The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-04
ZANGWILL ON THE JEWS.
Author Lectures in Chicago on 'HThe
Children of the Ghetto"

Chicago, Nov. An a lecture on 1.-THE
Children of the Ghetto delivered before
l. 500 interested listeners last evening IN
the temple of the Jewish congregation
Kehilath Anshe Maariv, Israel Zangwi1
traced the history of the Jewish race
from the time of the beginning OF the
prosecutions of the Jews in Europe to
the present day and in brief excursions
from his theme carried his audience
back to ages more remote, picturing the
scenes, the customs, and the religious
beliefs in which the complex character
of the modern Jew had it's beginnings.
Without criticising or accusing of IN
territorial injustice those who entertain
prejudices against the Jews, he defend
ed the Jewish character and explained
the manner in which nisapprehenSiOnS
have arisen concerning it.
Mr.. ZangwilIs entrance was greeted
with applause and again when he rose
to speak he was compelled to wait for
some time till the applause was stilled.
He spoke in an easy, conversational
manner his address being enlivened by
numerous touches of wit and humorous
stories that provoked smiles and laugh
ter
The Ghetto ages, the speaker said,
had been the dark ages of Judaism, ex-
tending over the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries, the only CEN
turtles in the worlds history in which
the Jews did not dominate the intellect
uaI world" But even during these CEN
turtles the Jews had been leaders in a
movement of great Importance to the
later developments of civilization, in
serving as purveyOrs of news and in
laying the foundations for modern COM
merce. The latter, he said, would have
been impossible if the Jewish church
had retained its old belief that the lend
ing of money was sin.
In the popular idea of the Jew,
said Mr.. Zangwill, two thoughts are
prominent. One is that the Jew. lends
money and wins it back; the other that
he sells and buys old clothes. But the
Jew, a s old time has seen everything.
has been everything-exce Pope. And
once he came near being that. In COM
merce, in war, in science, and in letters,
and in the domain of philosophy the Jew
has eXcelled. I met Colonel Theodore
Roosevelt a short time ago and he told
me that the Jews in his regiment were
among his braVest men.
But whence have come the concep-
lions of the character of the Jew and
his personal attributes that are now
traditional? Perhaps among the Eng
disappearing people no other factor has
had much to do with determining
those ideas as Shakespeare's creations
in the characters of ShylOck and JeSSi-
ca. ShylOck was rich and JeSSicaL was
beautiful, therefore every Jew must be
rich and every Jewess beautiful I
wish it were So Laughter)
But this is not all. The Jew is not
only rich. but he is a type of degrade
ton, while the Jewess is the type of all
that is most romantic. And where did
Shakespeare get his ideas of the Jew?
From 1890 till 1865 the Jews were ex-
cluded from England. 1t seems prob
able his Shylock and Jessica had their
origin in Genesis and that his story
of the pound of flesh was borrowed
from the Persian legends.
Doubtless Dickens bad Jew, Fagin,
has helped in forming the common esti-
mate of the Jew. I am reminded of the
story Of a lions cub that saw many
paintings of Samson tearing lion
asunder. and asked his lioness mother
why there were no pictures of lions
tearing men to pieces. The reply was:
We lions have no painters Even so
the Jews have been written about, gem
orally by people of other races
Il doubt if the Christian novelist even
yet has grasped the truth that there
are two distinct kinds of Jews, the
Spanish and the German Jews-differ-
ent in language, in traditions. and in
many traits.
1T may be considered, in view of sub
sequent history, that in spite of the
prosecutions and unjust prejudices of
which the Jews were the victims in the