The Denver Jewish news., 1924-01-10

! tile JEWISH AS well rs lnc bFceh. NtIt
not capable of physical expansion by
| means of warfare. Both of them had
to he content with defensive wars
against their enemies, and both carried
these on most splendidly.
Net being in II position to dream
of world power, of territorial aggran-
dizement. these two nations had to turn
their attention To other fields. They
followed the path of thought They
became the "eNpansionists of the spir-
| it," the conquerors cf the moral world,
and they succeeded finally in spreading
the influence of their ideals much more
than they had attempted it by means
of weapons and armies. The two ma
lions became people of the book. though
in different forms.
The fate of both. minor-major, peo-
pies was also similar. That which
happened TO Judah also happened TO
Athens. Too weak to overcome the
military powers that arose mt the time
when these minor peoples had reached
the highest stage of their cultural de-
velopment. they had to endure the ter
rife series of assaults inflicted by their
mighty neighbors. The Babylonians
destroyed the Temple while their sue
cesscrs-the Persians-burned the Par
| thenon even before it was entirely com
plcted. The very same world-destroy-
ers that struck ut Judea. struck also
mt Athens. while Judah's latest enemy
-Rome-destroye the Jewish home
lanti. it also subjugatcd Athens. though
il did not destroy her as completely as
1t did Judea.
And the denoucment? Well, it must
/ he admitted that the outcome in our
ease is Il far better one than in theirs.
| The Greeks have long since disap-
pearcd from the face of the earth,
never to return to it. The present-day
Greeks are not Greeks at all, racially
speaking They are mixture of all
The Balkan peoples Slavs, Bulgars
| Goths. Albanians and what not. The
Hellenic strain in them is long since
gone. II is but necessary for one to
| walk through the streets of Athen.
or 20 into n restaurant and observe
the fnces of the Greeks of today and
compare them with the physiognomy
that one finds on the pictures and stat
neS that the Greeks have left us in
order To become convinced that tho
modern Greeks are not Greeks ut all
no more than the non Greek that they
speak is the Greek language of old
| II Is not these people who were the
| grandchildren of Sophocles. Socrates
Plidas and Plato In their veins does
NOT How the blood Of the Hcllenes OF
have to traverse on the way to the
.tcropolis has no connection whatever
with the old Athens that is TO remain
enshrincd forever in her. greatness. de
spite her lack of rightfnl heirs.
And we Jews are alive. The walls
of Jerusalem are as thoroughly de
siroyed as the walls of -Acropois. But
in the streets of Jerusalem one does
hear even now the echo of the tongue
OF the prophets. and we are firm in our
hope Of bringin" back to life our great
past because we are Vet here and cur
"Shemah Israel is the same one that
il was thousands of years ago. We
! have preserved our entity in the
Diassporn far better than did the
| Greeks ON their own soil. The soil is not
always the competent guardian against
annihilation. No, There is nothing for
.Tudea To envy in the lot of Athens,
| despite everything