American ffewisli Periodical OW Thursday, October 5, 1950 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE Page 4 Detroit Jewish Chronicle ' With a Prayer on Their Lips Published WeeM ■ by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc. WOodward 1-1040 2827 Cadills; T.n‘ cr. Delmt 26. Michigan SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879. By GER1IARDT NEUMANN THE COURT JEW by Selma Stern (Jewish Publication So- ciety of America, Philadelphia, 213 pp., $4). SEYMOUR TILCIIIN Publisher GERHARDT NEUMANN NORMAN KOLIN Editor Advertising Manager Thursday, October 5, 1950 Tishri 24, 5711 Working for Peace The report of the trustees of the Ford Foundation, which was released last week, makes for interesting reading and de- serves the intensive study of everyone interested in the cause of peace and progress. The Ford Foundation is primarily concerned with the fur- therance of the humanistic sciences. It is built on the belief that a deeper understanding of all social factors will lead up to valid conclusions as to the best ways of achieving peace. Peace and prosperity, in the opinion of the trustees, cannot exist one without the other. The report names poverty and disease, the tensions which result from unequal standards of living and economic insecurity, and racial conflict as the main causes for war. "Even in this country," the report states, "persons of all races and colors do not have equal access to education." While all these statements hardly reveal any new truths, it must be acknowledged that the thinking of the trustees is about as advanced as the present level of the social sciences permits. It is especially significant that the report takes cognizance of the ever-changing character of society: "In times of uncertainty there is a tendency to resist change out of an illusion that free institutions arc made more secure by an unchanging order . . Democracy must do more than.declare its principles and ideals: it must constantly trans- late them into action . . . It is man's faith in this dynamic ability which assures the survival of democracy." The report stresses the conviction that it is basic for human welfare that all men are accorded equal rights and opportunities and that tolerance and respect for individual social, religious and cultural differences must become a generally accepted practice. "It can be most fruitful where free men work together in confidence and mutual respect." To our way of thinking, the concept of the ever-changing society is of paramount importance and should be followed through to its logical conclusions. Most conflicts arise where individuals as well as nations insist upon maintaining their way of life without seeing that its continuance is no longer an expression of the actual needs. It could be argued that it is nobody's business how a nation wants to conduct its affairs or regulate its life. Unfortunately, this argumentation is full of holes. What most people still do not understand fully is the fact that in modern life there is an interdependence within a nation as well as among the nations. If the ways of thinking are con- flicting too strongly, they will lead to revolution internally, or to war externally. It is therefore no empty phrase if social science believes that the way to peace lies on the road to human understanding. This is not a new insight. The Jewish prophets never tired of seeking this understanding. Their visions culminated in the hope that some day all differences would be resolved and all enmity disappear. This is the root of Jewish thinking. This is the reason why Jews always have stood in the forefront in the fight for free- dom and progress. This is why Jews have always been known as optimists: they believe in mankind. However, it must not be overlooked that optimism must be qualified. The prophets qualified their optimism by saying that the great age of peace would arrive if all people accepted certain basic beliefs and adhered to them. The difficulty of our time is to find a solid ground for op- timism. Everything seems so shaky and hopeless, and man no longer seems to believe in the possibility to escape disaster. This general hopelessness makes it so difficult to persuade people to work for peace as earnestly as they do for their livelihood. If through such efforts as that of the Ford Foundation the basis can be laid for a new and more positive outlook on life, peace will no longer appear an illusion but become a reality. Bunche and Israel The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Dr. Ralph Bunche, mediator of the armistice between Israel and the Arab states, calls for a few remarks about the labile situation in the Near East. It goes without saying that Dr. Bunche's ability to induce the Arabs to come to terms with a nation they pretended did not exist was admirable. It was a demonstration of his skill, wisdom and impartiality. The Nobel Peace Prize could not have gone to a more deserving man. However, the question that has been troubling Israel ever since the armistice was signed in February, 1949, is: when will the armistice make way for a real peace settlement? We have our doubts whether the question can be settled by a debate in the United Nations. What is needed is a genuine rapprochement between Arabs and Israelis. This cannot be forced upon them by any resolution of the big powers. The present situation, however, does not look too hopeful. The Arabs continue to keep up the illusion that they emerged triumphantly from the war and that the state of Israel is non- existant. This adamant attitude, unrealistic as it is, is the key to the political difficulties in the Near East. The whole area is seething with unrest because the Arabs cannot reconcile them- selves to the fact that a new power has arisen in the Near East. "Pride and Prejudice" would be a good caption over the picture of their policies. The result is that Israel is forced to keep a large army and thus divert its manpower from the job of reconstruction. If the reclamation of the desert or the adjustment of the newcomers could be made under peaceful conditions, not only Israel but the whole area of the Near East would benefit materially and culturally. Court Jews Typify Fate of Pioneers Jewish servicemen of the 7th Division are holding Rosh Ilashana services aboard an army transport ship as it approaches Inchon, Korea, for an amphibious landing operation. Stay at Restricted Hotel Produces Healthy Effect The mail looked almost dev- By ALFRED SEGAL He was full of apologies, MY FRIEND JOE wasn't brag- asted. like a man who had suddenly I Mil ging about the matter. discovered an error of his ways. wouldn't be writing about friend Joe's vacation if he were one of those people who make proud boast that they managed to get into ho- tels where Jew- ish people are'nt wanted. The period of absolutism and mercantilism (17th and 18th cqi- tury) produced a type of Jew such as the world has never seen and, we hope, will never see again: the court Jew. Selma Stern, a historian of distinction, not only brings this type of Jew back to life, but also reveals with deep insight the motives which led to such a development. "The organization of the gov- ernment," she says, ''had not yet developed to the extent that it could dispense with entrepreneurs and intermediaries who stood outside the hierarchy of officials. Prince Eugene characterized the epoch very aptly when he wrote that one could see almost every- day examples where a charming woman, or a black-robed church- man, or an Imposingly-bearded Jew decided the fate of whole nations." And this is indeed what hap- pened. As commissaries, court contractors, financial agents, cab- inet factors, commercial agents or mint masters, some wealthy Jews of that period played a de- By way of making amends, he cisive role in diplomacy, war, the insisted that Joe's wife and financing and industrialization of daughter must meet his family. the states (mainly the German They played ping-pong later. states) as well as the value of It got around the hotel that a the silver currency. The court Jews enjoyed many Jewish family was among the guests. People seemed to be go- privileges that were not enjoyed ing out of their way to be nice— by ordinary Jews, but the author not in an offensive way but with shows that they were Tar from the idea of being decent in this happy. In fact, most of them died In thatewease I hotel that, according to the ad- in poverty if they were lucky would have said, vertising, was designated as re- enough to escape the gallows. Joe, you are an The autocrats of the 17th centu.ry stricted. obnoxious p e r- Segal Joe's family gave no sign of figured that a Jew was good son, please ex- to help them, but that cuse the expression. Where's feeling that they were in the enough were under no obligation to your self-respect? Maybe you wrong place. This hotel was they pay what was coming to him. thinly, you are better than other where, as Americans, they had a The expedient way of getting peopile who haven't been ad- right to be. There was nothing rid of the Jew when he had done mitted to that hotel. In my book assertive in this attitude. Sure his duty was to accuse him of you are far less than they—a they were Jews and that was fraud, theft and many other miserable beggar who enjoys the nothing to feel apologetic about. crimes against the state, includ- crumbs that fall from the table They didn't retire to a shadowed ing blasphemy. of those he regards as his superi- corner. They were as good as Their existence, the author or. You arc no friend of mine anybody in the place and their Writes, was "dreamlike and un- self-respect was appreciated. hereafter. - real" because they constantly Joe's family took part in all moved "between two poles which But friend Joe was just being philosophical. Joe was mention- the entertainment. Joe could feel had no connection with one an- ing the matter of his having been the more proudly Jewish because other." They did not, like their a guest at a so-called restricted by reason of the character of his Christian contemporaries, look hotel by way of bringing up the family, he had become accepted upon man "as a machine whose Jewish problem in relation to so- in the "restricted" hotel. Every- actions and reactions could be body there knew they were Jews, explained in mechanical terms." cial life. was He didn't know that he was yet there was no one there to The basis of their existence still the Talmud. getting into that kind of hotel make the least of that fact. "While they founded compa- When, after several days, Joe's when he registered for himself, nies, factories, banks and mo- his wife and daughter. He knew family departed, there was re- nopolies and seemed to be enter- it only as a very respectable, nice gret among all the friends they ing the economic and political looking place and was happy to had made. Joe felt he had done life of the people whom they well by his Jewish identity. Hos- be sheltering his family there. served, they longed for their re- Only a short while later he tile people (they must have been turn to the Promised Land." hostile to have chosen this re- found out that it was one of those They were in fact used as tools hotels that carry the title "re- stricted hotel for their vacation) with which the absolute ruler stricted." That discovery didn't had been brought around to see sought to "destroy the feudal and disturb Joe. He , is a man proud that people are people—good or patrimonial forces of the Middle of himself and tis family and to bad—and their racial or religious Ages which stood in his way." discover that he had landed in a connection had nothing to do Because of this role of creating hotel called restricted could not with it. Joe wasn't feeling any something new, the Jew became diminish his worthy pride. Ile messianic pride of a missionary, for the reactionary forces the could feel that he belonged but he could regard it as a happy symbol of revolution. "Though wherever people were decent. accident that had brought him to they accused him of being an Why should he run away from this hotel and thereby had caused enemy of Christ, it was in reality there? He was not an inferior. a group of people to perceive how not their church and not their He would stay there, through the wrong they were in social judg- religion that they sought to pre- several days he had planned. ment. serve, but rather the guild sys- • • • tem, the doctrine of fair price, He wasn't going to conceal his "WHILE NOT 'TIDING the the patrimonial state government Jewish identity if the occasion arose. He came upon an oppor- fact that we were Jews, we did and the medieval society of tunity the same evening. A man not let ourselves feel different or estates." Thus, when they had completed with whom he had become make any show of being different friendly asked him where he was or ghettoize ourselves in a cor- their assigned tasks, these court going from there, Joe said he and ner of that hotel porch. We just Jews fell victims to the hatred of his family would be traveling to stood on our self-respect as a dying world which still was Jews." a certain hill region. Joe admitted it is pleasant to "Oh," the man said, "I should tell you: There are a lot of Jews a Jew to stick closely to the Jew- ish group — "In that way you down there." have no problems," he said. "It • • • avoids all the distressful conflicts. JOE ASKED HIM, what gr of You are among your own and no- that? That may be good or it body is going to floor you by em- may be bad. Jews, he said, were barrassment. It's a luxury and I like all other kinds of people— like it." good or bad. You can't judge a Well, that's Joe's story of his whole group of people by the vacation and I am not arguing it faults of some of them. one way or another. I am just "You see," he said, "I know handing it on to all the canasta, that because I myself am Jew- gin and poker parties for discus- sion. ish." more powerful than their influ- ence. The author's final words seem to have a timeless meaning in Jewish history: "The court Jew has a symbolic significance for the fate of the Jew in all ages. For time and again the Jew has helped pre- pare the way for a new era, only to find himself ground between the old forces which had out- lived their day and the new which, with his help, were giving the world the promise of a bet- ter future."