes to show that the Jew is
essentially a trader and it is very
easy to see that his present national
existenee-for the Jews are a nation,
although scattered over the whole
globe-has been preserved by this
chronological popularity. Had the
Jew been born a farmer instead of a
trader, he would have disappeared
ages ago, under the ELECTS Of the isola.
ton ofan agricultural life. Commerce
has drawn him continually iuto com
munities at the centers of population.
1t has kept up his correspondence with
his race in other parts Of the world.
and he has thus been wonderfully pre-.
served from extinction even in the
iaceof prolonged national diSintegra.
ton hat has destroyed every other
people that was contemporaHe0us Will
the ancient Jews. The jew has hi,
witness in every land where civil
nation has made the slightest
foothold, and II is because o
a race instinct for commerc,
which cannot be eradicated. 1t doe
not follow that there have been AID
can be no farmers among the Jews, OF
that the project of disposing Of an OK.
cess Of population in the large cities
by settling agriegitHgsl eommunitie,
Is a bad or impraetvabie one. But q
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