The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1920-04-23

ing CnO persecution Oh the Jew. Livery
untoward event that occurred in the
town or country in which he dwelt was
in part ascribed to him, often directly
to his evil and even magical efforts,
Indirectly because God was angry that
Christ killers lived and were prosper
GUS. For example, the black plague
was a pestilence that occurred as the
result of their evil tendencies, and
they were accused Of starting the
great London fire. The most disas-
trous accusation of all was the in
famous blood-ritual accusation. Some
day historians will follow the lead OF
the anthropologists such as Frazier
and correctly ascribe to superstition
the leading place in the development
of ideas. That historian will trace a
good deal Of the character of the Jew
and much of his unhappiness to this
superstition of his neighbors that the
Jews required the blood of Christian
child to celebrate the Passover ritual.
In addition, Of course, to the perse-
cution that was expressed in massacre
and insult and restriction of occupa-
ton, there was the liability to expul-
sion from the land of his birth at any
moment. The Jews were successfully
expelled from England, France and
Spain in the years 1190, 1921 and
1892, and they were expelled from
various cities in Italy at different
times. Gold, cash, became the only
stable goods of the world to the Jew
because he had no other property that
he could be sure of. The hate of his
Gentle neighbor for the Jew was
fully returned He did not wish to
be like him in any way. He rejected
his learning, his art, and his sports
together with his food and his reli-
gion.
But the feeling of hate and con-
tempt was not the main emotional
trait that arose from the centuries of
persecution. Apprehensiveness have
already spoke of, but in addition there
was melancholy which expressed it.
self in motto, in song, and in the jew
ish literature, "Der Yid hat klein
masel." 1.-THE Jew has no luck"-was
the opinion of the Jew himself. De-
spite an occasional ephemeral pros
perity, the bulk of the race was UNI
dernourished, underdeveloped and
overstimulated mentally and emo
tionally. Here it is well to empha-
size what is well known, yet COM
monty overlooked. Emotion is not
matter of mind; it is something that
concerns the whole body. 1t is an in
tense display of somatic activity, in
which blood vessels, glands, great Wis
cera, and skeletal muscles all take
part. An emotion may disturb the
functions of the organism, or perhaps
it had better be stated that patho-
logical emotion is pathological func-
tion-as a loss of appetite, spasm of
intestine or bladder, drying up of
milk ducts, etc. Fear emotions espe-
cially bring about disorders in func-
tion of persistent type, such as those
seen in the psychoneuroses, and may,
so far as we know, produce little by
little permanent structural changes in
the organism. That the liability to
arterio- sclerosis and diabetes that ex-
lists amongst the Jew can be related
to his unfavorable emotion engender-
ing environment may be a far-fetched
assumption which I believe, neverthe-
less, to be true.
Now every racial human beings,
in fact-Ynav hn 1assifiod oI1uh1v in