PAGE FOUR
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
Issued Every Friday by The Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company
ANTON KAUFMAN
President
•
MICHIGAN'S JEWISH HOME PUBLICATION
Every' now and then one hears it said that the Bible—in its present
I form—is not adapted for general reading, particularly at the hands of
young people.
The latest to call for a revision of the Bible, or more properly, for
Offices 307.308 Peter Smith Building.
an expurgated edition of it for public reading, and for the use of chil-
Phone: Cherry 3381.
RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN,
A Call For An Expurgated Bible.
dren, is one of the more prominent Christian ministers of Canada.
Editorial Contributor
Only the source of this plea is surprising to us. For the implication
that the Bible is after all not a perfect book and by that token is not
All correspondence to Insure publication must be sent in so as to reach thle the product of a plenary inspiration, is to say the least, unusual at the
9ffiC0 Tuesday evening of each week.
hands of the Orthodox Christian clergy.
Subscription In Advance
$2.00 per year
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.
Once the Bible is put muter the microscope of critical analysis, all
the old theories held by the churches must fall. It becomes at once—
like other great works in literature—a product of human genius and
the child of human experience.
For our part, while we have never held to the theory of the verbal
Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Poetoffice at Detroit,
Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
inspiration of the Bible, we must confess that we see no need of an
Is This Americanism?
expurgated edition of the Bible. The Bible is, after all, the record of
the moral and spiritual development of a people from the period of its
infancy its moral speculation to the time of its maturity when it scaled
A libel as base as any that has ever been tittered against the Jews
is the charge made against them at a recent meeting in this city by one the sublime heights of prophecy.
What is needed is not a new Bible but a new (mien& toward the
Rev. Dr. John A. Marquis, Secretary of the Board of Home Missions
Bible. We must learn to evaluate its differing contents according to
of the Presbyterian Church.
different standards. We must separate it into its periods—the legendary
This gentleman, whose zeal for his missionary work is so great
and the historical. \Ve must distinguish between those legalistic codes
that it apparently blinds him even to elemental truth, teas speaking at
that were set down fur changing times and temporary conditions and
a meeting of representatives of the Presbyterian Church, which has
those basic and eternal principles of law that remain for all time. \Ve
launched a campaign under the name of -The New Era Movement."
must know how to set one value upon ritualistic legislation and another
The purpose of this new organization, we are told, is to prepare for
upon the great moral code which is central to the book. We must read
the post-war work of the Presbyterian Church.
with an eye to distinguishing between mere narrative and the speculative
We are not greatly concerned with the program of the church as
philosophy of the book. \Ve must, in short, approach this great Book
a whole, but we are very greatly concerned with certain statements that
of Books not as the work of a single hand or of one period, but instead
were made by Dr. Marquis, the truth of which is open to challenge, and
as a vast literature that in its development covered many centuries and
which tend to create prejudice against a large body of citizens Nvhose
that reflects the changing and growing spirit of the people in its out-
Americanism is surely as staunch and as true as that of Dr. Marquis
reaching and its upreaching toward God.
or of the people he represents. Perhaps the spirit of the man may be
Perhaps the new translation of the Bible published not long ago
indicated by one or two of his statements. He says among other things
under the joint auspices of the Jewish Publication Society and the Cen-
that "America could not have entered this war upon the principles
tral Conference of American Rabbis, and which has received a notable
chosen unless underlying the whole American fabric there were the
reception at the hands alike of Jews and non-Jews, will serve to do
principles of Christianity as taught by the churches."
away' with this constant call for an expurgated edition of the Bible.
The fact of the matter is that the principles of Christianity as
This work, which in its translation more nearly approaches the
taught by the churches did not underlie our entrance into this war, for spirit of the original than any translation of the Bible that has yet been
Christianity as taught by the churches stood for an uncompromising
pacifism; stood for a "turn the other cheek" philosophy; stood for for-
giveness of the enemy; stood for peace at any price. The Saviour of
made, is so printed as to indicate at least the literary form of the various
compositions. A more general introduction of this volume would per-
haps lessen the cry for an expurgated edition of the Bible. Its intro-
Christianity, as taught by the churches, is the Prince of l'eace, and a duction in the Christian church will go far, we believe, to establish not
soft, sentimental, emotional love is at the base of Christian ethics and only the integrity of the Bible record. but as well its adaptability to
not a sturdy, virile, unrelenting Justice, such as front the beginning of
time the Jew has taught.
There may be comparatively little surprise that from a man who
knows so little of the principles of his own church teachings. there
public service and to general reading.
Madison C. Peters.
The death in New York of Rev. Nladison C. Peters will be deeply
ing paragraphs, in which upon the Jews of the east side of New York regretted by hosts of his admirers throughout the length and breadth
he lays the full responsibility for the evils of Bolshevikism, which, lie of the land, but by none more sincerely than by the Jews, whose cause
claims, was developed in the United States and thence transplanted to he so nobly and so courageously championed. .\t a time when few
should issue'a base libel of the Jews such as is contained in the follow-
Russia. We quote Dr. Marquis at length in order that those who read voices were raised its defense of the Jew even in this country, Dr. Peters
wrote his book under the title, "Justice to the Jew." Subsequently, on
may know the full iniquity and viciousness of his statement:
"There are 30,000,000 foreign born persons in this country. One-fourth of
all the Jews are in America. Three-fourths of these Jews are Russian and three-
fourths of the Russian Jews are or were Bolsheviki.
"These Jews occupied the lower east side of New York and the slums of all
the larger cities. They saw only their own environment and judged America by
that environment.
"That this state of affairs was largely responsible for the paralysis of Russia
as a war factor I get from former Premier Kerensky himself. When lie lived in
the hope of making Russia democratic and was in power Ile sent to America for
Russian-born men who could travel through Russia and spread the spirit of
American dem o cracy.
the lecture plat form, he carried his cry for justice to an oppressed
people to audiences that in the aggregate numbered hundreds of
thousands.
There can be no question as to the influence wielded by. Dr. Peters
in awakening the Christian world to an appreciation of the immeasurable
wrong that was committed against the Jews in passing blanket judg-
ments upon them, which was, and to some extent still is, the general
tendency.
It may be that Dr. Peters somewhat overdid his kindness and was
"These men went to Russia and were dispatched to all parts of the empire.
What they did and said was directly contrary to What Kerensky has expected. prone to see in the Jew more virtue than he actually' possessed. That
Knowing and believing only the worst about America they spread a terrible has of course been the misfortune of the Jew through the ages. The
propaganda.
"They said that America had no political czar, but it had many capitalistic Jew in literature has almost uniformly been painted as a demon or a
czars who oppressed the poor, enslaved them in the mills and factories and forced saint, either so wicked as to be utterly despicable. or so noble and heroic
them to work for inadequate wages. They told of corrupt politics and practices
as to be impossible. However, none can question the righteousness of
and of the poverty.
"Their word pictures of America were pictures of the east side and of the
shuns of the large cities, those parts of America they had lived in and seen
mostly.
the motives that prompted Dr. Peters in his delineation of the Jets'.
.\ keen observer of men, his great heart seas stirred with mighty indig-
nation when he saw the Jews oppressed and maltreated, the victims of
"There was in this propaganda the seeds of socialism, anarchy and discon-
tent. The mass of ignorant Russians wanted none of this kind of democracy political inequality and ofs social ostracism because they were Jews, and
and when the brand with the stamp of Bolshevikism was offered they eagerly
he.determined to devote his very best powers to righting a great wrong.
accepted it and became the prey of such leaders as Lennie and Trotzkv.
"fled the church performed its full duty in spreading the gospel of Ameri-
canism and true democracy along With the gospel of Jesus Christ the curse of
13olshevikistn would not have been so easily spread. \Ve can see by this that in
reality Bolshevikism developed in the United States and was transplanted in
Russia, destroying her effectiveness in the war and her hopes of democratic gov-
ernment."
In his passing. therefore, the Jews of the world have lost a true
friend. To them his memos will be a blessing.
Tracts and the German Language.
The announcement made this week that the American Tract Society'
Christianity must indeed be bankrupt if it must resort to false-
hoods such as this. Mien Dr. Marquis says, "Had the church per- had discontinued its evangelical publications in the German language,
formed its full duty in spreading the gospel of Americanism and trite gives rise to the question as to whether in the wisdom of that Society,
democracy along with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the curse of Bolshe- Germans art' beyond the stage of conversion or whether the need for
vikism would not have been so easily spread," his implication is entirely. evangelism at home is so great that efforts should not be wasted upon
plain. .\s Secretary of the lioard of Home Missions, he feels that the those whis have turned their backs upon every principle for Which the
church has been remiss in not gathering into its nets the poor Russian church has come to stand.
As a non-missionary people, Ave Jews can perhaps not correctly
Jews brought to this land to escape the religious and political persecu-
tions of Russia, many of which were carried on in the name of the sense the motive that lies back of the decision of the Tract Society.
But in our ignorance, we should imagine that the I iermans would need
Christian Saviour and under the auspices of Ili, church.
the good offices of the Tract Society even more than many others to
Let it be said to Dr. Nlarquis and to those who think with him,
whom the missionaries cater—for instance. the Jews in America.
that there is more trite Americanism its the average Russian Jew in
America:than there is its a man who can think in the terms that he
thinks, or who can IT guilty of casting such wicked aspersions upon
a whole group of people who in the measure of their powers have not
been excelled its their patriotic loyalty by any group in America: who
hate, as a matter of fact, without stint, offered of their life and of their
treasure to the cause of America and her Allies in this great war.
Anti-Semitism in Germ. Courts
of his Anti-Semitism, but because of
his presumptuous attitude towards the
(Continued From Page One.)
imperial family. But. though dis-
The charge that even in Russia the Jews are the leaders of the
anti-Jewish purposes, supplemented by graced, Stocker continued his savage
Bolshevik movement has been sufficiently disproved by Mr. A. J. Sack.
comic papers and caricatures.
campaign unabated.
head of the Russian Intelligence Bureau its this country., and to whose
The accession of William II.
A new agitator then arose in the
article upon this subjett we made reference in these columns several brought another brief respite, b u t in person of Hermann Ahlwardi, a man
June, 1889, a fresh campaign was of evil notoriety, who had been dis-
weeks ago.
opened by the Catholic Germania and missed from his post as head of a
Under the leader-hip of such men as Dr. John Marquis, whose the Conservative Kreuz-zeitung.
school. An unscrupulous demagogue
An Anti-Semitic congress held at of the worst order, he outdid all his
interpretation of Americanism is in the narrowest possible terms, the
church despite its boasting and even in the face of the supreme sacri-
fices which it has nobly made, will never reach a true Americanism
which in the last analysis is an attitude of mind that is dictated by fair-
ness and by justice and not by narrowness and bigotry.
The Jew in
this country—yes, even the Jew of the east side Ghetto in New York—
will hold his own under the test of tree Americanism. To hold him
responsible for the spread of Bolshevikism in Russia is as has been said,
libel pure and simple. Out of such attitudes true Americanism will
never be born.
the same time at Bochum demanded
that the Jews should be deprived of
all state and commercial honors and
offices and should also be excluded
from the army.
The position of the Jews was be-
coming more and more seriously un-
dermined in the social and economic
world: they were met everywhere
with hatred and contempt. Their
arch-enemy, Stocker, was dismissed at
the end of 1890 from the office of
predecessors in sensationalism and
violence.
He issued a shoal of villainous pam-
phlets, and was repeatedly prosecuted
for Ebel and convicted, but his in-
fluence only increased.
In February, 1889, a band of 500
youths raided the streets in the south-
east of Berlin, plundering wherever
they could; amid wild shouts of "Ju-
den heraus!" (Out with the Jews).
The state authorities connived at all
I court preacher, not, however, because anti-Jewish attacks and hence it was
not surprising that the president of
the Oberlandesgericht (supreme court)
of the Province of Silesia, in Breslau,
issued an order in May, 1891, to the
presidents of all courts in his jurisdic-
tion to exclude all Jews from their
jury lists "except those who were suit-
able."
It was observed, moreover, that at
the elections for the Prussian diet,
when the voting is public, all the of-
ficials from the, highest to the lowest
gave their suffrages to Anti-Semitic
candidates. So threatening was the
hostility becoming that early in 1891
a society was founded by a number of
leading liberal-minded men for de-
fense against anti-Seinitism.
"Ritual Murder."
No sootier was this society founded
than it had work to do.
At Xatiten, on the Lower Rhine,
there was found, on June 29, 1891, the
body of a live-year-old boy with his
throat cut. At once the old legend of
ritual murder was resurrected. A
Jewish butcher, Adolf Buschoff; was
accused, and he and his family were
imprisoned. But as nothing was
proved, they were released at the end
of tine year.
A few months later Stocker made
an interpellation on the matter in the
Prussian diet, with the result that
Buschoff was again arrested and tried,
The verdict was an acquittal, but
Buschoff and other Jews were com-
pelled to leave Xanten.
The next scandal seas caused by a
pamphlet of Lhlwardt, "Judentlinten,"
in which lie accused the armament
firm of Ludwig Lowe of being bribed
by the Alliance Israelite of Paris to
deliver inferior guns to the Prussian
army, so that the latter might lie de-
feated in the next war of revenge.
The falsity of the charge was proved
by a government official, but it was
not until after thousands of copies of
the pamphlet had been sold in the
streets that it was confiscated, and
Ahlwardt, after prosecution, seas sen-
tenced to five months' imprisonment.
"The savage war against the Jews,"
writes Professor T'hilippson, "raged
everywhete in North Germany, threat-
ened their honor, and social position
and even, especially in the small
towns, their material existence. There
had not been such happenings since
t,hee'rHe ep, hep!' riots of seventy years
before.
At Christmas, 1892, tickets were dis-
tributed and stamps affixed every-
Where with the inscription: "Don't
buy from Jews!' The personal mock-
ery and maltreatment of individual
Jews by anti-Semitic roughs, among
whom there were often so-called edu-
cated people, were the order of the
day, and likewise the exclusion of
Jews from social and athletic unions
and esen from public and private ap-
pointments.
Many bathing resorts, especially on
the Baltic coast and the North sea, re-
fused admission to Jewish visitors
Even before the majesty and the sor-
row of death anti-Semitism made no
halt; Jewish funerals were scoffed at
Jewish cemeteries were desecrated by
mil- tans. Jewish houses were defiled
with mire; obscene postcards—natur-
ally anonymous—were sent to Jews.
The shop windows of many booksel-
lers and newspaper shops teemed with
caricatures and lampoons against the
Jews."
There appeared to be no limits to
the excesses or the extravagance of
the Jew-baiters.
At a North German Anti-Semitic
conference in Berlin, held on Septem-
ber 18, 189,3, and attended by a thou-
sand persons, the state was called
upon to confiscate Jewish capital, "as
it bad come only from robbery of the
German people."
In the following year the German
Social Reform party demanded in the
reichstag the abolition of "Schechita,"
the introduction of a religious oath in
law courts, and the prohibtion of the
immigration of foreign Jews, but these
demands were rejected.
Jew-Baiting Judges.
nitz ( \Vest Prussia), where. on March
11, 1900, the mutilated body of a dis-
solute student, Ernst IVinter, uas
found. A Jewish butcher, Israelski,
was kept in prison five months until
his innocence was proved. and his ac-
quittal caused such a disturbance in
the town that an infantry battalion
had to clear the streets with bayonet,,
Even the declaration of the ministeis
of justice and of the interior left the
charge of "ritual murder" an op sn
question.
Sufficient evidence has already l are , i
advanced to show that. although . \ma.
Semitism was conducted as a p.lit-
ical party, its tenets were fully ap-
proved by the German government,
and it was for the express purpose .1
safeguarding the rights granted t,
them by the Constitution that the
Jews of Germany, in 1892, foul,,I,A
the "Centralverein deutscher Staat;-
burger judischen Cdaubens," and. in
19)14, the \'erlittnil detttscher Juden "
Thanks to the efforts of these two
bodies, the Anti-Semitic party as a
party has lost its influence; but \ lai-
Semitism is just as rampant as ever
among the Conservatives and the a.
tional Liberals, among the landed .ii,-
tocracy and military circles.
Wrongs Remain.
Before' the war no Jew Might re-
ceive a commission in the army, and
he was even denied the trifling honor
of becoming a lieutenant of the re-
serve, and although, since the war,
commissions have had no be con-
ferred upon some Jewish soldiers, to
fill the gaps in the ranks of officers,
there is no guarantee that the holders
will be permitted to retain them after
the war.
Similarly the civil service is still
rigorously barred to the Jews, and al-
though Jews distinguish themselves so
highly at the universities they are de-
nied an ordinary professorship—un-
less they accept baptism.
Even the famous Professor Ehrlich
had to be content with an extraordi-
nary professorship. The anti-Jewish
feeling at the seats of learning is so
strong that Jews are not admitted to
the regular students' corps or unions
and have, therefore. founded their
own.
The Anti-Semitism of the govern-
ment is not confined to native Jews,
htlt is equally extended to Jews from
other countries. Foreign Jews who
have long been resident in the coun-
try are refused naturalization. without
any reason being assigned.
Only a year before the outbreak of
the war a remarkable movement he-
gan at all the leading German uni ■ er-
skies for the exclusion of Russo-Jew-
ish students, who were thus compelled
to migrate to Switzerland, Italy and
other countries.
"Can the leopard change his spots?"
It would be hazardous, indeed, to
believe that Germany, which is so sat-
urated with the Anti-Semetic tiros,
will emerge front the war a liberal and
enlightened country. The recent sug-
gestion that in the reformation of the
Prussian upper !loose provision should
be made for the inclusion of
inent Jewish representable-
dignantly spurned. This reacronary
attiude is typical of the German state,
which, despite all its vaunted citilirr
tion, continues to maintain a
of intolerance and hostility tossal ils
its Jewish subjects.
MEETING OF PISGAH
LODGE POSTPONED BY
CLOSING REGULATION
the Independent Order of IVNai
Bruit, has postponed the meeting
scheduled for October 28. This has
been made necessary by the state
board of health order forbidding all
public gatherings.
The meeting will be held as soon as
the lifting of the present health orders
makes it possible to fix a date. The
meeting was to be the last held in
Ganapol hall, as the lodge is about
r t0 0rn
resinuast,c 64tolirt ‘Tt ae thl,l a'Ny ai Brith dub
A sensation was caused soon after
The general membership of the
by the declaration of the supreme
court of justice in Germany I Reichs- lodge will have an opportunity at this
gerichtl in Leipzig that all slanders next meeting to hear a full report on
against institutions of the Jewish re- the organization of the club. The
ligion were directed not against Ju- club was formed by a committee ap-
daism, but against the Jewish race,
pointed by the lodge, when the lodge
which did not enjoy legal protection,
decided by unanimous vote that a don
and this decision was naturally fol-
should be formed. At this next mut-
lowed in the lower courts.
Of a kindred nature was the declar- ing the lodge will hear officially and
its action a:1 11
at:on, made a few years later, by the in detail
Prussian minister of justice at the of the committee's work
diet (January 31-February 1, 1901),
that the rule of the constitution that 'SONS OF BENJAMIN
the enjoyment of civil and state rights
NOW UNDER STATE
is independent of one's religious de-
INSURANCE DEPT.
nomination does not hold for the
Jews and is systematically ignored in
Court Satisfied 458 Remaining Mem-
regard to them by the Prussian gov-
bers Are Properly Safeguarded for
ernment .
Future.
Three hundred Jewish communities
N E W YORK—Supreme Court Jus-
in Prussia at once addressed a protest tice Lehman has granted an a p-
to the minister-president, the imper- plication by the State Superintendent
ial chancellor, von Bitelow, but they of Insurance to take over the United
were not even vouchsafed a reply.
States Grand Lodge of the Independ-
The leaders of the Anti-Semitic ent Order of Sons of Benjamin. on
party became more and more discred- the ground that the membership.
ited owing to their evil lives. but the which numbered 26,000 in 1902, has
seed they had sown could not be root- dropped to 458.
ed out.
This is due to the fact that the fra-
One of the most remarkable figures ternal insurance order has been rein-
among them was a demented Silesian suring its members in the Metropoli-
nobleman, Count Puckler, who began tan Life since 1912, and has taken in
a new crusade in Berlin, demanding no new members during the interval.
the extermination of the Jews. The
The law requires that such an order
Count was repeatedly prosecuted and have a membership of at least 500, arol
acquitted until he was ultimately in- for that reason the application to
terned in a mad-house.
take over the organization was made.
The "ritual murder" scare was again
Justice Lehman remarks in his opin-
raised in the '90s in various parts of ion that there has been no misappro -
North Germany, at Berent and Skurz priation or d'shonest• in the manage-
(West Prussia), Konigshutte (L'oper ment of the affairs of the lodge, and
Silesia). libermatzhofen (Bavaria), there is no likelihood that the order
etc. and everywhere the untruth of will be unable to meet its obligations
the accusation was conclusively (or years to come. The members are
proved.
protected with insurance under a
The most serious case was at Ko- blanket policy with the 'Metropolitan.