The Denver Jewish news., 1919-06-11
ELI ELI LoMo AsoyToNls
BY JAMES GIBBONS HUNENER.
(CQntiuuation;,


were ,pious folk The first Of the fam
lily mentioned in local history Was a
certain Benjamin ,Geyer, who .about
ROO was Il trombone player anu or
gapist. Indeed, the Geyers were large
ly .connected with the Evangeheai
Church. Ludwig Geyer, virtually ac-
knowledged by Baireuth as the real
father of Richard Wagner, looked
Jewish (Which proves nothing, as l
have seen dark, Semitic fisher-folk on
the coast of Galway and .displhyen
Jewish versatility. For that matter
the composer Won Weber looked like !,
Jew. as does Camille Saint-saens.
When i ventured to write of this racial
tfait-much more marked in his youth
the French composer sent me Il de-
,nial. sarcastically Nsking how man
with such II ..hOly" name as saint
Saens'' could be Jewish. But Leopold
Godowsky, who was intimate win
lin. has told me that he took MS
mothers name. As to Wasner, a ut
tie story may suffice. In 1SDG i at
tended the Wagner festival nt Bal
rcuth. Between performances i tramp
cd the Fr,,nconian Mills, My toes hurt
me. Looking for u cOrnrcutter,
found one not far from the Wasner
house. The old chap seated mt in MS
doorway, probably to get better light
and as he crouched over my feet in
the street j asked him if he had known
Richard Wagner. Know Wagner !.
lie erascibly replied. He passed my
shop every day. Many the times ]
cut his .corns. Oh, no! not here. over
yonder''-he jerlted his head in the
direction of wahnfried. / inquired
what kind of looking man was Wae-
nor. -le was u little ibowlegged Jew.
and lie always wears Il long cloak 10
hide his crooked legs Enfin! the
truth from the mouth Of babes. This
beats sNietzsche and his ''Nulture'
Geyer.
Not religion, not nationality, but
race, counts in the individual. Wng-
! ner looked like u Jew. And there
are many red-haircd Jews with pug
noses and light blue eyes. Renan III
/ lie .Judaisme" has shown us, how
non-Jewish elements were in the
course of time Incorporated within the
race. The Chazars of Eastern Europe
are Jews only u thousand years old.
views on the subject has said-in The
Journal for Jewish History and Liter
AZURE published at stockholm t"reiti-
script for Judisk Historia'D. and quot
cd by Bernard G. Richards in the
capital study of Brandes-'.frOm the
fifteenth to the sixteenth year of my
life / regarded Judaism purely as a
religion But when he was abused
as II Jew then George Brundes felt
himself II genuine Jew. Many u man
has found himself in SIMILAR posi-
ton. Atavistic impulses. in subGon-
sciousness may explain why certain
! lien. Gentilcs, scholars, by nature noll-
comIatants, have left their peaceful
study. jeopardized their life. ruined
their reputation, to battle for an OBJ
scure Jew Dreyfus. Zola. of Greek
Lcvantine origin, perhaps Italian and
lew, was one of those valiant souls
who fought for the truth. ,Anatole
France. born Thihault, another. Count
Thibault, at the time of the Dreyfus
uproar. challenged the great writer
who signs himself -Auatole France to
prove his right to that distinguished
Roman Catholic name. That the gen
tie Anntole is the very spit and spawn
of IL jew, so FAR as appearance goes /;
that since .Heine (baptized "A Christ
lam no such union of knocking irony
and tender. poetic emotion can be
noted in ,thc work of any writer. are
alike yalueless as testimony. Never
thelcss. many believe in this Hebraic
strain; just us they feel it in the
sublety of Cardinal NewmaH's writing
he WAS of Dutch stOck-aid in the
luinOr, of Charles Lalub. Both Eng-
lishmen are accredited with the pre-
cious quintesscnce," US Du Mauricr
would say.
I have had to stand n lot of good
natured fun poked ut me Tor my jew
ish propensity. 4 can stand it. as
have IA solid substratum of history for
my speclllutiOns. Some years ago The
Contemporary Review printed an arti-
Gle cutitled ''I'he jew in Music. with
this motto from Oscar Nilde's 'iSa-
lcme:" '1'he Jews believe only in