The Denver Jewish news., 1922-09-27
Jewry Arrives At The
Gross Roads
Reflections at the New Years. Millstone
by Harold Berman.


tcopyrIght. inea. BY jewish correspondeucs
Ii Burenn.)
1t il characteristic Of man that when
standing in too close proximity TO the
subject under observation, he invari-
ably fails to grasp many, and some
times, the most Important. attributes
Of the thing which forms the object Of
his stndy, many Of its iimensional as
well. as abstract and spiritual qualities
and as beauties duly escaping him. A
| minimum of distance and detachment
from the object is needed! for the physi-
cal eye II II is TO apprcherSd the message
conta ined In tile thing-in the tints and
shades and pigments placed m n can
Twas, and to send home lis lesson.
! Intimacy in human life usually lends
| to contempt and the nnder-valuation of
greatness, for then 1t Is not the marks
Of genius that revenl themselves to the
observer. but rather the petty foibles
ana esccntricisies In small things that
lhecome so manifcst-while the attrib-
ufes Of greatness vanish into the thin
air. No man is n hero to his valet :
nor did the north Pole look any dihfer
snt from any other barrcn and frozen
hit OF terra firma to It's sliscoverer after
having spent many tireless years Of his
ilife in the quest for that particular bit
Of mother earth. And were 1t not for
the nncrrine Testimony Of his sextant
and the magnetic needle he would not
even hive been aware Of having
achieved both the apex Of his career az
well as of the world.
Equally so is 1t when studying some
contemporary spiritual Of social phe-
nomenon whereon we are almost always
hampered by too close proximity to
the object examined and, as conse-
quence, are apt to miss q great many Of
! Its most pregnant implications, not to
speak Of the temporary blindness which
as often as not results from the too
bright glare OF the revealing light.
Studies Of the life OF modern Jewry
resemble not little the position Of the
man who is standing too close to the
picture to properly judge 1t. To observe
recent events Alright and to evsluate
their import properly as well as to In
terpret their meaning for future his
tory, we need the effect Of distance and
the correct perspective that only future
years will be able to give US. For CEN
turtles the world stood practically still
or moved at slow, scarcely recog-
nfsable pace. and 70 had Jewry in the
many lands Of the Dipersion. After
mans genius had discovered American
invented the printing press. the steam
engine and electricity, the world had
settled down to q 1ife-tl,e Industrial
life-fhat was becoming ever more and
more standardixed, mechanised and un-
inspiring. Man. having conquered the
forces Of nature. began to hope that
now life would take on u new and
brighter lnstre, when as matter Of
fact, he. xery soon discovered that all
the virIlity as well as all the inherent
poetry had gone like phantom out Of
1t. Like Alexander Of old, he now be-
gan to sigh for new worlds to conquer.
new worlds to take the place Of those
lying prone and lifeless at his feet
This civilization crilmbled like SotlOm's
apple before he could bring 1t to his
mouth. and the inevitable result was:
a sense Of unhappiness As well as .
deep-fclt though vague dissatisfaction
with 1t all. Man simply felt that some
thing vital had gone wrong with his
Paradise and yet knew not what 1t was
that did go wrong
Under the abnormal circumstances,
the Jew suffered doubly, both as man
as well as a Jew. The anomaly Of his
position-a homeless and tolerated
minority everywhere-sin singled him out
for the role of the scape-goat to bear
away everyone's sins. In the general
spiritual debacle Of the day he was
the convenient target for all parties:
witness the growing anti-semitism of
the West and the increased persecu-
tions OF him in the East. Under these
most unfavorable circumstances. his
own mental fibre began to deteriorate,
to weaken and give way, especially in
its weaker places.
The catastrophe occurrences of the
past eight years, sad in themselves as
they were as well as surprisingly rich
| in human misery, have nevertheless
brought to us undreamed Of changes
and hitherto inexperienced metamor-
phoses. "Out of the strong came the
sweet, and out of the unparalleled
miseres of our brothers abroad has
come forth that equally as unparalleled
manifestations of Jewish solidarity and
Jewish kind -heartedness On this side of