PAGE FOUR

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

ARE THE JEWS A RACE?

that the mission of the Jew, at which some of our co-religionists are

Issued Every Friday by The Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company
so fond of poking fun, is a very real thing, the realization of which,
ANTON KAUFMAN
•
-
President

alone, gives the Jew purpose and power in the world of men.

MICHIGAN'S JENVISII HOME PUBLICATION

Subscription In Advance

Offices 314 Peter Smith Bldg.
Phone: Cherry 3381.

RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN,

BY A. L. KROEBER.

A

LFRED l.. KROEBIEk, distinguished anthropologist, was born in New
Jersey, 1876; educated at Columbio (PhD., spot). Ile was Professor of
The Year Book of the Central
Anthropology and Curator Museum of Anthropology, University of California.
$1.50 per year
Conference of American Rabbis lie has contributed articles on anthropology and folk-lore to scientific journals,
The twenty-seventh volume of the Year Book of the Central Con- and has been engaged in many notable anthropological and linguistic researches
ference of American Rabbis, which has just been distributed to members and explorations.

Editorial Contributor

All correspondence to insure publication must be sent in so as to reach this
office Tuesday evening of each week.

The Jewish Chronicle Invites correspondence on subjects of merest to the
Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for an indorsement of the views
expressed by the writers.

Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Postotilce at Detroit,
Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

Montague Glass Holds Up a
Mirror to Our Christian Friends

of that organization, contains a great deal of matter of unusual interest
and importance. Aside from the technical and academic papers pre-
sented at the Buffalo Convention, which are reproduced in full, the book
gives a full and clear outline of the discussions on topics vital to Jews
and Judaism that took place at the meeting. Perhaps of most pressing
importance at this time is the declaration of the Conference anent
Political Zionism and the proposed Jesvish Congress. In accordance
with its previously defined position the Conference by an overwhelming
vote put itself on record as opposing any interpretation of Jewish
history and destiny other than religious, and it officially withdrew from
any participation in the Jewish Congress movement. The action of the
Conference as noted in the Year Book is important since it represents
the conviction of the vast majority of the men who stand as leaders in
the largest and most influential congregations in America today. The
publication of their attitude will go far to remove the impression assidu-
ously spread through the Propaganda Committee of the Zionist Organ-
izations that there is no considerable or important section of American
Jewry that stands opposed to the platform of political Zionism. The
fact is that because the party its opposition to political Zionism has not
seen tit to air its Jewish problems—one might say to wash its dirty
linen—before the non-Jewish world, the excellently organized and
splendidly financed Publicity 13ureau of the Zionists has led the reading
public to believe that there exists no such opposition. It is altogether
likely, however, that this will soon be changed. :\ true account of the
real strength of the opposition to a movement that many earnest, loyal
Jews believe to be subversive of the best interests of Jews and Judaism
will be given to the world by those whose competency for the task and
whose honesty of purpose and whose loyaty to our historic faith cannot
be' questioned. The Conference Year Book will open the eyes of many
to the true situation. But it is only one means of spreading the truth.
Others no less potent are at hand.
The retirement from the active ministry of Dr. Isaac S. Moses, of
New York, is keenly regretted by his colleagues in the rabbinate. A
man of scholarly attainments, of courage and conviction, Dr. Moses
has rendered service of a very high order to Judaism and humanity
during his long ministry. 11e was largely responsible for the editing
of the first Union Prayer Book, and his School liymnal is still re-
garded by many as being without a peer. Though retiring from active
work in the pttpit, Dr. Moses will not cease to be a strong and influential
factor in the development of Jewish interests its the metropolis and
throughout the country.

As far back as one may follow the Jew as a fictional character one
finds him described either as an incarnation of vice or as perfection
embodied. Alike among those whose writings have found a place in
the classic literature of all languages and among the penny-a-liners, the
JOY has been painted as either a demon or a saint. Of course he is
neither of these, but just a mats like other men, sharing their loves and
hates, their desires and their aversions, their passions and their emotions.
Montague Glass, when he began writing his now
"Potash & Perlmutter" stories, struck a new note. At first, let it be
frankly confessed, these tales did not leave a pleasant taste in our mouths
and we are still of the opinion that the Jess• would fare better were he
not so frequently treated from any standpoint, either by the fictional
writer or by the playright. However, it must be conceded that if one
has any sense of humor, he cannot feel offended at the descriptions
which Mr. Glass has given of the Jew.
He paints him, or at least that portion of the Jewish people with
which he is concerned in his narratives, true to life. Besides, no matter
how ridiculous the situations may be that are depicted, one always feels
when he lays down the story that Mr. Glass has wished to paint the
Jew at his best, rather than at his worst. One is convinced that the
unpleasant things about the Jew, in the thought of Mr. Glass, are ex-
ternal, but that he has a high regard for his innate sense of honor, for
his respect for the rights of others and for his desire to live as men
should live.
In the latest article that Mr. Glass has published •in the current
number of the American Magazine, he becomes somewhat of a moral-
izer, in that he holds up to some of our non-Jewish friends a mirror in
which they may very clearly see themselves. Under the tit•, "Some
of My Best Friends Are—," he writes with a humor that is all his own,
and with a satire that is very keen, a bit of literature that ought to be
very widely read.
Apparently Mr. Glass is quite in agreement with the Rabbi who
facetiously suggested recently that a national society of eminent Chris-
NOTED JEWS, LIKE PILGRIMS
friends are Jews," ought to lie formed. It
RETURN HOME TO JUDAISM.
large organization and would undoubtedly
In watching the kaleidoscope of Jew.
many of those gentlemen who stand for the
I their social clubs and who will not employ ish life one is ever struck with a sense
of the shoddy and tinsel twixt the great-

• practically says to the non-Jew: "Just put
- a moment and try to realize how you would
feel if we were eternally telling you that you may be very decent, de-
spite the fact that you are a Christian, that as a matter of fact we recog-
nize that Christian men treat their families kindly, support their own
poor, and, in fact, that some of our best friends are Christians.
However, the article must be read to be appreciated. It is likely to
teach a timely lesson to some of our non-Jewish friends who boast their
liberality. But, incidently, it ought not be read without good effect by
some of our Jews who feel themselves highly honored when some of
these same non-Jews smile upon them and occasionally invite them to
their homes—of course, on occasions when no other guests arc' present.

Professor Krober on the Jew

Untie:- the title, "Are the Jews a Race?" Dr.
L. Kroeber, Pro-
fessor of Anthropology at the University of California, writes most
interestingly in the December number of the Menorah Journal.
In his article Prof. Kroeber shows clearly what other eminent ethnol-
ogists and anthropologists have held, that the Jew not only is not a
race, but that he does not even form a type that. is universally recog-
nizable.
From a physical standpoint he shows, for instance, that if the Jew
were a true race, the Polish Jew should have the same skull conforma-
tion as does his fellow Jew in Africa. But, as a matter of fact, there
is no such similarity, and instead, the skull of the Polish Jew resembles
that of the Polish non-Jew. In countries where the blond type pre-
dominates, the Jew is also blond, and in China the Jew is stiff-haired
and slant-eyed like other Chinese.
Even the "Jewish nose," Prof. Kroeber shows, is not distinctive,
but instead he identifies it in length and breadth, in prominence and
curve, etc., with the nose of other Mediterranean nationalities.
He even denies that Jews have traits in common. To quote his
exact words:

"If the congregation of Temple Emanuel were mixed at random with
that of the First Congregational Church—the rank and station in the com-
munity of the individuals composing the two bodies being assumed to be the
same—it would be harder to distinguish the Jews from the Gentiles, than to
segregate by appearance alone a hundred poets from a hundred hankers, or
a hundred pickpockets shuffled in with a hundred clergymen."

What the Professor maintains then is simply what many of us have
been preaching consistently, namely, that the distinction of the Jew is
not racial, nor national, but essentially religious. To quote the con-
cluding paragraph of the article:

,, "If, then, the Jew is not a race. what is he? For over two thousand
years he has not formed a nation in the political sense. For nearly as long
he has not been a geographical unit. For the same period he has not even
possessed the unifying bond of a common language, except for ritual pur-
poses. Only one thing is common to Jews of the past and the present and
to all Jews of today—their faith.
"The Jew, them is a group, a caste, in the better sense of the word,
held together by religion. Hence the emphasis is justified which the Jew always
has laid and still lays on his faith. The Jews were the first people in the
world to actively nationalize their religion; and ever since, they have been
religionizing their nationality. Their future as Jews, therefore, is clearly and
indissolubly bound up with Jewish belief and worship; but their future as
human beings is in no sense limited or predestined by any bonds of race, but
lies in themselves as individual men, and in their ideals and character."

All in all, the article is a clear presentation of an important series of
facts that haVe a very important bearing upon the interpretation of
certain phenomena in Jewish history. The fact that the religious dis-
tinction of the Jew is his only essential and legitimate distinction rein-
forcies the position of Reform Judaism and proves from a new angle

, In contrast, not so many years ago
a nother English Jew, Sir George Fau-
del-Phillips, was chosen Lord Nlayor of
London. Jews the world over acclaimed
his, roe to this civic summit. Ile was
one of their own, yet five years ago. its
discussing his faith, this baronet airily
said: "Whets I am in the country I go
to church—when I Rill in WWII I go to
the synagogue." If this he not apostacy
—it tends to show the Jewish heart as
a wonderful melting pot that can fuse
both Judaism and Christianity. However,
one would venture to say that as the
years will leave their icy touch on this
maul's heart there will also be a resur-
gence of Judaism! The courant years
make earthly point) and circumstance
more filmy and phantasmal, and set new
currents of thought a-going, and, as
with lirandes and Mond, time will tend,
doubtless, to develop or recultivate his
diviner side, too, and lay more stress
upon his Judaism. Somehow, these met
may give unto Judaism that apostrophe
—"Though you slay me, yet will I trust
thee)"—Chicago Israelite.

(From the Menorah Journal of December 1917.)

ACE is a smaller species—
a breed of men, animals, or
plants. All members of a
race are born with certain
common features and traits which
they cannot lose. Nor can the race
become divested, except in small de-
gree and after lapse of ages, of its
special qualities. It may dilute and
wash itself out by intermixture with
other races. It can be supplanted by
a new and higher type. But for all
practical purposes, it is unalterable.
Only as the geologist reckons time
does race alter.
It is among those rare things in the
world which may be broken and de.
stroyed, but which cannot be bent.
The plum tree will not bear apples.
flue hen may, indeed, hatch out duck
eggs, but she will not lay them. Race
lowses are not burn from Percherons
nor from Shetland ponies. 'Ile chil-
dren of aucasians do not come into
the world black-skinned and kinky-
haired—nor the descendants of NI on-
golians blond—nor the offspring of
Negroes slant•eyed.
And these permanent, ineradicable
features of race are mental as well as
physical. The pure pedigreed bull-
dog never loves noise and incessant
activity as does the terrier. The collie
is gentle and affectionate, the pug mo-
rose and self-satisfied. The coach dog
will not point a quail, nor the setter
follow the wheels of a wagon.

R

The Acid Tests of Race.

Es-en among men it is genarlly be-
lieved that we can detect some of
these innate differences of race in
their minds and temperaments. The
Negro is unstable, emotional, quickly
moved to tears and as quickly to
laughter, responsive to stimulus, ex-
travagant in expression. The Mon-
golian and the American Indian are
slow, reserved, taciturn, self-repressed,
and stoical. The Caucasian has the
nature of a child compared with the
contained Nlongolian, but he is an
aged man in disposition alongside o)i
the movable Negro.
.AII these differences, and all these
peculiarities, are something far be-
yond the individual. They exist be-
fore him. Ile is born to such and
such aa appearance, to such and such
a mem, gly, the moment he is born
into a r....e at all. Heredity is the
great conservative factor, the forever
steadying tly 'wheel of race. And if
heredity meal anything, it means
permanence, repetition of the same,
generation after generation.
What is individual in us may there
fore be distinctive; but what we owe
to race is inevitable, fixed before our
birth, and ineradicable. What human
minds acquire, they receive from edu-
cation, from environment. NVhat hu-
man minds inherit from their race is
instinctive and unalterable. The leo-
pard cannot change his spots.
By these tests, are the Jews a race?
I hysmally, as judged by measure-
ments and anatomical examination,
the ancient Jews and their modern
descendants in the Orient were one,
ill all essentials, with Phoenicians,
Arabs, Syrians, Egyptians—yes, even
with Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards.
Even, today, physical anthropology
recognizes only one racial type among
all the nations that fringe the shores
of the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia and
Africa as well as in Europe, with the
sole exception of the Greeks and the
Turks;—and the Greeks appear to be
a changed people from their ancient
namesakes, while the Turks are new-
comers and invaders from afar. The
expert in the field of comparative hu-
man anatomy does not speak of an
Italian race, nor an Egyptian race,
nor a Spanish race, nor an Arab, nor
a Moroccan, nor a Jewish race. To
him all these nationalities together
form only a single unit, the Mediter-
ranean race, one of the main branches
of the Caucasian stock.
Is the Jew a Recognizable Type the

orthodox of both faiths. But limb-
ability is in its favor, and it is not one
to be dismissed lightly. Three per
'cent. of intermarriages in each genera-
tion fur five or six centuries, or only
one per cent. since the destruction of
Jerusalem, would make the smaller of
two associating populations—in this
case obviously the Jews—more than
half Gentile tialay.! Experience shows
that such a proportion of intermar-
riages is usually exceeded men w here
religions and speech operate jointly to
maintain a cleft; and the Jews have
long been at one with their tarinus
neighbors in language. We are too
'wont to think that because a law or-
dains, the moral statute is invariably
observed. .\s a matter of fact, it in-
I variably is violated; the only question
I is the proportion of violations to ob-
servances. Speaking collectively, the
Jews have adhered long and faithfully
to their precept of religious endog-
amy, and this prescription is surely
characteristic of their group attitude.
But lapsing or compromising by indi-
viduals, which is as inevitable among
them as among any other people, must
have gone on sufficiently through the
ages to affect the blood and physical
type of the majority of Jews of any
region today.

The Elusiveness of a Jewish

•

"Characteristic."
In any event, whatever the cause,
the fact remains that throughout the
civilized world the Jew, in his body:,
is essentially the same with the Gen-
tile of the same country.
The popular impression is the oppo-
site; and it is certainly true that any
one who has given the matter frequent
attention, whether himself a Jew or
not, can in many cases instantaneous-
ly "spot" the Jew. But it does not
follow that this something which so
often marks out the Jew is necessarily
a brand of race. This is clearly evi-
dent from the so-called "Jewish nose."
If there is anything bodily supposed
to be distinctive of the Jew, it is cer-
tainly this organ. Yet the more close-
. ly and accurately it is examined, by
Bertillon and similar methods, the
more elusive, deceptive, and non-ex-
istent this famous "Jewish" nose be-
comes. The professional anthropolo-
gist utterly refuses to have anything
to do with it. He recognizes only a
"Mediterranean nose." In length and
breadth, in prominence, in curvative,
in Alroop, the Jewish nose is identical
with that of the other Mediterranean
nationalities.
The only feature at all characteris•
tic of what passes as the Jewish nose
has been shown to be the contour of
the curl of the nostril; and this is not
a matter of anatomy, but of physiogs
nomy; it matter not of race, but of ex-
pression. A sneer or a smile, a surge
of anger or a pang of fear, instantan-
eously changes such features as this;
and it is only necessary for an indi-
vidual (or for a body of people) to
think frequently the same thoughts, or
to feel similar emotions—and the cor-
responding facial (or nasal) expres-
sion becomes fixed.

ness and sublimity in the lives of proin-
inent personalities. The eccentricities of
genius often develop unusually fascinat-
ing angles when one watches their atti-
tude toward Judaism.
A few years ago one read in the papers
that the (laughter of Sir Alfred Mond
the noted chemist of England, present
British Commissioner of Works, had
been reared as a Presbyterian and had
been converted to Christianity twfore
her marriage to the only son of Sir
Rufus Isaacs, now Lord Reading, and
that the marriage was solemnized in a
church. Lo and behold, only the other
day one reads in a London magazine how
Sir Alfred Mond, now occupying one of
the foremost positions in the war cab-
inet of England, presided at a great
What Traits Have the Jews in
gathering in a synagogue, and there
Common?
unctiously and sonorously rolls off his
A
common religion, a common edu-
tongue a sentence beginning with "We
cation, a common occupation and hab-
Jews," etc.
"WORLD PEACE IN HANDS OF
its of life, are therefore amply suffi-
What is there in Judaism that makes
JEWS."
the old sense of brotherhood stir again
cient to cause such traits of physiog-
in his heart? There must be some
nomy. It is a delusion to ascribe
changeless, some immutable chord that
The "Volksstimme," the official or-
them to heredity, to look upon
no matter how long muted, still responds gan of the Socialists of Saxony, came
them as marks of race. If the con-
when the alchemy of time reawakens the out recently with a strong editorial
gregation of Temple Emanuel were
01,1 Jewish stirrings.
article which caused much commotion
mixed at random with that of the
Biographies also tell how Felix Men- in the Central European lands. In the
First Congregational Church—the
delssohn Bartokly, the composer, brought article the writer lays great stress on
rank and station in the community of
up as a Christian, was also quite excep- the part the Jews arc playing in world
tional in his Jewish sentiments. He t olitics at present. It brings out the
the individuals composing the two
once resigned from a club which black- fact that it is no tnore the Jewish fin-
bodies being assumed to be the same
balled a Jew, and in a letter to his sister ciers only who exert influence in the
—it would be far harder to distinguish
makes the rather pathetic con fession councils of the empires, but the Jew-
the
Jews from the Gentiles, than to
that he feels more at home in a syna- ish masses have now become an int•
segregate by appearance alone a hun-
gogue than in a cathedral. The grip of portant factor which should be reek
dred poets from a hundred hankers,
Judaism was also acknowledged by Ben- need with by all powers. The Allies,
or a hundred pickpockets shuffled in
jamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. the writer says, realized this and have
with a hundred clergymen.
who was baptized early in life, who obtained the good will of the Jewish
when hearing the old Hebrew melodies masses by their efforts to solve the
Just so when mentality is consid-
•ii Jewish holidays at Lord Rothschild's Jewish problem and the promises ex-
ered.
There is no doubt a "typical
World Over?
home throbbed and thrilled over them tended to Jews for improvements af-
Jew" in character and temperament,
far more than over the acclaim of the ter the war. The Central Powers,
One of the commonest beliefs is but he is the product of social condi-
however, have not as yet fully appre- that a Jew may be told anywhere;
multitude on his diplomatic triumphs.
When George Brandes, the world- ciated this force. An appeal is there- that whatever his country and garb, tions, not of heredity and race. The
famous author and essayist and regard- fore made to those powers to come for- he may be recognized at sight. Exact "typical Jew"—who by the way is typ-
ed by many as the foremost critic in the ward with a program for the removal science has shown how utterly fal- ical of a generation ago, not of to-
day—is the outcome of mediaeval
world, cast off the spiritual swathings of of all restrictions against the Jews,
his race some years ago he had thought so as to obtain the good-will of inter- lacious such impressions of the unaid- Ghetto environment and of post-med-
to escape an undesirable thraldom. Ile national Jewry. which will be of tre- ed eye may be. Measurements, ac- iaeval conditions, which, in spite of
had for decades alienated himself from mendous value to them at the time curately controlled, and made on large considerable amelioration, still re-
all Jewish matters and cut off the last when peace will he concluded.
numbers of persons, reveal that the
On the other hand, other German native population of Algiers and Por- tanied much of the Ghetto flavor. Ile
fetters of Jewry. But only two years
was excluded, and he was exclusive;
journals
charge
the
Jews
with
selfish-
ago, at three score and ten, he begun
tugal is long-headed. They prove also
to dimly suspect that he had mistaken ness because they take advantage of that the Jews of Algiers and Portugal and he came to form not only a de-
the
present
situation
to
seek
to
im-
nomination but a caste as well, with
Judaism. missed the humanity and
are long-headed.
all the unifying influence of caste.
poetry behind its forms and found in his prove their own lot, placing Jewish in-
The I'oles are a short-headed race.
heart a hollow, aching sense of futile terests above the interests of the lands
As a matter of fact, the "typical" or
in
which
they
live.
The
"Deutsche
If the Jew were everywhere the same, Ghetto-made Jew is not at all typical
sacrifice. Like a wary pilgrim Ile, too.
Volksblatter,"
an
anti-Semitic
paper,
if he formed, physically, a true race, of Judaism in its wider historical
came home, back to Judaism and Jewish
took this opportunity to heap new
fellowship.
then the I'olish Jew should be long- aspect. It is only short-sightedness
NVhat causes the awakening? What calumnies on the Jews, accusing them headed like his fellow Jew of Africa. that projects him into a past in which
deep-cut memories stir from odd hiding especially of a lack of patriotism.
Gut the Polish Jew resembles, instead, he never existed. The Jew of pat-
places, untouched by the cyclonic swirl
the l'olish Gentile, and is short-head- riarchal times, the Jew of the period
of time How is it that both Sir Alfred
The Jewish Orphan Asylum, Mount ed
of national independence, and the
Mond and George Brandes at the zenith Sinai Hospital and the Federation
of
The German or English Jew is often Roman Jew, had very, very little in
of their fame wake to the realization Tewish Charities of Cleveland, 0.,
that Jewish blood is coursing through each received $10.000 through the will blond, like a large element of the Gen- common in disposition, in occupation,
their veins and that the faith of their of the late Moritz Joseph, who died tile population of these countries. And in distinctive character—in anything
fathers calls? Do they dream of the several weeks ago. The bequest to the Chinese Jew is stiff-haired and but religion, in fact—with the latter-
Jewish homes of their boyhood? Do the Orphan Asylum was made on con- slant-eyed! Wherever the Jew is sub- day Jew. The inclination to trade,
they see the flickering gleam of the Sab- dition that it be mused towards the jected to the acid test of real meas-
the reluctance to engage in heavy or
bath lights? Do they hear the thunders erection of a new building on a new
urement, his body proves to be prac- agricultural labor, the genius for
of Mount Sinai? Do they see the mag- site.
tically identical in proportions and finance, the avoidance of physical con-
nificent, heroic picture of Moses as they
traits with the body of the native flict, the readiness to be charitable, the
dreamed it when children?
Aaron
Fox,
a
merchant
of
Trout-
population of the same region.
tendency to city life, all these traits
NN'hatever it be, the magic spell of
Judaism resumes its sway and both dale. Ore., and its first mayor, died at
Whether the cause of this similarity with which the mediaeval and modern
Mond and Brandes are lifting their his home last 'Monday night of heart is the influence of environment, or of .Jew is credited or charged, were lack-
hands high to the emblems of their failure. He was born in 1858 and gradual intermarriage with Gentiles, ing in ancient times, or completely re-
youth — the unforgettable faith of their lived in Oregon for 55 years—for the
s not yet ascertained. The latter view versed. There is really no point, ex-
lathers. past 26 years in Troutdale.
will• provolce-the --repugnancE

'

Yff

"

— rsntfriuea oil Page e.j