.:OA
THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE
or a permanent diearance
of hog-'let him not come empty-
sapp
lull in the storm
be tempered by handed to the concourse of
tility against the J ews. Let their fears
ren-
understanding of their long past, and their hope be
dered sober by an appreciation of the long future before the peoples. For he will find
l difficulties and all that in the measure that he
(Continued from Page 25)
a k , al
ssorld wide outlook.
ure all f t a w
Jews fled westward to the shelter of the greatest and most them.
Let them
measda
ospects
by
the
stanrd
has something
to give, in
as stood it A thousand problems confront humanity today, prob- that
same m easure will he
wide republic in the world—America. The
Eb
e
open,
and
a
statute
with
a
flaming
torch
was
erected
in the chief harbor, extending a welcome to the oppressed lems
of nations
rulership,
of peace
science,
of social
justice,
of peace
be- in receive the help and affec-
tureen
and
within
nations.
There
is need,
2s
Marginal Notes on Jewish History
But while this stream of exiles moved across the every Part of the globe, for faith, and for the desire to do tine of the best hearts and
of
the world.
Atlantic,
another and even more sinister regression good. There is need, above all, in the swift transition of mindss; and in the measure
preparing, visible only to a few. Within one of the most forms, in the bewildering changes of life, for belief in some richness
that he ' his
develops
to fullest
his inherited
and
powerfnlighd res, that of Germany, old direction; a sense of movement out of a dim past of error transmitted glories, in that
empi
to
put
forth
new
blossoms.
into
a
future
of
clear
knowledge.
In
taking
up
his
share
of
nlightened
ul and e e were
b
Scattered
at first, ignored, nning
they were destined to shoot up, the world's burden, let the Jew call up all the forces of
seeds
of hatred
in time, till their noxious shadow was apparent to the the past, as well as all the promise of the future. Let him same measure will he be a
whole world. And thus, while there was advance in one not discard so much accumulated wisdom and experience; builder for all humanity.
part of the world, there was defeat in another. The and
obvious as the modern Jew had believed.
Fifty or sixty years ago, within the body of the Jewish
people, a transformation analogous to that which had oc-
curred within the bodies of the other modern peoples—a
movement away from outocracy and toward democratic
self-help. The education and liberty which had been de.
hied the Jews delayed this regeneration by hundreds of
years; the opening of the doors of the schools, the profes-
sions and the crafts to the Jews released not only the en-
ergy of achievement, but the energy of character.
We have learned to date the birth of Jewish democ-
racy from the time when Moses Hess wrote his book,
"Rome and Jerulsalem," and to see its clearest expression
in the movement which pledged the Jewish people to act
as its own Messiah in the rebuilding of the Jewish home-
land. But we have not realized clearly enough that the
birth of democracy in Jewish life has meant the synthesis
of the old with the new Jew, and that it came about not
as
read,
the efforts of a few leaders, but as the result of the f modern
in Jewish life, of the principles which are part o m
life as a whole.
Within this last hundred years many great Jewish
se,
of releaor-
organizations, each in its own w ay an expressben
been simple ion evolent
have sprung up. There have
ganizations, labor organizations, cultural and philan-
thropic organizations. All these have been indices of the
urge within the Jewish mass to achieve some measure of
self-rule, and to make Jewish destiny not simply a play-
thing of chance, but a function of an intelligent will on the
part of the people.
It is within the last thirty years that the drama of the
Jewish rebirth has drawn to itself the attention of the out-
side world. All the enemies of the Jews, and a great many
of their friends, had indeed been convinced that Jewish
life was dwindling away with increasing rapidity, to e-
come a memory before long. Even those who looked with
sympathetic eyes on the Zionist movement were readier
to admire it for its spiritual beauty than for its inherent
creative strength. It was, they considere, the last passion-
ate gesture of a people on the point of didssolution. And all
lt
were
e , e reliious, socil, cuural,
other surges of Jewish lif
qugally interesting a nd equally
accompanying phen omena,
transitory. It was the cataclysm of the world war which
revealed how deep, how generous, were these rising tides
in
of Jewish life.
The dualism of the Jewish fate was exemplified aga
w
in the outcome of the world war. One half- of Jewry as
thrown back by unfolding hostilities which had lain latent
in a world not wholly redeemed from medieval prejudice;
one-half had seen re-allirmed the bond of friendship in
which it lived with its neighbors.
And against this, Palestine was rendered accessible
n
once more to Jewish creative effort. Russia Jewr sterile
a
by the revolution which occurred in tat country. Ameri-
an Jewry, fifty years ago an almost h negligible factor in
the Jewish world situation, began to show signs of assum-
ison with great
ing a leading role not unworthy of compar s
Jewries of the past in Babylon, Spain and Rusia.
Amidst all the cross currents within Jewish life,
amidst the inner divisions which bore witness alike to the
n-
weakness of the Jew and to the strength of Jewishwh coch
victions, one truth asserted itself with a power
i
lived. In numbers
silenced all doubt: the Jewish people
superior to any Jewish generation of the past. in the cali-
ber of its human material as powerful as ever, in self-
consciousness more alert and more proud than it had been
for centuries, it was entering not on a decline, but on a new
efflorescence. Whatever human faults it shares with the
other peoples of the world, whatever deficiencies must be
w
overcome. whatever duties rennin unfulfilled, no Je power
who
has eyes to see can fail to find in the energy, will-
and achievements of his people material to enable him to -
hold his head up proudly in the presence of the represen
tatives of the most illustrious nations.
Those that stand too close to the canvas of history
while it is being woven will err in their estimate of forces. s,
Minor set-backs will take on the aspects of decisive defeatin
minor advances the aspects of major victories. Only
the perspective of all our history--the longest perspective
of which any people can boast—shall we be able to estimate
the significance of recent events. Today the hearts of the
Jews are oppressed by the bitter events in Germany; let
them, while they extend help to the victims of a cruel
regime. recall that governments and rulers change, the
Jewish people remains. In other lands than Germany
there smolders still a dangerous threat against Jewish life.
Let the Jews be prepared—but let them not mistake trials
for insuperable
through which they have passed before
afflictions. Let them not, either, mistake a momentary
. . . TO ENDURE
HE fundamentally sound will en-
dure. The beautiful shall survive.
Neither Time, nor the elements of Pre-
judice, Injustice, Oppression, have been
able, in 6,000 years to undermine the
structure of a People who builded, upon
the foundation of the world's first Code
of Ethics, the Creed of Unselfishness,
Charity, Piety.
T
HE fundamentally sound, in so prac-
tical la thing as Face Brick, created of
materials acknowledged best, beautiful
in coloring, has given Detroit structures
permanancy and esthetic appeal that
places this city among the first in the
land.
Q TEVENS' FACE BRICK, an honest
,
0 product in quality and workmanship
a beautiful one in appearance, has al-
ways been preferred among Jewish
builders of Detroit. We hope it always
will be.
To Cast and Sponsors of "The
Romance of a People", to the
Community—Our Congratulations
Frederic B. Stevens, Inc.
THIRD AND LARNED STREETS
Tel. RAndolph 5990
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