history are to be found countless errors and failures, it must not



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 175

be forgotten that it has outlived them all and has survived by vir-
tue of its inherent forces operating to good ends.

The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith does not derive uni-
versal support among the Jews. It is not fashionable. Like all
organizations that are democratic and catholic in their make-up
and operations, it has excited hostility in the breasts of those who
are exclusive, and disposed to set themselves upon a plane higher
than that occupied by the general mass of their fellows. It is
further opposed because at times it has taken up work not calcu-
lated to arouse the loftiest sentiments and has occasionally been
diverted from its best missions. Moreover, it has had among its
leaders, from time to time, some men who were personally unpop-
ular, or who employed the organization to promote selfish ambi-
tions and finally, for want of better leadership it has, time and
again, fallen into a state of inertia which indicated to the super-
ficial observer that it had outlived its usefulness. That it has sur-
vived all these adversities should excite serious reflection in the
minds of every Jew having at heart the future welfare of his peo-
ple. This brotherhood, like all human organizations, is full of
infirmities, but these are either accidental or incidental and not in-
herent, and underlying all and pervading all is a vital and en-
during force which called it into being, and will perpetuate it as
long as that, principle is dear to our people. This vital and en-
during force is philanthropy, not upon any narrow grounds, but
upon the broadest principles of humanity — a philanthropy that
looks to succoring the widow and the orphan, the poor and the
needy, the helpless and the distressed; to encouraging science,
literature and art, to elevating the mental and moral nature of
our race. Such a platform is sound enough and broad enough
to invite upon it every Jew without respect to the shade of his re-
ligious belief, the country of his nativity, his avocation in life, or
his social station. The mission of the B'nai B'rith is not ended,
nor will it be as long as grave problems confront our people. The
first and most successful Jewish fraternal order will not perish
from the earth, although it may lie dormant at times for lack of
leaders among us quick to perceive the problems that beset us,
and ready to labor for their solution.



176 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

Among the young men are to be found such leaders. I have
an abiding faith that they will not only preserve what has been
achieved but add new glories to the record made. They will not,
in utter selfishness, deny themselves to their suffering brothers,
or in utter folly hope to aid them without organization. They
will not refuse their aid because this organization is not perfect
in its operations, but on the contrary, with true American ag-
gressiveness, will take part to correct its shortcomings. They
will not because of their own happiness hug the delusion that oth-
ers are free of misery, but on the contrary, out of gratitude for
the blessings they enjoy, will labor to make others happy. We
need and we call for such reinforcements in our war against pov-
erty, ignorance and disease.

In the successful conduct of this war lies fame — if that be a
desideratum to any member — but above and far more reaching
than this is the satisfaction that will come to him who has ex-
hibited in some practical manner his love for his fellow-men. And
so I say to the young men and the young women, to whom these
words may come, there is no field of labor that more directly chal-
lenges the exercise of your highest energies than that which I
have pointed out. To the extent that you have the power to
study and grasp these problems, possess yourselves thereof, and
with patience, courage and utter sinking of self, labor to solve
them. Every effort in such a direction is a prayer to which you
will find a full and adequate response whenever you have suc-
ceeded in substituting a smile for a tear and a laugh for a groan.
If you shrink from taking up such work because it will bring you
into unpleasant associations, or involve you in labor, or subject
you to disappointments and even to affronts, do not forget that
great works cannot be achieved without great sacrifices, and that
when duty beckons, we should respond with ready feet, though
the road be obstructed and full of thorns. You have inherited a
history that imposes sacrifices upon you, and by making them you
will bequeath to those who follow you, a history fit to be linked
with that which your fathers made.



THE JEWS IN AMERICA.

BY LEO N. LEVI.

How goodly are thy tents, Oh Jacob! thy tabernacles, Oh
Israel. — (24 Numbers 5.)

PREFACE.

In May, 1884, the writer had occasion to deliver a speech in
which he set forth his views upon some of the subjects discussed
in this volume. At the conclusion of his remarks he was urged
to allow them to be published. The speech being extemporaneous
this was not feasible at the time, but under the impulse of the
moment a promise was made that his views should be committed
to paper, by the speaker. The result was a series of papers pre-
pared during such leisure as was afforded by a busy professional
life, and which papers were published serially in the "American
Israelite" under the title of "The Jews of Today."

The most flattering reception was accorded to this essay and
no little discussion was provoked by the ideas advanced therein.
From all parts of the country the author has been earnestly re-
quested to publish his work in a more convenient and durable
form. Thus moved, he has revised and corrected it as well as
could be done in the limited time at his disposal, and he now ven-
tures to submit it to the charitable criticism of the public.

LEO N. LEVI.

Galveston, Texas, July 4, 1887.



177



INTRODUCTION.

It is my purpose to discuss the present status and consequent
duties of the Jews, and especially of those residing in the United
States of America.

It may become necessary at times in the course of this essay,
to take a hasty glance at the larger and most general outlines
of modern Jewish history. No effort, however, will be made
to convey such information as it is the province of the historian
to impart. This is in no sense of the word an historical effort,
and it is addressed to those who are presumed to be familiar
with the traditions and chronicles of the Jews. From the his-
tory of this people I shall, however, seek to obtain support for
the propositions I shall advance.

Naturally enough, considering the purpose of my work, I
shall address myself principally to my co-religionists. I shall,
so far as I may be able, confine myself to a conservative exam-
ination and discussion of my subject. I recognize, however, the
probability of a surrender at times to those sentiments which
naturally arise from blood, birth and education. I presume I
am not more free than other men from ordinary human weak-
nesses, and I desire to apologize in advance for any enthusiasm
that may savor of extravagance.

For the Jewish faith I have that veneration which is due to
the oldest and most enduring of all religions ; and for the people
who have practiced and preserved it for thousands of years I
have the most unbounded admiration. As each succeeding cen-
tury unfolds to wider scope the history of the world, more
apparent becomes the sublimity and grandeur of that portion
of it which pertains to the Jew. The traveler in passing through

178



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 179

a valley, fails to acquire a knowledge of its outlines, its extent,
or its general features. The murmur of the brook, the music of
the trees, the odor of the flowers, the verdure of the sward,
attract and intoxicate the eye, but familiar acquaintance with
these details does not leave a general and comprehensive idea
of the whole. But when the limits of the valley are reached,
and the wearied traveler climbs the summit of a hill, he turns
and sees, not the lovely flowers and trees and lawns that erst-
while so delighted him — they are merged in the larger outlines
of the landscape — but his eye takes in the boundaries of the
valley, notes the relative position of each hill and wood, and
traces through the scene the silvery thread of the winding
stream. The little delights and sweet sensations produced by
the brook's babble, or the gay colors of a wild flower, are no
longer experienced, but in their stead is the quiet satisfaction
of viewing a wide landscape, beautiful in its outlines, and har-
monious in its blending of light and shade. The future is to
history like the mountain to the valley. It is only when the
details of events are lost in their larger outlines that we can
take a comprehensive view of them and understand their true
relation to other events and to history as a whole.

No feature in the landscape of the past is so prominent as
the Jew ; none so full of interest, none so fruitful of the lessons
that may and should be drawn from what has transpired. To
make a cpmprehensive history of the Jew is to write a history
of the world. He is associated with its genesis, its government
and its destiny. He furnished the medium through which was
promulgated a code of general laws, comprised in hardly a dozen
sentences, yet so complete that it embraces the whole course of
life, and so correct that its justice is not questioned. The great-
est exemplars of all that is true, beautiful, good, wise and pow-
erful in humanity were Jews. From their ranks were drawn
the greatest lawgiver, the wisest ruler, the most valiant warrior,
and sweetest singer, and the most celebrated of all, that lowly
man whose sinless life and martyrdom on the cross founded
a religion that numbers its devotees by millions in every civilized
portion of the globe.



l8o LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

There is much that is dark and unattractive in the history
of the Jews, but these blemishes serve to bring out in more vivid
contrast the prevaiHng colors of virtue and truth. It is not to
be wondered at, that they should inspire interest, admiration
and respect in every bosom ; it should excite amazement that any
Jew should be wanting in pride of race. Entertaining such
views, it is not unlikely that I shall give way at times to senti-
ments inspired by them. Perhaps I am an enthusiast, because
of the prevalence among many contemporaneous American Jews
of an indifference to the ancient traditions of their race. The flint
throws out no spark save when much enforced. But for that
indifference, I should not perhaps have been stirred to the con-
viction that if we are to fulfill our manifest destiny we must
preserve our integrity as a people, and that to preserve our in-
tegrity it is necessary to be loyal to the teachings and traditions
of our fathers.

Before proceeding, however, to the discussion of the prob-
lems presented by the present status of the Jews in the United
States, let us pause to consider the causes which have brought
about the remarkable developments in Jewish history now ex-
hibited in this country.

There are at present, according to the accepted estimates,
between 300,000 and 400,000 Jews in the United States of
America. The vast majority of these are composed of those
who came to this country within the last half century, and of
their descendants. The Jewish immigrants to the United States
of America have come principally from Germany, Poland and
Russia. The causes which led them to forsake their native
shores were, in a large measure, the same which influenced the
immigrant at large. Persecution and oppression at home and
the inborn desire for liberty, impelled the Jews of tyrannical
Germany and Russia to seek new homes in a country of such
great opportunities as ours.

Naturally enough, the majority of the immigrants was com-
posed of those who were unable to achieve a comfortable liveli-
hood and a respectable position in society at home and conse-



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. l8l

quently the morale of the early Jewish population of the United
States was not of a very high standard.

The revolution of 1848 in Germany, however, influenced a
great many highly educated Jews to come to America where
they might express their views without fear of governmental
interference.

The leaven of intelligence which thus entered into the Jewish
colony in America, was productive of great results. There was
already present as the result of an early exodus from Europe,
a small, but highly cultured and very proud representation of
the Portuguese and Spanish Jews commonly called Sephardim.
They esteemed themselves the aristocracy of the Jews and looked
down upon the Ashkenazim, as the German and Polish Jews
are called, with the contempt ordinarily exhibited towards in-
feriors. This haughty exhibition on the part of the Sephardim
speedily kindled a spirit of resentment on the part of the liberty-
loving Germans, who had forsaken their homes in order that
they might enjoy the blessings of freedom.

The Sephardim have always been conservative in their main-
tenance of the traditional religion of the Jews, and the customs
of their ancestry, and even an atmosphere of liberty has not
caused them to forsake the traditions of their fathers. Aris-
tocracies are proverbially conservative and this perhaps may
explain why the haughty Portuguese have been so slow to adopt
innovations, even with respect to insignificant rites, ceremonies
and forms.

No such influence was brought to bear upon the German
immigrant to America. The German Jew is not only a demo-
crat by nature, but more than that, he has been so long subjected
to oppression, tyranny and contumely, that in his native country
he is apt to consider himself an inferior and thus fall below the
level of true manhood.

The history of the Jews in Germany, and in the German prin-
cipalities, is one long chapter of tyrannical oppression, resulting
as it was designed to result, in the degradation of this devoted
people.

In the early part of this century when the money and the



1 82 LEX) N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

muscle of the Jews were required by the German states to oft-
set and overthrow the boundless ambition of Napoleon I, extraor-
dinary privileges were granted to the Jews in order to secure
their patriotic services against the little corporal, but as soon as
the Corsican was overthrown and France humiliated by repeated
disasters, the privileges that were extended to the Jews were
withdrawn and their condition, if anything, became more unen-
durable than before. The seeds of the French revolution which
had inspired Klopstock to write his matchless songs of liberty^
found mellow soil in Germany, and the plant that began its pre-
carious existence during the blood-shed of the first years of the
century, had arisen to proportions that were deemed disastrous
to monarchy before half the century had expired. It is unneces-
sary to review the events of 1848; suffice it to say, that not a few
among the revolutionists were Jews and that a considerable
number of those who were proscribed by the government at
home, fled to the United States for refuge.

The effect of suddenly acquired liberty upon one who has been
restricted, and as it were, enslaved, is always an enthusiasm that
borders upon mental intoxication. As the schoolboy, when dis-
missed from his studies exhibits his exultation in shouts and
riotous play, so the oppressed citizen when he escapes from the
restrictions and tyranny to which he has been subjected, indulges
in exhibitions of delight, that in a larger measure are like unto
the ebulitions of the liberated schoolboy. So we find, that the
German immigrant of 1848, released as he was by his exodus
from Europe, from the confinements and the fetters of a monar-
chial government, became a democrat of the extremest type.
The people became his God, and anything that savored of gov-
ernmental power, was obnoxious. Extremes beget extremes : the
pendulum that is swung beyond the natural limit of its vibration
on one side, will pass beyond that limit when it returns to the
other. A later and more unhappy illustration of this disposition
of human nature, is to be found in the fact, that the Socialism,
Nihilism and Anarchism which now prevail in the United States
of America, are almost entirely supported by foreign born citizens



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. I83

who escaped to this country because they could not endure the
oppression of Europe.

It must be remembered, that in Germany, as in France, all
churches are institutions of the government, the synagogue not
excepted. In France Napoleon undertook after a fashion to
revive the Sanhedrin, and in Germany for many years there has
been a connection betwen the government and the synagogue by
which the Rabbis were stipendiaries of the state and were invested
by the government with a large measure of ecclesiastical
authority. This authority thus based and armed with the power
of execution operated as a restriction upon liberty, thought and
action in religious matters and it is not to be doubted that the
authority was not unfrequently exercised in a most arbitrary
manner.

The fact that such great reformers arose in Germany as
Holdheim, Frankel, Geiger and others, is sufficient evidence to
prove that there were abuses in the Jewish church of Germany.
As in ancient times, there was a disposition to make form of
greater importance than substance, and to make piety consist of
the slavish adherence to rites, ceremonies and customs, which,
whatever may have been their utility or effectiveness in other
days, inspired but little respect in the nineteenth century.

It is not uncommon for the public to confound the tenets of
a religion with the forms in which worship is conducted, and
when forms, rites and ceremonies engender disrespect or ridi-
cule, the essential doctrines of the religion suffer in consequence.

The liberation of the German Jews who immigrated to the
United States of America about the middle of this century, from
all kinds of governmental interference in private, social and
religious matters was not slow in its effect upon the Jewish
religion. Those who had in many instances against their better
judgment and against their sentiment been compelled to practice
forms and ceremonies which inspired them with no respect, now
found an opportunity to disregard them without fear of any evil
consequences personal to themselves. The result of this new
found liberty exhibited itself at once in the disuse and the abroga-
tion of certain practices and forms by no means essential to the



184 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

preservation of the religipn, and which were perhaps better dis-
carded than retained. Rabbis who had been educated abroad in
the old school finding this iconoclastic spirit, catered to it rather
than undertook to restrain it and as each Rabbi who instituted a
new reform was hailed as a great leader in Israel, a species of
emulation arose among the Jewish divines as to which of them
could outstrip the rest in discarding time-honored form and
religious practices. The conservatism of the Sephardim so far
from restraining this tendency, rather stimulated it by reason of
their undisguised contempt for the Ashkenazim. The latter
naturally enough disregarded what to their hated co-religionists
was sacred.

In 1835 3. very slight change was sought to be introduced in
the Jewish ritual at Charleston, S. C, but at that time the radical
element which afterwards came to this country having no expo-
nents here, the movement failed for want of support. Twenty-
five years later scarcely a synagogue in the United States was
as conservatively conducted as it was proposed that the reform
synagogue of Charleston should be. The ancient prayer books
were laid aside and new rituals or Minhags were introduced. The
men and women worshipped together, the organ and choir were
introduced, the prayers were read in the vernacular of the coun-
try, and in many other ways changes and innovations were inau-
gurated, so that as has frequently been said, if an ancient Israelite
should enter the modern temple, he would not recognize the serv-
ices as being those of a Jewish church. There was no influence
in the United States to restrain this tendency towards radicalism.
There was no hierarchy in the synagogue, no authority vested
in any Rabbi, no tribunal to which an appeal could be made in
disputed cases. The pruning knife which was first applied only
to forms and ceremonies that had outlived their usefulness, was
applied from time to time to the very body of the religion itself,
and as each daring innovator excited more or less admiration,
and achieved a notoriety, which in his vanity he misconstrued for
fame, a stimulus was offered for new excursions in this tempting
field. The men of the cloth being thus so swift in their progress
from everything that was ancient and traditional, naturally



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 185

enough engendered in the minds of the laity, the reflection that
what was so easily altered, modified and set aside by human
hands, could not be respected as of divine workmanship. The
traditions which had been looked upon by them in their youth as
sacred and beyond the pale of human interference, were now
analyzed for them by specious pleaders and shown to be but idle
nonsense. This was undermining the church itself, for as soon
as the laity lost their respect for the traditional in Judaism, the
whole structure ceased to inspire them with that affectionate awe
which is always accorded to the time-honored and ancient.

It is not my purpose to trace from its origin to its present
status, the so-called reform movement of America. To other
and abler hands this task must be left. I merely desire to call
attention to its rapid progress and to its extreme tendency, in
order that I may show, as I thinlc it is clear that to this reform
movement is attributable altogether the indifference exhibited by
the American Jews for everything that pertains to their lineage,
their history and their destiny.

Among other things introduced by the so-called reform Rabbis
of the United States, was the doctrine that the Jews were only
such by reason of their creed and that their creed consisted of
pure Monotheism and the practice of righteousness. The race
idea was discountenanced as being obnoxious to the genius of the
government under which we enjoy the greatest liberties accorded
to us since we ceased to be a nation.

At Pittsburg in 1885, a conference of American Rabbis even
went so far I believe as to promulgate in what was called "The
Postulates of Reason" that the Jews were no longer a race, but
simply a religious community.

This pronunciamento, which was to be expected as the result
of all the radicalism that preceded it, was hoped would strike a
responsive chord in the breast of the American Jews. I may have
occasion before I complete this effort to consider the correctness
of the proposition that we are simply a religious community and
not a race. Nothing to my mind is more pregnant with error
than this postulate of unreason. However, whether it be correct
or not, it was so often preached from the pulpit and so frequently



l86 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

found a lodgement in the minds of the laity, that doubts of the
gravest nature have arisen in the minds of the American Jews as
to the perpetuity of the Jews as a people. In every controversy
there is to be found a large element wanting in any fixity of prin-
ciples and in any elements of courage; people who wait until the
progress of the struggle indicates where the victory will lie and
then join the strongest forces. This unfortunate weakness of
human nature is well understood by the politician and hence in
every political battle we find each party long in advance of the
struggle claiming an easy victory. The doubt having arisen in
the minds of many American Jews as to the perpetuity of the
Jews as a people, and the conviction having been forced upon
many that our days were numbered, and that we would be
merged in, and swallowed up by the mass of humanity at large,
there was engendered, not only an indifference as to this result,
but many positively desired to hasten its accomplishment. This
is not the first time in the history of the Jews that such doubts
and convictions have arisen, and history affords examples of con-
versions of large numbers of Jews to other religions, simply in
deference to what was conceived to be the unavoidable and inevi-