South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-10-25
WITH LOCAL PASTORS SUNDAY
JEW ISL HUM0R
Is DEFENDED
Rabbi Cronbach Says Present Day
Caricaturcs Are Not True
Specimens.

BaODi ADTanam CrOnDacn OF lem
pie Bethel. made a slight objection
TO the Jewish caricatures in comic
papers and the facetiOuness about
fraudulent fires, large noses and bank
ruptcy commonly laid TO the Jewish
race in "A sermon Sunday morning on
Mary Antin and Her Book" He
said that these things were bitterly
resented by some Jews. lie said in
part:
There is such thing as a distinct
i've Jewish humOr. IL is difficult 10
describe what Jewish humOr IS, but il
il is not the a-suTd testing with refer
ence 10 the Jews which is TO be found
in some comic papers and which some
Jews bitterly resent. The facetiOuS-
ness about fraudulent fires and bank
ruptcy, large noses and excessive jest
ures, and the dominant love OF money
is no more a true specimen OF Jewish
humOr than it is a true picture of
Jewish life. If you wish to catch the
spirit of Jewish humor, read Mary
Antin. The fine, fluent, opulent Eng
lish does not conceal the Jewishness of
il, but makes the Jewishness more
vivid.
Book a Thing of Beauty.
81 doubt whether there is a book
in the English language which equals
this book in the illumination it tn ows
upon the subject of the Immigrant II
leaves one convinced that immig grafton
despite its liabilities and squalOTs is
capable OF Towering and does flower
into products of sweetness and life
The book not only tells about it; the
book is an Illustration of il. Mary
Antin and her book the life of the
immigrant girl and the workmanship
Of the immigrant girl are among the
things of beauty which are a JOY for
ever.
If wonder is the keynote of relig-
ion as Carlisle and others have claim
ed, then is this mornings topic as tru-
ly religious as any might be. With all
of our Tadicaiism and all of our liber-
aliSm and all Of our abandoning old
traditional ideas upon the sub. ect Of
divine inspiration, the temptation is
almost irresistible 70 fail back into the
old ways OF saying things and viewing
things.
To Come Here.
That scrawny, unattractive, awk-
ward little Waif of the Pale and steer
age of the ghetto and the sIums-well
God moving IN mysterious ways His
wonders To perform has simply in
spired her. For the miIlionth time in
the history of man the stone which
the builders rejected hath become the
chief corner stone The homely little
Jewish girl at whom the neighbor boy
spat and threw mud, whom an irasci-
bic landlady heaped with scolding and
abuse. who had TO go 10 school hungry,
who tried until famished and exhaust
ed to earn a few desperately needed
pennies by magazine soliciting-that
same little girl after a lapse of hard
ly more than 10 years is, in a week
from now, to be far and above the
most conspicuous person in South
Bend. The great ones step aside TO
let her pass The divine miracle finds
renewal in our day as il has SO many
times since first the words were spok-
en-: He raiseth up the poor out of the
dust that He may set him among the
princes even among the princes of His
people,
Prose Is Poetry.
The marvel of Mary Antin lis her
literary Midas touch. Everything she
handles becomes gold before your very
eyes She galvanizes everything no
matter how dead intrinsically and
how tedious. She is a genius in every
sense. She sees where others take no
notice she is a thrill where others
are asleep.
she IS poet even though her book
is printer rs though it were prose. In
her highest flights the language is
actually metrical and could easily be
written out in tn eform of blank
verso