The Denver Jewish news., 1925-01-29

mental instinct Of love. Loyalty is n
secondhand virtue. 1t is an appeal to
blind conformity in the absence Of an
emotional relationship. Love is of the
essence of life.
But Dr. Blau himself sins more
deeply than when he confesscs. point
at fault il he has irritatcd the Gen
tile. What choicer morsel for the klan
than this statement, DR.. BlauF Yet you
know, and know, that your intent was
different. Let us hope, too, that
there is better intent in the multitudes
or RabbiS who always advise the Jews
becoming dinidcncc and in becoming OBJ
security. intimating very clearly that If
we have failed to placate our enemies
the fault is ours. 1t is in vain that
protest against such insiuuations.
standing of Or. Franklin and Rabbi
Goldstcin it is quite a step to the race
to which Rabbi Isaac Landman, of the
American Hebrew, was provoked
must confess that Of the six or seven
articles which Rabbi Landman wrote
on "YOu Gcntilcs" ! read only one
the first that fell into my hands on my
return from Palestine. In this article
Dr. Landman protests that he is red
blooded. twO-fsted. and ready to fight
with tie best of them. Too bad that
DR.. Landman. as Rabbi, must coniine
his warlike instincts to shaking his fist
from the pulpit. Dr. Landman would
almost have it appear that deny
courage and fighting ability 10 the
Jews. ct would he no particular crime
if | did. Courage and fighting ability
have brought ON perhaps more evil
than good. of course / do not.
only asserted that the jew, unlike the
Gentle, generally likes 70 know what
he is fighting for. The vast majority
of wars were certainly meaningless
from the moral point of view-and still
arc, fear that in the case Of Or.
Landman the pacifSt role Of the Re
form Jew is n little ohscured But
then | have this in general against
Church and Synagog: that both of
them are paciGst only as long as it is
safe to be pacifiSt, that Jewish and
Christian ministers are against all
wars with particular exceptions in IA
vor of each war as it happens.
l must touch, before closing, ON the
name Of the bOok-"You Gentilcs," to
| which Dr. Blau strenuOusly objects, as
being naughty-bOyish. | do not see it,
| If | had written n swcotly mushy
book, long gurgle of rhapsodic
| driyel. saying how good the world is
and how lovely and gentle is humanity,
and had called it You Gcntilcs" the
| title would never have been objected to.
1t is not the title at all. but the con-
| tents | also dcprecate Dr. Wise's con-
tention that "Gentilcs" is a cuphemism
for Christians "Gentiles" is cor
| rect and literal translation of "Goyim" :"
| Call Ha-GOyim is Gallec of the Gen
| tiles. and not Gnlilcc of the Christians.
And fnally-why did l write the
| book at all, as most of my critics dcs-
pairing ask? | wrote 1t in the hope
that many Jews would read il, and
would find some meaning in the bitter
struggle for survival which we have
so long carried on, and are still carry
| ing on. In the hope that many Gen
! tiles would read II, and would under
stand that the irritation which they
| feel against us is based on funda-
/ mental property Of difference and not
on those alleged immornitics in MS
which are trumped mp in order to iusti-
| fy persecution And If these two
reasons are themselves held to be only
rntionalizltons, I will confess that |
wrote the book because | could not
help if. bccnusc it cried ont for utter
ance. and because it seemed 10 me to he
truthful aud just.