The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-08-25
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

JEWISH culture and religion survived the
j political power Of Babylonia, Persia and
Rome. They then defed the prosecutions Of
Christian powers of nearly two thousand years.
VIII Jewish unity break upon the rocks OF class
divisions during the terminal stages of cap
italism?
This critical issue is dealt with by Rebecca
Pitts in Opinion" Her article, entitled, Jews
Face Fascism," is one of the most important
and provocative discussions of the future OF the
Jewish problem ever written 1t especially IS
significant when published in one OF the most
intellectual and distinguished Jewish journals in
any language.
Miss Pitts calls attention to the critical con-
dition of the contemporary capitalism:
To-day. at every turn, we find indicated the
impending collapse of world capitalism. It is
betrayed in the confusion and disintegration OF
the arts, in the evasion of philoSophic thought,
in the whitening away of religion. With mil
lions too poor to buy, the productive plant runs
down and stands half idle. People starve IN
the great centers of population while the farm
ers and stock-raisers destroy nearly enough food
to feed all the hungry"
EASCISM, in fact if not always in name, is
Il the inevitable response to the growing des
peration of capitalism. To succeed for time
Fascism must fan nationalism to fever heat
and national minorities constitute fair game for
1
obvious victims of these assaults upon minor
tiles Not even the chance to go out after the
Negroes will save the Jews in the United States:
'Fascism is a dictatorship of the exploiters
and their parasites; and its function is to pre-
serve-in the face of mass suffering and discon-
tent-the dying profit system. BY now the
usefulness of FaSciSm OF a minority group with
in the nation should be clear to every Jew.
1t is because the Jewish people stand to be
crushed by Fascism that they need to see the
situation clearly, and fight Fascism with every
weapon within reach
If this is the case, the Jews should cast their
lot with the only group which fights FasclSm,
tooth and nail, namely the working-claSs move
ment:
"If the Jew is to put up any fight against
the Fascist enemy at his throat; If he is to sur
vive as a conscious Jew, bearer Of cultural gifts
to the world-he must cast in his lot with the
revolutionary proletariat There is no other
way"
r OGICAL as this step and strategy may be, it
| IL will split the Jews of the world wide open,
since a large number of them are identified
very prominently with the capitalist system
which is creating the Fascist world:
"We are confronted by the following facts:
Fascism is the last stand Of capitalism and the
profit system; it maintains itself in power partly
by the persecution of such minority peoples as
the Jews; and the yet nearly half the Jewish
people are identified with the bourgolsle-not
only in their ideals but in their very practical
urgent economic interests.
"As the crisis deepens we need expect, from
the prosperous bourgeois Jew, no remuneration OF
class privilege. AS long as the non-Jewlsh
bourgosie fail to tear him to pieces, he will
cling desperately to his possessions and aoJure,
wherever possible, his JeWiShneSS. He even Will
support either tacitly or openly the very Fascist
novements that threaten his people with exter-
mination."
Whether we accept Miss Pitts reasoning or
not, her analysis will provide something worth
remembering when we observe the trends IN the
Jewish problem as the capitalist crisis tghtens
up.