Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-21
CHAMELEON AMONG RACES.
Seldom a Creator. the Jew is a Born
Intermediary.

There are no subjects more Jealous
| for their adopted fatherlands, indeed
they are only too patriotic. There are
no Ottomans 50 YoungTurkish as the
Turkish Jews, no Americans so spread
eagle as the American Jews, no section
of Britain so lingo as Anglo-Jewry,
which even converts the Ghanukah cell
| ebration of Maccabean valor into a
British military festival.
OF the two British spies now confined
| in German fortresses one is Jew.
The French Tewry and the German
reproduce in miniature the Franco
German rivalries. and the latter even
apes the aggressive Welt-Poiitik.
All this ultrapatrotism is probably
due to Jews feeling consciously what
the other citizens take subconsciously
as matter of course; doubtless, too,
certain measure of protective mimicry
enters into the ostentation.
AT any rate. each section of Jewry,
| wherever it is permitted entrance into
the general life, invariably evolves
somewhat overcolored version of the
life in which II finds itself embedded,
and fortunate must be accounted the
peoples which have at hand so gifted
and serviceable a race, proud to wear
their livery
What wonder that Jews are the chief
ornaments of the stage, that this cha
meleon quality finds its profit in ar
tistic mimicry as well as in biological?
Rachel, the child of a foreign pedler
in a Paris slum, teaches purity of die
ton TO the Faubourg st. German;
Sarah Bernhard the daughter of Dutch
Jews, carries the triumph of French
acting across the Atlantic. A Hungarian
Jew, Ludwig Barnay, played leading
role in the theatrical history of Ger
many, and another, Won Somewhat, in
that of Austria.
For, if like all other peoples, the
Jews can only show few individuals
of creative genius, Heine. Spinoza,
Josef Israels, a Mendelssohn. etc,
they flourish in all the interpretative
arts out of all proportion 10 their
numbers
They flood the concert platforms,
whether as conductors, singers or per
formers. AS composers they are more
melodious than epoch making. Till re-
Gently Impractical in painting and
sculpture they are now copiously rep
resented in every gallery and move
ment, though only rarely as initiators.
Indeed, the Jew is born inter-
mediary, and every form of artistic and
commercial agency falls naturally into
his hands. He is the connoisseur par
excellence, the universal art dealer. His
gift of tongues, his relationship with
all the lands OF the exile, mark him
out for success in commerce and
finance, in journalism and criticism, in
scholarship and travel
1t was by their linguistic talents that
the adventurous journeys of Arminius
Vambery and Emin Pasha were made
possible.
If a Russian Jew, Berenson, is the
chief authority on italian art. and
George Brandes, the Dane, is Europe's
greatest critic; if Reuter- initiated tele
graphic news and Blowitz was the
prince of foreign correspondents, if the
Jewish bank of Amsterdam founded
modern finance and Charles Frohman
is the worlds greatest entrepreneur, all
these phenomena find their explanation
in the cosmopolitanism of the wander
ing Jew.
Lifted 10 the plane Oh luedllSHl, TINS ,
cosmopolitan habit of mind creates
socialism through Karl Marx and Las
sale, an international language through |
DIR. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esper- |
anto; a prophecy of the end of war |
Jean de Bloch. an international |
institute of agriculture through David |
Lubin and a race congress through DIR. |
Felix Adler.
For when the Jew grows out of his |
own Ghetto without narrowing into his |
neighbours, he must necessarily possess |
a superior sense of perspective
As a physician the Jews fame dates
from the middle ages, when he was the
bearer of Arabian science, and the ira
dition that kings shall always have
Jewish physicians is still unbroken.
DIR. Ehrlich's recent discovery and DR..
Haffkine's incubation against the |
plague in India are but links in long
chain of Jewish contributions to medi-
cine
Nor wourd It be possible to mention
any other science, whether natural or
to which Jewish profess
sors have not contributed revolution
izing ideas. The names of Lombroso |
for criminology, Bentley for Sanscrit, |
Jules Oppert for Assyriology, Sylves-
ter for mathematics ana Mendeleiff or !,