Evening star., 1923-09-13
JEWISH new YEAR
TIES Up new YORK
IdIeness of 100000. Causes
City to Lose Its BustIe
and Trade Is Dull.
M ROBERT It. SMALL.

Special Dispatch TO The Star.
NEW YORK, September 1S.-What
the Jews mean to the life of the city
of New York was never better illus
trated than during the. holidays which
are marking the beginning of the
Jewish new year 56S4. At least one
half of the activities of the city have
been stiI1ed. Thousands of shops, big
and little, have been closed. Whole
sale houses have shut down. Trucking
has ceased.
Rush hours on the subway, the
elevated and the bridges spanning the
East river have not existed. Traffic
cops in the congested downtown and
financial districts have been visiting
zach other at their posts, blocks
apart. Night watchmen at the big loft
and factory buildings have had to do
double duty, while for two days the
workers have stopped their toll.
Departments of the city, state and
federal governments have granted
holidays to so many of their employees
that their functions have been notably
impaired: Cases in the state and fed
eral courts have been postponed be-
cause of the absence of counsel and
witnesses. Trading in Wall street has
been more than dull" The holidays
have been celebrated this year in a
more orthodox manner, seemingly,
than ever before. and this fact may
lead to movement to declare the
Jewish new year a legal holiday
throughout the state of New York
Half of Race There.
The Jews of New York make up
100000 of the greater city's popu-
lation. There are approximately but
100000 Jews in the entire United
States, showing a concentration here
or more than one-half of the total.
Among the Jews there are no drones,
and that is why the lifting of a little
more than million and a half per-
sons out of the activities of New York
city caused a Sunday quietness to- set
tie down from the Battery to the far
reaches of the Bronx and from the
eastern shores of the Hadson to tho
beach.
One-tenth of all the Jews of the
world are housed in greater New
4 ork. Iheie are more Jews here than
there are in Palestine or proba hly
ever Will be in Palestine For that
matter there are moree Italians in
New York than in Rome Likewise
there are more Greeks in the AHeri-
can metropolis than there are in Ath
ems New York is the first city of the
word in many and devious ways
Big Factor in City.
No matter how widely the national
groups of Jews may be separated at
other times and in other matters.
they are as one in the celebration of
the TWO days marking the advent of
the new year. When their greAt
great activities cease. the city gels an
GoJect lesson and learns how depend
ent II is upon the Jewish merchant
and worker.
There no longer is any doubt that
IN the upbuilding of New York, the
making of the city great, the Jews
who have chosen this as their home
have had the lions share. Once more
or less segregated in the city's
Ghetto on the East Side, they have
spread now into all the boroughs and
have proved themselves the same in
defatigable builders in the residen-
tial sections that they have been in
the. business and financial districts
The wonderful development of the
Bronx in the last twenty-five years
with its Grand Concourse, it's
towering residential hotels and