v forericam lavish Periodical Carter
CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, 01110
PAGE THREE
LIEDEMMTJEWISil Ci Ito LL
The Art of Being a Jew
By LUDWIG LEWISOHN
Rare
Fruits,
Nuts and
Vegetables
(Author's Note:—Why is it an art to be a kw? Because defi-
nite historical forces have caused it to come about that the Jew call-
.
h imself nr his world for granted; he cannot live
ant to Kc c1,
freely, instinctively, spontaneously. Everyone else finds an imml-
Dent theory of life ready for him at birth—as ready as clothes to be
worn. The Jews hasn't any such covering for his spirit. The world
wants hint to wear one set of physical and social clothes; his con-
science often demands another. Every act of living for him is an
act of deliberate and difficult choice. Thus life for him has all the
intricacy, the technic, the conscious adaptation of means to ends that
filling to art. It is this fundamental truth and its historical causes
which I have set forth in the following article. In addition there
are shown two ways of practicing this art of being a Jew, an older
and u newer way, a less and more noble. These two ways of being
a Jew have a significance that quite transcends the Jewish problem.
They point to two paths that are open to our entire civilization at
THREE Srit/PS:
30 BROADWAY MARKET
1341 BROADWAY
SHIRTS
To Order
But the average Jew, like the ave•t
age man M. any sort. wanted to live
in peace, wanted, indmd, to be 0 good
citizen and a (.001fOrtallie one. Nine-I
teenth century Liberalism. moreover,
appealed to him, and in England and
States, in pre-war Ger-
many and Austria he lived in COI1Sill-
ellithlt• 1 .010 fort in his compromise po-
sition—a perfectly honest one—try-
ing to reduce his Jewishness to a min-
imum and to make his inner life co.
Melds. as far as possible with his na-
t ionalist position as MI Englishman,
a German, or an American. Many
its crossroads of choice.
Jews thus merged with the surround-
.
middle-class American of Jew-1 whom he suspects of the faintest prej- ing population and intermarriage la•-
came more frequent. But Jewry as a
ish faith is commonly, like his cultural mike; he is unhappy in the presence
whole, even reformed and assimila-
equal among his Gentile fellow citi- of Jew, whom he suspects of anti-
tionist Jewry, though it lighted can-
zens, a man of little or no faith at all. assimilationist beliefs. Ile is an
dles on its Christmas trees and forgot
Ile nsa• pay for a pew in a temple of American! Yet when he hears of a
the date of Passover, persisted un-
the reformed persuasion, he may even mixed marriage he shakes his head.
Ise seen in that pew sin certain high He has no objection in principle. Ile changed and
all but unsbniinisheil. nnd
wilt to thstotpette was ronsehots Its
holidays. These emotions in hint that is afraid it can come to no good. It
are dsssply akin to the religious are ; fills him, too, with a strange faint superficial; its will to per From
snore likely to he awakened over a • feeling of loss. Why, why? Ile pots- seisms, unanswerable, profound,
mom
play, opera or concert. dens. What has he to do with the in- this anomaly, from this contradiction
hook,
at a sustain that sectarian af- les:ray of Israel? Ile is too isnlight at the very center and the source of
it he or
must
situa-
filiation, since it is the frail shield of mast, scientifically, to believe that any life arose a human
thousand
-
ssons of the strangssst and most in
his exposed position. According to the. racial strain is unmixed. His faith, ,;
p
argument which sustains him, he dlr.' heaven knows, has no ropagandist
tricate kind. Cruel comedy alternated
at is wrfflig with the bitterest tragedy. Blond and
fors front other Americans (of Eng- the leinliles effilitY• Wh
lishnien, Frenchmen, Germans. Poles). • ardor. It sloes not worry him to secs blue-eyed assimilationists who were
by his religion alone. Hence hy must with him? Ile is an American. Ile Polish patriots, German poets, Brit-
cleave to that religion. The reforms- will be an American. Yet, when at : ,so
s, empire-builders—and were' all
Hon of his cult permits hint to lit in breakfast he miens Ili, paper, M. thesis things with passionals-
„f nut
e zeal--
yt , t t w i t h t h e tio „,ith„ g ac h
the Sabbath, even to at- glances first at the Jewish names h
his office on
hip on Sunday. The Day of among the notices of deats h and obscure dishonor in their hearts. They
of the denied Israel in the uttermost depths
And wors
te
tonet finds him, if not fasting, births; feels a faint sinking
yet at men of their
consciousness;
but Israel was
Mart at
0 cabled report of anti-Jew-
home.
, ish agitation its a Hungarian univer- avenged upon them from within, and
di v t,i t,,, be t wee n himself' ity; is consoled by the fact that a
Since th e
and his fellow men is so slight in the- , ' Jewish Egyptologist has, despite pro- in all that they were and did and
"I CAN SAVE YOU MONEY"
suffered
there
was a discord.
ory, it should be equally so in practice. test, been called to Munich; and that wrought
And this
discord,
.marked
by the
The reverse is true. Our assimilation- Mr. Rosenwald,
ald, of Chicago, has given subtler minds among the anti-Semites,
In New and Used Furniture, Rugs and Stoves.
ist friend of Jewish faith may las al- another magnificent contribution to was set down by the latter to its truss
most blond and straight-nosed; he may Negro education. Driven into it corner cause and it brought the ardent 111111
2112 GRAND RIVER AVE., DETROIT
be admirably unobtrusive in pronun- , he will admit these things. But he is
sincere
verge
assimilationists
of complete confusion
to the ulti-
and
Phone Cadillac 5770
ciation and manner. Ile may have a not often driven into a corner. Gen- mate
I
:
Near First Street
son at Harvard and a daughter
at this will not think of asking the d espa i r.
'
va , snr. tie may ha ,,, „ hh et,,,i„t e d his question. Toward non-assimilationist
There is, I think, nothing mystical
name. Yet when he sits at the head
ws he e plays the part of anger or in all this. All the great nations are
the guests will be Levin• . ;le ,
permit his
of his l e ant
skys and Rosenfelds; his table at his Americanism
indignation, lie
not
to will
be impugned,
ter- racial is not, sir rather is no longer,
luncheon-elub--we are safe in IISS11111- I
an Knell one in Christendom. But no-
Mg him to be a business man or law-
The not very happy man whom I tionalism feeds from the sources of
yer--will hear voices in which the
roduct tradition, legend, history. Christen-
have Ire
td to describe is the p
ake Jewish assimilation in
w ancestral prayer and study I
(who 111 the
of historic forces. It was the en ii, - duns, , to
is so
chant will still be audible.
its special sense possible, would have
and his slaughter will have Gentile enment of the eighteenth century that to relieve its own history, to turn
friends at college. But these friend- liberated his great-grandfather from back time, to undo the work of mil-
ships will, after graduation, fade by the Ghetto. Voltaire and Lessing lenniums. The assimilationist Jewish
sponsored the Jew's free entry into
what has all the appearance of mu-
child studies history in an English,
I western civilization. But by the time Ereneh or German school and is
toad consent.
had
ing th
and loissan
Volt
taught and believes that the Crusades
Despite his theory, our friend does the idsuts of ts
aire actions,
an
not in fact seek Gentile society. First- become facd oer were great and noble spiritual adven-
he is as a rule rather sensitive and wave of feeling and of theory arose. tures, and goes home and read Scott's
tionlism repu-
an
.elf-respecting. He sloes not wish to Romticism
and na a
"Talisnusn" and identifies himself
d the enlightenment of the (sigh-
wholly with the Christian nationalist
be where ht. is not wanted; and mem. diale
ries and in both warn hint that , teenth century and all its works and
legend of history. And then, out fine
ways. An entirely new Europe had
nut
wanted.
Secondly,
made
the
best
of
a
had
business
and
day
that child conies upon another He-
o
bably
is
he pro
mr-
though and
he even
may s blithely', he knows his the liberated Jew in its nudst. stint of the Crusades and reads of the
nasty
said: "Very well; we cannot put you fires and flayings and malestle
sinu-
York and
You- ,;v000iv000000000AwooA%%%woomom%%%%wo„vm.svx....
Pre,filli-
position
to Let
Ise a 101 Unitarian, for instance,' back into the Ghetto. You must be tyrdoms of Mainz 11011
ous
one.
Randolph 6321
WILKIE SHIRT CO.
115
EAST GRAND RIVER AVE.
The
— and --
7041
like us se) far as any public function-1
jag goes. We will let you build your
residential Ghetto where you like. \\e
will let you vote. Theoretically, we I
will let y .0 teach anti hold ottire. But •
you must assimilate. The price we
demand is the gradual destruction and,
sli,appearance of Jewry."
EAST JEFFERSON
Fancy Fruits
Baskets Packed at
13-11 Broadway
Only.
Seasons Greetings
and Best Wishes
to all
My Jewish 7riends
tar
S
A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
Chas.E.Goebel
GENERAL
AUCTIONEER
11.10iN %% ■••••%%•• ■ %!1AWCWOM
ICWIMIMICOMICIC
GREETINGS
N. M. Lerner Construction Co.
David F. Beveridge
Stone Contractor
1967 SEWARD
EUCLID 2614
biggest buildings, where
ALWAYS "On Detroit ,
specifications call for the best in cut stone."
1442 GRISWOLD STREET
Cadillac 5644
rebuff hint socially—his entire theory
crumbles Thus, for the sake of his
at
inner equilibrium, he must a ssocie
exclusively: with those who are ill ft
like position and live by the same as-
sumptions. In his circliss you find a
complete and admirable imitation Id
Gentile culture. It differs from the
real thihg only by a more passionate
love of the arts and by the almost
complete absence in it of anyone but
Jews.
These Jews, mortssver, can never be
shade more orthodox than himself.
They must never harbor a doubt of
he complete success of the assimila-
ionist theory. Nationalists cur Zion-
ists have rude and brutal ways. They
and •
will mention pogroms in P11111101
the number of orphans left in Pet-
ura's train of blood; they will tell ,
the anecdote of a certain Siegfried
Cohen who, when threatened with ex-
pulsion from Munich as a dangerous
alien, produced an Iron Cross of the.
first class. And what displeases our,
We wish the Jewish
assimilationist friend most is, that'
these disturbers of his quiet will dis-
l'eople of Detroit a
cuss the infinite variety of anti-Se-'.
Happy and Prosperous
mitic phenomena not with the pas-.
sionate disgust of the benevolent Gen-
New Year.
tile, but with a certain grave accept-
ance—things and the world being,,
104
alas, still as they are. ,
If our friend's social contacts are :
circumscribed for the sake of his soul's ,
We Hare On Di•play
security, his citizenship is of an even
more fettered kind. Though he lives
by the assertion of equality, he is al-,
ways impelled to be more public-spir-
ited and patriotic than his Gentile
neighbor in order to attain it. Ile.
embraces positions of public trust
EYER
with an inordinate satisfaction, and
D •
feels flattered when he is asked to
contribute effort or money to the gen-
eral welfare. His whole life as a cit-
izen is a petite principi. Yet he fares'
well enough in matters that pertain
to his city and state. In matters in-
ternational his way is still harder. He
YOURS FOR SERVICE
"
wishes to shares the opinions sir other
GLENDALE 2862
Americans of good social and profes-
CASS AT WILLIS
sional standing and to conform to
them. Alas, he cannot quite rejoice
in the independence of Poland; he can-
.—
not love Roumania, despite her suffer-
400000042-0 ing during the war under the heel of
0000-000 000
0-0-0-00
-0-000-000-00-00-00-0
the Prussian. He has a sneaking!
0040G0a00.000 -00-0
kindness for the pre-war Germany of
Rathenau, Dernburg, Bailin, even
though he spent himself, his substance,'
his sons' blood for the Allies; he has
—and dare not whisper it to his own
soul—a sneaking kindness for the So-
W. PERKINS, Proprietor.
viets who put down pogroms and gave .
the Jews complete civic equality. lie
is an American. He is a 100 per cent
American. Yet he brings to all his
political reactions another, an inter-
national consciousness. In extreme
cases he curses that internationalist
prejudice. It remains.
Ile does other curious things which
belie his assumption. Ile is proud of
Jewish achievement. (Inc does not find
Glendale 6211
Methodists or Anglicans so passion-
CASS
420 PETERBORO
ate in this matter. Our friend will not
over-emphasize such things. He will
it000ixriroGo
show good taste according to Nordic
standards though the heavens fall. But
he is not a little pleased with relatiyity
and psycho-analysis and the new art
of the theater. He will appreciate
Mahler and Bloch in music, and Sas-
s sion in poetry and Schnitzler and
Wassermann in prose. On a lower ley.'
s I he will sometime, ferret out Jew-
ish artists and scientists of far small-
er achievements and read lists of them
and their doings in some periodical
printed for Americans of his "faith."
He is a generation or two removed
from ritual or 'religious observance;
he does not now the ancentral tongue
or the history or the legends of his
people; his children are not permitted
Swiss, 13.50 Per Month.
to hear even those scraps of colloquial
Hebrew that persist longest. Ile is
an American, and American! But his
friends are Jews, and his interests
Open E•enings.
are tinged with Jewishness and he
his a etir.ns by pride in whatever his
compensates for his protestations and
people show of genius or glory. lie is
unhappy in the presence of Gentiles
It
li
—
,
;4'*4.1,;
-tNitO
Season's
Greetings
The Newest, Latest
and Best in Automo-
biles.
HUPMO BILE
SALES
AND
SERVICE
We Extend the
Season's Greetings
D. E. MEYER COMPANY
Central Glass Co.
WINDSHIELDS AND AUTO GLASS
Sash Glazing and Building Glass
for All Purposes.
fa
at
P. PROVOST
Moving Packing Shipping
1429 SEVENTEENTH STREET
Lafayette 1189
Randolph 6747
fl
The years slip by mighty fast! Seventeen years
ago—when this organization first made its appefirance
among local retail stores, we asked you for your confi-
dence and a share of your patronage. We received
your confidence whole-heartedly—and much more of
your patronage than we had hoped for at first.
Then the years sped on. We grew stronger and
more pretentious. We received more and more of the
business and good will of the people of Detroit. And
each year this store has pushed forward—nearer the
goal its founders hoped to have it occupy-a tangible
asset to a thriving, growing community!
YOU have helped us grow! You are, in part, re-
sponsible for any measure of success we may have
achieved! It is our sincere desire to express our warm
appreciation of your part in the building up of this insti-
tution. We extend the season's greetings!
CROWLEY, MILNER & CO.