The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-07

whole history. 1t might. indeed. be said
with some show of truth that this pill
| ability is the weak side in the Jewish
| character. The readiness of the Jew to
| be almost anything and not simply his
| own self has been one of the factors pro-
ducing certain ill-will against him. Dis
raeli was the most lingo OF all imperialists
| in England; Lasker. the most ardent advo-
| cate of the newly constituted German EN-
pire This pliability is the result of the
wandering life he has led and the various
| civilizations of which he has been
| a part. He had to find his way
| into Hellenism in Alexandria, into
Moorish culture In Spain, into Siav-
| ism in Russia and Poland. When the
| first wave of the modern spirit COM
menced to break from France eastward
| over the whole of Europe, 1t reached the
| Jew also. While in France the new spir-
it was largely political, in Germany it was
| more spiritual. In its political form as
well as in its spiritual form it reacted not
| only upon the political condition of the
jew but especially upon his mental atti-
| tude The new spirit was intensely mod
| ern. intensely cosmopolitan intensely Oc-
| cidental and intensely inductiye The Jew
! had preserved TO a great degree his de-
ductIve Oriental, par.icularistic, and an
| cient mode of thought and aspect of life.
| The two forces were bound to meet. As a
| great oak is met by the storm, so was
Israel set upon by the fury of this terrible
onslaught. It Is of interest to see in what
manner he emerged from this storm
whether he has been able to bend to its
| fury, to lose perhaps some of his leaves
I
| change only in such a way to be able
| to stand upright again when the storm Is
past.
This great clash of ideas has produced
what is known as the Reform movement.
1t had its origin in Germany under the
| spiritual influences of the regeneration of
German letters produced by such men as
Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Leasing, and
Mendelssohn. 1t was aided in a large
measure by the fact that the Government
in Germany, although distinctly opposed
to anything which initiates against the
established order of things, mixes itself
very seldom in the internal affairs of the
Jewish communities. This Reform move
ment has colored the religious develop
ment of Judaism during the three-quar-
ters of the century which is past. The
heat of the controversy is now well-nigh
spent. Many of those who stood in the
front ranks have passed away. so that
more just estimate of its value can. be
reached. 1t was period of tremendous
upheavals. of great physical well as
mental pain. Many a congregation was
split in twain, many a family disrupted.
At one time 1t looked as If two distinct
bodies of Jews would emerge from the
struggle, and the union of Israel be de-
stroyed forever A common enemy-anti-
Semitism-jolned the two forces together
for a common defence; and the danger of
such a split is now fairly a thing of the
past.
The latter half of the eighteenth cen
tury found the Jews of Middle Europe at
the lowest intellectual and social point
they had up till then reached The effect
of the long Jewish Middle Ages was plain
ly visible. Few great minds lit up the
darkness and an intellectual torpor
seems to have spread its pail over every
thing \ passive uniformity of practice
prevailed in all the communities whether
Sefardic Spanish and Portuguese or Ash
kenazic German and POLISH; uniform
ity, because actual intellectual life had
been made to run in one single groove
The Talmud had been the great saving
OF Judaism in the past. In the intellectu-
al exercise which its study necessitated
the mind of the Jew had been given a
field In which it could rove at will Liv-
ing apart from the rest of the world.
with wide jurisdiction over his own af-
fairs. Talmudic law in its latest develop
l.4y for ha
Jew. The Jewish Ghetto had everywhere.
the same aspect; the language in common
use was. in all the Ashkenazic commune
ties. the Judeao-German in one of its va
rious forms. A certain severity in evalu-
ating those things which were part of
the outside world made itself felt There
was ample time and ample occasion for
the practice of all those forms and cere-
monies with which the Judaism of the
Middle Ages had willingly and gladly
fenced in the law. There had been little
occasion for the practice of the beautiful
arts or for the cultivation of letters Life
in the Ghetto was not necessarily gloomy.
but it was solemn. The law was not felt
as a burden. but it required the whole in
dividual attention of those who bound
themselves by 1t, from early morn till late
at night. from the cradle to the grave.
There was no place for things that come
from outside, because there was no time
to devote to them
But the new European spirit in its
French political form was knocking hard
at the gates of the Ghetto. Little by lit
tie IT made its way here and there into
all sorts of hooks and corners. 1t was
bound in time to be heard by some of those
living behind these gates. The name of
Moses Mendelssohn is indissolubly con-
nected with the history of German Juda-
ism during the latter part of the eight
zenith century. 1t was due to him that a
vehicle was found which the new spirit
could use. Himself strictly observant
Jew he felt the pulse of the new era. The
friend of Leasing and of Nicolai, he en-
tered fully into the revival which was
then making itself felt. Through his trans
lation of the Pentateuch u77S. etc) into
high German, he prepared the way for the
further introduction of German writings
to the Jewish masses. This was bound TO
bring with it a larger culture and great
er freedom of thought. Many of his
friends, such as Wesley, Hertz Homberg,
and David Friedlander stood by his side
in this work. With the Introduction of the
German language and German literature.
better and more modern schools were
needed in which secular education should
go hand in hand with the former one-sided
religious training. David Friedander was
the first to found school in>the modern
sense of the term. and he was followed
by jacobson in 1901, at Seesen, Westpha-
liza. and at Cassel. and by Johlson. at
Frankfort in 1911. Between the Years 1IN2