THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan
Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people
Vol. I. No. '2
$1.50 per Year"
DETROIT, AIICII., MARCH 10, 1916
Single Copies 5 Cents
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II TEMPLE BETH EL.
The Jew in America
By SENATOR JAMES A. REED
Editorial Note:—Ilon. James A. Reed, the senior senator from Missouri, is one of the leading figures in national life. his position as
Chairman of the important Committee on Immigration and his reputation as one of the country's greatest authorities on immigration, un-
usually qualify him to treat of the above subject.
in his history,
Great in
Grim .in his tragedy,
Through the . long years,
He has patiently trod.
Hoping and sighing,
Aspiring and dying—
Though bloody the path
Still he M'tsted his God.
The ideals of a nation deter-
mine its destiny. The stream of
race life given direction by some
dominant trait is inevitably driven
toward the ocean of its fate. The
cruelty of the Romans sent them
upon wars of conquest. The sup-
erstition of the Egyptians expend-
ed the national energy in the crea-
tion of vast monuments to imag-
inary gods. Greek aestheticism
found expression in the majesty
of incomparable architecture and
at matchless beauty of the artist's
marble dreams.
These ancient governments
have fallen and the ancient races
disappeared. The present inhabi-
tants of Egypt could not be in-
spits ed with the resistless courage
of the soldiers of Rameses. The
spirit of Thermopylae no longer
hovers over the land of • Greece.
The creators of the Parthenon
and Illiad have no destendants in
Athens. The arm of the Italian is
too weak to wield the sword of
Caesar.
The world is a cemetery in
which is buried the forgotten
bones of thousands of races who
rose to power, flourished, fell and
disappeared. These mighty peo-
ples have been exterminated or
absorbed into the blood of their
conquerors. It has not been so
with the Jews.
Who seeks the riddle's answer
will find it in that rare fortitude
of character, and passionate love
of home, race and religion which
have always possessed the I leb-
rew people.
For two thousand years the
few has been without a national
existence. lie has been scattered
over the face of the earth, the ob-
ject of malevolence and diabolic
persecution. He has survived.
'The story of mankind furnishes
no similar record.
In so proud a his,tory every son
of Judea ought to find an inspira-
tion lifting him to the highest
plane of nobility. One of your
.greatest writers has exclaimed :
"As a man thinketh so he is."
Poor indeed is he who, dwelling
upon sublime ancestral achieve-
ment and noble race history, feels
not that exaltation of soul which
renders him incapable of a de-
basement of his blood heritage.
If I were a Jew I would teach
my fellows the proud story of my
people. I would inspire them
with the thought that in them
courses a blood.as rich as any that
. ever filled the veins of man.
When the world was engulfed
in a night of ignorance and fear,
when crime flourished and idol-
atry was universal, the Jew
taught the sublime principle of
one omnipotent God.
When the authority of .. brute
force was supreme, when the
world was peopled with slaves
and masters, when right was
crushed beneath the iron chariots
of power, for fifteen hundred