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THE DETROIT ii;W
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at RON ICLE
Published Weekly by The Jewish Chronicle Publish•ne Co., Inc.
JOSEPH J. CUMMINS
JACOB H. SCHAKNE
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November 11, 1927
Cheshvan 17, 5688
The Greatest Triumph.
tiS
Indications are that with the Cleveland conference
last week a really new spirit enters into the national
councils of the Zionist movement. There was in this
conference nothing of that undercurrent of dissatisfac-
tion that made the Buffalo and Atlantic City meetings
so ominous.
We are told that the conference opened amid an
atmosphere of undisguised gloom and that, as the ses-
sions continued, the enthusiasm of the delegates rose
until it mounted to a genuine rejuvenation of loyalty
and hope.
For us, the most interesting feature of the confer-
ence was the curious drama of human emotions that
was enacted at the first sessions. Here was a group
of representative American Jews, all Zionists, many of
them veterans in the movement, with a long experience
of public service behind them, and yet, confronted with
what must have seemed to many of them an insur-
mountable burden of financial responsibility, they came
in a spirit of utter despair.
They recalled, no doubt, that the American dele-
gation at Basle had been cut in power and numbers;
that most of the decisions of the world congress were
compromises and makeshifts and that one of their own
most faithful and revered leaders had openly split with
Dr. Weizmann on an important matter of policy and
resigned in protest.
They knew only too well that millions of dollars
were required to meet even the barest expenses of the
new Palestine Executive and keep the most important
departments of the colonization office functioning in
some measure. And they had little hope of meeting
these exigencies,
Then, quite suddenly it seemed, the mood of the
delegates changed. What wrought this lightning
change?
The answer to this question involves a phenomenon
of the emotions that is as old as human nature itself.
Dr. Stephen S. Wise spoke.
"We know the worst. We confess to the worst.
But we will continue to go ahead. We will not permit
a default. Speak to the Children of Israel and let them
go forward!•
The effect of these words was like a bolt of light-
ning cleaving through storm clouds. Immediately the
air cleared. The stifling atmosphere of doom that al-
ways precedes the storm was dissipated by the full fury
of the storm itself.
Those of us who have preferred to observe the con-
temporary scene with the calm eyes of realism know
now, if we ever doubted it before, that Zionism contains
within itself inexhaustible resources. A movement that
can fall to such depths of despair and then rise to such
heights of hope and enthusiasm, is no ephemeral thing.
It must be one of those great world forces that cannot
and will not down. It may lose its leaders but it can-
not lose its leadership.
Zionism shares the virility of the Jewish people.
Indeed, it is that virility, that will to live, incarnate in
a group with a group momentum. After all, it is older
than its leaders, older than leadership itself. It is as
old as the Babylonian captivity.
The Cleveland conference resulted in some very
definite gains for practical Zionism. But its chief re-
sult was in that greatest of all triumphs—the triumph
of the Jewish people over their own mistakes.
Those Unpaid Pledges.
Unless the Joint Distribution Committee receives,
through the United Jewish Campaign, a minimum of
$7,500,000 in cash by Dec. 31, 1928, its European re-
lief and reconstructive work will have to be drastically
curtailed.
Such was the news given out last week by David A.
Brown, national chairman of the United Jewish Cam-
paign.
Let us pause for a moment and consider what such
an eventuality would mean to our people. What it
would mean to the Jews of Europe is beyond descrip-
tion. A question that should interest us just as much
is: What would it mean to the Jews of America?
It would mean nothing more nor less than the com-
r" plete breakdown of the only form of unity that Ameri-
can Jewry has ever achieved. It would mean that the
-e'i
't.l,
American Jew, who is not particularly distinguished
40
for his Jewish culture nor for his contribution to Ju-
daism either as religion or learning, could no longer be
proud of the only great thing he has achieved—his
merciful, intelligent and well-organized philanthropy.
American Jewry would have to face the world once
more as the rich relation of the new world—a lost tribe
among the tribes of Israel.
It is not exaggerating the facts in the least to say
that his philanthropy is still the saving grace of the
American Jew. There was even a time when his philan-
thropy, although excellent in itself, was of a proud and
overbearing kind that sometimes offended our brethren
overseas. But of late years, happily, this feeling of
false pride has passed from the hearts of American
Jewry. That was doubtless, in large measure, due to
the ennobling influence of those great souls who have
held the leadership of the relief movements since the
war. It is to their credit that we have learned to ad-
mire and respect our less fortunate fellow Jews of East-
'AytV117.141.4MiMeilcUkkk:V'-' ' '
ern Europe even as we played the role of the rich re-
lation—a most remarkable achievement in itself!
And now we are confronted with the problem of
maintaining this newly won distinction in the brother-
hood of world Jewry. We cannot plead poverty, for,
be our difficulties ever so great, they are as blessings
compared with the lot of European Jewry. Should we
abandon, or even curtail our efforts, we would be guilty
of a greater crime against our kindred than if we had
ignored their pleas ten years ago. We would be guilty
of making a promise and then failing to redeem it. We
have led the suffering millions of Eastern Europe to
expect certain things of us. We have made them a
promise of brotherly help. Can we now afford to give
notice to the world that our promise was not worth the
paper on which it was pledged?
Of $20,000,000 subscribed in pledges, $9,000,000
has been collected in cash, says Mr. Brown. We do
not possess definite information about the relationship
between pledges and payments in our own community,
but we assume that it would come to about the same
proportions. It is clear that no new communal enter-
prise can have any hope of success as long as these
pledges remain unpaid. Let us concentrate now on
this man-size job of getting in the cash on the outstand-
ing pledges. Everything else can wait,
Is Unity Possible?
The religious temperament can be studied most
profitably in those parts of the world where faith is still
strong and forms the basic structure of life. Arabia,
for example, where the religion of Mohammed exerts
a powerful influence on the lives of the people, is to-
day one of the most interesting countries for the stu-
dent of religion.
We recall that Rabbi Leon Fram, in a discussion
concerning Lewis Browne's "This Believing World" at
the City Club, remarked that the author, in opening his
book with a scene in Jerusalem had selected the wrong
setting for his preliminary observations on religion.
Palestine, he said, was the worst place in the world in
which to get a true picture of the religious life, for
there the student only finds a decadent fanaticism. To
see religion and the religious life at its best, he declared,
one must observe them as they are found in the most
enlightened countries of the West.
We cannot follow the rabbi's reasoning in this in-
stance. It seems to us that the best place in the world
to study any human phenomenon is where its mani-
festations are most marked. The religious tempera-
ment can best be studied during the great Age of Faith.
Or, if we would observe it in the forms of life, not his-
torically, we must go to such a country as Arabia,
where religion is more than a lip-service and a theologi-
cal battle.
Charles M. Doughty, in his "Travels In Arabia De-
serta," tells how he found even the wildest desert Be-
duoin gentle and humane. They received the Christian
stranger with kindness and hospitality. As long as the
conversation turned upon clothes, customs, laws and
other mundane matters, the traveller found his hosts
generous and friendly in thought and action. But, the
moment the subject of religion was injected into the
conversation, the eyes of his desert companions grew
bloodshot with fanatical zeal and their voices grew
husky with hatred.
The same phenomenon can be observed even in the
most civilized society. Men will meet on the common
grounds of their human needs and longings in a free
and comfortable fellowship. But the moment the ele-
ment of religious belief enters into their conversation,
there is a tendency to withdraw each within his own
little shell.
Perhaps there never was a time in history when
there was so much talk about unity. It is quite natural
that much of the current discussion about unity should
center around the question of religious unity. Even the
great problem of political unity is largely a religious
problem. There are "Catholic countries" and "Protes-
tant countries" and "Mohammedan countries." In the
social sphere we find "Catholic clubs" and "Protestant
clubs" and "Jewish clubs." The same is true of fra-
ternal orders. In the last analysis unity in human af-
fairs means religious unity.
Even within the circle of each religious group there
is the problem of unity. There are conservative sects
and orthodox sects and liberal or radical sects, each
with its own more or less exclusive circle of adherents,
living in a sort of semi-seclusion from all the other sects.
The Jewish people is no exception to this general rule.
We have our mutually exclusive groups, all filled with
a sense of their own superiority, all striving to maintain
artificial and arbitrary barriers of one sort or another.
Is unity possible?
The answer is not as occult as some imagine. Unity
is possible. All history proves that unity is not only
possible but even inevitable. However powerful may
be the vested interests that feed and grow fat upon the
artificially created "differences" between man and
man, they must ultimately weaken and decay. Many
of the so-called "fundamental" beliefs that now divide
sect from sect and even religion from religion were
created long before the birth of science—many of them
even before the birth of logic. the father of science.
With the universal spread of liberal learning these ar-
bitrary barriers that now divide mind from mind and,
consequently, man from man, must fall one by one until
there is left only the simple doctrine of love and the
hunger of the mind for knowledge.
That is the only kind of unity that is possible. That
is the only kind of unity that is desirable. Differences
of opinion and outlook will persist, of course, but they
will be the natural result of our imperfect senses and
our inadequate knowledge. But the tragic warfare
over the intangible and unknowable things that has
blackened the pages of history must soon end. If there
is to be warfare let it be a warfare of man against the
mysteries of nature. And, if it must be a warfare of
man against man, let it be, at least, a warfare over the
tangible things of life—a warfare that shall bring a
larger measure of life and happiness into the lives of
our posterity. But in those things of which we are all
equally uncertain. in which we are all as worms grub-
bing in the ground, let us have unity and peace.
Yes, unity is possible. But it will not be achieved
through the eloquence of preachers, poets—or even
editors. It will come about as the natural result of
the breakdown of those forces which thrive upon dis-
sension and separatism.
'6 44i
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CPAS . - H-. c.JOSEPH-.=
One of the most interesting figures in Europe for
three decades was Maximilian Harden, who died the other
day at the age of CO. Ile was a thorn in the side of
the former kaiser and it was due to Harden that the de-
generates at the German court were ousted. Though
Darden was a Jew by birth only, having been baptized at
the age of 16 as a Christian, his name was loader Wito•-
ski, which he later changed to Harden. Once, an attempt
was made to assassinate him and he was severely wound-
ed. One gets a good idea of what thirties did to the kaiser
and his group by reading Emil Ludwig's fascinating nar-
rative, "The Last of the Kaisers."
Dr. Wise challenged the British government vigor-
ously at the Cleveland Zionist convention last week. lie
said he wasn't anti-British, nor anti-Weizmann, but pro-
Palestine. Ile thinks that the British government, after
giving the Jews an opportunity to found a homeland,
have not given the pioneers the assistance they are en-
titled to. In plain King's English, he thinks the English
have "laid down" on the job and are putting it up to
the rich Jews of the world to assume the entire burden
of making Palestine a habitable place. Ile insists that,
according to the terms of the mandate, that Great Britain
should facilitate the development of the country. And
he incidentally blames the Zionist leaders for lack of
backbone in dealing with the mandatory power.
In discussing the will of the late Marcus Loew with
a group of nationally known Jews at a recent luncheon,
I was told that the immensely wealthy moving picture
group, with only one or two exceptions, gave little or
nothing to Jewish philanthropies. Loew left a huge for-
tune but, so far as we know, Jewish institutions were
not remembered. There is vast wealth in the theatrical
and screen groups, but if Jewish life in America was to
depend upon them for generous giving it wouldn't go
very far. Fox and Zukor have taken an active interest
of late, but if anyone can mention anyone else who
has done anything for Jewry in the field of philanthropy
in a way commensurate with their fortunes, I should wel-
come the information.
Maybe we will soon get back to normalcy. All over
the country, we hear of delniquent contributors to vari-
ous "drives." Literally thousands Who pledged their sup-
port to this or that cause have so signally failed to meet
their promises that there is talk of law suits. The most
scathing denunciation is made of those who have pledged
but not given. This unfortunate state of affairs is due
to high-powered salesmanship and mob-psychology. Com-
munities are "over sold." And another evil is that
charity is sold on the installment plan, and exactly ns
many overbuy everything else when paid for in install-
ments, so they overbuy in these drives. There is a defi•
nite responsibility resting on the seller as well as the
buyer. It is better to sell a man what he can afford
to buy and to pay for than to sell him more than he
can afford to pay for.
••■•■
•-•— ■
One can always trust the Yiddish press to become
very much excited on the slightest provocation. I can
picture the editors running about their offices waving
their arms and stamping their feet, shouting impreca-
tions on the head of Dr. Isaac Landman, rabbi of Temple
Israel, of Far Rockaway, N. Y., and editor of the Ameri-
can Ilebrew of New York City. All because he suggested
that the adult class in his school of religion should study
the New Testament. Well, friends, you can imagine the
excitement on the East Side. Jewry is going over, bag
and baggage, to Christianity! You may study the Koran
without becoming a Mohammedan, but reading the New
Testament!—well, it means that Dr. Landman has be-
come a "goy." It is about time that our good friends of
the Yiddish press learned to control themselves. I as-
sure them that nothing terrible is going to happen. That
when Dr. Landman's pupils get through reading the New
Testament they will still be better Jews than a lot of
radical East Side Socialists, whose tie to Judaism is st
slight that it isn't visible to the naked eye. If the Yid.
dish editors want to do missionary work they can do it
right in their own neighborhood.
One of the most interesting comments on "Abie's
Irish Rose," which has gone into temporary retirement,
is this, which we quote from the Nation:
It would be heartening to believe that the
playwright's profit of $5,000,000 came wholly out
of America's great love and passion for tolerance.
During the life of this comedy celebrating de-
nominational democracy the Ku Klux Klan rose
and fell. Governor Smith wrote his famous let-
ter explaining how one might be both Catholic
and patriot. Henry Ford discovered a Jewish
conspiracy and recanted. And here and there
in minor ways race prejudice was manifest. Great
as is the triumph of "Abie'a Irish Rose," it can
hardly be maintained that universal brotherhood
has come bounding in upon its heels. Millions
saw the happy romance and though very many
laughed not every heart was softened. There is
a great gulf fixed between dramatic literature and
life, and some who remained to applaud no doubt
went down to business the next day and adver-
tised for "Christians only."
This is a good time to throw my hat into the ring and
announce my platform. Recently I published in this col-
umn a letter from Rabbi Louis Wolsey of Philadelphia,
advising me that I was incorrect in giving out the im-
pression that the late United States Judge Treiber had
been identified actively with Jewish communal life. In
fact Dr. Wolsey went so far as to say that Judge Treiber
was merely a dues-paying member of the synagogue in
little Rock. I published that letter and as n result I
received a communication from a nephew of the late
judge living in Chicago. Among other things he says:
"Everyone is surprised at the letter of Dr.
Wolsey and believe that you should have with-
held the printing of same until you knew the
truth about the Jewish character of Judge
Treiber.
Right here is where I throw my hat into the ring.
Whenever a reputable persons sends me a letter for
publication, that letter will be published. If I had to
wait to investigate the statements contained in the signed
communications I receive i would never have the op.
portunity to publish anything. Therefore the issue is
not between the relatives of Judge Treiber and ow, but
between them and Rabbi Wolsey.
I have read carefully the article that Rabbi Hairy
Mayer of Kansas City wrote in the Jewish Chronicle. but
I find nothing to indicate that Judge Treiber was actively
interested in Jewish affairs. That Dr. Mayer enjoyed
his full confidence, in no way contradicts Rabbi %Vnl-
sey's statements. The s-cry fact that the Jewish press
of the nation, to a large degree ignored the passing of
Judge Treiber, in it-elf lends color to what Dr. Wolsey
says. No one is more eager than myself to pay tribute
where it is deserved. Judge Trieber was a Jew, of
course, but it seems equally true that that he contributed
very little to enrich Jewish life.
A magazine is amazed at the enormous increase in
the amount of money spent for temples and synagogues.
Tens of millions of dollars have been expended in erect-
ing new houses of worship, gnaw to replace the old, and
others to take care of newly-formed congregation.. What
seems to surprise the editor is that all this building is
going on in face of reports of laxity in Jewish life in
America. I confess I can't understand it. Unless it is
that Jews are becoming economically better situated and
are very properly investing a part of their earnings in
•in/title edifices. Of course, the Jewish community cen-
ter idea may have something to do with it, because in
these day" a temple isn't a temple unless it hat a swim-
ming pool. a gymnasium, a library, a smoking and lounge-
room, a dance hall and a few other more or less fashion-
able conveniences. This may mean something or nothing.
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■
"THAT MAN HEINE"
Thoughts Suggested by Lewis Browne's Book
of That Title.
By
RABBI LEON FRAM.
All he wanted was a quiet room.
That was all Heine asked for—a
quiet room. Ile made no extrava-
gant demands upon life. He want-
ed only one peaceful little place all
his own where he might sit and
write his poems. Bow he loved to
sit for hours and let his fancies
flow out. Out they came from the
depths of his mind—loreleis and
fairies and mermaids, sunset and
starglow and moonlight, butterflies
and nightingales and angels, lilies,
lotuses and roses, and that funny
French fiddler, and that fastidious
French poodle dog that took a bath
meticulously three times a day.
These foolish thoughts would
join themselves into rhyming ryth-
mic lines, and he would write them
down. Then he would take these
verses he had written, change them
about and play with their words
until they corresponded to the itn-
age inside of him. So he loved to
play for hours. His father mutter-
ed. His mother chided. The lad
was wasting his years away toying
with words.
But when the last correction had
been made and you read the little
two or three stanza poem he had
written, you said to yourself' Why,
this is familiar. I have heard
these words before. Why that's
what my grandfather used to say.
No, Heine had not plagiarized nor
put a platitude into meter. But he
had taken the simple dream•stuff
which belongs to every human soul
and spun a song out of it. And the
crudest peasant or roughest sailor
hearing the song would recognize
it as his own. Ile knew it by heart
the moment he heard or read it.
That was the genius of Heine.
His poems were like folk-songs.
You couldn't imagine them as be-
ing written by any particular au-
thor. You felt as you read theta
that they were as old as the lan-
guage itself, born with the human
race.
"Du bist wie eine blame" I heard
this lyric sung and recited a hun-
dred times before I learned it was
written by Heine. It had never oc-
curred to me to ask who the author
was. I had taken the whole thing
for granted. It was part of my
natural heritage—one of the eter-
nally lovely things of the world.
One does not stop to ask who is the
author of a dandelion.
"Du hist wie eine blume."
Next to the Twenty-third Psalm,
thin is probably the most popular
lyric in all the world. The great-
est composers have vied with each
other to set it to music. Mr. Browne
tells us it has been translated even
into Japanese. Yet it is German
of the Germans and no ether lan-
guage can quite reproduce its deli-
cacy and tenderness.
silt 51ST WIE EINE BLUME"
Child, you're like a flower,
So sweet. so pure, so fair.
I look at you and sadness
Comes on me like a prayer.
I would lay my hands on your fore•
head
And prey Cod to he sure
To keep you always and forever
So fair, so sweet, so pure.
One senses a faint echo there of
the Priestly Blessing: "The Lord
bless you and keep you.
"So hold, and schoen, and rein."
It was this gossamer, fragile
verse of Heine's that transferred
the German language front an awk-
ward ponderous intricate tongue in-
to a flexible agile music that was
"hold and schoen and rein."
But to write these poems he need-
ed a quiet room where he could
play undisturbed, and he never
could get it. All his life was spent
in looking for it, and he never sue-
ceeded in finding it. In his desper-
ate hunt for a quiet room, Mr.
Browne tells us, he gave up his
faith, and abandoned his father-
land. Ile became a beggar, black-
mailer, a taker of bribes—all for
a quiet room. And he never did
secure it. When he finally married,
his wife was a chatterbox who gave
him no quiet, and when he lay on
a bed of sickness for eight years—
every day of those eight years one
of his neighbors practiced on the
violin.
Ile died without having created
half the beauty that lay inchoate
within him and which a quiet room
would have unfolded.
Poverty, Prejudice and Philistin-
ism prevented him from ever get-
ting this little thing he asked of
life.
If his parents had not been so
poor, they might not have been in
such haste about getting him to
earn money'.
If he were not a Jew by birth
(he was baptized at 28) he might
have secured a professorship in a
university and with it a secluded
study where his creative genius
could express itself freely. But
like Ludwig Lewissohn in our own
America, Heine in Prussia could
get no professorship in the native
literature.
"I ant a woman and a Jew" is
the striking title of a recent book,
the author obviously proclaiming
what she considers two great handi-
caps in life—being a woman, and
being a Jews Well, Heine was per-
haps in a worse case. He was a
poet and a Jew, and a congenitally
nervous person besides.
If his wealthy relatives were not
such Philistines, such utter enemies
of art, they might have recognized
his building talent and supported
him while he was testing his pow-
ers. Properly managed, his liter-
ary work would have been worth a
fortune. As it was, paradoxically
enough, the unpractical young Je•
fell into the hands of a shrewd
Christian merchant—the publisher
who feasted regularly on the in-
come from Ileine's looks and threw
the naive poet an occasional crumb
or bone. As the Arrowsmith of our
day could got no sympathy for pure
science, so Heine could win no sup-
port for pure literature.
And because life denied him this
one little gift, despite all the sacri-
fices he made to secure it, he grew
cynical and bitter. Ile became a
rebel against society which could
he so cold and cruel. With a sav-
age tongue and a poisoned pen he
assailed a Germany which was rot-
ten with Poverty, Prejudice ant
Philistinism. With a soul sunk in
pessimism, he led Germany in thy
quest for a better, free society.
With a heart full of hatred, he be
came the apostle of universal love.
Out of Heine's hunger for a quie
room, came the German revolution
There were ninny women in
Heine's life, Mr. Browne tells us.
But this is clear. Ile wanted but
one love. When he Was yet in his
teens he feel in love with his cousin,
Amalie, the daughter of his
wealthy uncle. This was no puppy_
love affair. When she rejected him,
sho dealt his sensitive soul a blew
from which it never recovered. Mr.
Browne believes that if she had ac-
cepted him, their marriage would
have ended in disaster for she WaS a
thoroughly conventional and com-
monplace person and would never
have sympathized with his art. Mr.
Browne writes from the standpoint
of a sophisticated New Yorker. Ile
forgets that years later Ileine mar.
ried a woman who was absolutely
illiterate, a woman who never um
derstood a line of his poetry, and
yet they were faithful to each other
to the end. At his deathbed Heine
said, "I have two sweethearts—my
German muse and my French wife,
and the two are not on speaking
terms."
Mr. Browne intimates also that
Heine wanted Amalie primarily be-
cause her father was wealthy. here
again Browne misses the point. Fer
we know that Heine wrote about
Amalie some of the finest poetry
ever penned by man. And no man
has ever succeeded in writing de-
cent poetry about a girl whom he
wanted to marry for money. Gen-
uine poetry comes out of the uncon-
scious 1111101, and no man can hood-
wink his unconscious.
Heine had but one love—and it
was thwarted. And in order to for-
get the pain of his love-hung,er, he
threw himself into a life of de-
bauchery. He became a sensualist,
a rake, a libertine.
His profligacy cost him dear. Ile
finally fell prey to that dread dis-
ease which first blinded his eye and
paralyzed his arm, then gradually
withered his whole body away,
dooming him to a horrible living
grave of eight years before it sent
hint, still a young man, to the merc-
iful tomb of death.
But it was only one half of the
pain of his thwarted love that
Heine dissipated in sensuality. The
other half of his pain he sublimated
i nto that exquisite melancholy
which is the distinguishing feature
of his verse. From the moment
Heine knew that his love was to be
unattained his poetry took on a
sadness and poignacy which it re-
tained to the last verse he wrote.
Heine's are poems of yearning but
not of fulfillment, of lunging with•
out realizing, of wishing without
attaining. And because so much
of human life is spent in yenning
for things which never can come,
therefore, Maine's wistful melodies
win us despite ourselves. They
have all the charm of bitter-
sweets.
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"EIN FICIITENBAUM ITEIIT EINSAM"
A pine tree stlindi so lonely
In the North where the high wind,
blow.
lie sleeps, and the whitest blanket
Wrens him in are and snow.
Its dreams—dreams of a palm tree.
'that far off in an Orient land,
Langui•hem. lonely and drooping
Upon the burning sand.
Heine needed a faith. His body
was weak—from the day of his
birth it was constantly racked with
pain—and his soul a- an sensitive.
The strongest of men need faith
but that super-susceptible body and
that extra-sensitive soul needed
faith as a condition of sustaining
life. Yet he wandered from one
religion to another, tasted of every
creed under the sun and never
found his faith until just before
his death. Rebelling against Or-
thodox Judaism, the tried Reform
Judaism. Then deserting Judaism
altogether, he went over to Chris-
tianity. lie tried both Catholicism
and Protestanism—all in vain.
Then he was attracted by the new
cults of his day, St. Simonism,
Pantheism, Spinozism, Paganism,
Socialism. None of the religions
or his day could satisfy his soul.
If he became a mocker of both
synagogue and church, a derider of
all religion, not he was to blame,
but they—the synagogue and the
church. Ile wanted religion, but
they, its custodians, had only an
adulterated article to offer him,
and he rejected it. Toward the end
of his life memories of the pretty
Jewish ceremonies he had seen in
boyhood, snatches of childish pray-
ers and bits of Bible stories came to
his mind and guided him gently
bark to the faith of his fathers.
Even then he was irreverent and
mischievously witty. Asked what
Jewish prayer he cherished most
fondly he replied "Bore l'eri Ha-
gofen"—which is the prayer over
wine. And admonished in his dy-
ing hour to confess his sins and
pray for pardon, he only shook his
head and said in French the died
in Paris): "Dieu me pardonerra;
test
i ■ ;.•
-1
son metier," "God will forgive
nie. all right; that's his business."
It is evident that Mr. Browne's
account of Heine belongs to what
may be termed the New Biography.
It is written in the merciless, de-
vastating style cf Strachey and
Guedalla and Woodward.
It is a liberalizing experience to
read this book. It confronts you
with a character a-ha violates all
your standards of right and decen-
cy. Yet instead of being repulsed,
you find yourself sympathizing, and
in the end you can do no other than
call him great.
Perhaps the greatest service
Weihl and Browne have done to his-
tory and literature is that they
have recovered the Jew in Heine.
It is a fart that you can today
take a course in Ileine at any um-
varsity' without ever finding out
that he was a Jew. As I have al-
ready told, lleine was at the age
of 28 baptized into the church. That
act was part of his desperate effort
(Turn to next page.)
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