The Denver Jewish news., 1924-10-16
Departure
By LUDWIG LEwISOTIN
Taken From The Nation


we rumhlcd In our tight little Drcscl,-
ken In passing one could see the shad,
Owy outline OF the tall monument OF
Adam Mickicwicz, the Polish national
poet. In wcll-known passage Of his
best known work he had saluted the
jew as brother. II Is very sore
point with the Poles. He, too, is in
the shadow, like his monument. e. We
crossed the Nlstula-rivcr OF blood and
tears. They have thrown corpscs into
II for centuries. For a time its West
Prussian banks We're at peace. Today
there Is no telling when that historic
pastime will begin again as the river
flows through the Polish corridor past
DnnZig into the Baltic Sea.
Dim tree-tops stir in the cool wind.
One Of the bridges was blown up dur
ing the war The cobble-stones become
more and more jagged. At last we
stop. our Droschken join large semi
circle of others. We plunge into
a dark, streaming crowd. Jews, all
Jews. Long caftans and caps; modern
clothes out of little shops. Not only
old men in caftans but boys and
youngsters. No very long ear-locks
here. Some concession is made to
modcrnity in the city. The boards are
long. however. and but for some red
Judas physiognomy here and there, the
faces. especially Of the old and older
men, have grave and noble beauty.
Thus Rembrandt saw them: thus they
are today. The women are less definite
ly marked in character. Only here md
there are glimpscs of shapely profiles.
1t is not an orderly crowd. But its
disorder is quite without violence
Some passion stirs 1t, however. some
impulse that lifts 1t above its work
aday self. Are these the people who
walk the Warsaw streets so quietly, so
sadly? Are these the old men Of the
Ghetto streets, these the haggling slat-
terms of thousand shops, these the
caftaned boys who rather hug the walls
when the sun shines?
They throng toward the platform of
the railroad station. Most of them in
vain. Only those who have tickets are
admitted. This is not an unreasonable
regulation. But for it all the half
million Jews in Warsaw would he here
tonight intellectually they are dis
united. There are parties and parties.
Nevertheless they would he here to-
night. Assimilationism of any kind is
dead here-dead forever. The Poles
have taken good care of that. The
nine c-hundred-ycar-oId sharing of earth
and sun and bread and vicissitude and
fighting against a common enemy and
oppressor can count no more. The
Poles have seen TO it; they see TO it
daily and hourly. SO what are parties,
opinions. divisions? All Jewish War
saw is here in body or in spirit to-
night. Two hundred people are being
entrained on their way to Constanza,
where they take ship, on their way out
of bondage, ON their way to Eretz Jis-
rcel-the land of the fathers. -.
The blue-cOated Polish policemen
with their long swords are impassive,
Impassive and little surly. Their
duty tonight rather disgusts them,
They are accustomed to inspiring fear,
at least n nervous shrinking. Tonight,
despite their authority, which cannot
be denied. they simply do not exist.
The spirit of the crowd has risen above
them.
We have tickets, of course, and are
under competent guidance. But we,
too, are sent with calculated rudeness
from one gate to another. =. At last
we are on the platform, in the midst
of nm even intenser crowd-a crowd
whose faces are little pale under the
dim lights. Pale but uplifted. For
| here are the people who are actually
going and here are their fathers and
mothers, their brothers and sisters, who
will probably never see them again,
but who are glad 10 give them up out
of the darkness into the light and out
of degradation to spiritual erectness
If they themselves cannot see Je'
rusalcm. ii is well that these others
may; if they must await the pogroms
to come, it is well that 50 many are
saved
So many. So few. This thing that
we are witnessing is weekly occur
renee. About two hundred people leave
each week But in the files of the Pal
estine Office you see that there are ter
thousand applications n week. Why
are there so few out of Sd manyt That
Is story I cannot tell today. a..
The train stands beside the platform
and tho lender from the Palestine Office