The Denver Jewish news., 1919-12-17
DR.. Joseph Krauskopf on Sar.
gents Art
Continued from Page seven.)


foremost workers for the uplift and
| advancement of the community. Had
he done this, he would not have sui
lied his hand and art with the pro-
duction of piece of Dark-age bigotry
and he would not have niarred so beau
tiful and noble building as the
Public Library of a city which, from
the first, has stood ror all that its
highest and best in American: cul-
ture.
I need hardly say, what every one
Of you who are convcrsant with Jew
ish history knows, that the very origin
ais from which Sargent's Objectionable
panel is a copy were part of the shame
full calumnies against the Jew which
were the vogue for many dark and
cruel centuries. Old as is the story of
the Jew, there never was a time when
the Synagog represented anything like
what it was made to appear on the
walls of European cathedrals. What
ever knowledge the artists of those
days had on the subject was derived
from the lying lips of fanatics, or from
the writings of scholastics who sought
nothing as much as the complete over
throw of the Synagog by the Church.
10 effect that devoutly coveted end, no
calumny was deemed too foul, no mis-
representation too false, no malice too
vicious, no insult too degrading, no per-
secution too cruel.
Ancient as is the record of the Jew,
tnere never was time when the Syna-
cog did not minister in the full light
of day, and there is not ar historian
who, valuing his reputation for
scholarship and veracity, can point to
II single epoch when the Synagog wore
not her crown upon her head, held not
her sceptre unbroken, in her hand,
Kept not the Tablets of the Law clear
in sight by which to guide her people
Alright, had not her eyes wide open
10 the light of knowledge and truth.
often when those of others were kept
tightly shut to the law of right and
justice.
No matter what the political changes
| Of the Israelltish nation were, no mat
icr how many and disastrous its over
throws, the sovereignty of the Syna-
| cog remained unimpaired. The crown
| of its kings toppled to the ground,
newer that of the Synagog. The
| sceptre of its rulers broke, never that
of the Synagog The Temple was laid
into ruins; the Synagog remained in
| tact.
Before yet the nation was over
| thrown, and the Temple destroyed.
| Rabbi Jochanan ben Saccai made his
way out of the besieged city of Je-
rusalem to the headquarters of the Ro-
man Commander, Vespasian and OBJ
tanned from him permission to estab-
lish the Synagog at the little town OF
..abne, on. the Mediterranean coast.
Thither followed his disciples, and
there they established not only place
of worship, but also seat of learn
ing, and in them-the Two always be-
ing compliments of each other in the
mind of the Jew-they laid the foun-
dation of the third, the spiritual, COM
monwealth of the Jewish people.
Isaac Disraeli fully srasped the far
reaching Importance of this move on
the part of Jochanan and his disciples.
when, in one of his essays. he said
that Judaism found its last asylum in
its synagog, that n conquered nation
changed its military leaders into rab-
bis, and its hosts into pale-cheeked
students covered with the dust of the
schools. This pale-chceked spiritual
guard of Israel, armed with but the
quill and scroll, has rendered far bet
ter service unto mankind than has Its
former-day military hosts.
The rabbis planted synagogs and
schools far and wide, and with them
they auickened fervenr religious spir-
il and an intense literary zeal. They
made of their Scripture "A fatherland,
and we of today have the proud sat
isfaction of seeing its boundaries eX-
tend to the ends of the earth. They
made possible its becoming the common
property of all, the one book of which
every European and American who
reads at all, reads at least a part, the
one book that has moulded the best
thought and action of half of the occi-
dental civilized world. founded the best
of its institutions. made possible the
hest of its literature, inspired the best
Cf its architecture and art Its lam
.nIage has become part of our daily
speech. When we make use OF such
phrases as "let there be light" "a
land flowing with milk and honey" "a
soft answer turneth away wrath
there is no peace for the wicked"
grinding the faces of the poor the