The Denver Jewish news., 1921-09-28
After Strange God.
A STORY FOR ROsK HAsHONAH
BY EIma EhrlirIa Ievinser.

Copyright, 1921, by Elma Ehrlich
Ievinger. all rights leserved)
As Mariana RaphelO, to use thc
name by which she was known thru
out the American and European press,
guided her smart little electric across
the bridge which spans ChicagO's
river, she smiled a trif1c ironically at
the errand which had brought her
out of her bed at the ungodly hour of
eleven. Now, fresh from her bath.
clad in the expensive simplicity of her
Paris garments, the popular prima
donna half regretted the sentimental
ity that had drawn her back to the
little schul near jefferson street. If
! did have religious spasm. why
didn't l go 70 one of the south side
Temples for the ROsh Hashonah scrv-
ices?" she asked herself, but she did
not turn back.
Over the streets of that section of
the city which Chicago reporters al
ways call "the Ghetto" brOOded a
strangely peaceful hush. Mariana.
with her sensitive artists instinct,
felt 1t and drove very slowly past the
| closed shops. These poor fish-mongers
and dealers in secondhand clothing
could afford to close for the fall holy
DAYS, she reflected. but last night she
had sung as usual even If it did hap
pen to he one of the great festal days
of her people. Her people. She
shrugged her handsome shoulders i'm
patiently; how foolish the words
sounded from the lips Of one who
never failed to declare herself n per-
feet cosmopolitan, a citizen of the
world.
Yet the world she had deserted al
most. twenty years was slowly draw
ing her back into an almost forgotten
past Yes, that bleakly ugly building
was the school she had hated so as
she journeyed laboriously from the
primary grade to the graduating class,
each blackboard lined room gloomy
prison; that little store with the
smcary windows was the one where
her mother always sent her for the
Friday fish; there was the same Old
grocery on the corner. She tried to
picture herself, big-eyed youngster in
shabby. ill-fitting clothes. passing her
dreamy way down these narrow
streets, but failed. Isolde" and
"Brunhilde" and ELISA" were far more
real to her than that frowsy dream
child.
But her memory had not played her
| false and the trim little electric sped
unerringly to its destination, the shap-
by old schul not far from Jefferson
street. Suddenly Mariana wished
/ she had not driven her car to the very
door of the schul her mother. she re-
membered never rode on Sababth
or Yomtov. And Marianna's good
taste was revolted at the idea of Of
Tending other Jews as pious as he who
might be watching her from the doors
of the synagog.
Then she realized that there was
no one to see her impiOus approach
the doors were closed and thru them
came the rise and fall of n mighty tide,
| the sound of men and women chant
ing and praying, voice, high and
powerful, rising above them all. y
sudden picture dimmed her eyes and
left them wet; her father, the chazan,
wrapped in his praying shawl, leading
the congregation. But she knew that
it was not his voice she heard now
the oply letters she had received since
leaving her people had been the tive
curt scrawls from her brother, inform
irg her Of her parents death.
"I will remember to say Kaddisf
for them" she had written bitterly
And now, for some reason she herself
u could not have explained, the emanci