The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-09-18
Killers Prime Error
These Days5gy s gEo 5o {: 5ozot3R7

Today, Jews all over the world
will be celebrating the beginning OF
their religious year. In the few
countries like ours, they will at
tend their synagogues in the digni-
ty of human liberty and religious
| freedom. In countries like Italy
and France. they will sing loudly
Gods praises for liberation. In
countries like Poland. the few still
alive will cringe in fear and uncer-
tainty. And in Germany they are
still enslaved in all the beastliness
and brutality that marks the rejec-
tion of the brotherhood OF man in
the Fatherhood Of God, 8
Hitler's error was that he believ-
| ed that he could eXterminate "A
virie people the source OF whose
strength is not political power nor
the possession OF wealth but a rich
religious tradition.
There is a mystery in Jewish sur.
yival. These people were the
smallest of many tribes who dwelt
in the crescent OF fertility on the
| edge OF the Arabian Desert and In
the cambridge TO Egypt. They prim.
| itively came out OF the desert into
| Canaan and eventually went into
Egypt where they were enslaysu.
Under the leadership of Moses,
| they returned to. Asia where they
set themselves up in Palestine and
founded a great city Jerusalem.
| But there were in those days many
nations and many peoples, nine Of
whom have survived to this day as
the Jews have. What is more, the
Jews repeatedly failed to protect
the boundaries of their tiny land
and. were conquered and finally
scattered to the four corners OF the
earth. Yet they remained a dis
tinct people, ever coalescing, ever
adhering to common and
persistent bond.
The whole of Jewish literature is
plant Of poverty and suffering,
for everywhere they were stran-
gers, and often unwanted strangers.
In every generation, there were a
few Jews of wealth and power and
some who sat close to thrones, ad-
vising and aiding the great and
powerful. But the masses OF them
were always poor, always moving
to new frontiers, always adjusting
themselves to new habits and accus-
toming themselves to new Ian
guages. In spite of myriad suffer
10 ayief q q
distinctive and indestructible peo-
pie. Nearly 1000 years of history
record their sufferings, their in
destructibility, their faith. Yet,
Hitler hoped to be able to wipe
them off the face of the earth.
The mystery OF their survival.
which on this day will be noted In
synagogues everywhere, is their
uncomfortable love of God and their
alteration of what particularly ORTIZ
odox Jews regard as the word OF
God. recorded in their Torah and
in their prophets. OF course there
are Jews who are atheists and
agnostics and money-lenders ana
racketeers There are Jews who
lend themselves to fouling their
own nests. But the masses OF
them today, as during the whole OF
their history, live in the shadow OF
the Torah, abiding by the ethics OF
their ancestors, cherishing the guild
ance that comes to them, as they
have always believed, directly from
God through the intercession OF
prayer. They persist because they
believe. They cannot be destroyed
because they have faith.
And what Is true Of the Jews Is
also true of other virile peoples
Only those die off that seem to have
no reason for persisting as distinc-
tive groups. They become assimi-
lated and amalgamated and disap-
pear among their conquerors. They
take on protective colorations until
they are indistinguishable. Write,
strong, believing peoples cannot be
like that. They will fight and die
for creed and tradition and langu-
age. They will resist to the end
any process. no matter how power
fully directed. which would take
from them that which they learned
at their grandmother knee to be-
licve in truth. Such people might