The Denver Jewish news., 1925-02-12
- THERE 4 BASIS FOR RACE
HATREDS?
Being a Discus sion Of Jean Finot's
Race Prejudice"
nl nsrAN LEnNNRn


url's You Geutilcs" when l was asked
in rgyirw the above named book by the
famous French scientist. II WIS bit
ul Icrk from the chapters attempting
to prove thar there Is an unbridgcahlc
chgsm between Jew and gentle. to a
book trying To prove that the human
uur is one aud indivi,iblc and that
differences are only apparent and
transllury.
Ot course, both books were interest
ing Samuel T.. more stimulating. while
Finot is more mcaty. To he sure. not
an meat Is exactly n0urishing. In case
of Fiuot one wonders how much ~
what he quotes still holds good for the
book was written long. long ago. The
preface tn the English translation is
dated in the prehistoric days Of 1895.
New, scientific book almost thirty
years old may be classic. hut the
scientific theories il contains may have
bcen contruvcrted with the passing
years,
After all in the matter Of anthrop-
Clogy, sociology, psychology. etc. etc,
and many more etcetras, modes change.
Hypothesis tall these sciences are based
on hypothcsis), fashions, come and 60.
So It Is inevitable that much Of what
Finot says must he taken com grano
sails That's no show that still re-
member bit of Latin.)
Now then, what does this French
sayant want Ia tell us in his important
work.
lie starts out by quoting the one
time famous Count Gohincau who in
1854 attracted attention 10y his four
volume work in which he exalted the
so-called superior races The Germanic
stock appeared TO him the acme Of su-
perioriiy. OF course. the Germans had
his h1ol,s translated into their Ian
guage and organized Gobineau leagues
soon his theory was exploded and
other scientists" came to take his
place, naming other European stocks as
Superior. p
The superiority OF the blond beast"
was disputed Icy the pure Aryan. |
guess If Finoi's work were brought up
10 dat. the Nordlc would find out why
he is not quite the superior being he
admits himself to be. As matter o.
fact FinOt believes there are no super
ior races since the whole human race
is one due TO the comingling of the
blood of the various groups making up
humanity.
Al most, humanity can he divided in
to two leading types. our author says,
the primitive and the civilized. But
he feels that neither is essentially SUI
perior 10 the other since The primitive
Is p0tcnlinliy the civilized.
While Finot docs not give any spc-
cial gttcntion 10 the Jews he has to
devote Il compile of special paragraphs
To them in trying to establish his
theory. He says:
what is this Jewish race whose
name has been heard for SO many cen
turtles and which from time immcmor-
ial has exercised the curiosity of poll
ticlms philosophers and historians2
What we know of it today is limited
to the almost certain fact that ii is
not a matter of race. hut of religion"
lie then gees ON to say that even in
Palestine the Jews were not pure stock
since they were few in number and
co-mnglcd with the Hitites. Arabs, and
Philistincs, whom they found there He
further makes the statement that when
Jews obtain political rights anywhere
they begin to resemble the other peo-
pies among whom they live.
In other words, if Monsieur Finot
were to walk into a B'nai Birth mect-
ing he would be likely to mistake it for
Il Khan Kouclavc or Knights Of Cot
Umbus gathering, At least that should
he the situation since the Jews have
political rights in the L. S. The fact
remains that even Jewish editors
tfewer and fewer of them as progress
pcnetratcs into darkest mindsl who be-
licvc the Jews are merely II religious
denomination take pride in men like
Hpinc, Rubinstein, Diyracli, aud other
great Jews who became converts to an
other faith.
After all is said and done there are
peculiar characteristics which help
make the Frenchmnn the German, the
Scandinavian. the Slayo the jew, what
he is \ duh world would it be if we
We're all made ON one pattern. But the
fact that we are different does not
mean that any Of MS may claim super
iority. If We acted on the principle of
nobleSse oblise such claim might be
tolerated.
There arc many rather amusing
Ideas in Mr., Fiuots book. lie talks Of