process as is here condemned are necessarily diverse and without
cohesion, because the mental processes differ in the ratio of the
minds in which they occur. And when to this erratic mental proc-
ess is added an abnormal thirst for novelty, it is readily conceiv-
able how great and how numerous must be the consequent errors.
Lord Bacon in his essay on Innovations justly appreciates and
gives warning against feliis tendency in the following words :
JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 85
* 'Beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change
and not the desire for change that pretendeth the reformation;
and lastly that the novelty though it be not rejected yet be held
for a suspect."
It would be easy to show how the greatest minds of every
age have reached the conclusion that there can be no greater folly
than to limit one's faith to facts that the mind can comprehend and
fully explain. It would be equally easy to demonstrate by author-
ity that the understanding or reason cannot safely be relied upon
as a guide to conduct. If reason is set up as an object of worship
or even as a guide to conduct, it should possess the quality of con-
stancy, it should operate uniformly in all men and in all men pos-
sessed of the same data it should reach the same conclusion. But,
on the contrary, nothing is so inconsistent as reason. It not only
operates differently in different men, in different eras, but it oper-
ates differently in the same man at different times. If t^"uth or
the conception of it is to depend upon the constant changes in
the operations of the human intellect, it is unworthy of man's
aspirations. But the truth exists whether men apprehend it or
not, and it cannot be measured by man's capacity to apprehend it.
Mr. Edison, one of the foremost, if not the foremost man of
his time, one who has done more to distinguish this age than any
other ; one who has mastered more mysteries of nature than any
other man of his time, has truly observed that: "We don't
know a millionth part of one per cent about anything." Again
he has said : "I find that the conceit of man is in the inverse ratio
to the square of his knowledge." This is but stating in a differ-
ent way a proposition accepted of all wise men that the greater our
learning, and the greater our wisdom, the more we appreciate
how little we know, and how much is beyond the capacity of man
to know. Nothing could so clearly demonstrate the inconsistency
and the impotence of reason as the subject of this discussion.
Men who have refused and do refuse to believe those things
which their reason cannot comprehend or explain, find themselves
totally unable by resort to their reason and understanding, to
explain so simple and historical a fact as the essential nature of
Judaism.
86 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
It is a common error to claim that a want of faith is pecuUar
to men of great learning and wisdom, and that the enlightenment
of this age is responsible for the decadence of faith. That this is
an error is easily shown. Faith is no easier or harder now than
it was aforetime. The discoveries of this age render it no mor-e
difficult to believe the Bible than in times gone by. The ethical
qualities of the Bible are not impaired in the least by any discov-
eries of science in this or any other age, and as to the narrative
portion of the Scriptures scientific discoveries have not augmented
the difficulties over what they were two thousand years ago.
It was as difficult for a human mind to comprehend and believe
the narrative portions of the Bible twenty centuries ago as it is
now. Skepticism has always arisen from the deification of the
human intellect by superficial thinkers who do not realize that
with the Infinite the most exalted mind compares no better than
the lowest. It is true that increase of knowledge involved the
decrease of superstition and in the decadence of superstition
faith necessarily suffered. Superstition bears the same relation
to faith that alchemy does to chemistry. It is doubtless true that
chemistry has suffered by reason of its relation to alchemy, but
it would be the height of folly to entirely set aside and decry
chemistry, because it was once aligned with the spurious doctrines
of a false science. True wisdom dictates that we should separate
the wheat from the chaff, that we should rid ourselves of the
false and safeguard 4lie true. This distinction which wisdom de-
mands has not been observed by many so-called reform Rabbis in
the United States. With them there has been no preservative
or constructive process. It is not to be gainsaid that even those
who have departed radically from the traditional faith of their
fathers have preached virtue and right conduct. But upon what
basis? They have not derived it from God, nor from His law,
but from their own minds. They have based it upon utility, man's
nature, man's natural rights, duties, etc., leaving it at last with-
out any warmth or vitality which stir the emotions and influence
the heart. The religion which they have taught is like an artificial
flower which may deceive the eye for a time, but when closely
inspected excites the keenest disappointment.
JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 87
There can be no religion without faith, and that faith cannot be
limited by man's power of comprehension. Even when it involves
something beyond the comprehension of the intellect it is not
repugnant to reason, for it is altogether reasonable that revela-
tion and miracles should have occurred for the ends for which
they did occur. To deny that they could have occurred is to
deny the omnipotence of the Creator and to limit his power
to those achievements that man can understand.
Moreover, the extraordinary occurrences that men reject on
the ground of reason were in no sense more wonderful than
those which we see evey day and unhesitatingly accept. They
differ from the phenomena that are daily apparent only in their
rarity. The faith that is made to accommodate itself to the
powers of comprehension in the individual begins and ends no-
where, for, as has been shown, the power of comprehension is
constantly changing and :iecessarily the faith must change with
it. The faith that is based on reason alone, as reason is defined
by the so-called reformers, is in the highest sense unreasonable,
for it has no stability and cannot be imparted to others. No man
can teach a faith that has such narrow limitations, neither can
he inspire faith in his reason, for to inspire faith in his reason he
must have reason in his faith.
The Jews in America cannot with safety permit the demoral-
ization which exists in their synagogues to continue. If they
desire to preserve their ancient religion and impart it to their
children, they must insist that their spiritual leaders shall define
that religion, adhere to it themselves, and teach it to the con-
gregants. Such a demand made by the members of each congre-
gation upon their respective ministers will, doubtless, result in
much temporary demoralization, acrimony and strife. Many of
those who are now posing as Jewish Rabbis will doubtless find
that they must recede from some of the positions they have heW,
or must separate themselves from Judaism. But when that is
accomplished we will no longer see the sacred doctrines of Juda-
ism assailed from Jewish pulpits to. Jewish hearers by so-called
Jewish Rabbis. Time and again have the priests among the Jews
taught false doctrines ; time and again they have been compelled
88 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
to recant or depart from the Jewish fold. When Ezra came he
found the law being violated by the priests, and disregarded by
the people, and with the aid of Nehemiah, he drove out the false
priests and led the people back to an observance of the law. His-
tory repeats itself and in this country there will arise some one
who, animated with the spirit that governed the life of Ezra, will
point out to the people wherein they are disregarding the law,
and by inspiring the people with love and obedience for the law,
will cause them to scourge from the pulpits the false priests who
are scandalizing the ancient faith. The people are ripe for the
coming of such a leader. They have come to distrust their Rab-
bis. They hav^ come to regard with indifference the doctrines
which are preached from the pulpit. They find themselves unable
to teach morality to their children except upon grounds of ex-
pediency. They find in short that they have departed from their
ancient bearings, and are drifting without rudder or compass;
they are beginning to look coldly upon Rabbis who recommend
themselves almost exclusively by their skill in oratory, by their
grace of diction, by their capacity to entertain, but who are want-
ing in the true elements of the ideal Rabbi. The ideal Rabbi,
for whose coming they are longing, will be a man imbued with
a perfect faith in God's law as written in Torah; he will study
it with a broad and liberal mind, seeking always to comprehend
the will of the Creator to the end that he may observe it ; he will
be imbued with this faith and filled with this understanding, de-
voting himself to teaching and practicing the ancient religion, not
as a mere matter of form, but as a vital and forceful agency to
accomplish the true development of man's highest nature. To him
eloquence will consist in deeds, not words ; to him entertainment
will only be an incident to instruction ; to him theology only an
aid to piety ; to him ceremonies will be divinely ordered means to
a divinely ordered end; to him the human intellect will be in-
finitely small compared with the infinite mind of God ; to him man
will be most clearly distinguished from the animal in that he
has received by revelation the will of God. Such a man believing,
following, teaching and practicing the doctrine, the rites and the
ceremonies of Judaism, will stand forth before the eyes of the
JUDAISM IN AMERICA. SQ
Jews as a leader to be followed. Around him will be gathered
disciples eager to learn and eager to follow, and the multitude
will take from his lips, and from the lips of his disciples, the
truths which have been hidden from them so long. And as in
the days of Ezra, after many years of indifference, the people will
gather in the temples to pray with a truly worshipful spirit. It
is only then that the doubts, the vexations, the groanings of spirit
which now so commonly manifest themselves among the people
will disappear, then will the people rest their doubts, their diffi-
culties and their troubles upon the altar of their faith, accepting
whatever betides as the will of their Creator. With Edwin Booth,
each man will then consider "That life is a great big spelling book,
and on every page we turn the words grow harder to understand
the meaning of, but there is a meaning, and when the last leaf
flops over we will know the whole lesson by heart."
WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS.
One of the most interesting, important and unsettled prob-
lems which this century will hand over for solution to the next,
is known as the Jewish question.
OccasionaUy we hear protests, more or less vigorous, agamst
the existence of such a question and the discussion thereof is
decried as unwarranted by the conditions that obtain. More fre-
quently we observe a disposition to suppress discussion by those
who regard the question as the Ancient Sicilians did the lake of
Kamarina. But as a rule the matter is neither ignored nor
avoided. Students, scholars, philosophers and statesmen of all
classes and creeds have taken k up with more or less earnestness
and have treated it from various standpoints and in various
moods.
So long as the question remains unsettled it may safely be
assumed that those who are addressing themselves to its consid-
eration have found no common ground from which to study it.
The wide differences that exist and the controversies that rage
over great problems, do not result so much from varying proc-
esses of thought, as from separate points of view. Whenever
there is a consensus as to the proper point of view the solution
is as prompt and easy as the reading of a puzzle picture when the
clue is found.
That the problem is yet unsettled is a statement requiring no
argument or testimony for its support. That it is interesting
is attested by the fact that in the peri®dicals and newspapers of
every civilized counry it is discussed by thinkers to satisfy a de-
mand on the part of countless readers. That it is important is
equally well evidenced. The life purpose of such a man as
Pobiedonotseff in Russia, as Stoecker or Ahlwardt in Germany
and of Drumont in France and the turmoil each has produced
or augmented prove how deep the question reaches and how far
it extends. ,
90
WHAT SHALL BECOME ©F THE JEWS. QI
What is the problem, and how shall we approach it to arrive
at a correct solution?
This is a thinking, generalizing, classifying and regulating era.
Education has spread far and wide. History has been studied to
find a philosophy of causation in the events which history chron-
icles. Existing civilization is traced back to its very roots, nay to
the seed from which germinated root, stem, flower and fruit.
Influences that have operated in the development of that civiliza-
tion or which have impeded it, those which have made the world
better or worse, have been scrutinized and classified and accord-
ing to the judgment of the particular thinker and student com-
mended for culture or condemned to destruction.
In the course of this investigation the Jew has not been
overlooked. Indeed he has obtruded himself not a little on others
besides thinkers and students. He is everywhere in evidence.
He sells vodki, practices usury, trades and toils in Russia; he
matches his cunning against Moslem and Greek in Turkey;
he fights for existence and endures martyrdom in the Balkan
provinces ; he crowds the professions, the arts, the market place,
the bourse and the army of France, England, Austria and Ger-
many ; he has invaded every calling in America and everywhere
he is seen and what is more to the point, he is felt. He is not
sufficiently numerous or powerful to be in anybody's way, but
whenever a prize is hung up for superiority in anything, he enters
the list against the world and somehow and somewhere he wins
it. He has contended against odds and numbers, against public
prejudice and governmental regulations, but he has uniformly tri-
umphed in the end by virtue of that inflexible law which bestows
the palm of success to him who grasps and maintains it.
He runs throughout the entire length of history as a thin but
well defined line touched by the high lights of great events at
almost every point. Albeit an integral part of the situation in
which he takes his place, with a nation of his own and scat-
tered from his race-fellows he has never so far departed from in-
herited doctrines, rites, customs and habits as to lose his indi-
viduality as a Jew. He forms what has happily been called a
Peculiar People.
92 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
The Jews have not materially increased ©r diminished in num-
ber for two thousand years. They have made no proselytes to
their religion and have not as a people yielded that religion to
persuasion, argument or force. They have imbibed the arts, the
Hterature and the civilization of successive generations, but have
abstained very generally from intermixture of blood and have
clung with unrivaled tenacity to the traditional faith, customs
and habits of their ancestors. They have infused their blood into
that of other peoples, but have taken but little of other peoples
into their own. The natural increase in their numbers has made
up for the losses by defections and as those who wandered away
were of the weakest among them, those who remained steadfast
retained and transmitted a vigor not only unimpaired, but con-
stantly improving. When it is remembered that this constant bet-
terment has proceeded from an initial point immeasurably in ad-
vance of any competition, it is not difficult to understand why the
Jews under anything like equal conditions win the prizes of suc-
cess. That they do win them is a fact asserted and admitted by
their friends and their foes. That they exist as a peculiar people
is agreed by all; that they will not voluntarily surrender their
identity and individuality is not disputed.
They are here as they have been for centuries about seven
million strong scattered among a civilized population almost an
hundred times greater, invading every field that is open to them
and so uniformly successful in achievements that are of possible
attainment as to excite wonder, admiration, envy and hatred.
And so the great majority stops and studies and thinks and
asks what shall we do with the Jew ? And the Jew noticing the
clamor which he has provoked asks, what shall I do with myself?
These questions are easily condensed into one, what shall become
of the Jew? Shall he be regarded as a distinct substance in the
social and governmental body? Shall he be treated as a can-
cerous growth to be removed by the knife? Shall he be permit-
ted to remain by tolerance as a foreign substance in the body
which when encisted ceases to be lethal? Shall he be wholly
assimilated or shall he be regarded as an integral and proper,
if not necessary part of the entire structure, performing functions
WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 93
natural to him and profitable to all, just as the stomach, brains or
heart of the human body ?
But let us drop metaphors. Shall the Jew be exterminated?
Shall he. be merely tolerated or shall he be accorded recognition
as possessing full rights along with the highest and best factors
of governmental and social progress ?
The general question, what shall become of the Jew, thus
elaborated presents a problem which the twentieth century will
have to solve.
The subject has not yet been sufficiently considered to be en-
tirely clear, but while it may be too soon to announce the proper
solution, it is high time to point out some prominent and common
errors that obtain among those who are addressing themselves
to the problem. The initial stage in every public problem is one
of partisanship. It is only after the earnestness of partisans has
attracted the interest of the entire public that impartial minds are
enlisted. Thus far the Jewish question has been discussed as a
rule by those who either loved or hated the Jews with great ear-
nestness and even passion. The one side has seen nothing in the
Jews to condemn ; the other could find nothing to admire. Each
is more or less sincere, and each equally wide of the truth.
If it were possible to organize a commission of thoroughly
capable and impartial minds to study the Jewish Question from
a standpoint unaffected by bias in favor of or prejudice against
the Jew, and having in view solely the good of society at large,
it is safe to predict that the result of their studies would be start-
ling at once to the Jews and the general public.
One of the first conclusions that such a commission would
necessarily arrive at would be that the problem is in no sense
local and herein would be condemned the point of view of the
great Jew haters in Russia, Germany and France. There is no
evidence whatsoever to indicate a desire on the part of Pobiedon-
otseff in Russia, or of Ahlwardt or Stoecker in Germany, or
Drumont in France to improve the Jews or in any wise to make
them better members of society. On the contrary, these enemies
of the "peculiar people" are addressing themselves with remark-
able vigor and virulence to driving the Jews from their respective
94 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
countries. To each of them the only acceptable solution of the
problem as they see it, is to rid their countries of the detested
race. It remained for an American statesman to point out in a
single sentence the error, if not the sinfulness of such a con-
tracted view. In a celebrated message to Congress, President
Harrison briefly, but tersely, indicated that the banishment of
the Jews from Rdssia was a matter in which all nations were
concerned, because when the Czar of Russia ordered the Jews
to step out of Russia he in effect bade them step into some other
country.
If the presence of Jews in any country produces a disturbance
resulting in a national disease, it is not only unjust but unwise
for the nation so affected to rid itself of its trouble by imposing
it upon some other country. To do so would provoke retaliation
by which the trouble would be increased rather than diminished.
Moreover, the remedy is as ineffectual as those prescribed by
Dr. Sangrado. For it will be found that the patient, rather than
the disease, will succumb to the drastic remedies employed.
Considering their wide dissemination, their extended influ-
ence, their tenacity and endurance, their existence and their future
destiny, the Jews must be regarded as presenting a world prob-
lem "rather than a question affecting only particular countries.
Neither is the problem to be solved by collecting all the Jews in
one country and forming them into a nation. The movement
projected in this direction during the past few years will certainly
take an impotrant place in the history of our times. It pos-
sesses a poetic charm and a sentimental attractiveness that will
win for it friends among those who have only kindly feelings
towards the Jews, and the enemies of the Jews would hail its
success for obvious reasons.
But a colonization scheme, however well planned and ably con-
ducted, cannot hope for success without colonists thoroughly in
sympathy with the movement. For the present at least it may be
safely assumed that the Jews as a rule are unwilling to enter
into this project and those who are desirous of embracing it
belong to a class which has everything to gain and nothing to
lose by a change. Those of the race who have established a
WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 95
domicile in countries where they enjoy some measure of liberty,
are unwilling to become pioneers in a movement that must lead
them to untold discomforts, privations and perils. Perhaps in the
course of time the Holy land will again be peopled by the Jews,
who may erect a government of their own. But even if this result
be attained, there will nevertheless be distributed throughout the
length and breadth of the civilized world so large a representation
of the Jewish people as to continue the problem as it now exists,
unless it be settled sooner under conditions of which the Jews
themselves form a part.
The impartial commission which I have already mentioned
would but reflect the views of all fair-minded men in condemning
those who are avowedly or unconsciously governed by prejudice
against the Jews. There is no safety in following the views of
one whose judgment is clouded by prejudice and passion. Men
of the highest talent are subject to the infirmity of passion and
acting under this influence employ their natural gifts in the pro-
duction of brilliant effusions against those who have excited their
antagonism.
A partisanship begotten of and nurtured by hate is always
unwholesome for him who exhibits it, for those towards whom
it is exhibited, and above all for the society in which it finds a
place. Such a partisanship should be frowned down by all those
having in view the advancement of civilization, and indeed in the
long run it is not only frowned down, but is put down.
Another great error commonly made not only by those who
are antagonistic to the Jews, but by those who are disposed to
be fair and friendly towa d them, consists in this, that the Jews
being recognized as a peculiar people are treated in their entirety
as being foreign to the body politic in which they dwell. By such
thinkers they are considered altogether objectively. In the minds
of those taking this view, the Jews as a class are ranged upon
one side, the balance of the world on the other and the reciprocal
rights and wrongs of the two sides are weighed, to the end that
the differences, if any, which exist between them may be prop-
erly adjusted. If the Jews constituted a nation and had a gov-
ernment of their own, they might be regarded in this light, but
96 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME,
when it is reflected that they are scattered throughout the world,
domiciled in different countries, where they accept the burdens
and enjoy the privileges of citizenship, it will be readily seen
that such a consideration of the problem is illogical and unjust.
The Jew of France is if anything more intensely French than