A mericam Amish periodical Curter

CUPTON ATINU1 - CINCINNATI 10, OHIO

TIIE. DF:TROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

UNWORTHY

MARGINAL NOTES ON JEWISH HISTORY

(Continued from page 4)

Why should the thought of you

remain,
remembered only the land that was promised to them, but
.maendziduaioonitnegd,
refrain
not the daring and the courage which had evoked that illtlio
That clings unwanted?
promise), and in the hour of his farewell he had placed
dream lint rue*
clearly before them the two alternatives which would con- y„u
front them—as it confronts all 1110011:4—throughout all A (Iall ' a i n e t a Farley drew,
A love that thrived and grew
lime: the will to be themselves, which if it be strong
enough outlives all enmity, and the spirit of dissolution, ( 41 "ragier,""Ptt yin threw
ti;;Lag ,. r iv
Which kills a people from within though it be barricaded
Your every word and glance,
against all foes. Now, at the dividing line between the
And huilded a roman,.
past and future, the leader contemplated the host Which
he had relinquished to other hands, less capable than his tt was in May I dreamed of you —
Now 'tin December.
and which depended therefore less on the lemb.rship

own,

25

and THE LEGAL. CHRONICLE

it because love was so new

than on the spirit which he had instilled into it. Now he Wu,
That I remember?
Zelda Medvedov Landsman.
could ask himself; Had the agony been worthwhile?
Would the infinite labor and infinite patience, the infinite
love and foresight, bear undying fruit? Or was this peo-
ple, once his leadership had been withdrawp, doomed to
mingle with the swarming multitude around them, to be
like them, a meaningless apparition, the voice of an hour
tittered and then silenced?
This the vision answered.
He saw that the impulse of his spirit had only begun
the making of a people. For oppression exists not only in
Egypt, and temptations come not only in the desert. Even
Nvhile they conquered the land for themselves the children
of Israel received, at tittles. contaminations from the con-
quered. Gods as base in spirit as the Egyptians, rites as
hideous and faiths as corrupt (born of the flesh and of
nightmares) surrounded them, a darker threat to their
little kingdom than the two empires which loomed on
either side, the empire of the Nile and the empire of the
Tigris and Euphrates. It was easier to win a land (has it
not been done a thousand times- are there not in the des-
erts of the world, and under the foliage of its forests, col-
umns and palaces whose indecipherable inscriptions bear
witness to this truth?) than to establish an immortal spirit.
Even when their foothold in the land was firm, when
their cities had grown, their farms and orchards became
prosperous, they paid for the loss of spirit with the loss of
liberty. There are peoples of the remote past who have
nothing of their own to be remembered by, but have been
perpetuated only because, in the hour of Israel's weakness.
they became the punishment. Milian and Amalek and
Philistia have left to posterity only what they inflicted on
the children of Israel. From the experiences the people
gathered, slowly and uncertainly, the wisdom which their
leader had uttered for them, but which only time could
confirm and make part of their life. Anti the story of
Israel's first appearance in its homeland is the story of a
'double war; against the tribal hordes which menaced
them; and of these the second war was longer and more

Saluting!
THE ROMANCE OF A PEOPLE'

A wonderful production—by a magnificent

personnel—in a worthy cause.

W. H. BALL & CO.

Certified Public Account•nta

NATIONAL BANK BUILDING
Detroit, Michigan

W. H. HALL. C. P. A.
1. W. HALL, C. P. A-
1. H. WERNER, C. P. A.

Cadillse ttst

THE S. S. KRESGE CO.

takes this occasion to congratulate

you who have given so generously

of your time and talents in the

creation of

desperate.
Out of the heart of the people itself came, finally, the
true inheritors of Moses. Heroes, kings, priests, temples
were known to all other peoples in the world; but these
newcomers were the product of Israel alone, Their work
was done nowhere else in the world, and their purpose had
found no protagonists elsewhere. When the vision of the
people sank, when temptations overwhelmed them. when
the laws of justice were forgotten, and the gross customs
and beliefs of their neighbors pressed upon them, the
prophets arose . They were not rulers or warriors; they
had not the power either of wealth or of arms. for these
they despised, whether in the hands of Israel or its ene-
mies. They were not terrified by the might of Assyria ;
how then should they tremble before the strength of a
Jewish king? And since they were in spirit of the line of
not defer to the lesser glory of royalty.
Moses, they would
Two generations (our own and its predecessor) have
witnessed more changes in Jewish life than any ten genera-
tions before them. Fifty or sixty years ago those Jews who
had caught the spirit of the modern world believed pas-
sionatel• that, within their own lifetime. and certainly
within the lifetime of their children. the last vestiges of
hostility to the Jews would disappear from the world. It
was true that even then less than one-half of the Jewish
people had found peace and security and a measure of
equality. In France and England and Germany and
Austria-Hungary, and in America which in those days har-
bored only it fraction of that great Jewish community
since, the Jew might well consider him-

w hich has arisen

self permanently and happily settled.
In Russia and Rumania the barriers of the middle
ages still stood between him and equality with his neigh-
bors. Both of this lands it was argued hopefully) had
not yet achieved liberty for themselves. As the light of
modern thought would spread eastward, and the principles
et human equality would prevail over ignorance and tyr-
anny, the Jew would achieve, in every corner of the world,
what he had already achieved in the centers of enlighten-

ment.
Fifty or sixty years ago the first disturbing doubts as
to the reliability of the modern emancipation began to
appear in the very midst of the purely modern Jew. In
stead of going forward. Russia went backward; and over-
night there occurred in that country, with its more than
principles of
6,000,000 Jews, a reversion to the MOst evil
the dark ages. And not to principles alone, but to actions.
As if there had been neither Renaissance nor French Revo-
lution, as though the slogans of democracy and of the
equality of men had not been established by the sacrifice
of millions of lives, Russia let loose against the Jews a flood
of oppressive laws and, ghastlier still, a flood of mob rage,
which shook the Jewish world to its foundations.
For the span of a generation. by tens of thousands, the
(Turn to page 281

. . . . "THE ROMANCE

OF A PEOPLE"

. . . May your splendid project be

rewarded with genuine appreciation

. . . and the acclamation of all.

•

S. S. KRESGE COMPANY

Headquarters . . . Detroit

•