Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 August 1940 — Page 4

PAGE POUR

THE JEWISH POST

Friday, August 9, 1940

AL SEGAL Speaks on INTOLERANCE

A LADY accuses me of something which never was any sin of mine. I have been guilty of much but never of self-pity. Goldie Dichner of 3269 North New Jersey street, Indianapolis, accuses me of this. In the Yom Kippur prayers we ask forgiveness for a variety of sins but self-pity is not one of them. I would add a line to the confessions: “For the sin of pitying ourselves, forgive us.” The lady says I had several columns of selfpity in the piece about Mr. Bungle’s boarding farm. This is the farm in the Catskills that I passed on my recent vacation tour. In front of it stood a sign: “For Christian Tourists.” She seems to think I was pitying myself because Mr. Bungle didn’t want me, a Jew. It hurts me the more to be accused of self-pity since through several columns I was really laughing at Mr. Bungle instead of weeping for myself. Nor was I even angry; I never did consider social discrimination anything to get excited about. Then the lady takes up other matters on which I find myself agreeing with her. She says: “One would suppose the Jewish people are innocent of ever having put up such signs by signboard, word or deed. You can probably remember several half-Jewish or perhaps nonJewish people who attempted to make themselves a part of the Jewish community. Do you remember what happened to them for paying us the compliment? Were they welcomed with eager arms? You and I know better. “We would like to be accepted by others but are far from ready to do as much for them. Where do we get off asking for more than we give?" * * * AF COURSE, the answer is that since we are ^ human beings we suffer from all the faults of 'the human race and intolerance is one of them. When in good time human nature comes to perfection we, too, shall embrace all the brethren, of whatever faith or color, and respect them. Yet a frank confession of intolerance should prepare us for the happy day of brotherhood. The fact is that we are not even tolerant among ourselves. One group puts up signs against the other. One hears of country clubs that will not have people who came out of Orthodox origin from East European parentage. During the depression when new members were badly needed, some of the clubs relaxed enough to tolerate a few people who were that unfortunate in their grandfathers or great-grandfathers. But, as I hear, these people haven’t felt at all happy in their club-life. All around they discover hostile glances that as much as say to hem: “How did you get in here? You, whose grandfather came over on a ship as late as 1880?” Then there is the religious intolerance that is impatient with the Orthodox for being that way. There is a school of Jewish intolerance whose opinion it is if it weren’t for the Orthodox everything would be all right with Jews. If they’d only give up being kosher and all that, nobody would find any fault with Jews!

On the other side, intransigeant Orthodox Jews believe that they alone among Jews have communication with God and that the Holy One, blessed be He, regards Reform Jews as no more than Goyim. They will not be allowed to sit at the right hand of God when the time comes. In fact, Orthodox intolerance sometimes extends to other Orthodox Jews who do not weigh up to the full measure of Orthodoxy. I know of a certain city in which one Orthodox rabbi would as soon be seen in St. Patrick’s Cathedral as to enter the synagogue of another Orthodox rabbi in the same city. In that synagogue women are allowed to sit on the same floor level with the men, though in a separate section, contrary to the Othodox rule which requires that women be concealed in a balcony. This, it appears, makes it a synagogue that is profane in the eyes of the other rabbi and of God. [I have heard, however, that God has been more tolerant about this than the rabbi. God has prospered the synagogue which the rabbi scorns. It is paying off its debt regularly.]

* * *

I THINK we should prepare for the happy day of universal tolerance by some practice of tolerance among ourselves. Jews who have suffered most from intolerance should be the first to lead j the way to millenium when brother will embrace brother without a knife to stick in his back. Then, having had some experience of tolerance toward each other, we may know how to be tolerant in all other relations. The other day I met one whom I shall call Sam which is, indeed, his name. Sam at once upbraided me: “What’s getting into you, Segal?” “What have I done now?” “What, have you done? All you did was to heap flowers at the feet of a convert from Judaism.” He meant a certain piece I had written in my daily newspaper column. In this I had paid tribute to a doctor who had just died. He was a refugee from Germany. I had written that he, far along in his sixties, had been uprooted from his native soil, despite the merits of his character, his skill as a physician, the good name he had earned. He had been judged and condemned for his blood stream. He had been born a Jew who in his youth was converted to Catholicism. “Yes,” Sam said, “you gave your blessing to this convert who, nevertheless, had to suffer the fate of all Jews. You should have pointed out that ironic fact.” Well, Sam, I replied, you are angry because this man dropped Judaism and took up another faith. But how well have you yourself done by Judaism? Tell me that. You must confess that you are just one of those Jews who feel very Jewish at the moment you have been hurt. This doctor at least frankly abandoned the faith. You yourself keep it only as one of the gears in your defense mechanism. What else does Judaism mean to you. Aw, Sam, since we are so weak ourselves, let’s be tolerant of other weaklings. He snorted and went on: “You talk like a rabbi,” he said.

Current Comment Henry Montor says. Defense of the Jewish

Position Determined By Social and Economic Views.—That Jews in America ought to be united in a common defense of their interests is admitted by all who have seen the destructive effect of disunity in Europe; by all except those who think that anti-Semitism is a plague which visits only certain types of Jews, perhaps only those who wear beards or have accents or dress ostentatiously or use the wrong cutlery or have the temerity to express their social and economic convictions publicly. Without a real unity among American Jews, defensive measures on their behalf are, at best, conflicting; at worst, mutually cancelling. At the present time, defense of the Jewish position is determined by the social and economic views of the particular group of people administering the program, instead of being guided by the actual physical safety requirements of all Jews regardless of their ideologies. Without unity, without a common recognition that anti-Semitism is a potent force which

may be as destructive to the Jew in Amer-ca as in any other land, and without the abandonment of social and political criteria by which to plan the defense of the Jews in America, it does not seem possible that American Jews can do anything to meet the tide which is sweeping toward

them from the east.

There may still be Jews who think that Hitler can be pacified and appeased. But, in the main, Jews are convinced that the outcome of the war has a direct bearing on their destiny. A strange notion is prevalent that Jews should not indicate their interest in that war. Proponents of the “quiet” principle seem to think that there is a relationship between what Jews think and say and what other Americans think and say about the war. In the first place, it is those who label themselves most truculently as “Americans” who are usually the ones to deny Jews the fundamental American right that every citizen has to express his opinion. There is no reason why Henry Morgenthau does not have an equal right with Frank Knox to say publicly, continuously and staunchly that he would like Great Britain to win.

This Week In 1937 1938 1939

1937

Miss Helen B^rkowitz is married to Mr. Henry Myers. Mr. and Mrs. A1 Robbins announce the birth of a son. Miss Bessie Cohen and Mr. Harry Freeman are married. * * *

1938.

Miss Alma Block Gelman and Mr. Henry Meis of Danville, 111., are married in Paris, France. Mr. and Mrs. Saul Klein announce the birth of a daughter. Rabbi M. Feuerlicht’s study “Judaism’s In-

fluence in the Founding of the Republic” is published as first of a series of pamphlets to be distributed by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Mr. Kolman Fine, 80, of Evansville, dies. 1939 Miss Sarah Ann Ochstein, of Fort Wayne, and Mr. A. Goldberg, of Evansville, are married in Evansville. The marriage of Miss Sarah Mandell to Mr. Abraham Beitel, of New York, is announced. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Mantel announce the birth of a son. Mrs. David Hurwich, 67, of South Bend, dies after a long illness. Mr. Hyman Epstein, 84, dies.

ENGLISH CLASSES RECESS Classes in English and Citizenship at Kirshbaum Center and at the Communal Building will recess for three weeks from Aug. 12 to Aug. 30. All classes will be resumed the first week in September.

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