The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1906-11-17
OLD MALIeNMENTs OF JEWS.
Long-Extstent Prejudice Against
Them Explained

Long-Existent Prejudice Arnins
Them Explained.
NO other race has been so vilified as
the Jew. Hatred for Hebrews has beer
endemic in Europe since the Dark
Ages, and even to-day in France and
Germany the anti-Semltic movements
nave considerable strength. How car
thls Der Is the feeling a survival of
anger at race which rejected Jesus
or Is 1t based on desperate hostility
toward race which can succeed In
business where a Gentle fails?
The Rev. DR.. S. Schulman of the
temple BETHEL, New York City, In a
recent sermon sought to answer these
questions. Part of his discourse we
quote:
We are the victims Of the worlds
literature, of its prevailing creed, and
the popular Judgment. The greatest
master in the worlds literature, seek
ing type that on account Of peculiar
conditions and circumstances could
stand for cruel hatred and implacable
revenge, deliberately changed the con-
tents Of story and made Shylock the
Jew the embodiment of inhuman. re-
venge.
The poet must have felt that IL ever
IN human soul there could arise such
unyleld1ng hate as he desired to por-
tray, 1t might, In sense, be justified
IN one whose heart ranked with the
memories Of ages Of persecution and
unjust hatred to which his race had
been subjected.
Here was one, the poet seemed to
say, who could we'll execute the vii
lainies he had been taught. He there
fore produced character dramatically
consistent, but at the same time he did
an everlasting injury to the Jew be-
cause he produced character alto
gether historically untrue. The Jew
Is anything but vindictive; he forget,
injuries readily; that Is why he is SO
optimistic; he has horror of shedding
Dlood, and whatever vices the Jew may
be- capable of, the one of ferocious cru
city cannot be saddled upon him.
Nevertheless, the word Shylock has
become In English speech synonymous
with everything that Is bad. This In
justice In literature will persist until
some great genius possessing the broad
mlndedness Of Leasing and the dra.
mat1c power OF Shakespeare shall
arise among English-speaking people
and create an English Nathan the Wise. |
The western worlds creed centers in
an event which, strictly speaking, be-
longs to the same category as that of
the killing of Socrates, the burning of |
Giordano Bruno, and Of Servetus. Thus
classic Greek, Catholic and Protestant
were all equally guilty of sacrificing
the best Of their time. The progress of
mankind has, sad to say, often been
purchased by the martyrdom of some
Of the noblest men that walked on
earth.
Yet 1t is the Jewish people that have
peen singled out to be held up to the
world as Decides, and every child at
the time when the soul Is most recep-
i've Is inoculated with an antipathy
against every living Jew because of an
event that took place nineteen hundred
years ago.
1t Is therefore mo wonder that the
world Is prejudiced against the Jew.
The tendency Of the popular judgment
s to magnify his faults and minimize
ais virtues. He is, in plain words. the
'ictim of traditional violation of the
Ninth Commandment He has to prove
hat he is good; the assumption always
that he Is bad. To such an extent is
he thought and feeling of the average
nan pervaded by this prejudice against
he Jew that it even poisons the minds
4 many Jews themselves who have not
iyen serious thought to Jew and Juda-
SIN.