Evening star., 1911-01-08
Dr.. Hirsch Calls "HebreW
Question" a Misnomer.
DISCUSSED At BANQUET
Says Christ Would Never Have Sane
toned Outrages in Russia.
ARGUMENTS FALL TO GROUND
slavonic System Of Repressive Legis-
lation, Speaker Declares, Is
Grounded on Graft.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

SpeCial Dlspatcn 10 Inc StdT.
CHICAGO. ILL.,. January 7.-Christianity.
and not Judaism. is on trial, according to
DIR. Emil G.. Hirsch, who spoke on The
Russian Situation at the banquet OF the
B'nai Birth lodges Of Chicago at the
La Sale Hotel tonight More than 200
persons attended the banquet. DR.. Hirseh
was the only speaker.
Eastern Europe, as in years before,
SO in the decade just closed, has been the
storm center of what the world has been
pleased to call the Jewish question:" said
! DIR. Hirsch.
This term Is in sober truth a mifnomer.
IT would be more fitting to speak OF q
Christian question. For In the last analy-
sis the perplexity resolves itself into this:
How deeply and how earnestly are the
powerful rulers Of the earth and the
people over whom they rule moved by
the religion they ostensibly. and often
with much ostentation, pretend to fol-
low?
christianity certainly enjoins love Tor
brother man. The great apostle whose
fiery soul set the ancient Roman empire
aglow with a new light. held that under
the new dispensation distinctions inherent
i'm blood or tongue were consumed and
fused into new and consecrated unity
Certainly Christ never could Iend Ills
sanction to such outrages as are per-
-petrated upon human beings in the name
and by the authority of men processing
to rejoice in the redemption from bondage
TO sin brought about In His glorious
resurrection.
Christianity on Trial
christianity, true Christianity. is on
trial, not the Jew. Every injustice ana
every act Of inhumanity Of which the
Jews In the Russian pale are victims
casts lurid light on the religion professed
by the instigators of persecution. Jesus
as did the rabbis of OLD, called them
and men OF hatred and fOmentors OF dis
trust and disrupters of the covenant or
humanity were not Of those to whom the
Kingdom was promised. With Jesus the
Jew may bless his lot that he Is NOT
among them that hate brother man and
lay upon him toll of tears. But what
about the discipleship unto Jesus OF the
Russian czar and his advisers?
Every argument advanced to excuse
the repressive measures OF the Russian
despots falls to the ground as an idle
subterfuge before the one great fact
that as soon as a Hebrew will adopt
Christianity he is free to move about the
empire as he wishes. This Is virtual
admission that all this talk Of the Rus
sian statesmen and economists about
the dangerous qualities inherent In the
racial composition of the Hebrew Is
vacant vaporing. 1t is a bluff.
Baptism certainly does not alter a
mans blood. IL there is in the Semite
peril to Aryan civilization how is the
danger nullified through conversion? And
yet a converted Jew in Russia, as In
Germany and elsewhere, Is sure to win
honors.
Argument Is Weak.
Conversion might be supposed to
change the character Of the neophyte.
They have attributed to the Jew all sorts
of vices and forms of viciousness In order
to vindicate their policy. Yet. In the
light Of their own character and In that
Of their religion. these men will have
hard task to convince fair-minded men of
the possibility Of turning one beset by the
inclination to do, and go wrong as they
say the Jew is, into the contrary ex-
emplar Of oCdness by mere profession of
the faith in which the grand dukes have
been reared.
Compared with his traducers. the He
brew of Russia occupies a high altitude
of moral outlook. At least he cannot be
bribed into declaring that to be truth
which he-rightfully or wrongfully-holds
10 be the opposite. The whole system of
repressive Hebrew legislation is ground
ficers, by no means overfriendly to the
Jews, have given their testimony to
this effect. 1t corrupts both the victim
and the victmiZer.
United States Is Insulted.
AS Christianity, not Judaism. Is on
trial. SO the United States. and not the
Jewish citizens Of the United States. are
insulted in the refusal OF the Russian
government to honor the United States
passports.
Whether l am ever to see Russia IL
Of no consequence. But whether the
United States government shall submit
10 further slight is the point in isue.
IL former member of the Presidents
cabinet and now the American ambas-
sador at Constantinople cannot travel
In Russia on the strength Of his Ameri-
can passport IT Is plain that the self
respect and dignity OF our nation have
been made light of. / speak out on this
subject. not because j am q Jew. but
because ! am an American.
In the name OF the religion Of Jesus
none other than our Judiasm-we are
bound TO protest against holding the
religion Of all that hate their fellow
man to be Identical with that professed
and urnAfinAA by the teacher Of Naz.