New-York tribune., 1919-04-16
This Years Passover

The Jewish colony, custodians of the
worlds oldest continuous civilization and
culture, as it meets this week to partici-
pate in the most ancient of festivals,
celebrates in one respect the most
notable Passover since the Diaspora
Jerusalem sign and symbol of Jewish
unity, has been delivered. flag repre-
sentative Of Judaism floats in honor
above Zion.
In the year 70, on September 7, the
soldiers of Titus, after tearing apart,
stone by stone, the massive walls, entered
the Temple. Never before nor since was
there such a siege, the conflict surpass-
ing in fury anything known even in the
present war. The killed numbered t.
100000 and the captured $4,000. Human
valor and endurance never burned with
more terrific power. In the Jewish war,
if the figures of Josephus may be relied
on, 1856, AGO were killed. Never was any
people so nearly extermnated. Even
after Jerusalem's fall resistance went
on. When Masada, the last stronghold.
was entered by the Romans one old wom-
an and a younger companion and five
children, who had crept into a cavern,
were all that were found. Fathers had
slaughtered their dependents and then
turned their swords on one another when
hope expired. Those who regard the Jew
as a nonresster and a persistent civil
ian know little of Jewish history. The
men of the 77th DIVISION come of fight
ing stock. .ar.
To the world Jewysh history is most
instructive, not on, because the longest,
but because showing, under the most
diverse and destructive conditions indie
structble qualities of human nature.
The ideas of Moses are as fresh and as
applicable now Is when first expressed.
A twentieth century constitution could
be written with no source book other
than the Pentateuch. Democracy, with
its emphasis on the enlargement of
the individual, is there, and the state,
supreme within its field, as an engine for
the preservation and enhancement of the
general liberty, is there Private prop
erty is there, and state morality, the rule
of law, the denial of class supremacy,
the recognition Of the principle that
rights are with men not in virtue of
their social status but in virtue Of their
manhood, the perception of the equal
dignity of all labor-all these things are
there. A good modern legislator imi-
tates and applies the wisdom of Moses.
The Passover this year is not only
notable because Of a freed Jerusalem but
because it speaks for the first large
scale application of the principle of self
determination, of which so much has re-
Gently been heard as if a discovery. The
dwelers in the land of Egypt determined
to be free, preferring the desert with
freedom to flesh pots without it. Here
was the earliest declaration of indie
pendence-a sublime avowal of national
ism But associated with it was the as
sumption that those who could use a land
best were entitled to occupy it, So the
self-determiners of Goshen became the
expansionists of Canaan Debates in the
tents of Israel must have been quite SINH
lar to those of Paris.
The passionate nationalists of Judah
have become Of all peoples the most in
ternationalist. But linked by no terri
torial bond, the fires of unifying sense
of separateness burned the more ardently
in the heart A temporal fatherland
was created which became in time the
model Of the great papal church. Yet
many foolish persons, among them not
few of Jewish blood, now seem to believe
that by few hastily pcnned pamphlets
they can bring to an end the patriotic
instinct.