Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1906-10-11
OLD MALIoNMENTs OF JEWS.
Prejudice Against
Them Explained.

Long-Existent Prejudice Against
Them Explained.
No other race has been so vilifed as
the Jew. Hatred for Hebrews has Deeh
endemic in Europe since the Dark
Ages, and even to-day In France ana
Germany the anti-Semltic movements
have considerable strength. How can
this be? Is the feeling survival OF
anger at race which rejected Jesus!
Or is it 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
recent sermon sought to answer these
questions. Part Of his discourse we
quote:
We are the victims Of the worlds
literature, Of It's prevailing creed, ana
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 a story and made Shylock the
lew the embodiment Of inhuman re-
venge.
The poet must have felt that If ever
in a human soul there could arise such
unyielding hate as he desired to por-
tray, it might, in sense, be Justlneu
In one whose heart ranked with the
memories of ages Of persecution ana
unjust hatred to which his race had
been subjected.
Here was one, the poet seemed to
say, who could well execute the VII
lalnles he had been taught He there
fore produced character dramatically
consistent, but at the same time he dld
an everlasting injury to the Jew be-
cause he produced character alto
gether historically untrue. The jew
Is anything but vndictive; he forgets
injuries readily; that is why he Is so
optimistic; he has a horror Of shedding
blood, 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
mindedness Of Lessing and the dra-
matte power Of Shakespeare shall
arise among Englsh-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 or
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 it Is the Jewish people that have
been singled out to be held up to the
world as Decides, and every child at
the time when the soul Is most recep-
tive Is inocuated with an antipathy
against every living Jew because Of an
event that took place nineteen hundred
years ago.
1t Is therefore no wonder that the
world Is prejudced against the Jew.
The tendency OF the popular judgment
Is to magnify his faults and minimize
his virtues He Is, in plain words, the
victim Of a traditional violation Of the
Ninth Commandment. He has to prove
that he IS good; the assumption always
Is that he Is bad. To such an extent Is
the thought and feeling OF the average
man pervaded by this prejudice against
the Jew that it even posons the minds
, of many Jews themselves who have not
given serious thought to Jew and Juda-
ism.