The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-03-24
THE JEWISH PEOPLE.

pGudlOI NduCGi W ANOibA NdlOlAhos ACOOliU
ly delivered a lecture at Chickering Hall,
New York, before the Young Mems Hebrew
Association, his subject being 1.-THE Scatter
ed Nation" His tribute to the thrift OF the
Hebrew race under the most trying opposi-
ton was unqualified. Tracing his descent
from his position as the law-glver of nations
under God, he followed the Jews throughout
the world and showed that although dis
persed and despised they had preserved their
nationality in all its purity and had always
won for themselves commercial independ-
ence. No other nation can claim such
purity of blood, and certainly none can
assert such antiquity of descent The Jew
sh people, church, and institutions still
exist. All Christian churches are but off
shoots of the old Jewish church.
With their dispersion came change ip
their pursuits, and from an agricultural
people In spite of all their prosecutions
the Jews are still numerous. and they are
now increasing and their estimated num-
bers are from 100000 to 5000, OOO
The lecturer spoke of the physical
peculiarities of the Jews, and said it was a
fact that, as rule, they were more healthy
than the Gentle race. Crime is less fire.
quent among them than among Christian
communities. their education is far ahead
of the Gentle races They contribute
largely to all Gentle charities, but seldom
ask outside help for their own. Poverty is
rare among them, and perjury is unknown.
If Jew fails in his business his brethren set
him up again, and his children do not want
for bread. They are not mechanics or
artisans-they are merchants; but there is
more of average wealth and intelligence in
the Jewish people than in any other equal
number of people in the world. Not only
has the world given the Jew no help, but all
that he is he has made for himself, in spite
of the world. The most he has ever asked
certainly the most he has ever received-was
to be left alone
Without exception the Jews are the most
remarkable people in the world. Scattered
like sheep and prosecuted almost to the
death, they are as distinct people to-day as
they were twenty centuries ago. No other
nation ever survived Punishment from its
native land. Other tribes and peoples have
been driven out of their possessions, or have
voluntarily migrated, but only to become
amalgamated with the new nations with
which they come in contact. Goths and
Vandals Saxons and Huns, all warlike and
aggressive, have been lost trace of for CEN
turtles; and vet the Jewish race reaches far
beyond them all, and is to-day the same that
it was when the temple of Solomon stood
unrivaled in all the world. The same spirit
of thrift and enterprise that characterized
the men of Palestine in ancient days is Pc
culiar to them STILL and of all the many
peoples of the globe, they, more than any
other, come nearest being wholly self-reliant.
Not that they cut themselves off from those
about them, but that by attending puncth-
ously to their vocations they succeed in ac-
cumulating the means whereby to maintain
themselves independent of help from Others.
Instead of being prosecuted their business
like habits should be emulated, manifestly
to the advantage of all who would profit by
their example, If they see fit to preserve
their national traits and their blood free
from that of other peoples, let it be SO. No
one can find fault with that. 1t is glorious
thing to be able to look back at an ancestry
which has preserved its identity through all
the great vicisitudes in which other nations
have been swallowed up, to appear again in
some new and distinct form. Certainly it is
not for Americans to hold malice against
them. Peaceable, law-abiding and self-sus-
tanning, they deserve the respect of all. and
in a country like this should have every op-