The Denver Jewish news., 1924-02-21

AT The end of II "Trip through Europe
pressed Will some of the striking anti
theses Of Jewish life and history which
bring home forcibly the riddle Of The
persistence of the Jewish people. From
, east The Jcrdan Valley. The hills of
| Moab. Mispah. the birthplace Of the
prophet Samuel Anaioth. the residence
of jeremiah. and On the west Jcrus-
of fruitful activity of the ancient Jew
i.h people in its homeland. The rise
of II slave people its wandering through
the desert and its final Towering ont
into one of the three outstanding cul-
ture hearing nations of antiquity are
reflected in the historic sites which now
lie desolatc
On the other hand the Jcwsih Gem
Frankfort, Speyer, Wormi Rome, re
fleet the pale memories and the sterile
existence of the Jewish people in dis
pcrsinn There stands our the contrast
between doing and suffering. For the
Jews have suffered. Their dispersion
Is history Of two thousand years of
passive resistance. The old decrcpit
worshippers at the western wall of
Solomon's temple wall to this day. In
symbols they commerate the loss of the
normal social life of the Jews preced-
ing the destruction of the ancient
polity. Because the Jews have walled
for two thousand years therefore. they
have survived. Theirs Is the longest
memory in the history of any nation.
However. though like true orientals.
the Jews of Jerusalem bewail the loss
of the ancient glory. the movement for
the restoration Of that glory came frcm
the oc,i,lentalized Jews of Europe. The
prophet OF The restoration was Il Hum
cnrian jew who was, trained in n Ger
man university. Theo,lor Hcrz!
The outstanding fact of Jewish his
tory is the struggle of n scattered pco-
pie for survival. n struggle in the face
of tremendous odds. both material and
spiritual. II struggle which was main-
taincd by means of n supreme faith
which kept this people intnct n strug-
gle of people to maintain an idea.
and as its by-product to insure the sur
vival of the people itself. For there
is an incNtricablc relationship between
spirit and matter between II tradition
and the successive generations of peo-
pie who transmit that tradition.
Standing in the Cairo museum, in
front of the mummy Of the Phnroah,
who prosecuted the Jews in Egypt, one
becomes conscious of the historicity of
the Jewish people of their unique char
meter, both as the bearers of an ancient
culture and us the living witnesses of
The present day metamorphosis. What
striking contrast between these num-
mics of departed Egyptians and the liv-
ing Jews. between the dead Egyptian
people and the living Jewish people
which has been wandering over the
earth for two thousand years. bereft of
every physical prerequisite for sur
vival as II social group.
Another contras: of Jewish life may
well he Illustrated in the scene from
Haifa. ON the one hand one sees lit
tie Orthodox Jewish boys with ear
lock-. long gabardine and fur hat, n
dress and appearance imported from
eastern Europe and bearing the stis-
mata Of the arrested development of
the Jewish people. ON the other hand.
ascending Mount Carmel one has the
soul-lifting views of the blue Mediter-
ranean and arrives at the cave of
Elijah. the spiritual pioneer who spread
n knowledge of the Lord and of right
eous living in the ancient heather
world. The product of ancient Pnles-
| tine stands ont against the foil of the
Goluth.
! Modern Jewish Alternatives.
/ What is the jewish question? 1t
has its external or material aspects of
pales of settlement. ghettoes. both legal
and social, wherever anti-Iewish feel
4 ing exists ON the one hand, and on the
other il has its internal or subjective
aspects s-stcrility and stagnation in
I fields of Jewish culture and physical
absorption, wherever the warmth of
tolerance favors free intermingling OF
Jews with the neighboring populations
II on the one hand the Jews of Fin