The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1920-09-15

1t goes without saying that many
are the themes taken mp by the Ger
man-.Iewish authors in recent years,
quite irrespective Of the fact that Il
great number of them. like WnSScr-
man. Kraus and others draw their in
spiration from general German en-
vircament. or still greater number
have undertaken to depict only con
tlitiOns of the nearest ana best known
environment and to make their work
strictly local" affair. We thus see
Sclnitlezr draw his principal char
acters in "Reigrn." "Anatol." and even
in Der Junge Mcdardus" from his
own Vienna home and thus become the
typical exponent of Vienna iIr German
literature. Franz Wcrfel in his adap
tatiOn of Die Trojanerin" went to the
ancient classics for material to his
work. and yet: even tho superficial
glance at tile works Of the two poets
would seem to Indicate that they are
sufficiently remote from Jewish life
to he genuinely German writer's. still
there is some Justice in that claSsi-
fication of n Semitic by-tastc." and
may they hide it or deny it. their
Semitic point OF view or rather til"
Semitic makeup of their personalities
will stamp whatever they produce with
an indcliblc Semitic feature. Such
is. for example. Reer-IIoffmann's Red
ItZik in his Scarf Won CiarolaiS.' the
type of n martyrrd jew which reminds
you very strongly Of Shakespeare
Shylock. Red ItZik is also a son of
that remarkable race. which after n
martyrdom of generations and cen
turtles rises again to new glory. Blu;
vet, what II difference! Shylock Is n
Jew and his tragedy is that of the
race. still in Shakcspcarc's description
there is less tragedy and more revenge
which is undoubtedly not Jewish. like
Shylock'S inSistc:Ice mp on n pound of
flesh. But it is different with Red
Itzik. Here the jewish woe is de
picted not only as it is. hut as it came
to he. Here both tho form and tn,
conception are .Iewish--Hnd such is the
condition of the Jew in the cntir" field
of German letters. where Jews are the
authors 1t is the Jewish spirit and
the Jewish philosophy. erected upon
the fundamentals of true and pure
Jewish ethics. which remained wifi
us in spite of prosecutions. in spite
% II tt.,t.
is this mdaunfcd Jewish spirit which
causes our enemies to snccr at our Of
forts in the field of German letters
calling it a "Scmiiic by-tnstc." Bui
the form is not ours; we derived 1t by
imitation or absorption from our
lcighbors, vet again clothing it with
a Jewish spirit and Jewish ideals. IN
this manner we have revived and re
modelled the literatures of the world
orr tendency to speculation and phil
osophic investigation gave way to Il
facility of form and expression which
made If possible for us to combin,
Hellenic beauty with Jewish sens,
nf Justice. Jewish spirit with Greek
culture
The GcrmaI critics discovered ii
early. The thoro German refused t.
receive the Semitic by-tastc." IIeinC
:, Us charged with being more of a
thinker than n poet. and also that his
lowers were destructive rather than
constructive. His ironicaI verbal cx
t,lrsions against Germany were regard
ed as so much evidence of his Semi
tic mind The critics went further.
They became aware of the fact that
this Jewish stamp upon Hcinc's work
might turn to be harmful or danger
one TO GERMANY, A charge went broad
cast that German literature was being
.Juloized" Hundreds of writer's. he