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.