The Denver Jewish news., 1923-09-13
Fifty-Six, Eighty
Jauniced Impression of the Year 56S3. Its Deferred
Hopes, Defeats and Futilities
BY GERsHoN AGRoNsKY

DN
Once each year, twice for those who
mark Two New Years every year, men
sit down and play II little. game which
might be called. Good year. bad year
which were you:''
Men persist in this habit of toying
with the vanishing year. regarding it
either kindly. apprOvingly or with dis
favor. They daily will, 1t amOrOusly.
weigh 1t and find il all it should he.
or Kick it and send it rolling down
the cellar of buried years. Some would
keep its memory green. enclose 1t in Il
sarcophagus and deposit 1t in tomb
like some royal mummy. or send it to
grave in Potter's Field. Ttere are
those who would perform obsequies be
fore the dying year. or give it ''the
burial of an ass
If men will g,iage departing years in
this way. wIiat sort of year. one might
ask. was 5GS:;? EpitomiZcd briefly. enc
might refer to II as year singularly
ties and mcffectiveness. II year of drop
ping Of buckets into empty wells. of
sowing of sands. of feverish locking of
doors after the horse was stolen, Of
CARRYING of Goals to Newcastle.
The jaundiccd eye. locking backward
at the Jewish activities of the past
,,,tl,;,,.~1,,t of
liGuidntions. and chgcrncss TO bring the
accounts into shape. Without undoing
any Of tile things that were achieved
during and Immediately following the
war years. there was Il noticeable ten
dency this, year To pu. period after
these things. without thinking If and
what the next sentence might be.
Evcrywhcrc a determined attempt to
attnin forgetfulness. To- return to
.'normnlcy" or stability" or W',lntcvcr
the fashionable word handed down by
those who give the tone. Far from
rcputliating the so-called self-sacrifice
of the past. Jewish expansion of pride
over what was Jointly achieved during
lilh WIZ Iut tANtIh III
very limited circles and amcng Il few
very big mon there was nowhere the
helpful feeling of inadequacy.
The skeptic sees nothing but pro-
fcssional Jewish activity all Int CON
fined to those business it is to keep
il alive or make an appearance of keep
ing 1t nlive. an ambitions building of
steel and concrete structures to house
what had been spared of the cataclysm
Jewish Centcrs'' modelled along the fin
est ncn-Jewish pattern. built with n
though. of rivaling the cdN of the
Jewish center in the other city, n whirl-
wind competition of digits. Judaism
by multiplication. the bigger the num-
bcr of digits, the profounder the Jew
ish thinking. an adaptation of stand
ard forms. an embracing of stereOtypes
which succeeded clsewhere-all this to
the tune of frantic press-agenting! In
the recruiting Of new and sorely need
cd men, promises are made. and threats
-social> obloquy the threat. social
esteem the promise. The spotlight is
always manipulated towards the Jewish
stage. accompanied outside by deafen-
ing roar of the publicity guns. Windy
revivnlsts go up and down the coun-
try to persuade Jewish men and women
that n comfortable minimum is not on
ly possible but desirable so long as it
is cOmpatiable with ones standing in
the community or in the country at
h,rsc. The preaching of the minimum
goes hand in hand with the thunder
ous bellowing of our own virtues and
porfectiOns. And while feeding on the
past we seem to forget that it was
the humility and sclfiessneSs of our
fathers that made the past which we
are reproducing in cheap popular edi-
tions All around us Jews are engaged
in viudicating their existence. a vim
dication which smacks more Of abasing
self-audation than an appraisal of trne
values And the inert mass is not rous-
ed 1t is made torpid by the monOtcn-
Gus shouting. 1t blnks at the droSs
which is pnlmed OFF for Judaism and
goes to sleep.
This the captous critic sees in Nb-
serving the panorama Of Jewish life
here But Jewish life here is notori-
ously incomplete without the part Amer
lean Jews are playing either directly or
vicariously in Jewish life abroad And
one looks to the foundations of the
bridge across the span separating lis
from them. Again one sees so-called
American methods transplanted and APP