The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-08-19
RABBI Says WRITERS
HAVE |NR 4 lIG!|:. JEW
DR.. Levi, at Atlantic City Chau-
tauqua, Condemns Authors
for Misrepresentation.

Atlantic City, Aug. 1s.-In his ser;
mon on "Jewish Characters in Fiction
at the Jewish summer chautauqua,
Rabbi Henry Levi Of Wheeling, talked
of the "Jew of Malta,' condemned
the manner in which the Jew was de-
pictel by nearly all writers except
George Eliot. He called Marlowe's
and declared that no such character
had ever appeared in the nation.
elbow came Marlowe by such igno-
rance?' he asked. ~ =
Marlowe was killed in London dur
ing the plague, and so far as l have
been able to discover, never left his ma
tive land. He could have known of the
Jew, therefore, merely from what he
heard or read Of him, and neither liter
allure nor hearsay had one kind word
for creature SO universally despised:
the Jew and prejudiced against him,
and the same was true of Marlowe.
"But little as Marlowe could have
known Of the contemporary Jew of his
own land he could have known less of
the Jew of Malta. 80. .....:
"Critics are agreed that the Jew
of Malta is Marlowe's poorest work.
We may rest assured that Barabbas is
his poorest character. Externally and
internally says Brandes, tShylock, to
the inmost fibre Of his being is a type
Of his race in it's degradation
I Barabbas Was Impossible.
/ "But Barabbas is not representa-
tive Jew. Whatever sources from which
he was drawn, there never was, there
never could be such Jew. Combine
| all the worst characteristics of a score
of the poorest and most degraded mem
bers Of the fold and their record will
not approach that Of this one fend.
''The Jew has been commercially sue
cessful. He has at times been guilty of
usury. Historic conditions forced it
upon him and did not have him with
1000 years he did convert whatever he
managed to save into gold and jewels.
It was necessity. Sometimes he did be.
| come rich. Considering the terrible
handicap upon which he labored he de-
served credit for his success.
| "There have been ambitious Jews
but history records the name Of none
who plotted wholesale murder Again
and again the. Jew has been accused
of ritual murder. The first proof Of
the truth of the charge in a single in
stance has yet to be offered.
History Corrects Mistakes.
/ q :. g
"And yet here was Barabbas, living
on an island where no Jew was per.
mitted, practicing faith which was
not tolerated, and yet, with an attitude
| toward his faith which no Jew ever as
suned, fabulously wealthy, and bow.
ing down to his wealth in an alteration
/ that leaves no room for parental az
lection, seeking the death Of his daugh
. ter, hating guilty and innocent alike
with no sense of honor or justice, car
ing only for revenge, devoting his lifa
to it and reveling in the flow of hui
man blood.
"This is Barabbas. I ask you what
is Jewish, what is human, what is pos.
sible about him? Today we can smile
at Barabbas, not because he is a Jew
or because he meets his. deserved end
but because he is so impossible, and
therefore so absurd. 81.
Describing the England of Shak-
spore, Green, the historian, accuses Mar
Howe. Of being extravagant, unequal,
Estooping even to the ridiculous in his
cumbrous and vulgar buffoonery. Mar
lowe died ignorant of the wrong he had
Sc done the levy and III eref ora ,inmonanf ~