The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1921-04-29
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COntrOlllnS rellglOuS IDEAL. And Tor
this idea of a unified humanity, the
Jew stands wherever you find him.
Here in enlightened America, and in
the heart of the dark continent, if
there are Jews, you will find them
equally swayed by the two-fold senti-
ment embodied in what may in very
truth be called the watchwords of Is
rael: Hear, o Israel, the Lord our
God, the Lord is one and thou shalt
love thy neighbor as myself"
Prays For One God on Earth.
}: Here and there and everywhere,
where the Jew dwells, you will find
him breathing the common prayer for
the time when God shall be known as
one throughout the earth. Yea, and
you shall hear him echoing from his
soul, the prayer of the prophet for
the day when Swords shall be beaten
into ploughshares and spears into
pruning hooks and nations shall learn
war no more" In this sense and in
this sense only, the Jew is an interna-
tionalist. His religious ideal of the
coming of that day when all men will
recognize one God and see themselves
as part Of one humanity, binds Jew to
Jew with bonds Of sympathy that are
the symbols of his strength.
But mark you, this hope, this
dream, this prayer, for a better day
of universal understanding makes the
Jew-not less but ever more the patriot
to the land in which he lives. For he
appreciates the fact as history proves
at every stage, that it is only through
the fullest allegiance to the ideals of
his country, that each can contribute
to the realization of the ideal of a
worldwide brotherhood One needs
not to be an exact student of Jewish
history and literature to know that at
every stage Of his career, the Jew has
stood out patriot par excellence.
Basic to all law was the Rabbinic law,
''The law Of the land is law" In the
ethics of the fathers, the so-called
Pierke Aboth, it is stated that were it
not for allegiance to the government,
men would swallow one another alive.
The declaration of conference after
conference Of Jews in every country
Of the world tells to their devotion to
the patriotic IDEAL
But why increase examples? Why
point to the fact that even in Russia,
where the Jew was dragged through
the very pit of hell, where he has been
the victim of rapine and murder, even
there he has been the patriot. Argu-
ments like those are necessary to
the fair-minded student of history,
and to those who claim that they do
not believe in history, they mean
nothing.
Bond Not Political.
. ]. speak Of these things merely to
indicate that the international bond
between Jew and Jew is not in any
sense. political. 1t is absolutely re-
ligious. The Jew is brother to his
fellow Jew wherever he may be only
because and insofar as each is spon-
sor of the living truth that there is
one God and that humanity is one To
hold that the Jews of all the coun-
tries. are bound together by any other
ties-p political, economic, financial,
professional, commercial-what you
willis utter nonsense. In all things
save his religion, the Jew is essen
TALLY an individualist In politics,
Israel stands house divided against
itself. In finance and commerce, the
Jew has one law for dealing with his
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