Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-07-24

DisaSrees with Taft and Rabbi Wise.
To the Editor of the Evening Star:
President Taft, Rabbi Wise and 9TH
ers speaking In similar vein, 1 fear,
a v once more started upon its
rounds the idea that the prejudice
against the Jew is racial. However
true this once was, it certainly is not
true now; the cause of whatever of
this prejudice which remains today is
not to be found in anti Semitism, nor
In the odium t~heologicum. or In m
of It's frightening shadows. The cru
ci1xion of Christ has little or nothing
to do with It. Nor was Mark Twain
at all on the right trail when he
pointed to the %cornering of corn by the
Jew Joseph as typical of the race, for
his Is a trick Of scarcely
more typical of the Jew thar of the
average An~glo-Saxon. Quite likely,
character should be the only test of
admission to hotel or club; not race.
not religion, and, were we strictly log
ical. we would be compelled to add, not
color.
Leasing put it charmingly when in
his story he made the Jewish Nathan
say to h young Christian monk,
bless us! that which makes
me to o a Christian, makes to me
a Jew" The hotel keepers, MIR. Smiley
at Lake Mohonk and Mr.. MelviI Dewey
at Lake Placid would say Amen" to
this, n still exclude the Jew. Both
of these men are gentlemen" Chris
tians' and-business men; so, likely as
not, his friends would Jay the same
of Colonel Garrard, the army officer
reprimanded by President Taft for his
anti-Jewish ruling.
But why blink facts and quote plati-
tudes? 1t is a condition, the product
of the ages, that confronts us. The
coarse, utterly brutal treatment of the
Jew for the past 1000 years-martyr-
ing, IL Rabbi Kohler tells truly, more
than SO, 200, 000-has made the Jew ag-
gressive, self-assertive, clannish-a
larger per cent. of them SO than are
~ VIZ OthCl ClNiliAGu NATIONALITY.
If this were not true then the Jew
would be something more or less than
human. Our reapings today are of yes
terday's sowing. We should not whine
If we find a whirlwind or two in the
harvest. this is human natures way of
defending itself against outrageous in
justice.
But these qualities, however reason
ably acquired, are not clubable. If any
other race. no matter what its religion
or color, possessed these same qualities
in the same exaggerated degree 1t
would certainly be Disseminated
against. This is simply a fact. Does
Rabbi Wise doubt If the Jews were in
the majority and the non-Jews ex-
hibited in the same degree these nom
clubable qualities that the Jewish
Dewey and Smiley would shut the
doors OF their summer hotels against
the non-Jew? Human nature, down
deep, is not troubled with boundary
lines of blood, or religion, or color.
The Jewish race is a strong race
the greatest, qualitatively, in history.
and it's greatness has never failed
Through any craven fear of being
great" In due time the American
melting pot will get rid of the objec-
tionable exaggerations. But what is
to be done in the meanwhile? Would
Rabbi Wise tell us frankly what would
be his advice were he adviser-in-chief
at Lake Mohonk or Lake Placid?
Would he apply the same test of adj
mission to GENTLE and Jew? Quite
likely he would, and quite likely his
test would be "clubableness." But
how would he prevent the cl~annishness
and assertiveness of the Jew from
driving out the Gentle?
Some years ago / was at a popular
resort. The broad piazzas were much
used for morning and evening prone
nading. That summer eight or ten
Jewish families were among the guests.
some of them as fine people as / would
care to meet. But many of these fami-
lies. without any intentional annoy
ance, would group themselves on the
piazzas for conversation, for card
playing and other games. IN 9 way that