VOL. XII,
I'uiiiicatkm Office
MAY 1st., 1931
No. 28
Gardcnrale, Que.
"CHRISTIANS ONLY"
Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath
�
From a report of a recent sermon delivered by one of our colleagues, Dr. Abraham Simon, it would appear that anti-semitism can be quite easily solved by the Jew alone and that much of the onus of this bitter prejudice rests on our own shoulders. "For," he writes, self-criticism practiced by the Jew is necessary. It is his duty to see to it that nothing in his personal or social life and nothing in his attitude toward his fellow-men or country may tend to lessen the appreciation of his neighbor to-"ward him. He should see that the purity of his motive, the probity of his character, the sweetness of his domestic life, form the shield against which every arrow will fall blunted. It is his duty to see that nothing in his social behavior encourages prejudice or widens the breach between him and his Christian neighbor. And this type of preaching is not new to him. Nor ought the Jews forget that they have their own little prejudices among themselves and, what is more to the point,- that there are [cwish employers of labor who discriminate against people of their own* faith" to evidence their liberality of thought and their pro-Nordic prefer-
ences.
With all of which we quite agree as good teaching for us Jews to follow,-but as a remedy for anti-semitism it is absurd. Here Dr. Simon 'nit echoes the emasculated recommendations made by Heywood Broun in the closing chapters of "Christians-Only" that good will between Christian and Jew is largely dependent upon certain changes incumbent upon rhe Jew. Heywood Broun, for example, maintains with the best of in-irntions, to be sure, but with limited insight, that the Jew should assimilate nore swiftly to the environment of which he is a part; that he should relinquish many of his grotesque and incongruous Orientalisms � and bitter feeling will miraculously follow. Well, we are inclined to believe likewise that certain ancient forms and practices can be relinquished without
harming the essence of Judaism, that certain old garments can be shorn without injuring the heart of our faith � for we are convinced that the
Jew has survived all the mutations of time solely because he has been able thus to change and develop and grow, but we can never agree that such things should be done for the reasons that Broun suggests in order to please the intolerant majority who can countenance only those who slavishly and swivellirigly mimic themselves. Heywood Broun has given us in "Christians Only" a magnificent and searching analysis of the problem of anti-semitism on this continent, but his suggested remedies are in part
at least extremely superficial and weak. Anti-semitism might conceivably be lessened if the Jew dressed and ate and acted and thought exactly like the non Jew, but at what a price in the sacrifice of "human self determination and the right to differ. That would not be attaining the goal of good-will. It does not take a saint to like those who flatter his vanity by seeking to become exactly like himself. To like the unlike, that's the secret of understanding and until that be gained good-will is a mockery and a sham.
Thus has Dr. Simon similarly erred. All that he says is true, as an analysis, but as a corrective it is shallow indeed. True enough, we would do well to eradicate every last vestige of "anti-semitism" which exists among Jews, to rout every petty discrimination which so unhappily maintain? between Jew and fellow Jew, and to present to the world a gloriously united front. Yes, and we agree too that we Jews can do something to allay this fearful scourge of anti-semitism by likewise honoring the honest Christian and respecting reverently his belief, still, in the final analysis, the solution of the problem rests not with the persecuted, but with the persecutors. We quite agree also that the Jew should be less seclusive, and clannish; but how can he be otherwise when doors are everywhere shut in his face?
Good-will on the part of the Jew, (and I do believe there are many of our brethren who might more sedulously cultivate this spirit so native to our faith,) still, good will on the part of the Jew cannot hut prove -abortive unless our attitude is fully and heartily reciprocated. As there can be no solo-marriages, so there must he two equally congenial parties to this business of good-will. Throughout the United States and Canada, Good-Will Dinners have been held by the hundreds. With few exceptions they have been initiated by Jews, and have been held in Synagogues. Rarely have such visits been paid back by invitations issued to the Synagogue to break bread within those houses of worship dedicated to the Jew of Galilee. Oh yes, Rabbis frequently occupy such pulpits, and I presume that that is a significant step forward; vet let not these churches, that have gone even that far, pride themselves on their true Christian fellowship, nor boast as sometimes they do a bit too patronizingly that they have at last broken down th~e barriers between Christian and Jew. Until not merely a single individual, the Rabbi, for example, or the "oh, so different kind of Jew," hut until the whole house of Israel is welcomed beneath.the roof of Christian churches and clubs and hospitals and schools and offices and homes, we will not even have approximated the Brotherhood of which we prattle so much.
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