The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-26

UP against the conquerors, ii was through
patriotism alone, and they We're actnted
by no motive but the desire to srs-
gain their land and their liberty. Aside
e from these national uprisings, they seldom
resented subsection to the general laws;
IL they protested, IL WAS against particular
enactments which placed them in II position
of inferiority toward the dominant people.
: In the history Of the Roman Conquests,
for example, We see the conquered bow to
Rome when she extended to them the laws
| which governed the Empire.
! Not 80 with the Jewish people. Moses,
their prophet and legislator, assigned
precisely the same authority for his judicial
and governmental enactments ~ for his
religious precepts, i, G., revelation. Not
only did Jehovah say 10 the Jews, "Ye
shall believe in the one God and We shall
worship no idols; he also prescribed for
them rules of hygiene and morality. Not
only did he designate the territory where
sacrifices were 10 be offered. but he also
determined the manner in which that terri
tory was to he governed, Each OF the laws
given 10 the Jews, whether agrariau, civil,
prophylactic theological or moral. pro-
ceeded from the same authority; so that
all these codes formed whole. rigorous
system of which nought could be taken
away for fear of saCriegc. In reality,
the jew lived under the rule of a Lord,
! Jehovah, who could neither be conquered
CNcl hSSduNti, uItl Jew hJltW DuG
! one thing, the law, j. O., The collection of
rules and DEGREES which it had once pleased
Jehovah to give to Moses, law divine and
excellent, made to lead its followers to
eternal bliss; perfect law, which the jew
ish people alone had received. With such
an idea Of his Torah or law, the Jew could
; not accept the laws of strange nations. He
could not think Of submitting to them.
He could not abandon the divine laws,
! eternal, good and just TO follow human
laws, necessarily imperfect and subject
TO decay. 1t would have been otherwise
had he been allowed to make one part of the
1 Torah. to put on one side all civil ordinances,
on the other all religious DEGREES. As it
was, all his laws, civil or religious had a
! sacred character and upon their full OBJ
servance the welfare Of the Jewish people
was believed to depend Thus our author
finds the primal cause Of Israels unpopu-
| larity In it's attachment to it's law, whether
because Israel derived from that law bene-
fits and advantages which were apt TO
| excite envy, or because 1t prided itself on
| the superexcellence of it's Torab, and con-
f! sidered itself above and beyond all other
! peoples.
This primal cause Of anti-Judaism has
not been adequately recognized. Mr.
Lazare proceeds to show that those who
! profess anti-Semitism, ignorant Of the real
! source of their sentiment, have striven to
| justify their opinion by accusations against
| the jew which do not at all agree with facts
! The racial, the religious. the political and
i economic grievances put forward by the
! anti-Semites are pronounced Ill grounded
The ethnic grievance. for instance arises
! from a false conception Of race; the re-
| ligious and political grievances are due
| to a narrow and incomplete Interpretation
| OF historical evolution, while the economic
grievance has for its sole justification the
necessity of concealing the strife going on
! within the capitalist class.
| Mr.. LaZaTe, as we have said. insists that
none of the accusations based on ethnic,
! religious political and economic grounds
| is Justified II il no more correct. for
| example, to say that the Jew is pure Semitic
/ than 1t would Inc to say that the European
| peoples are pure Aryans. There is. in fact,
| no legitimate basis for the notion Of Arysn
and for that Of Semitic. There is no such
| thing as race in the sense in which the word
! ia generally employed. that is, TO denote
human aggregate descended from the
same pair of primitive ancestors and suffer
! ing no admixturn Of foreign elements
+, throughout The entire course OF its develop
ment The belief which made purity Of
| blood the basis Of communal life. even
| though II must have been justified at q time
when mankind consisted Of number Of
! minute and heterogeneous groups, was
/ no longer tenable when these groups united
10 form cities. The idea, nevertheless,
| persisted, and became an chronological fic-
! ton which ancient cities embelished with
| legends recounting the lives of their heroic
! founders. The fiction had TO be modified
| when cities in turn began TO unite and
| nations arose; but IL survived Just the
same. and gave rise to the construction
| Of interminahle genealogies for the purpose
! OF establishing a common descent for all
| the members Of the same State.
Obviously, IL the Jews be not q race il is
unjust TO look upon them az tho cause of
| undesirable change in modern society.
| Thus 10 look upon them is really to assign
them too important i6le. role Of such
Semites seem philo-Semites in disguise.
| To make Israel the central figure of the
| worlds history, the leavener of peoples,
| the awal1ener Of nations, is absurd; never
theless. this is what not only the friends
! but the enemies Of the Jews are guilty Of
| Whether ii be Bossuet Qf Drumont, enemies
and friends alike have ascribed w the jew
| an exaggerated importance which the
latter, with characteristic untutored vanity
| has not been loath 10 accept. Mr.. Lazare
would have him rid himself of this vanity.
He points out that if the al'-powerful Church
(, of Rome has seen it's influence decrease
in spite of the desperate efforts Of the
! bOur0eo,sio to revive it. and II religious
indifference advances with the growth of
revolutionary ideas, the fault does not
rest with the SONS Of Jacob. The Jews arc
| not in themselves the creators OF present
1)iII Hl'Ip'lV ny IUe lOltt' Oh III
rted habits they have been better able
than others to adant themselves to pre-
! vailirR Cilc,lmst aLceS; they are not the
founders of this capitGlistic, flnanciering
stock jobbing, trading. manufacturing So
ciety of OURS. though they have proiited
by 1t more than any others. They enjoy
AT present many great advantages, not
! because they resort 20 methods Of pro-
| cedure which are unfair or dishonest AZ
their adverssries declare, but because.
in the course OF centuries, hostile lepisa-
| tiol, religious prosecutions and the political
and social restrictions under which they
| lived have served 70 prepare them TO- the
| present form of society ny equippirg them
with superior weapons for The daily struggle
of life
II is at the same time conceded in the
book before us that although the Jews
are not a race, they were, up 10 our own
day, nation. They did not fail TO per
petuate their national characteristics, their
religion and their theological code. which
was likewise a social code. Though they
were never guilty Of working for the de-
strllction of Christianity, and We're nere"
organized in a secret conspiracy against
Jesus they did lend aid to those who sssailed
the Christian religion-rhe Mobarnnedans.
for instance-snd in all attacks on the
Church of Rome they were ever in the
front rank In the same way, even il they
did not constitute vast secret society
the society Of the Freemasons ~impacably
pursuing through centuries as it's object
the undermining of monarchy, they did
| render important aid to the cause of Fev0-