Intermountain Jewish news., 1925-12-10
Mothers of Israel
MARY FELS
by WILLIAM u. sPIEGFLMAN

I
|
The end of the nineteenth sud TN.
beginning Of the twentieth centBy was
great aud eveniful epoch In the his.
tory OF American Jewry. American
Jewry grew, during ana after the wor.
TO be such nm important factor, exer-
cising such tremendous influence In
all parts OF the world where Jewish
life is to be found, that we are apt to
consider 1t an old-esiabIlshed commun.
ty, the character and work of which
we have known for u long time In
reality, the end Of the nineteenth cen
tury and the beginning OF the twentieth
was that long. bright period when this
numerous and wonderful Jewish com
munity came into being and grew to
| maturity.
A peculiar, bright light accompanied
the history OF American Jewry. Since
the dispersion Of the Jews began. di.
vested TO the various countries and
langa uges, the beginning OF Jewish set
Elements in almost every country has
been buried in legend. In most cases
when historian set out to write about
these beginnings, the greatest measure
Of historic truth that he could bring TO
the surface, through his research in the
archives and ancient documents, was
merely matter of fact assumption:
Here they are, and here they were"
How different was the beginning of
American Jewry! From the day when
Christopher Columbus sailed-including
the names of his companions and finan-
cial supporters, including even evidence
| which could testify to his Jewish orr
| gin-tO the construction of the last
Jewish Center in some remote town in
North Dakota, everything is an open
book to us. Everything is quiverlng
with life, without shadow of doubt
Despite all this, how meager Is our
| Information on the subject
American Jewesses' Big Role
One of the most important and most
interesting chapter in this book Of
achievement is the role played by the
Jewish woman in modern American
Jewry. One can say with full meas
| ure of historic truth that the process
OF Jewish emancipation which found
its fullest expression in the Anglo
| Su nnnntriax- 1nI in tIngn teI,
communities to the equalizing of the
| Jewish woman in the Jewish social and
religious life, long before the claims
for woman suffrage were given a de-
cent hearing in civic life.
Together with the growth of the i'm
migration to North America of tens of
thousands Of refugees from Eastern
Europe, the first influx from Western
Europe and South America began TO
| bear fruit. Despite the fact that these
immigrant groups We're small in guam
tity, they were far-reachins and innu-
ential.
The first groups Of Immigrants com
ing from Germany and the adjacent
countries under the influence of Ger
man culture, rapidly took root and
quickly naturalized. The natural
phenomenon Of mimicry found, in the
case of the first Jewish immigrants, its
best application.
The small merchants who wandered
| through the towns and villages of the
North and South, quickly saved enough
money TO send for their families. The
advice of jeremiah TO the Babylonan
exiles: "rO build houses and take
wives" was carried out here with an
elementary simplicity. The Civil War
| between the North and South found
considerable number of Jewish fam
| lies, which were becoming the product
of American soil
Reform and Adaptation
True, "A great factor in this process
Of adaptation was Reform Judaism,
the offspring of German Reform Juda-
ism. 1t was thanks to the influence Of
this movement that the woman in
American Jewish life came into her
| rights.
If the historians of the Christian
Church did not find sufficient praise for
Paul the Apostle for being the first to
recognize the vital power of the daugh-
ter of Eve; if the chroniclers of all
| Christian churches testified that it was
the devout woman who was the pillar
of the church; if the observers of
American lavish lifp as pynrcsSpd by