The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1920-04-09
THE AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD
wv yHEN Palestine once more be-
M comes the homeland of the Jew
- W isfe naonla Tho laws and tho

Arabs, JACOB ana lShmael, Will have
re-established their old, 1ong-forgot-
ten and fong-neglected relationship.
The sons Of Jacob will once more find
themselves almost surrounded, by the
offspring of Ishmael Nephew and
uncle will have an opportunity of re-
Ilewing their early acquaintance and
friendship, and resolving to live hap
PLY near each other ever afterward.
The close relationship, that of uncle
and nephew, between Ishmael and
Jacob, is attested by historic tradi-
ton, and linguistic facts. To begin
with, we have the patriarchal genoa
logy Of our Bible. Isaac, the father
of Jacob, and Ishmael were half
brothers, offspring of the same father,
Abraham. True, Ishmael's mother
was not of the same race as Isaac's.
She was an Egyptian, and originally
Abraham's bondwoman, by which the
narrator of that Hebrew tradition
meant to convey the information that
in Ishmael there was not the pure
Abrahamic strain; that he was rather
Of mixed and inferior breed. The
character assigned to him by the He
brew tradition is in harmony with his
alleged morganatic origin He is de-
scribed somewhat disparagingly: "And
he shall be wild ass Of a man. his
hand shall be against every man, and
every mans hand AGAINST him. and
he shall establish himself in spite OF
all his brethren" And in another
passage we are told: "And he dwelt
In the wilderness and became an
archer" When we consider that the
recorder of the Hebrew traditions was.
familiar only with the Arabs who
roamed about in the wilderness bor-
dering south and east on Palestine,
living the life of freebooters and
plunderers, even as the Bedouin
Arabs are doing to this day. we can
we'll appreciate this characterization
Of Ishmael.
The Arabs traditions of their racial
genealngv are very much the same as
the Hebrews, for, as we shall present.
lv see. they derived them from their
Hebrew neighbors, when they had L
come into closer contact with them
But they have modified and colored
these traditions to make them more
complimentary to themselves They
admit that they are the descendants
Of Ishmael, but they refuse to believe
that their mother was only a bond
woman. They also maintain. that
Ishnael, and not Isaac, was chosen
by God as a sacrifice to test Abra-
hams faith
So the traditions Of both peoples
agree as to their kinship. But the
relationship is similarly attested by
their speech Hebrew and Arabic are
as closely akin as. let us say. Ger
man and Anglo-Saxon, or Italian and
Spsnish. Hebrews and Arabs evil
IDENTIFY smoke the same language be-
fore their tribes separated. when the
speech of each underwent modifica-
tons of its own.
More Interesting, however, than
this racial and linguistic affinity are
the intimate relations between the
two races in historic times, and the
cultural influence each exercised on
the other. This takes us back to the
time Of essbeginning of the Jewish
dispersion. and away from Palestine,
the Jewish homeland
When the children of Judea began
their migrations, especially after the
downfall of their state, considerable
number of them turned southeastward,
T.