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CANADIAN JEW! SB
NEWS AND VIEWS PublUfod W�*ktjr by th* Canadian J�wUh lUvUw
In civic affairs the Jews seek no special favour* or privilege* and therefore they do not recognize or need any special friend in
\N IMPARTIAL MEDIUM FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH court" All they require is fair play and justice. They wish
merely to be regarded as citizens and accorded the same treatment as fellow-citizens, irrespective of race or religion. This ha* not always
_______________________________________________________ been accorded to them. Prejudice has too frequently been a
OFFICF SUITE 109 ii* BAY ST*FFT TORONTO factor Ir is high time that politics be purged of the religipus
OFMLE, surra K� 119 BAY STREET, TORONTO question all together.
Telephone Adelaide 7628-9 ___.^_ _ �
. �' ' '"�..�_______�'.-.�:.^�_�-��� . � - - _____--y ' :� The Jewish candidates conducted a clean campaign. The two
Entered � Seconded.*, M.U tt the Pott Office in Toronto, Ont.,i� December, 1921 ^.ho ^ successful were elected not by .^the Jew^ vote," r^cause
there is no such vote. Christians and Jews voted them into office irrespective of their religion because they respected their cause and
Subscription Price, $3. 00 per Yetr. United Sutei, $3.50
their person.
To inture publication, *11 correipondence and newt matter muit reach thi$ Office \ Now that theelection is over we trust that the future campaigns
by Tuesday evening of each week. .*'�'. will-be free from any arjrjeal to racial and religious prejudice.
G. \V. Cohen, Managing Editor. S. A. Freedlander, Advertising Manager. Rabbi B. R. Brickner, Contributing Editor
Canadian Jewish Review invites correspondence on subjects of interest to the Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for indorsement of the views expressed by the writers. Ail correspondence must be signed with the full name of the writer* : ' . ' � . �.'.''..'
January 3, 1923
VOLUME IH, NUMBER 10
A RpORBACH
THE/CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW is not a political paper and con-; Msteritly refuses, therefore, to take sides in politics excepting when' a moral issue is at stake. Nevertheless, we rejoice in the election in Toronto of" two Jewish citizens to the important-offices of Controller and member of the Board of Education .respectively. The success of these two candidates at the polls, as well as the unsuccessful candidacy :bf other Jewish citizens is an indication of the political ripeness of pur people. It is a sign that we are deeply concerned With the political life and civic affairs, and that we have beconie part and parcel of the larger community. '
The time has passed when even our enemies could say that the Jews form a distinct and separate group which will not mix. Destiny has decreed that the Jew for two thousand years live among peoples' not,of his race or religion. In this time he has learned the gentle .art of adjustment without being absorbed. As Achad Ha Am has said, the Jew has developed a genius for assimilation. The Jew in even7, land is more .than ready to become part and parcel of the country's political life. He learns and uses the language of the country and does business in accredited business Avays. He seeks for himself and his people the right to worship God in his own traditional way and. to foster those cultural and spiritual values which he inherits from a noble ancestry. The Jew of Canada has amply demonstrated that in the above sense he is a genuine Canuck,
In the light of�;the foregoing it is lamentable that during the last political campaign, one of Toronto's dailies resorted to the lowest conceivable methods�^methods tabooed even in politics. It sought to prejudice its readers against a Jewish candidate because he is a Jew and a proud Jew at that.. Unfortunately many Christians are taught from childhood that the Jew is a pariah. Is it not high time that Christian leaders did something to put an end to this sort of narrow, untruthful prejudice which makes a mockery out of the vaunted Christmas motto, "Peace on earth good-will to men"?
It is further lamentable to find Christian candidates currying "the Jewish vote" ami posing before Jewish voters as "the friend of the Jews." When will Christian political candidates realize that there is no specific Jewish vote, and that posing as a friend of the Jews gets i hem" nowhere? The Jewish voters are the most independent voters in the community. They do their own thinking and tbeir own deciding. They vote on the merits of the cause and the candidates. The appeal of clannishness carries no special weight with them unless anti-Jewish prejudice compels them to feel the need of being represented by one of their own so that they may not be robbed of their due rights as citizens. Their votes cannot be bought by .posing as their special friend. They do not form a sperial�blor Therefore the Jewish vote cannot "be delivered." It is a pity that politicians do not realize this.
AN INSTANCE OF MOB PSYCHOLOGY
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It has been said that the Ku. Klux Klan is an outgrowth of the spirit of reaction which followed the war. The Klan has its counterpart in every country of the world. x In the German-speaking countries it is known as Die Hack und Kreiitz; in Italy it is called Fascist!; in Great Britain a secret organization called "The Most Bold Ofcjer of Crusaders" is understood to be getting extremely active. -. Itjs-officers have high-flown titles, its members wear striking costumes, its emblem is the sword, its aims are to get crusaders into political offices and to set the world aright; all of which seems to indicate a spiritual relationship with the Italian, American and German organizations.
'All right-thinking people are agreed that these organizations are dangerous, because they set up within the .legally constituted government an "invisible empire" which obtains members by preying upon their religious and racial animosities. The menace of these organizations lies in this^ that their abstract aims, and their strict limitation of membership, can be interpreted in such a way as to cloak any particular hate that its adherents may be harbouring in their minds. They make it possible for any masked group of lawless individuals, acting as extra legal-agents to go out into the night, engage in the venting of personal prejudices, and then shift the blarney by making it appear that the organization was responsible for the outrage. .
Few people, hp\ve\7er, realize that the real reason for the success these: organizations, have in attracting millions of people lies even deeper than the spirit of reaction or the appeal to prejudice. The true causes are psychological, and have their roots in what is known as crowd-mindedness, or .the psychology of the mob. These organizations provide an opportunity for rnillions of misfits, morons, feeble-minded and the socially unsuccessful, to compensate themselves for their own inferiority. Through the hokus-pokus of their rituals and regalia they afford the ignorant rabble an opportunity to sublimate themselves to: a plane of self-importance.: The masses of these men are just adult children who love to play soldier.
It must, ^no doubt, be; gratifying to the masses of these who have never achieved anything in life, to bamboozle themselves into believing that they are essential parts of a movement that is one hundred per cent, patriotic, that they are the ."salt oL the earth," the "elect," "the chosen ones" to save their nation from "going to the dogs." With the aid of a mask and a white robe, or black shirt or red surplice, and inspired by the mysterious symbolism of a fiery cross, a ' 'Hack und Kfeutz," or sword, they find an outlet for their suppressed desires to be somebody. Thus they are enabled to attack and vent the spleen of their hatreds and jealousies upon helpless victims.
Indoctrined by a system of buncombe secrets, they strut about as the apostles and protectors of "the sanctity of the home," of "pure womanhood," "the superiority of the white race," of chivalry, of civilization, and many other similar phrases. The followers of these new cults twist circumstances to justify their outrages and actually seek praise for their high-handed methods.
Everything about these organizations indicates that they are perfectly adapted to crowd-thin king and depend for their success on mob psychology. I
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