The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-27
THE JEW In AMERICA.
According to Mr.. Zangwin Their Nor
al Average Is High.

New York Journal.
All the Jews feeling the stimulus of Amer
lean life which is Western life in its latest
expression. have shaken off or modified ORR
entail life. This wave of modern thought
and this Western way of living, combined
with their dispersion through vast spaces,
! instead of being huddled together in the
warmth of common religion has de-ori-
entalized them here more than anywhere
except Germany. But at present. stimulated
by works published by the Jewish Publica-
ton Society, of Philadelphia, there is re-
action toward orientalism, of which 1t Is
impossible now to foretell the extent. The
Jewish Journal this week says this will be
increased by this play of mine.
Hitherto these peculiar Oriental manners,
customs and ceremonies. being conserved
chiefly by the poorer classes, have been
considered vulgar instead of picturesque.
But the mere fact that forms and cere-
mon:als are conserved by poor people does
not make them vulgar. And in so far as
American Judaism is beginning TO perceive
this 1t has a tendency to gravitate back
toward the point of view it thought 1t had
shaken off forever 1t begins TO perceive
that these things are part of a vast histori-
cal chain, which links them on to the period
before Greece and Rome fiourished.
In short the Jews are beginning to evolve
the historical sense, which is only variety
of the aesthetic sense. since whatever Is
past begins 10 gather color and atmosphere.
Thus, L am told, many American jewish
families. who generation ago SOLD OIL tnelf
Sabbath lamps as vulgar evidences or their
past have not heSltateG TO Duy them pach
ii ten times their former price, perceiVlns
that they are beautiful and historical OBJ
jects.
Semitism in America. Indeed, j have been
pleasantly struck with the magnanlmity
and tolerance of the American people Ihus.
last year, when l was in Philadelphia at
the season of Jewish New Year, was
much gratifed to find a great daily organ
coming out with the Jewish New year
greeting, printed in Hebrew, above Its title.
This is a thing L have never before seen
in any newspaper in the world, and it
shows the sympathetic ties between Jews
and their fellow-citizens. Many New YORK
festivals which the Jews have observed TINS
month in celebration OF the. year 566O, ac-
cording to the Jewish calendar.
1 believe il has been established that the
United States is not Christian Nation,
inasmuch as there is no established church
of any kind. and that the broad prlnclples
Of the brotherhood of man and the father-
hood of God suffice as basis OF mouus
vivend for all sects and classes,
1t is only in newspapers that l have read
of petty examples of American anti-Semit-
ism such as the exclusion of Jews from a
few summer hotels. Although 1 am willing
to believe that the blame is to be divided
both between the excluded and the eXclud-
ers, yet l could wish, for the sake or the
great principles of the American Constitu-
ton, which should override the comfort or
| discomfort of few summer boarderS, that
| public opinion should stamp decisiyely upon
this embryonic germ of some future Drey-
fus drama. Possibly some few Jews VINO
have gained money before they have had
time to gain culture may be little loud
and little unpleaSing TO many gentlemanly
Americans of the same income. But ex-
clusion carries with il such tremendous
dangers and such peril of resuscitating the
old medieval savagery which Americans
came 10 overthrow. that this deadly weapon
of social accommodation should be re-
sorted to only whenever any other method
fails. And as who has closely studied
the Jewish character In Its SHADES as wen
as its lights, as one who has always writ
ten without fear or favor, L can assure our
squeamish and impatient American aristo-
Gratis that the disappearance of any I'M
| pleasant social taints IN the Jew Is only a
question of one generation.
The most offensive Jew who has made
money is humbly anxious for his children
| to have better social advantages than he
| had. And from the strident and asseruve
| Jews who have grown coarse in the strug-
| gle for existence will come the quiet and
| cultivated ladies and gentlemen who will
| be an enormous force for good in the Amer
| lea of tomorrow. The same is true of Amer
| lea at large not merely Jews.
You may see these finer specimens spring
ing up all around and coming to the front
| in your schools and universities. AS an ex-
] ample very near at hand, and one that nat
urally occurs to me, here am L sitting III
| the rooms of DR.. Hollander. professor OF
political economy in the Johns Hopkins
University, whose work on THE Financial
History of Baltimore Is already classic
i have just migrated from the rooms, In
| Washington, of DR.. Cyrus r. Adler, the
| famous Orientalist and keeper of MSS. In
| the Smithsonian Institution, and DR.. Erie
| denwald. who is one of the librarians OF
Congress. When it is remembered that an
other DR.. Adler was the protector of the
Midway Plaisance in Chicago, which was
! built by a Jewish architect of the same
name, you have high examples of the strik-
| ing way in which the Jew is to the fore
promoting the best interests of every ma
| ton.
There is not country In Europe in which
| investigation will not show the hand of the
| Jew behind the greatest national organiza-
| tions. The Importance of all that he does for
| good is negatived by the disproportionate
| attention concentrated on the few Jews who
| happen to be wicked and vulgar.
That the Jews are n race of angels is not
more true than that they are a race OF
| devils. The truth is that their average OF
| public and private virtue is higher rather
| than lower than that of Christian people
many elements of which have never yet
been redeemed from their primitive pagan
ism. This is only natural when we consider
that Jewish civiliza ton is some three thou
sand years Old whereas a thousand years
after Christ half of Europe had not ac-
cepted Christianity even nominally.
Rhodes Faces the Foe.