Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-10-10
THE GLORY OF THE JEW
Strong and Beautiful Tribute to the
Peculiar People.

Strong and Beautiful Tribute TO the
Peculiar PsopIe.
None can blame the Jewish people
for the resentment they feel at the
many indignities heaped upon them
and the civilized world, II, indeed. It
were but half civilized. might well
shudder at the prosecutions of this
unhappy race. It can be understood
very well why the noble Order Of B'nai
Birth, which has done so much in the
cause Of humanity, should have deter
mined upon the organization Of
league to protect these people from
defamation, and all men who have the
love Of God in their hearts will sympa-
.thize with whatever dignifed effort
may be made In this direction. But.
after all, 1t is the Jew of history and
prophecy and achievement that counts
and not the Jew of the comic paper
and a decadent stage, the Jew who
has filled the earth with wisdom, the
Jew of religion and literature and sci-
ence and finance and philanthropy and
art and culture and government and
heroes, that counts in any honest ap-
praisement Of what he is and what he
has accomplished. He stands alone
among men for endurance under SUI
fering and sacrifice for prosecutions
that have hloodied all pages Of history
for loyalty to his faith when ianguish-
ing in dungeon, broken on the rack.
tortured by fire, cut asunder with the
sword, dying In agony on the scaffold.
This is the Jew, and not the cheap
and repulsive creature Of caricature
and unthinkng passion that counts In
the Judgment of the discriminating
world.
In his History of the Jews" Prof.
II. Graetz says, '"The Jewish race
during its dispersion Of nearly 1000
years may be fitly compared to a
polyp. Though It was often wounded
and cut to pieces, the parts severed
from the whole did not die. but began
an Independent existence, developed
organically, and formed a new root
stock. Driven from their original
Palestinian home, the scattered MEM
bers Of this peculiar national organism
assembled on the banks Of the Eu-
pirates and Tigris and in the palm
district Of Arabia. Doomed to ruin
there, they emigrated to Spain with
the Arabs, the most cultured people Of
the Middle Ages, and became the
teachers Of Europe, then plunged in
barbarism. Expelled thence, weakened
In heart and numbers, they proceeded
eastwards and, again they found no
resting place, they settled In the north
always following advancing civiliza-
tion, and with every burning pile set
ablaze for convicted or suspected per-
sons,p their numbers have increased
and their glory has filed the earth.
There are unworthy men among them.
thousands Of them, but they do not
represent the race-the only real aris-'
tocratic race among the sons Of men.
Their family tree was rooted I'm the
The promise was made to
Abraham by the Almighty: II will
make nations OF thee. and kings shall
come out Of thee. And win estab-
lish my covenant between me and thee
and thee and thy seed after thee in
their generations, for an everlasting
covenant unto thee and to thy seed
after thee and all the nations Of the
earth shall be blessed in him" In re-
lance upon this promise and upon the
assurance Of the royal Psalmist David
that 'the truth Of the Lord endureth
forever" the Jews have rested their
case, hoping In the mercy Of God.
They do not agree with their Chris
tian neighbors; they have rejected the
Christ Of the Christians. but they look
for a Messiah yet to come and they
have suffered for thei rbelief even un-
to death. They have, however. taught
the sublimity of living and dying for
what they believed to bn right and
they have set an example to all the
world of patience under suffering.
Some of their neighbors think that
they have either gone too far in adapt
ing themselves to the so-called "ad=
vanced thought Of the age" or not far
enough; that they have sacrificed
some of their own commandments and
laws and customs without advantage
to their system of religion. but through
all the changes of time and place and
condition they have maintained the
purity Of their race and worked foI
the good Of humanity. In all the
realms of thought and service they
have held place and achieved large
results and made great contributions
to the sum Of human happiness.
With his record in the humanities
what does It matter to the B'nai Britt!
whether or not the Jew is DETAINED by
the vulgar and misjudged by the
righteous? Let him be judged rather.
by what he has done.-J. c. Hemphill,
in Philadelphia Ledger.