The Denver Jewish news., 1924-09-25

clai functions nave been transferred
to a multitude Of groups, nations or
"nntionalities" or social classes or po-
litical parties, etc, |. e., groups based
on territory or language or economic
interests or political ideals, but never
on birth and blood. The fundamental
ideals of Judaism us well as the inter
ests OF the Jews compelled them to
take always the side of equality and
human fellowship as against racial es-
arrangement and hereditary privileges; !;
and this fact Of the most exclusive of
all castles or races strenuously deny
ing combating any distinction Of race
or caste, is one Of the strangest para
doxes of history. The anti-Semite,
who seems to defend the "purity" of
his "Germanic," "Slav" or "Nordic"
race as against the Jew, and the Jew,
who answers him by asseting that
there is no such thing as race" are
both talking nonsense. For the Jews
are indisputably "a race" race
which has preserved its 'purity of
blood" through the ages, while the
modern Germans or Russians or
Americans, arc not races at all, only
nations, formed by a continuous and
ever-continuing mixture of blood.
Only one Jew, Benjamin Disaeli, has
had efficient fearless pride to point
out the obvious truth, that the Jews
are really the most complete and last
remaining representatives of the
"aristocratic" idea, and that the
proudest families of "blue blood" and
ancient lineages in Europe are but re-
cent upstarts of mixed and doubtful
origin, in comparison with the hublest
member of the race, which has been
"set apart for the special service and
perfect enjoyment of God"
1t is necessary to insist upon this
one fundamental fact, if we are going
to seek the solution to the problem
presented by Jewish history. The pc
culiar circumstances of Jewish his
tory, which are commonly pointed out
as being obstacles TO national" sur
vival, were as matter of fact the
real causes of the unique fact of jew
ish racial preservation. The disper-
sion of the Jews among peoples, for
the most part wholly alien in blood
and very inferior from the point of
view of civilization, was the very fact
which prevented racial fusion and
which made the survival of individual
Jews possible only in the form Of
community closely united in itself and
severely segregated from the sur
rounding populations. Indeed, while
the Jews remained so unitel, they en-
joyed certain exceptional Advantages
in the struggle for existenca The
Jewish community was a social or
ganization of much higher type,
than that which existed around its
walls. 1t had institutions, unknown
to most European nations until the
last century; and these institutions
acted in a way both to bind the Jew
more closely to his community and to
give him as an individual additional
strength in his struggle for existence.
The Jews had an organized system of
poor-relief, of medical service, of pop
ular education, and sort of sanitary
regulations by means of the dietary
laws. There is no doubt that owing
to these advantages, the Jews suffered
less from the periodical famines and
eppidemics and from such diseases as
leprosy which decimated their neigh
bors. The organization, indeed, was
dispersed and decentralized through
every single synagogue. But the alb
sence of a central government was
more than counter-balanced by the
splendid spirit of mutual aid among
the Jews and the jew was the first to
enjoy the inestimable privilege of be
ing able to travel and to maintain
peaceful intercourse at any distance,
all over the world at a time when the !
world was divided at every step by
permanent war and fierce enmities or
race or religion. What was truly ex-
ceptional in the position of the Jews
in those ages, when bloody rapine
reigned supreme, was not the massa-
cres and expulsions, to which they
were subjected, but the fact, that,
when forced to fly from one country,
they were sure to find shelter and aid
at the hands of their brethren in
other countries, whereas, other popu-
lations could not go elsewhere and had
to remain and be exterminated by
famine or war. This same simple
fact of worldwide connections
apart from all the doubtful and loose
talks of "Jewish commercial spirit"
is sufficient explanation of the SUI
preme position of the Jews in trade
in the earlier Middle Ages, and of the