The Denver Jewish news., 1919-12-03
OUR INTELLECTUAL DISASTER


Jewish intellect will come to its own
and Jewish intellectual life will
| flourish more then ever. The founda-
lion of this belief was our old histori-
cal experience that every catastrophe
that befcll us during the last two
thousand years was followed by rise
+, T the Jewish intellect. After the de-
struction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
| there came .Iabhne, the great center
OF Jewish learning. The great cat
astrophe that befell the world as n
consequence of the destruction of the
Roman Empire, that brought about the
period of the middle ages developed
great centers of Jewish learning in the
countries of the Atlas and in the
lberic Peninsula. The catastrophe
that befell the Jews in Spain led to
very important intellectual consc-
uuences and before the Jews ceased
tG tremble ut the horrors OF the ln-
quisition, there appeared, Baruch Spin
oza. while the cruelties perpetrated by
| ChmelnitZky fructificd the Jewish
mind in both directions, in the direction
of mysticism and the direction Of ma
tionalism. But it seems that the pres
cnt appalling catastrophe that bcfell
| our people in the European countries
spelled such havoc TO Jewish intellect
that there is not the slightest chance
for its speedy recuperntion. All the
great centers of Jewish learning in
Eastern and Central Europe are deS-
troycd on account of the war and the
revolution, and the great Talmudic
academies in Western Russia are no
more and it is very questionable
whether they will ever come again into
existence The great Jewish centers
Of learning in Hungary, especially that
in Budapest and Pressburg are wiped
off from the face of the earth. The
I;abbinical Seminary in Vienna and
ether higher Jewish educational in
stitutions in Austria are really out or
existence altogether or are on the eve
of closing up because there are none
to support them. Austrian Jewry in
its present shape is too poor to sup
port institutions of learning. and Aus
trian Jews are not in the mood to
devote their energies To things intel
lcctual Galicia. a great center of Jew
Ish intellectual life before the war,
is now one vast Jewish cemetery. and
SO are many other parts of Eastern
-nl Tn,
and where Jewish intellectual life
fIOurished. The young Jewish gen
Grafton of Eastern and Central Europe
was killed on the battlefields. The
lest Jewish brains of the young were
blown out by shell fire and n great
many Jewish thinkers and scholars of
the older generation, the leaders of
Jewish intellectual life of the last
generation died during the war on ac-
count of starvation and misery. 1t
now transpires that the late Herman
Cohen, the greatest philosopher the
Jewish people has produced since Spill
oza, died two years ago from starva-
tion. Jewish literature III Europe lost
its three greatest representatives,
Perez, NIendele, and Sholom Aleichem
during the war. According to the lat
est, but happily not yet confirmed re-
port, even Bialik is no longer among
us. War and revolution have destroy
ed the organization of Jewish learn
ing, the great representatives of Jew
;sh intellect in Europe, and the young
er generation of Jewish scholars 'and
intellectuals. Poverty and misery i'll
all parts of Eastern and Central Eu-
rope have so exhausted the body of our
IeOple that there is practically no
chance for speedy recuperation of the
Jewish intellect. The entire Jewish
manhood in Europe witnessed all the
horrors of bloody war, revolution and
pogrom and it seems to us biologically
impossible that the Jewish intellect
il a short time. Europe was hell for
the Jews during the last five years
and hell is no proper place to study.
The only Jewish group IN the world
that has remained intact tho it parti
"ipated in the war, is American Jewry.
1t remained intact. physically. eco
nomically and intellectually. Just as
American Jewry being economically
stronger than European Jewry has to
come to the aid of our unfortunate
brethren across the ocean by supply
ing them with bread, so it will have
to come to their intellectual aid not
by supplying them with Rabbis and
scholars, with writer's and artists. for
American Jewry is still too weak to
do that, but by cultivatfng its own in
tellect and by thus keeping up the light
of the Jewish mind. There should at