HEVEMOIT,IEIVISR e_RONICIM
THE DETROITAWISH CH-RON ICLE
Published Weekly by Thu Jewish Chrookle Publishing Co., Inc.
JOSEPH J. CUMMINS
JACOB H. SCHAKNE
PHILIP nomovnz
MAURICE M. SAFIR
President
__Secretary
_.._.. _......_...
Secretary and Treasurer
Managing Editor
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jU
Sabbath Readings of the Torah.
Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 1:1-5:1.
Prophetical portion—Is. 27;6-27:13; 29:22, 23.
Sat
Tebeth 22, 5689
January 4, 1929.
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A Solution in the "Get"-Divorce Problem.
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A ceremony which took place in the private court
of Judge Theodore J. Richter last week suggests a solu-
tion to a pressing Jewish problem. A Jewish couple, in
applying for a divorce, agreed to secure a Jewish
divorce first in order to be free to remarry under Ortho-
dox Jewish law. Judge Richter, by calling upon Rabbi
Joseph Thumin to preside over the Jewish divorce, or
"Get," proceedings, has done an important service to
our people, and has indirectly suggested a cure in con-
stantly recurring difficulties arising from the fact that
Orthodox divorcees are compelled to secure both the
legal divorce and the "Get."
On numerous occasions, Orthodox Jews and Jew-
esses, upon securing the legal divorce but without secur-
ing the "Get," were placed in positions wherein it
became impossible for them to remarry without the
Jewish bill of divorcement. An Orthodox rabbi would
not conduct the marriage ceremony unless a "Get" had
been secured in the first marriage. Besides, on the basis
of long Orthodox Jewish practice, a marriage without
a "Get," even though a legal divorce had been secured,
would be equivalent to polygamy. This condition
opened an avenue for blackmail, in the event one of
the divorced parties refused to consent to a Jewish
"Get" which would make it possible for the other party
to remarry,
In our issue of Aug. 10, 1928, the present writer
wrote at length, editorially, on the "Get" and divorce
problem. Quoting an effort then made in a New York
court by Attorney Jonah J. Goldstein to compel a
legally divorced man to grant his former wife a "Get"
that she might remarry, we then pointed out that
"should Attorney Goldstein of New York succeed in
winning his point in the Kings County Supreme Court
he will have accomplished something that will be very
desirable under present conditions, although his court
victory will be far from a solution to the problem
created by the irregularity in the civil and Jewish
divorce codes."
The solution offered by Judge Richter's action, how-
ever, suggests a more peaceful and more effective
means of solving the problem. If all judges were to
succeed in impressing upon Jewish applicants for
divorce the importance of securing the traditional
"Get," they would at once solve the problem, prevent
the possibility of blackmail and make it possible for
either of the parties to remarry without scandal.
charged is that the Zionists assumed this desire to exist,
whereas he maintained that with the overwhelming
majority of the Zionist rank and file it was a conviction
that lacked in feeling. What the philosopher of the
Zionist ideal charged was that where failure met Zion-
ist enterprises it was because of the lack of desire and
the weakness in the feeling for the national aspirations
of the Jewish people.
To the student of Zionism Achad Ha-Am was not
an antagonist but one of the most contributing forces in
the national homeland movement. In spite of the pessi-
mism of his predictions, the leaders of the movement
admitted to the truths he expounded, particularly when
he maintained that it is of no avail to attempt to cure
the national organisms with plasters and drugs as long
as the heart of the nation was cold and weak.
Achad Ila-Am proposed a foundation for the Zion-
ist structure to make it strong and secure and to trans-
form it into a powerful agency. Ile has set down this
maxim which is to this day among the truth-giving ele-
ments in the Jewish national movement:
"The concentration of the Jews in Zion must be
preceded by the concentration of the Jews in the love
of Zion."
To charge Achad Ha-Am with antagonism is an
injustice. Because in the long run his teachings and
the ideals he advocated complemented the practical
and political aspirations of Dr. lierzl and Max Nordau,
Achad Ila-Am demanded a stronger foundation. Ile
charged the Zionist malady to be of an internal spirit-
ual nature and demanded the remedy to be made
equally internal and spiritual. Zionism and Achad
Iii-Am both demanded the restoration of Jewish life
in Palestine. What Achad Ha-Am feared was that
Zionism would concentrate upon the saving of the
body of the Jewish people without heeding the demands
for the soul,
The Spiritual Zionism of Achad Ha-Am is one of the
necessary complements of practical Zionism. Achad
Ha-Am urged that danger in the split and divided Jew-
ish ranks be averted through the creation of a common
culture which should unite Jewish feeling and make
of the people one national entity. Palestine us the cen-
ter and Jewish culture as the motivating force: these
were the aims of Achad Ila-Am's philosophy. A rebuilt
Zion will number among the greatest prophets of the
redemption the name of Achad Ha-Am.
The Philosopher of the Zionist Movement.
When the Zionist District of Detroit meets on Thurs-
day evening to hear the address of Detroit's noted
scholar and educator, Aaron D. Markson, on the life
and work of Achad Ha-Am (Asher Ginsberg), on the
occasion of the second anniversary of his death, it will
be paying tribute to the philosopher of the Zionist
movement who has given a soul and a cultural aspect
to the effort for the upbuilding of the Jewish Home-
land.
In the philosophy and teaching of Achad Ha-Am,
everything that was Jewish, all things Hebraic, every
element in life affecting the Jew, found an exponent.
In the works of Asher Ginsberg are concentrated a
searching of everything relating to the spirit of things
and the inwardness of the institutions or persons or
o nations under discussion. To Achad Ha-Am the typi-
product of Hebrew genius was the prophetic, which
rai is able to enunciate moral laws based on spiritual
truths. The spiritual creations and cultural pos-
sessions of the Jewish people were to him therefore the
supreme expressions of the Jewish existence, and the
influence that his philosophy had on the rebuilding of
Palestine has found root in a system which affects the
growth of Jewish nationality, a system in which the
prophetic plays the part on a par with the diplomatic.
Achad Ha-Am was above all else a practical man.
His good business sense and powerful administrative
ability which he demonstrated in his own business af-
fairs, was reflected in his theories affecting his Moral
Zionism. He declared that the Jew cannot be himself
either in the Ghetto or under conditions of emancipa-
tion but that what is needed is a combination of unadul-
terated Jewishness with the freedom of modern life.
To make this possible he urged a fixed center for the
Jew, a soil of his own where the Jew could concentrate
his national life. His conclusions were not dissimilar
from . those of Theodor Herzl, Achad Ha-Am, the
philosopher, like llerzl, the diplomat, saw the only
solution for the Jewish problem to be in Palestine. That
his theories should become practical the return to Pal-
estine was essential.
Yet, in spite of his having made Palestine the basis
of his teachings, Achad Ha-Am was one of the most
misunderstood men in the movement for Palestine's
regeneration as the center of Jewish life. There are
many even unto this day, particularly among the indif-
1.
ferent to Palestine who fallaciously and unreasonably
speak of Achad Ha-Am as an antagonist of political and
practical Zionism. It is this fallacy which, in justice
to the man who was responsible for much of the accom-
plished in Palestine, needs to be smashed.
Achad Ha-Am worked on the same principle as
Herz]. He maintained that where there is a will there
is a way, and that the more difficult the way the more
ardent must be the desire. What Achad Ha-Am
.c.9,e96 %QUA%
twin .
oe9ifT5
= GfAs.
What Is a Jew?
What interests me is what shall I enter? I are an
American, native born. I am a Jew, or as the company
intimates, a Hebrew, by religion. I am not conscious
that I am a member of a "Ilebrew Race," nor am I a Jew,
nationalstically speaking. I believe myself to be a member
of a spiritual group called "Jews." Why then, ant I
asked to decide whether I ant an American or a Ilebrew?
I do not notice the terns "Catholic" or "Protestant," In
what way am I different from my American fellow-citi-
zens, except in the matter of religion?
If I answer that I am a Hebrew, then I automatically,
according to the questionnaire, state I an: not an Ameri-
can. But I insist that by every standard exacted, that I
am an American. What am I to do? I present this prob-
lem to the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York,
and ask them to solve it?
Will they please advise me why it is necessary to
know whether I am a Hebrew, so long as I ant able to
answer that I am an American?
I observe that a German and an Englishman are required
to be specific. Well. I am willing to go along on that basis.
Perhaps I am an English Jew or a Jewish Englishman.
What then? Am I an Englishman or am I a Ilebrew?
I do not like to hurt the feelings of such a fine body of
men as govern such an outstanding company, but I think
that perhaps they had something special in mind when
they inserted the word "Ilebrew."
The insurance company had a comeback when it
replied:
We aim, in investigating an applicant for a fidelity
bond, to acquire as clearly as may be an accurate knowl-
edge of the applicant, embracing both his present circum-
stances and his background. Any such knowledge of the
applicant should, we believe, embrace normal racial
characteristics, and the term Hebrew has been used in
our application quite as are the terms English and Ger-
man because the Hebrew race possesses admirable and
distinct characteristics quite as do the English and the
German. Nationality in the sense of citizenship is of sec-
ondary. importance and as stated, the question has to do
with race.
This didn't end the controversy. A correspondent
took exception to Mr. Joseph's views in a letter which
appeared in the "Random Thoughts" column last week.
This correspondent evidently holds to the view that the
religion and nationalism of the Jew are inalienable one
from another, when he writes:
Go to any employment agency where office employes
register for positions and you will be astounded on looking
over the applicants' cards to find that most of the Jews
will answer "Jew" after nationality and again after
"Faith."
But from Kovno, in Lithuania. comes a news report
which seems further to complicate the question of
"What Is a Jew?"
KOVN0.—(i. T. A.)—Because the 800 Jewish fami-
lies, inhabitants of Kibarti, were registered as Lithuani-
ans when passports were issued by a government official,
permission for the erection of a synagogue was refused by
the government. In replying to the request, the govern-
ment stated that according to its records, there are no
Jews living in Kibarti.
Thus the comedy, or, if you choose. call it the
tragedy, continues. hieing a distinct racial group as
well as a distinct religious denomination, Jews will no
doubt get varying answers to the question "What is a
Jew?" The non-Jew's answer will depend on the poli-
tics of the country and the moods of the times. But
the answers of Jews will be even more conflicting: one
will say we are a religious group, another will claim
that we are a national entity, a third that we are both,
and there will be some who will reject both. Such
differences of opinion are to be expected from a people
as individualistic as ours. In the meantime Israel's
synagogue continues to function, and the Land of Israel
is in the process of redemption, forming two elements
of importance in continuing the life of an Eternal
People.
'
wssed -s•s s•sy.
was.
By JESSIE E. SAMPTER
Reboboth, Palestine.
i+. OSEPH-.=
So Walter hurtis dead. I am very, very sorry indeed.
His sister wrote me a letter advising me of the fact.
Strange that I never met him, yet I had more to do with
making him known to the Jews of America than any other
person. For several years we kept up a Toth. , interest-
ing correspondence. Perhaps it would be ssore accurate
to say that Walter hurt (lid most of the writing. I find
that I have to do so much writing in a professional way
that when it comes to personal correspondence I get
rather tired. But Mr. Hurt wrote wonderfully interest-
ing letters. Ile had a fine library 1111tI if I may make
the distinction also a splendid journalistic style that
made him so easy a writer to read.
Friend Charles Joseph, whose "Random Thoughts"
column is our weekly neighbor immediately to our right,
for over a month found good copy with which to fill his
column in the insurance application blank of the Cas-
ualty and Fidelity Company of New York. This appli-
cation blank, under the heading "Lineage or Birth,"
asks the applicant to report whether he is "American,
English, German, Hebrew, Negro, etc." This got Mr.
Joseph's "Goat," and in the issue of November 23 he
let loose as follows:
A Daughter Of Arabia
It distresses me to think that he died with a feeling
of bitterness toward some of the Jewish writers of the
country. I think that he also felt that I had done him
an injustice. tie was a man of extremely broad sympa-
thies and, in my judgment, absolutely without prejudice.
Ile believed in the brotherhood of mon and tried to show
it in every way possible. Ile had a great admiration for
the Jewish people and his approach to Jewish questions -
were the most intelligent I have known from a Gentile
standpoint. Ile could discuss a question such as Zionism
in an expert fashion with a clear understanding of every
angle of the situation. Ile wrote on a variety of Jewish
matters and his articles and letters were always inter-
esting and found ready acceptance on the part of the
Jewish editors and their readers.
He wrote a book considering Jewry and Jewish life
through Gentile eyes. It was a most unusual book and I
am glad to say that 1 had considerable to do with getting
it circulated. I had great faith in the integrity of Walter
Hurt and realized that he was the type of man who
would make a real sacrifice for an ideal. And I felt
deeply over what to my mind was the extremely unfair
criticism of a Jewish syndicate-writer who insinuated that
Mr. hurt was about to launch a new magazine and
expected the Jews to support; in other words, that Mr.
Hurt wits selling his opinions to the Jews at so much per.
The words were not exactly what I quote but the sub-
stance of the criticism is there. Mr. Hurt felt so angered
and so badly over this attack on the integrity of his
motives that he withdrew the entire plan of publishing
the magazine. it was to have been dedicated to the
spread of liberalism and good-will.
Ile was a member of a famous mid-west literary
group composed of such outstanding figures as General
Lew Wallace, author of 'Ben flur," and James Whit-
comb Riley. Mr. Hurt was at one time editor of the New
York !Morning Telegraph, when it was not merely a the-
atrical and racing sheet. I valued the friendship that
developed between us and my only regret is that the last
year or two of his life should have been clouded by a
misunderstanding. But I w ill say again in justice to
the memory of Walter Hurt that in my judgment he
for gain.
never exploited the'Jewish people
•
Here's something our busy business men may read
on the run and learn as they run. It appeared in B. C.
Forbes's column in one of the daily papers.
"I never could see why any rich man should
receive credit for giving money to charity after
he (lies," a wealthy man remarked. "If he holds
on to it until he dies—and he certainly can't take
it with him—why should he be lauded? Of course,
to leave money for worthy purposes is better than
not leaving any except for selfish ends; but it
doesn't strike me as the best way to handle
money."
"A real man, interested in his fellow-beings,
should get a lot of kick out of doing worthwhile
things while he is alive. Not only that, but if he
is a business man who had capacity enough to
make a lot of money, the chances are that he could
use his brains advantageously in guiding- the
spending of the money."
Then he added this, which should interest more than
men already wealthy:
"Some of the comment that greeted one of
my first rather large publicly-announced gifts
It seemed to cause some astonish-
MUSH Me.
ment, first, that I should give away such an
amount, and second, that the purpose was so sen-
sible. The fact is that I have always given away
money since I first began to have any to spare.
"You have to learn how to give just as you
have to learn how to make money. That is why it
is important, as I see it, that men who are making -
headway in the world should realize early that
thC best plan is to start giving as soon as there is
any surplus available for giving.
"You learn by practice. If you begin early
to give, and increase the amounts as fortune
favors you, you are not likely to make bad blun-
ders when you have large sums to spare."
A college boy home on a holiday writes me concern-
ing social discrimination at Princeton. He says that Jew-
ish students are not admitted to the "eating clubs," and
wants to know what I think about it. I have never been
a Princeton student and never expect to for obvious
reasons. From what I can learn from members of the
Princeton alumni these clubs or eating houses or what-
ever they choose to term them do not admit Jews, which
of course is nothing to be surprised at because they are
merely running true to form to the large university
clubs in the world outside. Fraternities, I understand,
have no place in Princeton and even if they existed the
probabilities are that the same anti-Jewish feeling would
reveal itself in that direction as it does elsewhere' I
read some interesting correspondence of former Presi-
dent Faunce, of Brown, on this subject. Dr. Faunce, I
happen to know, is a liberal-minded man, with great faith
in God and the Constitution of the United States. The
worthy ex-Prexy believes in peace so long as it doesn't
annoy the Gentile students at Brown University. But
when Jewish students thought of establishing a fraternity
of some kind at Brown the president threw up his
hands and thought it might create ill-feeling! Then
asked a gentleman: "Why don't the Christians admit
Jews to their fraternities?" "Well," hemmed and hawed
Dr. Faunce, "you see it's this way, you're right, but
you know, well, the boys some day will learn to be more
tolerant, and then perhaps everything will be fine, nice
weather we're having, think you not?" Are Jewish boys
"comfortable" at Princeton? My correspondent believes
that in most cases they are very uncomfortable socially.
And after all is said and done, dear reader, there is
something a boy must bring home from college in addi-
tion to a piece of parchment to better fit himself for ths
larger life. What say you?
When Miriam saw me coming to her, they have their own land
and beckoning to her, she stood to work—Jewish National Fund
still at the crossing of the two land in Galilee—and a lovely baby
"streets" or sandy alleyways, and boy."
"That child has a baby."
waited. She looked like a queen of
legend in her long black shawl. "She married late, at 16," Mir-
flung over it maroon robe, her head lain replies, "I am opposed to early
covered with a nunlike black drap- marriages."
Then, as we walk to the village
cry held to her forehead with a sin-
gle scarlet thread. On her throat proper along the quarter of a mile
of
sandy road, Miriam recollects:
and wrists hung delicately carved
and tarnished silver chains and "Here, in this eucalyptus grove
bracelets set with red stones. we lived in tents, many fatuities of
Brown and orange striped tight- Yemenite imigrants, the first sum-
fitting trousers to her ankles show- mer we were here, 15 years ago.
ed under her dress, and her small We had nothing but the clothes on
brown feet were bare. ' our bucks. The Arab sailors on the
rsil i u s ea t nt i i(t of
o i,r, h e ci ship had told us we must throw
Miriam i s taller t h a n most
Yemenite women, very stately, and everything overboard or we would
not be admitted to the land. A few
n•uiene
a s si h
"( is the T . ,h( grace
g ise r i rai a Ls, se
had money, and shared it with the
waiting
rest. Me ante to a new life, a
p o se,
new world. When the winter rains
ifit)uPitihine:g:h"a
a.'-g
saw the lines of sorrow in he face. began, the colonists had to take no
in, that is, they let us live in their
Miriam is in great trouble.
cellars and barns, crowded to keep
"I was going to your home," I warm, until we were given the land
said, to see how your little girl where we now live, and the Jewish
Malka is getting on."
National Fund helped us to build
"Thank you, no better; all the the first wooden houses. Rachel
time pains and weakness; the doc- was a little tot; my first son was
tor and nurse come daily, and who born and died in a cellar in the
knows where it will end."
colony,
"And your husband?" I ask, "Are
"Then we all began to work for
matters settled?"
the colonists, very cheap, just so
"No, he still insists that he will we could live. And we are still do-
marry. Of course he may not. But ing it, the men on the colonists'
it ie. all the time the same thing;
plantations, the women carrying
they are engaged nine years al- wood and water at home or washing
ready, and she won't let him off."
clothes for others, the little girls
"But I thought," I replied in dis- as servants. If only we had more
appointment, "that he had prom-
land to work and our own well! But
ised the village committee that he we are too many, and there is too
would not take another wife; for little land for us."
they refused to give hint a permit
I noted her poise, her beauty, the
to open a butcher shop in the vil- intelligence of her face and of her
lage unless he gave his promise."
speech. And malty thousands of
"Maybe," she said, "I have not such are waiting in Yemen, perse-
heard. He talks just the sante."
cuted and superstition-ridden, to
I confess to being shocked by the come to the regeneration, the liber-
methods of the village committee ation of our land. And the land is
and to great difficulty in under- wide and empty still. If only we
standing 51irianas point of view:
(solid give them land enough to
If her husband wants to marry it
make them free! •
younger widow, let hint do it and
We passed a Yemenite woman
go his way. But there is no ques- carrying a huge bundle of sticks
tion of going. Among the Yemen- balanced on her dainty head. This
ite Jews in Arabia, polygamy is labor gives them, as the Arab wom-
practiced, and those who have set-
en, their queenly walk. The wom-
tled in Palestine are only gradual- an was small, in rags, defiantly
ly giving up the custom, under the striding. There passed no greet-
pressure of opinion of their Euro- ing.
peon brethren; and naturally the
"That," whispered Miriam, "is
women are the greatest advocates
she."
of the reform.
In Shaaraim, the Yemenite quar-
ter of the village of Rehoveth, there ASKS POLISH AID FOR
are four cases of polygamy among
JEWISH ORPHAN CARE
more than a hundred families. Mir-
iam does not want her husband to
WARSAW, (J. T. A.)—The
"go;" but she wants him not to
problem of the care for Jewish or-
marry again. Nor can she divorce phans in Poland is intrinsically a
hint, should she please to; but he state problem and the government
can send her out of the house pen- is obliged to take such measures
niless and childless, with a wave of
as will provide the funds neces-
his nand, as he would dismiss a sary for continuing the orphan
servant.
care work inaugurated by the
No wonder Miriam is progress-
American Jewish Joint Distribu-
ive, that she weeps secretly because
tion Committee.
her little girl must go to work at
This argument was made by De-
eight years instead of school. Iler
puty II. Rozmarin speaking in be-
boys go to the Talmud Torah to
half of the Club of Jewish De-
learn masculine supremacy and
puties in the budget commission
law. But at least her daughters
of the Polish Sejm during the dis-
have learned to speak, read, and
cussion on the estimates of the
write Ilebrew at the evening school
Ministry of Labor.
provided by the Ashkenazi—more
The Polish government cannot
than she can do—and Miriam her-
permit a condition similar to that
self has learned to speak a charm-
prevailing in Soviet Russia where
ing Hebrew in the 15 years since
orphans uncared for roam about in
she came to Palestine. To the
Ashkenazi founders of the village, the streets. The government should
she gives a grudging gratitude. seek ways of influencing the mun-
They sustain and they exploit. cipal governments to provide for
Their moral compulsion of her hus- the Jewish war orphans who were,
until recently, cared for by the
band with the butcher shop permit
funds supplied through the Amer-
does not impress her.
ican
Jewish Joint Distribution Corn-
"I was going to see the doctor,"
she explains, hence her holiday at- mittee. It was due to the work
of
this
committee that orphan
tire. "But stop at my house a mo-
homes were built. Lately, the as-
ment to meet my daughter, Rachel
sistance
given by the J. D. C. has
who has come for a few (lays to
been considerably reduced and it
help me care for Malka. See her!"
may
soon
be entirely withdrawn.
A lovely girl, darkly radiant,
The Jewish population is greatly
looking not more than 18, but with
perturbed
over
the fate which may
a wedding ring on her finger, greets
us at the garden gate. Her red ker- befall the Jewish war orphans, the
deputy
declared.
chief sets off a peculiar freedom
and joyousness in her expression,—
MEETING CRITICISM
un-Yemenite, I had said. We shake
hands warmly. I note again the
"Oh, no, at least not now," said
flourishing garden full of fruits
and flowers and vegetables, the Abraham Lincoln once. "If I were
neat white cement house of two ta try to read, much less to an-
rooms, one of the best in the quar- swer, all the attacks made on me,
ter. With hard work and devoted this shop might as well be closed
service to her insatiate husband, for any other business. I do the
Miriam has escaped at least the very best I know how—the very
best I can; and I intend to keep
economic anxiety of her neighbors.
"Your (laughter looks very hap- doing so until the end. If the end
brings me out all right, what is
py," I remark.
"Yes," Miriam smiles, "and we said against me won't amount to
were so opposed to her marriage anything. If the end brings me
with a Ilalutz, an Ashkenazi; we out wrong, 10 angels swearing I
thought him a Sabbath breaker, was right would make no differ-
like the goyim. But he is very good ence."
It seems incredible, yet here it is black on white. A
lawyer in Baltimore sends me a reprint of an article he
has written on the subject of religious liberty and toler-
ance in Maryland. Unless it is a misprint I read that
until the year 1927 no Jew could be married in Maryland
unless in a Christian church! Is that true or is I mis-
read the statement? If it is true that Maryland law.
makers should have traveled a bit during the past hundred
years and broadened their minds. The same writer
asserts that "Maryland, in spite of the boasts of its gov-
ernor and both United States senators during the 1928
campaign, has as little religious freedom today as it had
in 1658, when under the provisions of the so-called
'Edict of Toleration,' it made ready to hang 'Ye Jew
Doctor' Lumbrozo because he denied the divinity of
Jesus." And we are told that "The Blasphemy Act in the
Maryland Criminal Code" of 1924 has a similar religious
proscription, except that the penalty of hanging and con-
fiscation of goods is reduced to six months' imprison-
ment or $1110 fine or both.
Now just let me get this matter clear in my mind.
Am I to understand that if I deny the divinity of Jesus
in Baltimore that I can be sent to prison for six months
and fined $100? If that is true then what Maryland
needs is to have a campaign for religious liberty. For a
time I used to think that Tenne=ssee carried off the medal
for intolerance and they had to send Baltimore's favorite
son of the sunpapers, Henry Menchen, to tell the world
that awful people lived there. What I simply can't under-
stand is how the same state can contain such a law as
I have quoted and II. L. Mencken at the same time. That
Baltimore Sun crowd seem to be normal-minded humans.
They have Frank Kent, and for a time that high-brow
Bolshevist, Ilendrik Van Loon wrote for them and so
many other broadminded men. And they can continue
to publish these papers with • clear conscience and hav-
ing these illegal hill-billy laws on the statute books.
.9429.6 19R9A...%
Gems From Jewish Literature
Selected by Rabbi Leon Fram.
RUSSIAN OR JEWISH?
When Antokolsky, (the Russian-
Jewish sculptor) wished to create
a type of a lonely recluse, writing
his books in the isolation of his own
chamber, he went hack to the elev-
enth century, to a monastery in
Kieff, to find the well-known Rus-
sian monkish chronicler Nestor;
whereas he had seen in his own
birthplace. Wilna, a recluse type of
a much broader human appeal,
and much closer to himself in spir-
it—the type, I mean, of the "per-
petual student" whom a Hebrew
poet has so brilliantly depicted,
I Bialik: "The Mathmid") the r".
clime who does not shut himself
out of the world in a monastery,
but lives in society, sad is yet as
far as any monk from the bustle
and turmoil of life, knowing es
world but that of the leaks which
he reads, or, if he is a great man,
the books which he writes. When
Antokolsky was a small boy he
must certainly have listened with
reverence to the stories told by the
old men of his town about the great
recluse who lived there a hundred
years before, whose whole life was
one long day of study and writing,
without pause or rest. But An-
tokolsky, the great artist, did not
remember the Gaon of Wilna, who
fired the hey's imagination: he
wandered far afield to a medieval
Russian monastery, outside the ken
of himself and his ancestors, in or-
der to find there what. he could
have found among his own people
and in his own town.
Was this really so necessary, so
essential to the welfare of art and
the good of humanity, that we have
no right to lament our loss, and to
la-nent it aloud?
From the Essays of Ached ha-
A rm.)
--.;
'NURTURE -
T,. s cold stone you will Press your !Ups.
your mouth,
To mad stone you will ,aces
"M• blond harm.. in an vein..
ask and honey for my drought?"
When en, bid no,
Vol most rmv.
Frown e•ery rcs.k will honey flow.
And every stone by you addressed
Will become • brimming breast.
.-111.00MGARDEN
I .topped
•'SNOWFALL•
in an Instant I was
outrj. nnri
surr ound., 1
raltitte
ol of
C0111 and gleamini
111 •
butterflies.
Flatterintly they tumbled on my cheek.
ad on my forehead.
With their allele kisses fastening down
my eyelids. . . .
Thug surrounding me, the bright one.,
in me ear theywhi•pered
Secrete neither mournful nor yet gam
And M the midst of whispering they
stumbled on the threshold of DIY
Stumbled there and melted and their se-
elted with them.
Till this day m I Yr,. it if they eat to
me or wept
—SIINAIER
Cf