The Denver Jewish news., 1923-02-21


DR.. Hertz his full title, which may he
long bear without any abatement OF MS
youthful sense of humor-pilSriIhed
throughout the British Dominions Up
to this time, the unifying memorial pur-
pose has given rise chiefly to divisive
newspaper controversy. which appears
to be the favorite English indoor sport.
Things Jewish do not strike one as
essentially sound and wholesome III
England today. Liberal Judaism, al
lowing for the prepossessions of the
writer seems vital as force and move
ment. Its leaders appear to have taken
themselves quite unnecessarily out Oh
the main stream of Jewish life seeing
that they hold austerely aloof from
everything which touches Zionism. But,
unlike the orthodox Jews, these do
not pray for Zion in Hebrew and op-
pose Zionism in English" And what
is more. Claude Montefiore and Israel
Abrahams. Lily Montagu and Rabbi
Mattuck. unlike the heads of the IN
ion of American Hebrew Congregations
or the officers of the United Synnsos
of the British Empire, carry conviction
when they lament the waning of the
spirit of faith and the peril of sub
stituting therefor n secularized nation
alism for they are truly religious. They
err in assuming that Zionism Is that
namely. n seculariZed nationalism. when
in truth Israel ever was religionized
racial fellowship.
In France. one touches Jewish life
and the Jewish question only casually.
for these are little more than casual
i'm France. Here it is that one comes
upon assimilation at its highest or low
est. its protagonists both assimilant
and assimilated. True enough, there are
few Jews in France-nOt as many as
dwell in the Bronx or Brownsville
but a Jewry which includes Baron Ed
mond de Rothschild. Professor Henri
Bergson. is far from negligi-
BILE. One fails in France TO
come-outside of Zionist circles-upon
a sense of Jewish realities. such was
inca rnate II generation ago in the per-
son of Zadoc Calm. one of the finest
Jewish figures of yesterday. Their lives
the noble Jewish youth gave for
France; only their dust belongs to
Jewish cemetery. Alsatian Jews there
are who are 'fromm." but these for
the most part have no contact with
things Jewish outside of France. To
them Zionism is not merely an 'un-
realizable dream" but remote ana
lunintelligible myth. They are unlost
children of the Synngog rather than IN
defiectible sons and daughters of the
House of Israel.
And Liberal AJudnism came too late
10 stem the tide anywhither-even
Bahaism. that mild and eclectic mel
ange. finding its high-priests among
French Jews. who are Jewish only in
the restlessness of the spiritual yenrn-
ing which takes them out of the fellow
ship of their people. There is a brave
minority. seeking to stem the tide
which ebbs from the Synagog shores.
But who can tell whether it is to live.
though up to this time it has had some
uncommon triumphs in winning men
and women once of alien churches. If
modernity meant inevitably French
.Jewry. then were Israel imperilled.
| The moment one touches Germany
and Austria one becomes conscious not
so much of things Jewish as of anti
Jewish influences and tendencies. Anti
Semitism was described for me by "A
German Jew in the terms "Nicht cine
Bewegung sondern cine Psychose.
Twice in my life have l been hOoted at
as Jew-in Hebron n decade ago by
some mud-slinging Arab urchins. guard
ing the sacred tomb of my Jewish faith
ers from impious invasion by such as
myself And. for the second time.
month ago by some German lads at the
door of the Liberal Synagog of Breslau.
Germany has had mighty reinforce
mcnt of Jewish population as n result
of the war on its Eastern frontiers,
which. while strengthening Jewish con-
seriousness in some respects. has done
not Il little to complete the estrange-
ment of the half-assimilated, the
'.Ehrengoyim," as DIR. Chayes, of Wen
ma. wittily styles them.
And yet in Germany. certainly in COM
munities such as Berlin one feels the
pulse of Jewish life. In Berlin two
considerable Jewish publishing houses
have recently been established. Kedem
and Harz, and they are doing admirable
work The genius of Bialik. become a
Berlin resident, has had a stimulating
effect. But the most healthy token of