Jewish Chronicle (Newark) August 1, 1924.
Ohio Jewish Chronicle (Columbus), August 1, 1924.
Jewish Criterion (Pittsburgh), August 1, 1924.
The Chicago Chronicle, August 1, 1924.
Jewish Criterion (Pittsburgh), August 1, 1924.
The Chicago Chronicle, August 1, 1924.
The Klan question again. Are the Jews of the United States as such to take the burden of battle against the Ku Klux Klan, or shall they leave this matter to the leaders of the Protestant church? The question which sprang up in the heated atmosphere of pre-election campaigns has first caused an agreement to disagree between Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Samuel Untermyer. However, it seems that they are not the only prominent American Jews to disagree on the matter. An inquiry sent out by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to various leaders of American Jewry in all parts of the country brought quick returns. In substance, they seem to travel over two parallel lines, which because of their very straightness, never meet, as our geometry tells us.
American Jews, as free men and free citizens, have the right, nay, are obliged to fight openly and courageously against any appearance of racial discrimination and religious bigotry, not waiting until someone else at some future time will come to the conclusion that his generosity to his fellow-men calls for his taking up the fight for them, one line of thought argues.
American Jews, as free men and free citizens, are obliged to uphold and defend the principles of the Constitution, guaranteeing religious liberty, equality of opportunity without racial discrimination, but in the case of the Klan it is not a matter for the Jews alone to wage battle against -- it is rather the work of the Protestant church, urges another trend of thought.
Anti-Semitism has always existed and will exist for a long time to come; the Jewish people in all countries and under all conditions have survived antagonism, remaining true to their traditions of justice and fair play, pleads another resigned call for adaptation and survival.
The eternal volume of Jewish history could produce enough evidence for and against these three lines of thought.
Parallel lines that never cross each other and never meet.
* * *
M.B. Mammonas, Charge d'Affaires of Greece in Washington, has a deep resentment against the Jews of Greece, especially the entire Jewish community of Salonica. Salonica, with its important Jewish population, as will be recalled, was a part of the Turkish Empire until the World War. It was incorporated into Greece as a result of the events that followed the World War. True to the principle adopted by those who determined the political fate of the world in the new era, Greece, as all other newly created or enlarged countries with new populations, pledged itself to an international treaty guaranteeing the national minorities the free exercise of their religion and the fulfillment of their cultural needs.
* * *
M.B. Mammonas, Charge d'Affaires of Greece in Washington, has a deep resentment against the Jews of Greece, especially the entire Jewish community of Salonica. Salonica, with its important Jewish population, as will be recalled, was a part of the Turkish Empire until the World War. It was incorporated into Greece as a result of the events that followed the World War. True to the principle adopted by those who determined the political fate of the world in the new era, Greece, as all other newly created or enlarged countries with new populations, pledged itself to an international treaty guaranteeing the national minorities the free exercise of their religion and the fulfillment of their cultural needs.
Now, however, the Greek Parliament has passed a law of compulsory Sunday rest for the entire population. The Jewish community of Salonica protested against it, arguing that if it be compelled to rest on Sunday it would either have to abandon its religion or go out of business, a sit would be unable to stand competition if it is compelled by the law to have a two days' vacation every week.
M. Mammonas, answering an inquiry of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, resents the protest of the Jewish community of Salonica. He says:
"The Jews of Greece enjoying all the political and religious rights must not ask to be exempted from the general measures and to have distinction and privileges granted them apart from the other citizens." M. Mammonas claims that justice is on the side of Greece in this case. "The law of Sunday rest in Greece was voted in favor of the working and industrial classes in order to limit the number of working hours. Inasmuch as this is the aim of the law, it could not contain any exemption, but ought to be general for all those residing in Greece, independently of their nationality and their religious beliefs." He also refers to England where a similar law exists and the Jews never protested against it.
M. Mammonas is entirely wrong. Granting that it is just for the state to assure one day of rest o the working and industrial classes, is this sense of justice really violated if the group of workers concerned choose to rest, not on Sunday, but on Saturday in conformity with its religion? Obviously not. M. Mammonas is also wrong when he cites England as an example. Broad-minded Britannia, in spite of its Blue Sunday Law, permits its Jews, especially the small businessmen, artisans and workers who maintain their orthodox religion and who resemble in type the Jewish community of Salonica, to rest one day in the week, on Saturday if they so please.
* * *
A tribe of Bedouins in the neighborhood of Safed has applied to the Chief Rabbinate of Palestine for permission to return to Judaism, a report from Palestine states. Judaism, in its long and varied course of development, has never been a proselytizing religion. At least it never sent out "missions" to bring non-Jewish communities into the fold. Neither was it in a position to organize warfare expeditions for conversion purposes. An ancient proverb of the race, which has survived as a historical document, speaks in rather disparaging terms of proselytes. It says that, "proselytes are burdensome to Israel like a growth." It is not known what the Chief Rabbinate has or will decide in the matter, but the application of this small tribe of Palestinian Bedouins is more than significant.
The Bedouin population is nothing else than the descendants of the "people of the land" (Am-Haaretz), records of which have been preserved in the Jewish literature of the time telling of their backward cultural condition, that pleasant class which was not particularly active in the Roman-Jewish warfare and which remained in the country even after the destruction of the temple and underwent all the changes of religion, of political and social upheavals through which Palestine passed.
Intense Jewish colonization work in the country, coupled with the revival of a strong and all-embracing Hebrew culture -- who could predict how the seemingly hard Arab-Jewish problem in Palestine will be solved?
The application of the small Bedouin tribe for return to Judaiism is indeed a significant indication.
(Text taken from newspaper clippings.)
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