The Jewish outlook., 1905-02-24

a dinner of seventy-five New York clergy
men last week this Dewey matter was
talked over, and much feeling was ex-
pressed. Old stories against the Jews were
resurrected, and I heard more talk of this
kind at that meeting than heard in the pre-
vious ten years of clergymens meetings
which I have attended"
From what you say, the table talk of
these men of God could have been 'but lit
tie of the Bible" They can not have "resur-
rected" stories of the Hebrew prophets, nor
could their conversation have been of the
Psalms, or of Job, or of the sayings of the
Fathers or of Hillel or Akiba, of the Talmud.
or of the poets, and mOralists, and philoso-
piers, who for twenty centuries of persecu-
tion unequaled in the annals of man. kept
alive the spiritual heritage Of the world and
created literature of which the Jewish En-
cyclopedia (of which you are justly proud)
is now giving to the world a slight glimpse,
while their prosecutors were but savages and
barbarians Were the old stories that your
clerical dinner companions "resurrected at
that memorable feast the shameful super
stitions of medieval bigotry, stories of the
black death, of poisoned wells, of the hor-
rible blood accusation? Did they brand us
as Shylocks, or as Fagins, retail the sto-
ries of the Inquisition, of the Procurator, of
the Holy City, of Esterhazy, or of the re-
doubtable Count Puckler?
You may tell your theological friends
that, while shocked at your disclos-
ure, we are not d1Smayed; that, Whlle we
grieve at such a manifestation of what is
sometimes termed an un-Christian spirit, it
is not new experience with us; that, while
we recognize that the millennium has not yet
sounded in quarters where its notes might be
first expected to be discerned, we who have
been accustomed to exercise patience can
persevere for another thousand years, if need
there be; and that, while would gladly
enjoy the fruits of peace and prosperity,
rather than surrender our principles or our
conscience or what we conceive to be truth
and right and justice, we, who are the de-
scendants of those whose lives meant suffer
ing, would not even shrink from martyrdom.
Your disclosure is most valuable 1t tells
where stand. 1t warns us that we can
not afford to loll at our ease and permit the
establishment of a dangerous and nefarious
precedent. 1t teaches the oft-told but too
often forgotten, precept, that "he who would
be free, himself must strike the blow"
And now a word with reference to your
suggestion, that withdraw our petition,
"in order to gain credit for self-restraint,
moderation and public spirit" We have
been smitten the right cheek, and are
told to turn the left to the smiter 1t is
exercise to which we have become accus-
toned by the practice of centuries. 1t has,
however, grown somewhat monOtonous.
Your clerical friends, and Mr.. Dewey, who
believe that by prescriptive right they may
do all the shifting, are astonished that the
smitten should cease to feel comfortable in
the abject humiliation to which they should
have been Injured You forget that the glory
of American citizenship has aroused the con-
sciousness of manhood. You ask us to be
magnanimous and once more to assume our