New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-24
THE REAL JEW.
"A Licely Consideration of His True
Place in History.
~rr JEWISH SPECTRE BY Ceorsn y 1r,....-
.s-.a Vi. 81. Dnl.hIaaaN Pa q. e---eL.

Emo, pr. vi. 81. Doubleday. Page & Co '''''
The laying Of ghost IS serious matter end
n. who has accomplished the task. either win
hook and candle, or with the searchIight of SGT
eutIfc exposition. may perhaps be pardoned ~
tu recording his success. he adds here and there
g few grewsome details and picturesous fas+
ures 20 his Imaginary victim in order 70 be,sb+a,
the effect Of his own achievement Mr.. gsrne-
has undertaken TO allay the fears-of thoss who
had any-that the Jewish people are 70 ba ra
ssrded as a menace to Christendom, and to dis
kipate into thin air spectre" that he claims
p,a have raised up needlessly to frfghten orr
selves This spectre is. of course, the feeling or
apprehension that in some mysterious wav tha
Jews are different in their origin and history
from all other races of the world; that their
preservation Of their racial identity and char
ecteristics. despite their dispersal among the
nations Of the earth has some supernatural
meaning and that in some unknown, and there
fore the more disconcerting manner thew are
"6vineIy' destined TO come into their own"
again, and, as Gods chosen people TO attain
dominion temporal. spiritual and. no doubt
commercial. over the inhabited universe
Il is not 10 be denied that Mr. Warner sets TO
work with a right good will and full bag OF
ammunition to riddle this interesting apparition,
u disnember and TO disembody it. until it not
only has not a leg to stand on. but indeed moth
ing for the leg 10 support if 1t had one. 1t is
doubtless true that It is the fashion to view
with alarm the progress that the Jews have
made in America and elsewhere. and to see in
their successes q threatened invasion of one
country or another. This feeling expresses itself
IN one way in one place and somewhat differ
emily in another. and can hardly be regarded as
conjuring up any very fearful boyle anywhere.
spooks together and constructs a composite
hobgoblin of their most threatening character
istics the result is really phantom ominous
As & is Fictitious. This appears to have been
M Warmers method, ana if his task of ghost
LAYING" is thereby rendered the more easy, it is.
at least. made none the less Interesting.
The author starts out by showing that. indeed
far from being spectre the Jew, individually
and collectively. is intensely and essentially
human. and is neither so old nationally nor so
pure rscalIy as we have been led to regard him,
and IS far less important historically than it has
been natural for US to infer from the dominating
positton he assumes for himself in the Book from
which the greater part of Christendom derives
not only its religious inspiration. but its first and
strongest impressions Of ancient history We
see that the Jew. while persisting a racial
type through his adherence to his ceremonial
religion, has always received, from the earliest
times until to-day q moulding lnHuenCe from IIle
nations among whom he has dwelt and that he
differs in his national type as greatly as those
nations themselves. It is only aecessary'to COM
rsrs the Jews Of Rumania and Russia with
those Of Portugal and Spain to realize the fact
Mr. warner argues with force that the Jew has
in fact received far from the people with
whom he has mingled than he has contributed TO
them, or owes, indeed. TO his own initiative.
point that he fails to bring out with sufficient
emphasis though It may be read between the
Ines Of his disquiEtion. is that the Jew has been
strongest as Jew where he has been weakest
as al individual. and that TO the persecution
which he has suffered IS largely due not only his
racial persistence but the development of his
least lovely characteristics. Where he has been
allowed free play, The Iberian Peninsula
and in America. he shows a tendency to assim-
iIation with the national type that in this coun-
Try, certainly, seems to foreshadow an assimila-
ton into the national life and an ultimate OBJ
liberation Of racial demarcatiohs. The political
freedom he enjoys here is making him impatient
Of the restrictions imposed by his religious cere-
rnonialisrn. and his attitude is aptly illustrated
By M Warner in the following paragraph:
1t strikes me that the Jewish preacher OF, Of our
day IS coming 10 sec how much he owes to the ad5
e5 q s is Tc 1UT te BeaTd and his that Jesus
age but Of p pzS This gear the rabbi said. in
numerous pupits that GhT1st3ss Is Sei Fa
The volume shows the result of wide research
and considerable depth of scholarship. and is
written in a pungeutIy lively vein, that renders
II extremely easy reading 1t is entertaining
and illun1inatfve to the Gentle. and should be
void Of offence to the Jew. for what sane person
would not prefer to be regarded as man with
all a mans faiIings. than as spectre how
ever awe-begettins?