Hill

III!

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

LEO N, LEVI

MEMORIAL VOLUME

LEO N. LEVI
I. O. B. B.
1905

PRINTED BY
HAMBURGER PRINTING CO.
63-69 Market Street,
chicago, ill.

TO THE MEMORY OF
LEO N. LEVI,
A leader safe and sane, a thinker erudite and profound, an orator
unexcelled in his generation,, a man good and true, a distin
guished citizen of the United States, and an ideal Jew, this
volume is dedicated by his admiring and sorrowing brethren,
THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF B'NAI B'RITH.

INTRODUCTION.

The rendition of tribute to worth or greatness, is an attribute
of advanced civilization, and in plastic marble, or responsive
bronze, shaped by master hands, grateful Commonwealths often
offer willing homage to their illustrious dead.
But the imposing statue also perpetuates the memory of the
gifted artist, whose wondrous skill endows the lifeless material
with majesty, dignity, and the expressive lineaments of the
human form divine.
And thus the creator of the testimonial shares the fame of
him, whose achievements are thereby commemorated.
But a loyal Brotherhood offers a more unique memorial of
its affection and regard for its inspired chieftain.
It has sought no aid from the cultured imagination of me
chanical proficiency of stranger or friend, but has designed a
monument, every part of which, from base to summit, is fash
ioned from material supplied by the intellect and industry of
him it attempts to honor.
Upon these pages, the sayings of a man born to lead, and
fruitful in accomplishment, are faithfully transcribed. They bear
incontrovertible testimony to the thoroughness and profundity
of his knowledge; the wide range of his culture; his invincible
logic; his faultless diction; his mastery of every subject he
studied. They reveal his breadth of mind; his freedom from prejudice;
his buoyant optimism; his broad cosmopolitanism, as well as his
unfaltering patriotism and devotion to his country.
They chronicle his constant, sympathetic regard for the ailing
5

6 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY.
•
and dependent of his own race ; his exalted conception of duty ;
his consecration of his strongest efforts to the best interest of
humanity at large ; his fealty to the faith of his fathers ; and his
unswerving allegiance to the beneficent Order he so conspicu
ously led to victory and success.
It is singular that a man so lavishly gifted with the higher
qualities of intellectual and moral manhood, — strikingly fitted to
win distinction in the most exalted of official stations; qualified
to direct the policy of governments ; and equal to any responsi
bility which might be imposed upon him by his country, — did
not, at any time, seek political preferment, or make any de
mands upon the suffrages of his fellow-man.
Neither the glittering baubles, nor the substantial advantages
of wealth had for him any allurements; he valued money, not
as the end of effort, but solely as a means of doing good, and
would not devote his time nor energies to its mere accumulation.
The plaudits of the multitude never instilled in him ambi
tion for place or power; never tempted him to swerve from the
pathway to the goal which was his ultimate aim. He was never
dazzled by the seductive zeal of the theorist, but always safe and
sane, he deliberately selected his field of duty, and within its
environments there was none to excel him.
Gradually, by the very force and strength of his character
his sphere of operations was naturally enlarged, and when the
civilized world was startled by the horrible crimes perpetuated
upon the innocent and unoffending at Kischineff, Bessarabia,
Russia, on the 19th of April, 1903, he then, as the executive of
the greatest secular organization of Jews in America, displayed
the highest qualities of the statesman in endeavoring to solve
the grave and absorbing problems thus presented, made avail
able the moral force engendered by enlightened public sentiment
aroused to the condemnation of outrage and wrong, and by his
consummate ability achieved international renown.
It was his crowning aspiration, after making sufficient pro
vision for his loved ones, to consecrate his labors to the better
ment of mankind.

INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. J
To aid in the accomplishment of his purpose, nature had
served him well. He was tall in stature, and had the carriage
and build of an athlete; a massive brow gave evidence of his
powerful intellect, while his steady, penetrating, but kindly eyes,
finely molded features and attractive personality, easily enchained
attention. It was an unalloyed pleasure to listen to the resonant tones of
his cultivated voice, which could easily reach the limit of the
largest auditoriums, and which, at his will, could persuade and
arouse to enthusiasm, the delighted hearers.
He left no topic unembellished ; was never, in any discus
sion, at a loss for the proper word ; and his capacity as a debater
and controversialist was remarkable. He did not know how to
flatter, but sought to influence by the rectitude of his motives,
and the convincing power of his talents.
And he was equally facile with his pen. And thus, to take
him all in all, he had no superior in his time and generation.
He was singularly gifted as an after-dinner speaker, equal to
any emergency, responding to every demand without effort or
preparation, and commanding applause on every occasion, but
no attempt has been made to reproduce here any of his extem
poraneous addresses.
It is not the purpose to extend the dimensions of this volume
by incorporating herein his speeches, or essays, of mere local
interest. The celebrated "Kischineff Petition" was wholly prepared by
him and is herewith appended:
"To His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Russia:
The cruel outrages perpetrated at Kischineff during Easter
of 1903 have excited horror and reprobation throughout the
world. Until your Majesty gave special and personal directions
the local authorities failed to maintain order or suppress the
rioting. The victims were Jews, and the assault was the result
of race and religious prejudice. The rioters violated the laws
of Russia.

8 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY.
The local officials were derelict in the performance of their
duty. The Jews were the victims of indefensible lawlessness.
These facts are made plain by the official reports of, and by
the official acts following, the riot.
Under ordinary conditions the awful calamity would be de
plored without undue fear of a recurrence. But such is not the
case in the present instance. Your petitioners are advised that
millions of Jews, Russian subjects, dwelling in Southwestern Rus
sia, are in constant dread of fresh outbreaks. •
They feel that ignorance, superstition and bigotry, as exempli
fied by the rioters, are ever ready to persecute them; that the
local officials, unless thereunto specially admonished, cannot be
relied on as strenuous protectors of their peace and security; that
a public sentiment of hostility has been engendered against them
and hangs over them as a continuing menace.
Even if it is conceded that these fears are to some extent
exaggerated, it is unquestionable that they exist, that they are
not groundless, and that they produce effects of great im
portance. The westward migration of Russian Jews, which has pro
ceeded for over twenty years, is being stimulated by these fears,
and already that movement has become so great as to over
shadow in magnitude the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and
to rank with the exodus from Egypt.
No estimate is possible of the misery suffered by the hapless
Jews who feel driven to forsake their native land, to sever the
most sacred ties, and to wander forth to strange countries.
Neither is it possible to estimate the misery suffered by those
who are unwilling or unable to leave the land of their birth, who
must part from friends and relatives who emigrate, who remain
in never ending terror.
Religious persecution is more sinful and more fatuous than
war. War is sometimes necessary, honorable and just; religious
persecution is never defensible.
The sinfulness and folly which give impulse to unnecessary

INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 9
war received their greatest check when your Majesty's initiative
resulted in an international court of peace.
With such an example before it the civilized world cherishes
the hope that upon the same initiative there shall be fixed in the
early days of the twentieth century the enduring principles of
religious liberty; that by a gracious and convincing expression
your Majesty will proclaim1, not only for the government of
your own subjects, but also for the guidance of all civilized men,
that none, shall suffer in person, property, liberty, honor or life
because of his religious belief; that the humblest subject or
citizen may worship according to the dictates of his own con
science, and that government, whatever its former agencies,
must safeguard these rights and immunities by the exercise of
all its powers.
Far removed from your Majesty's dominions, living under
different conditions and owing allegiance to another Govern
ment, your petitioners yet venture, in the name of civilization,
to plead for religious liberty and tolerance ; to plead that he who
led his own people and all others to the shrine of peace will
add new lustre to his reign and fame by leading a new movement
that shall commit the whole world in opposition to religious
persecutions." On July 14th, 1903, this impressive document was, by the
order of President Roosevelt, cabled, without alteration, to the
American Charge d' Affaires at St. Petersburg, with a letter
of introduction signed by Secretary Hay. The petition had
nearly thirteen thousand signatures.
Subsequently, the petition, with the signatures, was bound
in a suitable volume, and on October 5, 1903, transmitted to the
Secretary of State, accompanied by a communication from him,
as President of the Executive Committee, from which we make
the following extract:
"For all time to come, it will testify to the love of justice,
humanity and liberty which moved the President to give it
countenance and its signers to father it. It stands as the verdict
of the whole people condemning the denial of religious liberty,

IO INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY.
and upholding the President, in asserting that condemnation.
If it be without precedent, it is the more precious for becoming
one. Civilization made a distinct and notable advance when a
great nation of eighty millions of people, speaking not only
through its official head, but also through its most representative
citizens in their individual capacities, served notice on the world
that those who are made to suffer martyrdom for conscience's
sake, wherever they may abide, have friends and sympathizers
in this country. Such an example will not be lost. The oppres
sor will hereafter pause before he strikes, and his victim will
be saved from utter despair by the consciousness that the voice
of humanity will be raised in his behalf.
"In this view, the services rendered by the President, his ad
visers and the people generally, are not to be measured by the
benefits conferred upon the Jews alone. This is one of the oft-
recurring cases in which the Jews, by their misfortunes, have
led the world to a just appreciation of the truths of which they
are the devoted missionaries.
"In every part of the world where Jews are to be found there
is thanksgiving because the President and you and the entire
American people have championed the cause of the oppressed.
"Everywhere admiration has been excited, and in this coun
try the people are proud of the courageous humanity which has
been displayed."
On October 31, 1903, the Honorable John Hay, one of the
greatest statesmen of the United States, universally loved and
honored throughout this great land of liberty, made the fol
lowing remarkable acknowledgment: "October 31, 1903.
"Leo N. Levi, Esquire, President of the Executive Committee
of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, 723 Lexington
Avenue, New York, N. Y.
"My dear Sir:—
"I have received at the hands of the Honorable Simon Wolf,

INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. II
your letter of the 5th of October. He has also delivered to me
the bound copy of the Kischineff Petition.
"It gives me pleasure to accept the charge of this important
and significant document, and assign it a place in the archives
of the Department of State.
"Although this copy of your petition did not reach the high
destination for which it was intended, its words have attained
a world-wide publicity, and have found a lodgment in many
thousands of minds. This petition will be always memorable,
not only for what it contains, but also for the number and weight
of the signatures attached to it, embracing some of the most
eminent names of our generation, of men renowned for intelli
gence, philanthropy and public spirit. In future, when the
students of history come to peruse this document, they will won
der how the petitioners, moved to profound indignation by
intolerable wrongs perpetrated on the innocent and helpless,
should have expressed themselves in language so earnest and
eloquent and yet so dignified, so moderate and decorous. It is
a valuable addition to public literature, and 'it will be sacredly
cherished among the treasures of this Department. I am,
Very respectfully yours,
(Sd.) JOHN HAY."
A brief sketch of the life of this great man, prepared by a
friend of many years duration, and the Rabbi of the Congrega
tion at Galveston of which he was a member, Dr. Henry Cohn,
is herewith appended.
JOSEPH HIRSH,
January 15, 1907. Vicksburg, Miss.

12 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY.

In New York City, at the dawn of day, on Wednesday,
January 13th, 1904, all that was mortal of Leo N. Levi passed
away. His death came as a terrible shock to his friends and
acquaintances; to his wife and children, brothers and sisters, it
was as if the sun was obscured at noon-day.
Mr. Levi was a born leader. Rising from the ranks, he mas
tered every position he held, and there was no situation that
confronted him but to which he was equal. His fine diplomacy in»
the preparation of the Kishineff Petition, which was immediately
accepted as framed, and its subsequent presentation to Russia,
through the services of President Roosevelt and- the late John
Hay, is an instance of his acumen. "You are a great diplomat,
Mr. Levi," said Mr. Hay, upon the former's suggesting the
cablegram to Riddle at St. Petersburg as the best means of
reaching the Czar, "and would make a great ambassador." To-
bring order out of chaos, whether he were dealing with com
munal, civic, or political problems, was his strong point. In
numerous instances he saved the day for his people with honor
-to himself and to the cause he represented. "A great man,"
said President Roosevelt of him. Yea, we had no greater!
Leo N. Levi was born in Victoria, Texas, September 15th,
1856, one of a family of six children of Abraham and Mina Levi.
Abraham Levi (born, Alsace 1822 ; died, Victoria, Texas, Novem
ber 30th, 1902) and settled in Victoria in 1849, engaging
in mercantile pursuits. Having received the school education
afforded by his native town, Leo, then a promising youth of
sixteen, matriculated at the University of Virginia, where, after
a brilliant college career, he was graduated in Law. He gained,.

INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 1 3
among other University distinctions, the medal for the best
University Magazine article, and the debater's medal — a coveted
prize then, as it is now. It was while pursuing his college
course that his courage and manliness, portending so much for
his future, were first put on trial. As has often happened to
our co-religionists, he was taunted with being a Jew, and he
resented it verbally and physically. He won the admiration of
his quondam antagonists (some of whom afterwards became
his life-long friends) by his attitude; and when he passed
through the portals of "Old Virginia," there was not a fellow
student but thought it an honor to clasp his hand.
In 1876, Leo N. Levi, fresh from his University laurels,
entered the law office of Flournoy & Scott, at Galveston, Texas,
within easy distance of the parental roof at Victoria. Prov
ing a most valuable asset to that prominent firm, he was offered
a partnership, which he accepted. In 1877, he married Miss
Ray Bachrach, the love of his college days, at Charlottsville, Va.,
and at the time of his sad demise, he had six surviving children.
Making Galveston his home, he became, life and soul, a part of
his environment, working for the best interests of his city, county,
and state. Upon the retirement of the head of the law concern,
with which he was connected, the firm, under the name of Scott
& Levi, and subsequently Scott, Levi & Smith, was one of the
best known, and most trusted legal establishments in the State.
Mr. Levi resided in Galveston for 23 years (1876-1899), taking
laudable interest in all municipal affairs, and on many occasions
of grave importance to the city, he was called upon to plead its
cause before the Legislative bodies of the State. Such tasks
he cheerfully undertook, often at great inconvenience to him
self, and at the sacrifice of his own business interests. And Gal
veston, the city of his adoption, recognizing his talent and worth,
was not slow to do him honor. When the late President of the
United States, Benjamin Harrison, visited the port for a formal
celebration, the city asked Leo N. Levi and two other gentle
men to travel some distance to meet him, and also to be his
constant companion during his stay. A clear thinker, a most
eloquent and fearless speaker, a remarkable logician, he served

14 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY.
his clients, individuals and corporations, with unswerving fidel
ity; and he was known far and wide as a true lawyer and a
sound jurist. He was a faithful exponent of honorable citizen
ship. He never aspired to political preferment, although his
exceptional abilities were always enlisted in the cause of good
government. His public life did not lessen his allegiance to his co-religion
ists, to whom he was ever an able guide, and with whom he was
an enthusiastic worker. In 1887, he was elected President of
Congregation B'nai Israel at Galveston, and retained the office
until his departure for New York. During those twelve years and
prior to that, he affiliated with every local charitable, educational
and social institution, occupying in all of them, at one time or
another, positions of honor and responsibility. Intellectual cul
ture among his brethren was very dear to him, and only second
to the desire he had for the amelioration of the condition of the
oppressed Israelites all over the world. It was in Galveston
that he became a member of the Independent Order of B'nai
B'rith, a Jewish fraternal Organization, whose sphere extends
to the four quarters of the globe. In due course he was elected
president of District No. 7 of that Order, comprising seven
southern states, and more than once he received engrossed tes
timonials setting forth his usefulness to his district Grand
Lodge. In 1900, at the Constitution Grand Lodge in Chicago,
Leo N. Levi was chosen President of the whole Order succeed
ing Mr. Julius Bien, who had then retired from the presidency
to fill the position of Foreign Chancellor. As the head of the
I. O. B. B., Mr. Levi was particularly influential in the appeal
of the United States government to Roumania, in connection
with the abominable Jewish policy of that kingdom and subse
quently presented to President Roosevelt the protest addressed
to the Russian Government, consequent upon the horrible mas
sacre at Kishineff. In the conferences pending these negotiations
Mr. Levi had several personal interviews with the President of
the United States. The cable to the U. S. ambassador at St.
Petersburg, a collaboration of John Hay and Leo N. Levi, em
bodying the Kishineff Petition, which Mr. Levi wrote himself,

INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 1 5
will go down to history, and if the latter had accomplished
nothing else in his life than the work incident upon this unique
circumstance, notwithstanding the Czar's refusal to receive the
matchless document, he would have served his life's purpose.
But apart from this occurrence, his services to the I. O. B. B.
and through this organization to the Jews of this country were
inestimable. As has been said above, Leo N. Levi was a noted
speaker, having lectured in many states of the Union and on
varied subjects. In 1899 he delivered the Commencement Lec
ture at the State University at Austin, "The Successful Life,"
which was acclaimed to be the best address ever heard within
the walls of that institution, and which the faculty use today in
the classical department, as a specimen of inspiring thought and
lofty diction.
A devoted husband and father, an energetic worker in hu
manity's cause, an ideal and an inspiration to thousands of his
fellow citizens, he was stricken down in the midst of a career
whose usefulness gave promise of increase with years. But we
know nothing; and subject to an inscrutable Providence, we can
only bow our head in resignation, and pay this poor tribute to
one whose like we shall not see again.
Ascend Thou to heaven thou worthy son of Abraham ! Thou
art mourned by hundreds of thousands ! Thy life has been well
spent! Abide with Thy Maker to all eternity!
HENRY COHEN.
Galveston, Texas, May 15th, 1906.

ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE.
Bro. Leo N. Levi, in accepting the position, spoke as follows :
Brethren of the Convention: I thank you for this great
honor — for honor indeed it is. The feelings which arise in my
breast engender a fear that I have taken upon myself a burden
under which I shall stagger, if not fall. I told you last night I
had little respect for mere words, and I shall vindicate that
declaration by saying but little here now, and what I do say will
be in the line of the performance of my duty. You are about
to follow the election of your President by the election of other
officers who are to co-operate with him and work with him in
attaining the mission of our Order. I say to you and I say to
them that I shall receive any expressions of discontent, any crit
icism of any remissness that is personal to myself with tender
ness, with gentleness and with a forgiving spirit. But I say to
you upon this solemn and, I believe, historic occasion, that the
man who is associated with me or subordinated to me who fails
or falters in his duty to the Order will find me as unrelenting
and as severe as if I commanded an army in the face of a dan
gerous foe. I said to one who will probably be on the Executive
Committee, and I repeat it now, that if at any time during my
administration a single member of that Committee by reason
of his business engagements, sickness or other cause fails to per
form the duties of his office, I shall expect his resignation, and
if it is not forthcoming, I shall ask it, and I make that announce
ment to you now because I don't want to then be accused of au
tocracy or of despotism. I make the declaration now because I
want your sanction to that declaration of policy, and if you dis
sent from it, I want a declaration of dissent. I make the decla
ration now because I want you to bear it in mind when you se
lect the members of your Executive Committee, and I want the
16

ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE. 17
candidates for those positions to keep it in their minds when
they accept the responsibility. If I stand on the bridge of your
vessel in the storm and in the calm to guide her on her course, I
want to know that my mates, my engineers and my crew are
equally vigilant and equally diligent in the performance of the
duties that are assigned to them, and I shall exact it.
It has been said that we are entering upon a new era in the
destiny of the Jew. I believe that, I believe it firmly. I stated
years ago that I believed that the salvation of Judaism was the
American-born Jew. I have traveled over this land and I find
our young men and our young women, unversed as they are in
the old traditional forms and ceremonies, strangers to the ritual
around which cling so many tender memories in the minds of our
older people, yet animated, inspired and uplifted by the quicken
ing love which they bear to the old ancestral faith, and craving
for media of expression for that feeling. They seek it in good
works, in charitable deeds, in the amelioration of the condition
of our f ellowmen ; and I believe that when we bring to them the
mission which has sustained us so long, when we make apparent
to them that here is the field for their activity, that we will gain
from them that co-operation, in the need of which we so sorely
stand. But we must carry our wares to them, we must inspire
them with the courage that has sustained us, and with the in
fusion of new spirit and new energy and new aspiration create
a new epoch, not for ourselves but for the people for whom this
Order stands. And it does stand for the people — the greatest
organiztion among the Jews known in the history of the world,
spread over all the world, conducted by its representative men, it
stands for the Jew and for Judaism. And, filled with that con
viction can you wonder that, strong man as I am and well bal
anced as I am, for that quality has been attributed to me, that I
assume the position of your leader with a faltering heart, with a
faltering tongue. I know the* responsibility. I know the weight
that I have taken upon myself, and I know how much it behooves
me and you to invoke the aid of Almighty God and the loving
and loyal co-operation of every man who has enlisted under the
banner of the B'nai B'rith — not because it will do him good, not

l8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
because it will glorify him, but because it will do good to those
that need good ; because the voice of music in him sings in good
deeds — good deeds always and ever and at whatever sacrifice.
I will accept your leadership on this platform and with that
pledge from you, and I will carry on the work as long as I have
the power to do so and the capacity to do so and the opportunity
to do so ; and as long as you stand by me in that work I pledge
you this — I pledge you this — that I shall watch myself even more
closely than I do you, and if ever there comes the time when by
reason of my business engagements, of physical infirmity, or
whatever it may be, I cannot devote to this work what it de
serves, I shall demand the resignation of your President.
I remember one of the most impressive incidents in the his
tory of Germany, when Field Marshal Von Moltke went to the
Emperor and said: "Sire, I tender my resignation. I can no
longer mount my horse." It was the magnificent spectacle of the
soldier and the patriot who set duty- up above all other things.
And whenever any consideration makes it impossible for me to
put my foot in the stirrup and leap into the saddle, I shall follow
his example. We have had a noble exhibition of that spirit here
today; and it is with the greatest pleasure that I advert to the
great services and the long services which we have enjoyed at
the hands of him who now retires from the chief executiveship
of this Order, with all the glory and magnificence of the setting
sun. (Great applause.) As I witnessed the scene here this morn
ing and thought of myself as the successor of that man who has
laid down the sceptre of power, I was reminded of the tree
which grows where I spent most of the years of my life, on the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico — the salt cedar — that grows best
in storm and stress of weather, and at last, when, succumbing to
the inroads of time and the assaults of the elements it bends to the
earth to give up its life, there shoots from its side as it reclines
on the ground, new roots from which springs a fresh and vigor
ous growth. And so, sir (addressing Bro. Bien), I say to you
that your work is not ended with your retirement, for from those
works, from those achievements there will spring a growth of

ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE. 19
vigorous trees that will arise from the roots that you have plant
ed. (Great applause.)
Now, my friends, I thank you for all that is personal in this
election — and for nothing else. I do not consider the honor, I
consider the burden. If I live long enough to meet you five years
from now, and if I can say to you in the official reports and war
ranted by the official facts, that I have achieved something, I
want that to be my eulogy and nothing else.
I thank you. (Great applause.)

THE MODERN DISPERSION.
Address delivered at Wilson Street Temple, Cleveland, Ohio,
May 17, 1903, by Leo N. Levi, during the convention of District
Grand Lodge No. 2, I. O. B. B.
The full importance of contemporary events is rarely appre
ciated. History remains to most men a sealed book unless it
deals with the remote past. The rulers and teachers, the sages
and prophets, are those who are able to measure present occur
rences in the light of the past, and foresee the future in the light
of both. Every Jewish child knows and understands the story of the
Exodus ; of the Babylonian captivity ; of the Asmonean wars ; of
the destruction of Jerusalem; of the Diaspora; of the expulsion
from Spain. Each of these, epochs furnishes materials for a
sublime epic, and the materials have been freely employed by
poets and minstrels.
The heroism of achievement and endurance, so prominent
in Jewish history, appeals to all men strongly, to the Jews irre
sistibly. At some time in the life of every manly boy he has
deplored that he did not live in the age of chivalry ; that he was
denied the triumphs and glories of knight-errantry. The manly
Jew at all times envies those who were enabled against Egyptian,
Babylonian, Syrian, Roman or Spaniard, to exhibit in action or
martyrdom the indestructible spirit of his race. There is a pe
culiar charm about past occurrences. They come, filtered, to us
through the souls of historians, poets, artists and musicians.
Their odious features have been eliminated, and what is left of
fers no offense to the aesthetic or artistic sense.
The history of the present lacks these advantages. It has not
been set in artistic order. It has not been freed from its obnox
ious elements. It has not been refined. It is unsettled, crude,
nauseous ; full of grime, dirt, blood, sweat and offal. When we
20

MODERN DISPERSION. 21
see the soldier in his camp, living in filth, infested by vermin,
violating the laws of health, ignoring in speech and conduct the
precepts of morality, made coarse and growing coarser by his.
environment, we are prone to call him a degenerate. We con
trast him with the heroic men who fought for our liberties in the
romantic ages of the past. But the heroes of the past, however
they appear in song and story, were in their day like unto the
unattractive man we now decry, and the latter in times to come
will be scoured and take his place along with the others in the
chronicles of the heroic dead.
It is not only a canon of taste, but also a law of justice,
which makes the historian deal mainly with the virtues and light
ly with the shortcomings of mankind. To err is human. Sinful
ness, if not inherent and original, is so common that it is not dis
tinguishing. It is always in evidence, and moves along an easy
downward path. Virtue, on the other hand, while abiding in ev
ery soul, is repressed by selfishness and must ever struggle up
ward along thorny ways. When it is in evidence, it is, therefore,
a distinction. In the final judgment of men, what good they have
done and what evil they have resisted must be the controlling
considerations. The rewards of virtue cannot with justice be
withheld, because with virtue is commingled the infirmities com
mon to mankind. The Pentateuch has doubtless left unchron-
icled many sins that might with truth be imputed to its great
characters, and even as it is, of none of its notables can it be
said he was faultless. Yet we revere and love them, not for their
faults, but in spite of them ; and because, in their lives, if virtue
was not always the exclusive possessor, it was the dominator.
In dealing with our contemporaries we are not so just. We
are apt to magnify the faults of others by comparison with our
own virtues, and to belittle their virtues by comparison with
our own imperfections. Instead of employing a standard by
which to measure them and ourselves alike, we make standards
of ourselves, and condemn all who fall short of or go beyond it.
This infirmity is largely responsible for the failure to appreciate
the great historical crisis through which the Jews are now pass
ing, and the duties arising therefrom.

22 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
During the past twenty-three years the world, without un
derstanding it, has witnessed a radical change in the situation of
the Jews. It is still in progress, and will doubtless continue to be
for many decades. In some respects it is similar to the Exodus,
but, more properly speaking, it is the Modern Dispersion.
During many generations the majority of the Jews have
dwelt in Russia, Galicia, Roumania and Hungary. In Russia
and Galicia alone their number reached almost to five millions.
It is needless to dwell on their condition. The story is well
known. Suffice it to say that a little over twenty years ago the
Jews began to leave these countries in large numbers, and that
since then there has been an uninterrupted flow of immigration
to the Orient, to Western Europe, to South America, and last, but
not least, to the United States.
During the period under consideration ten per centum of
the Jews of the world forsook their native homes in Eastern
Europe and took up new abodes in this country. At the_ present
time this influx to the United States equals or exceeds annually
one-half of one per cent of the world's total Jewish population.
Add to this number those who settle in Western Europe, the
Levant, the West Indies, Central and South America, South
Africa and Canada, and we can readily foretell that within the
first half of the twentieth century the Jewish center of gravity
will be far removed from Eastern Europe. Indeed, since the
stream to the United States grows larger with the passing years,
we may count with some confidence that in this century the ma
jority of the world's Jews will have established there domicile
here, or certainly on the Western Hemisphere. The migration
from Eastern Europe in our day is strikingly like the migration
from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century, except that in the
expulsion from Spain not over three per cent of the world's Jews
were, while now considerably more than one-half are, involved.
In short, the present dispersion has all of the tragic and ro
mantic features of the Spanish expulsion, is impelled by an equal
intolerance, endured with equal martyrdom, but exceeds it in
interest and importance, because Spain only had, at most, three

MODERN DISPERSION. 23
hundred thousand Jews, while Eastern Europe is driving forth
five millions.
The effect of the expulsion from Spain need not be more than
mentioned. It is a well known historical fact. What is important
now to study is the effect of the immigration now in progress.
It must not be belittled because the immigrants are poor, igno
rant, superstitious, narrow, untidy, or otherwise unattractive.
The Jews who fled from Egypt were infinitely below the stan
dard of these. Those who were driven from Jerusalem by the
Romans were not superior to the Jews who are now on the
march. , Even the Spanish refugee, around whom glows the halo
of romance, had the shortcomings of mankind in full measure.
Nor can we make unfavorable comparisons by weighing the
causes of the various migrations now under consideration. It
may be conceded that the Tsar is not a monster, and that the
Russians are not consciously unjust to the Jews. The same be
conceded to the King of Roumania and his subjects. It may be
further conceded that the Jews in Russia and Roumania are un
desirable, and even obnoxious from a view-point which we do not
occupy, and which, if erroneous, is nevertheless believed to be
correct. Must we not concede as much to Pharaoh, to Rome, to Spain ?
Even as we know the past, such concessions are demanded, and
let us not forget that we know the past only from view-points
variant from or opposite to those of the Egyptians, the Romans
and the Spaniards! They had their sides in the argument, just
as Russia and Roumania now have theirs. History has con
demned the views, of Egypt, Rome and Spain, It will doubtless
condemn Russia and Roumania. Its judgment has not been based
in the former, nor will it be in the present cases, upon the unim
peachable virtues of the Jews among men, but simply and solely
upon the fact that they were and are members of the human
family. It was and is unjust to oppress them, not because they
were or are better than their oppressors, but because, whatever
their failings, they are human beings, and as such entitled to hu
mane treatment. Any other view is poetical, sentimental and
romantic, but it is misleading and unjust.

24 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
The verdict of the historian, however, need not trouble us
now. Our task is to see now what the historian will easily make
out when time gives a perspective and the atmosphere is clear of
the dust and smoke of the conflict. What is our verdict? And
how will it affect our conduct? Such questions may not be re
garded as academic by any one, certainly not by any Jew. To
him, wherever he dwells and whatever his condition, these ques
tions are pressingly practical. What is his view of the modern
Dispersion? And how will that view impel him to act? How
will the American Jew, and especially the well-to-do and culti
vated American Jew, respond?
The problem is not a little complicated by prejudices of vari
ous kinds. The Jews are favorites only of God. Their fellow-
men, for one reason or another, or no reason at all, refuse to en
dorse the decree of Heaven, which has singled Israel out as a
peculiar and chosen band. Even though the rejected stone has
again and again been divinely honored as the chief corner-stone,
it has been denied recognition by man. This lack of atonement
between man and God is, however, not unique. There are other
differences as well.
The Jews do not regard anti-Semitism with contentment or
patience. On the contrary, they resent it as a gross injustice.
But they have grown accustomed to it and meet it as an inevita
ble evil. United against the hostility of the world, the Jews draw
comfort from one another and the splendid heritage left by their
ancestors. There exist, however, prejudices among the Jews
themselves, which to the Gentile at least must appear marvelous.
These prejudices are based on many classifications not now
rfecessary to be considered. The one classification of greatest im
portance is that which sets on one side the Jews of Western Eu
rope and the United States, variously called the Reformed, the
Modern, and the German and American Jews, and on the other
the Jews of Russia, Galicia, Roumania and other East European
countries, variously called Russian, Polish or Orthodox Jews.
For convenience, let us call the former Western and the latter
Eastern Jews.
As a rule the Western Jews have absorbed Western civiliza-

MODERN DISPERSION. 25
tion, and bear lightly or not at all the yoke of the Torah. As a
rule, to the Eastern Jews Western civilization is yet unknown,
and they adhere to the same religious views and practices which
prevailed centuries ago. The Western Jew has a modern educa
tion, and speaks with facility the language of his native land ; the
Eastern Jew's education is largely religious, and his mother
tongue is the jargon known as Yiddish. The points of difference
between the Eastern and Western Jews are numerous and im
portant, but not so much so as each believes. The prejudices of
each against the other magnify the differences and the faults
which each ascribes to the other on account thereof.
The Western Jew treats his co-religionist from Eastern Eu
rope as an inferior. He considers him ignorant, superstitious,
bigoted, hypocritical, cunning, ungrateful, quarrelsome, unclean,
and in many other ways abominable.
The view of the Western Jew is superficial, hasty and wholly
unjust. It is based largely upon hearsay, and otherwise upon
loose generalizations made from very limited observations. The
Eastern Jews are looked upon en masse, and not as individuals.
Each is considered as possessing all the faults charged to the
class, and all are misjudged by the failings that are noticed in a
few individuals. Those who like the Eastern Jews least, know
them least ; their Best friends are those who know them well.
It is not proposed to claim extraordinary virtues for the
Eastern Jews. They are human, and have the vices as well as
the good qualities of the human family. Among them are exem
plars of the highest and lowest elements of the human make-up.
A close study of them begets always a forecast of a noble future.
Of their status at present it would be well for those who know
them only by hearsay to remember the quaint old admonition:
"Let the greater part of what thou hearest be the least part of
what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest
be the least part of what is true."
In the eyes of the Eastern Jew the Western Jew is a cad. His
education is superficial and flashy; his philanthropy ostentatious
and insincere; his manners a cheap imitation of the Gentiles,
upon whom he fawns; his religion a miserable compromise, in

26 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
which appearances count for everything; his assumption of su
periority another proof that "every ass thinks himself fit to stand
among the king's horses."
The Western Jew as a rule, because of his prejudices, re
mains indifferent or hostile to the great migration to which I
have adverted. The Eastern Jew, on the other hand, defiantly
stands on his inherent rights, and jeeringly foretells the decadence
of his traducers, just as the Sephardim passed out before the in
rush of the ancestors of the present Jewish aristocracy.
The Eastern Jew is superficial, hasty and unjust in his views.
He is guilty of the same errors that he complains of in the
Western Jew. He takes counsel of his passions, and refuses to
see the good qualities of those who are serving while they anger
him. Thoughtful men among both classes deplore these differences
and seek to remove them. However great the differences, they
are small by comparison with the similarities. No Jew can es
cape his inheritance, even if he would. All Jews are brethren,
whether or not they like the fact or one another. Cain was
Abel's brother, though he slew him.
This fraternity, moreover, is always in evidence. If the poor
Eastern Jew is murdered in Bessarabia, the daintiest Western
Jew makes an outcry of horror. If an aristocratic Western Jew
is made a martyr on Devil's Island, the most intense Eastern Jew
groans in sympathy.
In some way the blood relationship always asserts itself. The
Jews may hate, despise, contemn and abuse one another, but let
an outsider take up the same cue and the brotherhood engenders
harmony. Perhaps this is rather humane than Jewish. At all
events, the Jews throughout their history have been famous for
their family quarrels, which were composed when outsiders at
tacked the family. The present differences will be composed, as
have all others in the past, but is it necessary to wait for time or
a common peril to establish the mutual consideration, respect and
affection that should of right obtain? Shall we not profit by ex
perience and study? Shall foolish passions aggravate evils which
wise thought can remove?

MODERN DISPERSION. 27
The circumference and diameter of the universe are unknown
quantities, but each man has its center fixed in himself. The ego
ism to which this is due is neither altogether bad or good. It is
a mixed composite of evil and virtue. To the extent that it dig
nifies the individual and makes him a conservator of his own wel
fare, it is a blessing. On the other hand because of it the indi
vidual is apt to make too much of himself and too little of others.
When a man establishes and maintains in his thought and con
duct the proper relation between himself and the rest of the
world, he is always good and often great. Few attain this, but it
is true that many seek it. To these it is helpful to consider and
discuss at frequent intervals the privileges and duties of life, so
that not only may general principles be preserved, but the correct
application thereof made to the details of life.
The Eastern Jew, which term, includes both foreigners and
their immediate descendants, must learn that he is not a law
unto himself ; that he is a part of a larger community ; that his
situation affects others besides himself; that these others have
a right to study and aid in solving his problems ; that it is il
logical and ungrateful to accept material aid while resenting
friendly interest and counsel; that Western Jews are not apos
tates because they are not observers of the Schulcan Aruch ; that
the prejudices which he resents are nourished by the prejudices
which he himself indulges in. The inevitable and irresistible ten
dency of his children is toward Occidentalism, and unless he cul
tivates harmony and sympathy with the Western Jew, he must
stand on the brink of an ever-widening chasm between himself
and his own offspring. It is well enough to hate what is evil in
his Western brothers, but he must not hate them. Hate begets
hate, just as love begets love. In the war of angry passion the
Eastern Jew may indeed triumph through the force of over
whelming numbers, but such a victory would be more disastrous
than a defeat. There should be no triumph of what is peculiar
to either class, for the peculiarities are seldom good ; the victory
should be for the humanity which is common to both.
It goes without saying that a respectable proportion of West
ern Jews are deeply moved by the Modern Dispersion, and testify

28 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
by innumerable sacrifices that they understand and are perform
ing the duties which it imposes on them. Unfortunately, how
ever, there yet remain many who, either because of ignorance or
injustice, look with cold indifference or hot hostility upon the ar
rival of their suffering co-religionists. This is true even in the
United States, where it might be expected that American birth,
American training and American ideals would engender extra
ordinary tenderness towards brethren who suffer martyrdom for
conscience's sake.
Every American Jew should read or re-read of the expulsion
from Spain as told in the history of Ferdinand and Isabella by
the American historian Prescott. There he will find almost the
same conditions which now prevail. Under Ferdinand and Isa
bella the Jews were denounced for the same faults and crimes
now laid at their doors in Eastern Europe. They were charged
with being parasites, usurers, non-producers; with being osten
tatious, gaudy and vulgar, and above all, with murdering Chris- <
tians to obtain their blood for the Passover bread. When they
were forced to leave Spain on the fateful ninth of Ab, in 1492,
they were impoverished, and they carried to other lands, and
especially to Italy, not only their poverty, but the plague, which
was produced by their pitiable sufferings. Wherever they went,
for a time at least they proved a burden, if not a positive injury,
to the native Jews.
This expulsion was not only defended by the Spaniards of
the fifteenth century, but also by the writers of other Christian
countries. Indeed, during the succeeding centuries, the terrible
tragedy which involved so many lives and entailed so much mis
ery has been cited as evidence of Spanish piety and the just pun
ishment which is visited upon the miserable Jew.
Three hundred thousand persons, according to Graetz — fewer
than two hundred thousand according to Prescott — were driven
out of Spain. More than four centuries have passed since that
awful occurrence, and yet the horror of it grows instead of pass
ing away. Who would dare in this country at least to say a
word in defense of Spain's intolerance, or utter aught but sym
pathy for her victims? And yet the Jews being driven from

MODERN DISPERSION. 29
Roumania are as many as were in Spain; those who have fled
from Russia and Galicia to the United States in twenty years
more than double the number of the Spanish Jews.
Who can find fault with the Spanish Jews who brought the
plague to Genoa, whither they fled? In many European cities
in which the refugees sought an asylum were Jews whose position
was assured until the refugees placed it in jeopardy. Were
these few established Jews of more account than the refugees?
Were they entitled to immunity from the real or fancied dan
gers due to the dispersion of the Spanish Jews? What were
their rights and duties? The same question demands an an
swer now at the hands of the American Jew.
It is contended by some that the American Jews had won
a proud station in this country before the dispersion began;
that politically, socially and economically they were prosperous,
and highly respected; that the Eastern Jews have endangered
the prestige [previously enjoyed; that they have driven the
American Jews out of certain lines of business and threaten
to monopolize many others; that they congest our seaboard
cities, and, finally, that they in many ways bring odium to the
Jewish name.
If all this were true, what then? Does it justify the perse
cutions here which are denounced when practiced in Eastern
Europe? Does it justify hostility to a people who seek an asy
lum in the land which is great because it has been from the
beginning the refuge of the oppressed? Whatever may be said,
truly or falsely, about the Eastern Jews, we must find our
proper relation to the problem they present. The American
people as a whole has taken its stand on the broad platform of
sympathy and humanity. The American Jew who in this crisis
is less humane and sympathetic than the whole American people
is neither a good American nor a good Jew.
If it were necessary to choose between the welfare of the
one million Jews in this country and the millions who must
ultimately come here, justice would turn to the greater number.
The millions are on the march. The dispersion is on in full
force. No power on earth can stop it. Potentates and legions

30 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
are powerless to stem the tide. The few Jews who selfishly
deplore the immigration to this country may as well resign
themselves to the inevitable first as last. The current of the
Mississippi cannot be reversed by imprecations or the onrush
of Niagara stopped by making faces at it.
It is, however, a grievous error to spell danger or misfor
tune to the Western Jews from the dispersion of the Eastern
Jews. If the former have in the course of generations thrown
off many useless impediments, they have suffered along with
them the loss of many family jewels. The idealism, the poetry,
the ascetic virtues, the family sanctity, the religious fervor,
which were formerly so accentuated in Jewish life, have been
in a measure lost in the process which eliminated certain Orient
alisms that are found and decried in the contemporary Eastern
Jews. The American Jews will profit by contact with the re
positories of ancient Jewish virtues. For this advantage they
can make an adequate return by aiding the newcomer to throw
aside the faults which the Western Jew has gotten rid of. The
two classes must be complementary. Each has its faults and its
virtues. If folly prevails the virtues of neither will survive; if
wisdom governs, the contact of the classes will minimize the
worst qualities of each and start from the Modern Dispersion a
chapter in Jewish history as glorious as any that precedes it.
And this wisdom is to the fore. Broad men in both classes are
assuming the leadership. The gospel of discord and hate is
giving way to the gospel of harmony and love. The monger of
sneers and denunciations has had his day. The forces of destruc
tion are spent and those of construction are growing. The con
temned beggar of twenty years ago is the man of affairs to-day ;
the beggar of to-day will be a man of substance in the near
future. The arrogant and shallow minded inheritor of his fath
er's wealth without his father's thrift will pass out with the
wealth he has not the wit to preserve. There will be a com
mingling of the classes to make a stronger and better class. It
is manifest destiny.
The duty to promote the betterment of both so that the in
evitable end may be better, surer and sooner is obvious. History

MODERN DISPERSION. 31
is being made at a tremendous pace, and it is being written while
it is being made. In a few years we shall see on this continent
a re-born, rehabilitated, virile, powerful Jewry, enriching the
world with its virtues, its energies and its genius. Those who
contribute to the chronicle which is being made up will in their
own -lives and in those of their children gather fruits from the
seeds they have planted. Those who remain deaf to the call
of duty, who do not rise to the standard of their country and
their race, must inevitably forfeit the respect of their fellow-
men at large as well as the social, political and economic rewards
which now quicken in the womb of the future for the Jews.
The Modern Dispersion means on this hemisphere the re
generated Jews in whom shall be united what is best among the
dispersed, and from whose numbers will be eliminated the weak
lings, the degenerates and the unfaithful.

ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL
CONFERENCE OF JEWISH CHARITIES,
HELD AT DETROIT, MICH-
MARCH, 1902.
Mr. President, in a circular which I had sent forth a year
ago in my official capacity as the Chairman of the Executive
Committee of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, and in
which circular I dealt with what is known as the removal work
of Roumanian immigrants and the dwellers in the Ghetto of
New York, I employed a sentence which I beg to read now as
the text of what I am about to say: "The Jew must be taught
that no era in Jewish history exceeds the present in importance
and solemnity, and that to play a proper role therein is a high
privilege and a higher duty; that it is the concern of each Jew
to rescue his brethren from poverty, disease and death, and,
above all, to give to their boys the chance to become honest men,
and their girls the sacred right to remain pure."
I realize that I am addressing an audience composed not of
the rank and file, but of the leaders of communal Jewish activity
in the United States, and that my auditors are familiar with the
larger outlines of every Jewish question which challenges the
attention of Jewish minds, and therefore I shall not go into the
details in presenting thoughts that I wish to convey to you, and
the first idea is to impress upon you the fact that this is a great
historical era in Jewish affairs. We all know, from the teach
ings of our childhood, how great an event was the Exodus of
the Jews from Egypt. We know that a civilization worthy of the
name is broadly based upon that great event so full of glory and
of gloom. Now if you will reflect for a moment upon the many
thousands of Jews who left Egypt for the Holy Land, and if
you will reflect that in the nature of things these Jews, while
living in Egypt were not confined within any one locality, you
must realize that the preparation at least for the emigration, if
32

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 33
not the emigration itself, was not instantaneous. It must have
proceeded over a considerable portion of time, and a very distinct
parallel can be drawn between that exodus and subsequent migra
tions of the Jews under the stress of persecution.
If we come to the great event in the history of the Jews and
observe their expulsion from Spain at the end of the fifteenth
century, we must again realize, if we think of the subject, that
that expulsion proceeded over a considerable duration of time.
I know that until my mind was specially directed to it, I had a
vague and nebulous idea that the edict went forth that the Jews
should leave Spain, and that between sunrise and sunset Spain
was rid of her Jews ; but when I come to think that, with all the
facilities we have for moving the people across the Atlantic in
this advanced era, it is a great achievement to move 100,000
people from America to Europe during the summer, and when
I reflect how imperfect were the facilities for transportation at
the end of the fifteenth century, I must know, even without con
sulting passages of history, that the many thousands of Jews
in Spain, many of whom were compelled to seek foreign parts,
could not have abandoned their native country except after the
lapse of considerable time.
Now I mention this fact because I wish to impress upon you
how strong is the parallel between the exodus in ancient history
and the expulsion of the Jews in the middle ages, or at the end
of the middle ages, and the great movement which began some
thing over twenty years ago from Southeastern Europe towards
the Western Hemisphere.
The movement has been continuous. It has been more acute
at some periods than at others, but it has been a steady stream of
Jews moving from Southeastern Europe to the western hemi
sphere, and mainly to the United States of America, and no one
can tell you when that stream will be stopped unless the source is
exhausted. Now it is no light thing in the history of so impor
tant a people as the Jews, to contemplate the complete transfer
ence of the balance of population from one hemisphere to an
other. And when you reflect that the influx of Jews during the
past 21 or 22 years to this country has been at the rate of 50,000

34 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
per annum, and that the total Jewish population of the world is
variously estimated at from eight to eleven million, it is easy to
understand that there may be people within the sound of my
voice at this moment who will live to see the majority of the
Jews of the world at home in the United States of America.
So I think that when these plain facts are before you, it is easy
to assent to my initial proposition that we are in the midst of a
great Jewish historical era.
Now we have our emotions aroused, we have our indignation
aroused, we are driven to horror when we read or hear of the
persecutions of the Jews in Egypt and their exodus from that
land, and of the terrible edict which went forth under the reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella, which drove the Jews to flee to
poverty, and alas ! in many instances, to suicide as an alternative
to dishonor. But we remain indifferent to the great historical
movement that is going on in our own day — that stream which
passes by our own door, the suffering which appeals to us by im
mediate contact with us. I have tried to understand why it is
that so many people can have sentiments of pity and horror
aroused by the far-off suffering Jews in Egypt and Spain, and
yet turn with loathing and disgust from the suffering that now
confronts us. And my analysis is this:
Poverty and suffering are always loathsome, and history and
art and literature abhor, eschew and avoid features of that kind.
So that when the historian or writer sets down for the contem
plation of the artist, those things which occurred in Egypt or in
Spain, he addresses himself to the work of the romantic and the
beautiful and attractive side of the picture, even making suffer
ing attractive; but when we are confronted with horror and
with disease, with the terrors of persecution, when we are com
pelled to look at it with our eyes, and not through the eyes of
the artist and poet, the seams, the faults, the patches and sores
obtrude themselves upon us, and what is on the surface claims
more attention than what is beneath.
Now I ought not to be required to do more than to touch
upon this point to these leaders of charity work, and I touch
upon it because I hope you will teach those who come within

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 35
the sphere of your influence the importance of this truth, that
in dealing with charity and philanthropic problems, we must
learn to look with an unflinching eye on those features, which
are repulsive, because in the absence of the repulsive feature
there is no adequate challenge for philanthropic work. Now,
I have heard much in the course of my experience about meas
ures of one kind or another to stop this influx of people from
Europe to the United States. Now and then some one introduces
a bill in Congress or writes an article in the magazine or news
paper, and suggests a remedy for what seems to be an evil, and
whenever that problem has come to me for consideration, I have
solved it, at least to my own satisfaction, if not to any one's else,
by this fact gleaned from the teachings of history, that wherever
a people as such has been impelled by social economy or religious
consideration to move from the home of their nativity, en masse,
to some other part of the globe, there is no power under the
sun that can stop them. There are no laws that can be put on
the statute book, nor armies that can be marshalled on the
frontiers, that will stop a people, who are driven by a force from
the rear greater than any resisting force that can be put in
front; and when a people are threatened with starvation at
home, when they are deprived of the means of making a liveli
hood, when they are denied the right to rear their children with
the rudiments of even a common school education, when they
are forbidden by restrictive legislation and a hostile environment
from making honorable men of their sons and pure women of
their daughters, you can put no barriers in their pathway that will
stop them from going elsewhere. That, I believe, is one of God's
dispensations, and it goes beyond the power of man to set it aside.
(Applause.) So that I think we may just as well settle down to
the conviction that as long as the countries in Southeastern
Europe, or anywhere else, persecute the Jews because they are
Jews, deny them the right to make a living because they are
Jews, those Jews are going to move out of the country in which
they were born, because they are commanded to do so by cir
cumstances. And as President Harrison said in his second
message (certainly one of his messages) to the country: "When-

36 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
ever a country, by its treatment of a people, or by its laws,
commands them to step out of that country, they give them a
command to step into some other country." The command seems
to have been interpreted in Roumania and in Galicia when they
are ordered out of their country that they should step into the
United States. They have been coming here for 20 odd years.
Their coming has been looked upon with fear and trembling,
but they have come nevertheless. Those who predicted untold
disasters 20 years ago because of the influx of the Russian
Jews have been refuted by the developments of the last two
decades, because the refugees of 20 years ago are the artisans
and manufacturers and the merchants and the bone and sinew
of the Jewish part of this country today. (Applause.)
And let me tell you another thing, my friends, even you who
are disposed to turn up your noses at the Russian Jew and the
Galician Jew and the Roumanian Jew, that just as certainly as
the children of the Portuguese Jews in the middle of the 19th
century were destined to meet with the descendants of the Ger
man Jews who came over in the middle of the century, just so
certain it is that the sons of these derided Russian and Rou
manian and Galician Jews will meet with your daughters, and
your sons will meet with their daughters.
Now they are coming. Where do they come? They come
to New York. The great steamship lines that are engaged in
transportation are nearly all centered at New York as a port of
entry. The statistics show that of a million who came to this
country in 20 years, probably 90 per cent came into the port of
New York. The statistics also show that over 60 per cent of
those who arrive remain in New York, certainly in the first
instance. Now what becomes of them in New York? It was
said here this morning by a very interesting representative from
Kansas City that these people who go out from New York
think so much of us in New York that they want to get
back. Now that strikes me as humorous, but it is tragic.
It is worthy of your consideration. If you had an opportunity
to see the conditions in New York, you would understand why
it is that they want to get back. The so-called Ghetto of New

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 37
York, bounded on the north by Houston Street, on the west by
the Bowery, and running southward and eastward to the river,
contains as many Jews as Detroit contains people. The whole
city of Detroit, if crowded into that little section, would displace
a similar number of Jews who have come to this country from
Southeastern Europe in the last 20 years, and their descendants.
And that is a very small territory. There are thousands, yea,
tens of thousands of citizens in the city of New York, a good
many of them Jews> who have never set foot in that territory.
Just think of dumping the whole city of Detroit down into the
city of New York, and a large proportion of the city of New
York, not knowing it was there, — but that is the fact. It is a
region almost unknown to a very large portion of the population
of New York, and, of course, it goes without saying, unknown
to those who do not live in that vicinity. In that region the
language that is spoken is the traditional Yiddish of the Jews.
In the stores, the articles they were accustomed to purchase in
the land of their nativity are offered for sale. The signs are
written in their own language in the Hebrew character. The
cafes and places of amusement, the theater hall, the dance hall,
everything is there which they were accustomed to, and what
ever their tastes, whether good or evil, demand, is purveyed for
their gratification. They think in their own language; they can
worship there according to the rituals they are accustomed to;
their atmosphere is one which they are acquainted with, and all
other atmospheres are foreign to them. Now if you take any
one of this audience and suddenly transport him to a foreign
land, if there be a group of Americans in any one portion of
that foreign country, it would be perfectly natural for you and
me to gravitate to that little colony. And we would not like
to get out into the interior of the country where we did not know
the language of the country, the geography of the country, the
habits of the people ; where no one could understand us, and we
could understand no one. A feeling of homesickness would over
come us, our hearts would become terrified, and if that would
be true of us who are presumed to have at least some under
standing of the configuration of this globe and of the difference

38 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
in nationalities and habits and customs of peoples, how much
more so must that be true of a class of people whose whole world
had no larger horizon than the little town in which they were
born and raised in some obscure part of Southeastern Europe?
For them to come to America means for them to come to New
York. They have an idea that what lies beyond the limits of
New York is a wilderness; that once they get away from the
Ghetto they lose the friends they were accustomed to; that if
sickness, trouble or death comes they have no one to turn to.
If they are religiously inclined — and the Russian Jews are —
they have no place in which they can worship in harmony out
side of the Ghetto. And so they cling there tenaciously, even to
the brink of starvation rather than to go out into a wilderness
or to give up that which is so precious to them. But the limit
has been reached. It was reached long ago. You have heard
papers here on the subject of tuberculosis, mentioned by the
President in his message also. You will hear others dealing
with conditions in the New York Ghetto. Some of the speakers
and some of those who have written papers have toyed with the
fringes of the garment so to speak. Perhaps none of them are
qualified to deal adequately with the subject. If there be any
one here who is so qualified, and who should discharge the duty
of acquainting the public with it, you would have no time to
listen to anything else. But let me tell you, and I will call
witnesses to prove the proposition, that no man, however intel
ligent or industrious in his reading and his research, can form
the remotest idea of the conditions prevailing in the lower portion
of New York, unless he goes there and makes personal inspec
tion. Now I can not deal with these conditions today because
time does not permit, but I can give you a few side lights. I
want to tell you just one little instance. At 11 o'clock at night
I, together with some companions, sat in a famous cafe on Canal
Street, and while we were drinking the Russian tea, I heard a
flutter at my elbow, and turned around, and there discovered
a little girl about 13 years of age with a head of hair that would'
be worth a fortune to a painter, with eyes that were tinged with
melancholy and a face of perfect and pitiful beauty, and she

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 39
had under her arm a bundle of Yiddish newspapers, which she
was peddling out at a penny apiece at 1 1 o'clock at night. When
she was interrogated, she informed us that her name was L  ;
she went to school until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and then
immediately, after getting a crust of bread and a glass of tea,
went out to sell papers. When asked how long she remained
out, she said Until all her papers were sold. And at 11 o'clock
at night she had 25 yet undisposed of. We bought her papers
and sent her home. I forgot to say that she informed us that
her mother was with her, and that she was compelled to employ
all her time not spent at school in selling newspapers in order
to realize a few pennies to support the family. When she left,
I turned to my companion and asked him: "Can you under
stand the inevitable fate that is in store for that poor girl?"
And he sprang up with tears in his eyes, saying: "For God's
sake let us do something to rescue her." I pulled him back.
and I said that is an impulse which is always tugging at my
heart when I come down here, — to devote myself to an indi
vidual case. It appeals to me because I see it before me. But
that is not an isolated case. There are thousands like that in
this district — thousands of children that are denied the most
sacred privilege that God gives to every girl, to grow up to be a
respectable woman, a respectable wife and a respectable mother.
I am not unduly earnest when I speak to my friends, to my
brethren in all parts of this country, that the care of that child's
purity is no more my business because I live in the upper portion
of Manhattan Island than it is the care of a Jew who lives in
Oregon. It is my business — it always has been my business,
whether I live in New York or elsewhere, and what. I claim and
what I preach as the gospel that animates my soul, is that it is
your business, that it is the business of every Jew, if he is entitled
to that honorable name. It is not to be left to those people to
choose where they shall live. They are unable to form a fair
judgment. They are no more qualified to form a fair judgment
as to where they shall locate when they land as foreigners from
Europe than are your children or my children to determine what
is best for them. They must be guided, led until they are strong

40 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
enough educationally to move for themselves. They must be
educated to a better understanding of the conditions that prevail
in the interior of this country, of opportunities offered every
where for men able to work, to lift themselves and their fam
ilies. That is an educational campaign which is proceeding sys^
tematically, tediously and painfully slow in the lower east side
of New York. But there is something more needed than that
in order to ameliorate the conditions which obtain in the Ghetto
and which are continually being augmented by the fact that the
influx from Europe is greater than the efflux from New York.
You understand this, who strive to aid those who wifl move out
of the Ghetto. We must realize that not only are the numbers
increasing, but the tone constantly being lowered. Is that any
concern of yours? Is it less your concern than it is mine? —
when I speak of mine I am speaking as a citizen of New York.
I think not. I have asked that question, looking into the eyes
of Jewish gatherings all over these United States, and I have
never received but one answer: That just as truly as it is the
business of the New York Jew, it is the business of the American
Jew because it is not a local question. It is not at the invitation
of New York they come there. It is not a matter of choice upon
the part of New York that they land there. I will take that
back and explain to you in a moment. But it is due to the fact
that the steamship lines terminate at New York. I said I would
take it back that it wasn't the choice of New York, because
it has been the decision of the charitable Jews of New York
that if this tide must come here, and must be handled by the
American Jews, it must be dealt with as an American proposi
tion; our energies will be weakened if they come at various
sea ports rather than at one; it is better to have them at one
place than to divide our forces all along the Atlantic seaboard.
But I can say to you that if the Jews of New York had set
themselves energetically to the task, we could offer inducements
that would compel the immigration companies to divert the im
migration to Charleston, to Baltimore, to New Orleans, to Bos
ton, to any place on the American coast, and looked at from a
purely financial standpoint, money could not be better invested.

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 41
But they have never argued that feature, but, on the contrary,
have always taken the position that if we must take care of them,
it is better that they come where they can be handled scien
tifically, than to let them be landed on the seaboard indiscrim
inately and receive no particular attention.
Now, in New York a great many charitable institutions exist
and a very few charitable people. (Applause.) And we are
handling problems which impel us to deal with them familiarly;
to -smile when we hear of troubles that are related at a meeting
like this — as obtaining in other communities. When we hear
some one speak of these settlement districts in such and such
a community, or something or another that is established in some
other community, we can not help recalling that not only could
we not say the settlement house, but those among us who are
best informed do not know the location of the many settlement
houses which we have in the city of New York and of the
Jewish charitable institutions, so numerous are they; and yet
so great are the problems that these many institutions scarcely
make an impression. When I took a visitor through the Edu
cational Alliance building in New York, and told him the aver
age attendance there was 7,000 a day year in and year out, he
was amazed, as almost any one unfamiliar with the situation
would be, that it does not make a greater impression upon the
tone and the civilization that obtain here, and the answer to it is :
That if we had 20 institutions located at proper places in the
lower east side of New York, each a duplicate of the Educational
Alliance, each one would have a like daily attendance, so
stupendous is that problem there. Now to get down to the
practical question to which I wish to address myself; it is this:
What is the solution, what are we going to do? Now, I want
to avoid as much as possible speaking of any matter in which
I must employ the personal pronoun I, which, if I had my way
about it, would be blotted out of all vocabularies, but I am
compelled by circumstances to say that when the Roumanian
persecution drove the first installment of victims to the United
States in the early part of the summer of 1900, the Independent
Order of B'nai B'rith undertook to distribute them in different

42 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
localities in the United States, and thereupon organized a move
ment in conjunction with philanthropic individuals and societies-
located in the city of New York, and up to the first day of
February, 1901, had located in a most desultory and unscien
tific way somewhere between 1,600 and 2,000 people. Now,
you must understand we had no machinery provided for han
dling such a problem. We had nobody who understood how
to handle these people. We did not know whom to employ for
that purpose, because there was no one who had had any expe
rience. The people living in the interior of the United States
did not understand these people nor how to handle them, and,
in the nature of things, mistakes were made and duplicated and
multiplied over and over again, but out of all that turmoil and
confusion and apparent chaos the fact remains that about 60 per
cent, 60 to 66 per cent of those who were moved out were finally
successfully located and became self-supporting in different parts
of the United States. But quite a large percentage of those who
went out did not "stay in the places to which they were sent. They
drifted. If they were sent within 300 or 400 or 500 miles of
Chicago, they had a desire to see Chicago. Most everybody has.
Or if they were anywhere near St. Louis, they wanted to go to
St. Louis, and they wanted to go to Cincinnati in the same
way. The large cities always attract these people, and there
was what we called a drift. Somebody said this morning when
a man gives $5 to this hospital and $5 to that asylum, and $50
to another, every week, that at the end of the year he thinks he
has given away a fortune. He is astonished when you sum up
and find out how little his contribution is. Now I am glad that
was mentioned, because I have found out that if in January
two Roumanians drifted into St. Louis and besieged the relief
committee there for aid, and in February one, and in March
four, and in April another one or two, before the end of the
year, it was firmly believed that all the Roumanians in the
country were being dumped into St. Louis. (Laughter and
applause.) When I was in Chicago last March, I was told by the man
ager of the United Hebrew Charities there that 400 Roumanian

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 43
refugees who were sent out by the New York Committee had
drifted into Chicago, and I said, "Won't you feel more com
fortable if you reduce that?" and he said, "Well, to be certain
I would reduce it to 300." Afterwards, through the courtesy of
Mr. Senior, President of this organization, I saw the figures,
the names of the men tabulated. I do not undertake to be
exact, but I am safe in saying that the number that were sent
there was under 70, and of that list of 70, we could only check
out about 45. There were fewer than 50 who really were sent
by the Committee in New York to various parts of the west and
who drifted to Chicago. Well, the same was true in Baltimore,
and the same was true in Cincinnati, and the same was true
everywhere else. In fact, when you tabulate the drift of Rou
manians that were sent out, we discover that by some miraculous
process these Roumanian refugees had been able to multiply
themselves. Well, our figures showed 60 per cent remained
where they were, and the other 40 per cent had multiplied them
selves into 200 per cent of the whole number. I refer to that
because it presents a grave practical problem. What are you
going to do about it? After experiences which we profited by,
we reorganized our affairs and our statistics from the first of
February will show that in our removal work 80 per cent of
those who were sent out remained where we had sent them and
are self-sustaining and prosperous. We sent out the heads of
families. Remember, we never sent anybody to any community
without the consent of that community. That is an inflexible
rule, but when the head of a family who has gone forth as the
pioneer, can get a certificate from the local charitable organiza
tion or from the B'nai B'rith Lodge, if there be one, or any other
lodge, that he is able to take care of his family, his family is
sent to him. Those are what we call reunion cases. And our
reunion record confirms beyond any peradventure, the absolute
success of this movement. Now, when that movement had been
demonstrated as a success, it was suggested that possibly in
removal work we could solve the Ghetto problem. We could give
the children of those people, herded like cattle, the opportunity
to breathe fresh air, to get proper surroundings and proper

44 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
educational facilities, to take their places in the rank of Ameri
can boys and American girls and become worthy American
citizens ; we urged them to take advantage of the different por
tions of the United States, and there we had, as we have now,
untold obstacles to overcome; and we have gone forth to make
a propaganda among the Jews, to impress upon them the duty,
nay, more than that, the privilege of taking part in this great
historical movement. Stamp your individuality upon it so that
your children and children's children may say that there was a
time when the exodus was repeated, when the exodus from
Spain was repeated, when the Jews moved from Southeastern
Europe to the United States, and my father or my grandfather
was one of the active spirits in that movement, opening his arms
to those refugees, furnishing them with the beginnings of a
career and enabling their children to become worthy citizens,
whose descendants are now the leaders of Jewish life in the
United States. Can you appreciate that? Let me tell you some
thing which brought it to my mind more forcibly : At an early
stage of the movement I instructed my secretary to take an
ordinary railroad folder, a map of the United States, and mark
with a blue pencil the points to which the Roumanian refugees
had been sent, so that he might have it as a guide for the work,
and I mentioned it casually one day to the Superintendent of
the Educational Alliance, a Russian, Dr. Blaustein, and he said,
"Let me have that. That little worthless railroad folder will
become of priceless value when the Roumanian has become a
fixed fact in American civilization. It will be a precious souve
nir to their descendants to show how' they were first introduced
into the interior of the United States and where they first lo
cated." Now, I do not appreciate his enthusiasm about the
historical value of that little map, but I do say, without respect
to any special feature of the work, that the work itself is of
great historical significance ; it appeals to your emotion ; it should
appeal to your judgment, and if it does not, it is not the fault of
the situation, it is your fault. It would indicate to my mind,
and I think it would to the mind of any one of you who is capable
of passing upon the subject, that you engaged in charity work

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 45
which you are doing for pleasure. Now, there is a great deal
of pleasure in charity work. There is a delightful emotion when
we do somebody a kindness, and I have observed in myself and
in others, too, that we always like to do a kindness to some
body who needs it least. I know when I go down into the
Ghetto and I see a group of children, my inclination is to do
something for the prettiest child in the group. If you find in a
group of men one that looks the most respectable, who is the best
dressed, who appeals to you because he has an intelligent face,
he is the man that is most likely to arouse your first impulse
to aid, but if he is uncomely, if he is untidy and malodorous,
why, you turn from him with loathing and disgust; and yet if
you are animated by the true spirit of charity,- you ought to
reflect that the one from whom you turn in loathing and dis
gust is the one that is most entitled to your assistance. The
other man can get along himself. (Applause.) To do true
charity work is to make sacrifice. What values it to sit down in
your comfortable office and write a check and flutter it out, to
avoid coming in contact with those cases because it may soil
your gloves; to deal with them with tongs, to write magazine
theses on charity work — beautiful specimens of literature such
as I have heard and seen time and time again, and possessing
great merit? It endures forever, because it is not subjected to
wear and tear. But if you want to do effective charity work
you must soil your hands. You must come into contact with
things that are loathsome and repulsive, and feel you are giving
of your own comfort and happiness in order to secure comfort "
and well-being to others. I have always said it is no holiday
business. It is not a holiday jaunt. It means trouble. It
means a tax on your patience. It means you are going to be
betrayed. It means you are going to be the subject of ingrati
tude and treachery and a thousand other things that will make
you recoil because you must not expect these people to be
perfect specimens of humanity. Why should you? Are those
who have lived with you in your own community, are they per
fect, are they all sensible, are they all truthful, are they all up
right, are they all courteous, are they all loyal? and you will

46 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
answer no, a thousand times no, and if that be true of the aver
age of any community, how should you expect these poor,
persecuted refugees who come over here should measure up to a
loftier standard than that which you apply to your own people?
Now I want you to reflect on that because that is of great
weight, not because it comes from me, but because it will help
you in your work. You will observe, in dealing with the pre
judices of our Gentile friends towards" the Jews, they always
insist upon comparing the average Jew with the best Christian.
And, of course, that is manifestly unfair. And the American
Jew compares the Russian and Roumanian Jew with the best
American Jew. But if you compare averages, I think you will
find the scale will not tip much one way or the other. (Ap
plause.) I heard this morning a question put to one of the
distinguished delegates of this conference: How can we bridge
the chasm between the Russian and the German Jew? How
can we get rid of the prejudices which exist on both sides ? And
I was delighted when I heard the interrogation coupled with
the statement of the prejudices which exist on both sides, and
I was pained to hear a reply made which would indicate that
the prejudice only existed on one side, and that it was well
grounded. I have had to deal with that problem and to study
it, and I have found that the closer I got into it, the nearer I
got to the fact that the prejudices on the part of the Russian
Jew towards the American and the German Jew are absolutely
well founded from his viewpoint. And that the prejudice of the
American and the German Jew against the Russian and the
Galician and the Roumanian Jew is absolutely well founded from
the viewpoint of the American and the German Jew. But I
have always found that both viewpoints are wrong, and that if
those who settle the question will take a broad view of it, will
separate themselves from prejudices, and look at the underlying
facts, they will find there is a misunderstanding which should be
removed ; that the Russian should not be driven to the loss of
self-respect by the arrogant assumption of superiority on the
part of the German or the American Jew. Right there is per
haps the main root of the evil. These people will not tell you

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 47
so to your face, but they understand your arrogance, and they
will have nothing to do with you as long as you assume to
patronize them from the standpoint of superiority. They do
not recognize your superiority, and I do not blame them. On
the other hand, they do not participate in our charities to the
extent you think they ought, and you censure them. I think
they ought to participate more than they do. I think that also
of the American and the German Jew. I want to make this ob
servation as applicable to New York — I do not know whether it
applies to St. Louis. I will say it is applicable to New York, and
I will call your attention to the proof of the truth of it. The
Jewish population of New York may be divided into three parts
Russian and the allied races to one part of the American and
the German Jew. That is to say, 350,000 to 120,000, or in that
proportion, three to one. And I will say this, that of the 350,000
or 300,000 of Russian, Galician and Roumanian Jews in New
York, there are fewer who are able to contribute to organized
charities, yet do not, than there are among the 120,000 German
and American Jews who are able to do it and do not. I know
that between 5,000 and 6,000 names is the largest we can muster
as contributors to organized charities in the great city of New
York. How is it with other large cities? Take the lists and
compare them with the lists of the American and German Jews,
and ask yourself whether it is not proper to sweep a little before
our own doors before we comment upon the accumulated dirt
before the doors of our neighbors. We must deal with this
question in a catholic spirit. We must remember a man can
not get to the top unless he climbs from the bottom. We must
remember those who came to this country 50 years ago had to
climb from the bottom to the top, and we ought to be manly
enough to know there is nothing more cowardly and disgrace
ful than to climb to the top of a wall by a ladder and then kick
the ladder away so that nobody can climb up afterwards. (Ap
plause.) Now, in a great many of the communities great work
has been done. One of those who addressed you a few minutes
ago, a representative from Pittsburg, himself a Roumanian, has
successfully taken hold of the work in Pittsburg under the lead-

48 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
ership of Mr. Rosenbaum, the President of the B'nai B'rith
district No. 3, of which Philadelphia is the capital city, who is
here, and I hope he will have occasion to tell you from the stand
point of the American native Jew something about co-operation
in this work of establishing refugees in different parts of the
country. We have other friends who have done so. But we
have some natives to deal with that are as ignorant, apparently,
as the most benighted Jew that ever lived in Southeastern Eu
rope, whose horizon is the limited local community; who do not
understand that beyond the hilltops which limit their view there
are other people ; who can be uplifted to a realization of the fact
that the Jewish question is a question pertaining to all the Jews ;
that the concern of all the Jews is the concern of each Jew, and
the concern of each Jew is the concern of all Jews. They will tell
you, whenever a propaganda is sought to be made among them,
that they have their local troubles, and as soon as they do their
part with those who are immediately with them, they perform
their full duty, and I say they do not know what trouble is. I
called the attention of my friends from New York before we
left New York to this: When you come out to Detroit and
meet the representatives from the west and south and listen to
the recital of their so-called troubles, you will, find they have no
trouble. It reminds me, when I heard the recital from Kansas
City this morning, of the bright side work in a certain Sabbath
School where some young teacher conceived the idea of putting
herself in communication with the managers of the hospitals of
New York to ascertain the wants of patients and on Sunday
morning she came before the assembled children and she said:
"Here is a little child with curvature of the spine; she broke
her doll the other day and she wants a new doll with blue eyes
and black hair — now who will furnish that?" And immediately
there was an array of little hands raised up. Every little girl
in the Sunday school wanted to furnish that doll. Well, there
is a little boy in another hospital who wants a ball. And there,
again, the little hands go, and everybody wants to furnish the
ball. Of course, only one can do so ; and it seems as if the rest
did not meet with the favor of the teacher, and their eyes filled

ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 49
with tears, and they go home very much disappointed, because
there was not enough trouble to go around. Now, let me say
to you, my friends, in the communities where there is not enough
trouble to go around, it is your duty to hold up your hands like
those children, and to clamor for your share. And there is plenty
of it to go around if it is properly distributed. And the work
that I and my friends are engaged in is to bring about a proper
distribution that you shall understand that that condition which
prevails there in New York is not our problem. It is your prob
lem. It is the problem of all of us. It is your burden as it is
our burden; and that you can not get rid of your responsibility
simply because you do not see it, or because you live a thousand
miles away from it. Be manly and womanly, and face the situa
tion, and when you realize your duty either you will perform
it, or not perform it, but do not indulge in sophistries and fal
lacies, and say it is no concern of yours. Now, I do not want
to be invidious ; I do not want to mention names, but I do wish
to say there are communities in these United States that have
insisted repeatedly that we of New York are trying to unload
our troubles on other communities, and that they were not going
to be used as a dumping-ground for the poverty-stricken Jews
of New York. Now, let me tell you how much proof there is
to any such accusation. I have already told you they are com
ing to New York at the rate of 50,000 a year. Our scheme of
removal involves the removing of 2,400 a year, so you can see
how much disposed we are to unload our burden upon the coun
try. We are very much concerned in not creating a congestion
elsewhere. We are very much concerned in properly distribut
ing these people; we are very much concerned in looking after
their welfare after they go beyond the confines of New York,
so much so that we will never send to any community without
its consent, and we are not urging communities to take more than
they can properly care for. On the contrary, time and time
again, when small towns have said we will take care of ten, or
any particular number, our experience shows and we have told
them you can not stand up under such a burden as that. Take
a smaller number first. Our problem is an old problem. We

50 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
think we are broad enough to grasp it ; we are- trying to teach
the breadth and depth of that problem to the Jews in other parts
of the United States, and it is unfair to themselves and to us to
belittle it with a discussion of little details — the consideration of
little trifles and little mistakes made in the movement. Mistakes,
of course! You could not conduct a big business without mak
ing mistakes. You could not conduct a great enterprise like
this without mistakes. And when you reflect that the people
who are engaged in this work are without the hope of any kind
of reward, you ought not to be unforgiving towards their errors,
even though you be infallible yourself. (Long continued ap
plause.)

UNION AMONG JEWS.
Oration delivered by Brother Leo N. Levi, President of
Executive Committee, I. O. B. B., at the celebration of the fiftieth
anniversary of District Grand Lodge No. i, I. O. B. B., Sunday,
March 8th, 1903, at Temple Beth-el.
Brethren and Friends:
The celebration in which we are engaged is not merely a
festive occasion. We are not assembled chiefly for pleasurable
entertainment. We have been called together to review what we
have done and have left undone; to take an account of what
we are doing and leaving undone and to make a budget, as it
were, of what the future holds for us to do. In such delibera-
1
tions we hold no secret conclaves. We present our history with
all its successes and its failure to the public; and along with it
we set forth the scope and plan of our future activities. It is an
appropriate time to reconsider first principles, however well they,
may seem to be settled ; to answer any challenge which the world
can make to us, and in turn to issue our own challenge to the
world. One of the features of this jubilee is a history of District
No. 1, prepared by brethren identified with it from the beginning,
and who can acquaint us from their own recollections with the
spirit in which the District was formed. I shall not enter the
field which they have so well covered, except to pluck here and
there a sheaf from the harvests they have gathered.
From that history we learn that after the Independent Order
of B'nai B'rith had been in successful existence for some years,
it was found expedient, for purposes of practical administration,
to create territorial districts in which it might operate with a
due regard to local considerations. The First and Second Dis
tricts were simultaneously established in 185 1. Since then five
other districts in the United States and three in Europe have
Si

52 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
been established. None which was created has ceased to exist
While the first and second districts were officially born at the
same time, District No. i has always been looked upon as the
Mother District. The Order had its genesis and first growth
in the City of New York. Thence it spread to the various Jewish
communities in the United States and Canada. When it covered
so large a territory that government could not be effectively
administered from New York, the first subdivision took place
and District No. i assumed the same relation to the rest
of the country that Virginia bore to the states which were
carved out of her vast domain.
When in the course of time the present Constitution was
adopted for the Order at large, it was modeled after the organic
law of the United States, the Districts^ being the analogue of
the States, and the Constitution Grand Lodge represented by its
Executive Committee, being the analogue of the Federal Gov
ernment. The seat of the Constitution Grand Lodge has always
been in New York City, where the Order had its birth. The
first President of the Executive Committee was chosen from
District No. I, and he continued to serve until his years and
physical infirmities compelled him to resign the burdens of his
office. Even then, the Order was unwilling to part with his
services. An office was created in which, like another Nestor, he
could enrich our councils with his wisdom.
Without adducing further testimony, I shall ask you to con
clude with me, that the relations between District No. I and the
entire Order have been so interwoven that it is impossible to
speak of the one without the other. This celebration, therefore,
while in a sense local to this District, is in a broader sense a
celebration of and by the Order. This District has been the
pioneer in the great movements which, for good and for evil,
have marked the history of our organization. It does not claim
unmerited honors or shrink from grave responsibilities. Those
who have formed its rank and file for fifty years and more have
labored earnestly in a great cause. They have won many vic
tories and suffered some defeats. They are not more proud of
the former than sorrowful for the latter. What they have done

UNION AMONG JEWS. 53
and what they have left undone is all set down, to be read by
those who follow them. They do not demand praise or resent
criticism, but they ask that criticism shall be constructive and
not destructive ; that it shall be offered in order to build up and
not to tear down. This at least is their due, unless, indeed, they
have builded from the beginning on a false foundation or have
unwisely continued the organization after the reason for its ex
istence had ceased. To these considerations we may address
ourselves with profit to-day, as if the world had challenged us
again to justify the establishment of our organization when it
was formed, or its continued existence.
Shortly before the middle of the nineteenth century, the
Jewish colony in the City of New York had grown to consider
able proportions, but it lacked cohesion. It was composed of
elements which, if not altogether discordant, were at least not
homogenous. It embraced the Sephardim or Portuguese Jews
who held themselves aloof from and superior to all others;
English Jews who were insular in their ideas; German Jews
who resented the arrogance of the Sephardim, but who them
selves arrogated superiority over the Poles, and lastly, the Polish
Jews, who sneered at the assumptions of the Portuguese, Eng
lish and German Jews. It embraced some men of culture in the
broadest sense, others of great scholarship in a limited and
Jewish sense only, and still a greater number of the ignorant
and unrefined. In the colony were some who were animated
by a lofty but liberal religious spirit, others who were fanatically
pious, and still others who were in every way irreligious. These
are but some of the differences which operated against harmon
ious co-operation. Small groups were formed, based in each
instance upon something common to the members thereof, and
these groups were jealous of and in a measure hostile towards
one another. Despite these differences, each Jew was at some
time or another reminded that over and above them existed the
community of sentiment and interest which inevitably obtains
among all classes of Jews. .The Jews are and ever have been
a peculiar people. If they ever forget it for a moment, the world
rudely reminds them of it. Men may differ as to the underlying

54 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
causes, but not as to the fact itself. It may be because God chose
the Jews as a Nation of Priests; it may be because they are
narrow minded and arrogant; it may be because the world
hates and persecutes them; at all events they are and ever have
been a distinct portion of the human family. This fact may
be unfortunate, deplorable and even blame-worthy, but it is a
fact. If it be desirable to overcome it, the method has not yet
been discovered. The Jews will not surrender their religion,
and so long as they cling to it, they must face a hostile world.
This hostility takes little, if any, account of individuals. It
is directed not alone against the ignorant, the degraded, the
fanatical, the uncultured and the avaricious; it does not except
the educated, the lofty, the liberal, the refined and the philan
thropic. It disregards all these distinctions and makes of all
Jews one target. At times in some countries this hostility slum
bers and apparently dies, but it is never universally quiescent. It
is always to be found somewhere, and wherever it has seemingly
been allayed, there has from time to time been a recrudescence.
From some quarter at all times, and from all quarters at some
times, it arises like an engulfing flood. And so through the bit
ter centuries the Jews have learned the fraternity which comss
from a common peril.
Each Jew carries the burden imposed upon him by the un
friendliness of the world at large. The superior Jew staggers
under an additional load. He carries the infirmities of his inferior
brethren. He must be not only thrice better than a Gentile to be
as good, he must also uplift all other Jews lest they drag him
down. If he be learned he must impart his learning to the igno
rant; if he be strong he must uphold the weak; if he be rich
he must aid the poor; if he be brave he must inspirit the timid.
Each is responsible for all and all for each. It is a terrible handi
cap, perhaps a grossly unjust one, but in the race of life it has
been so established and so it remains. It may be a blessing rather
than a curse. Perhaps to the necessities which beset the Jew
are due his best qualities.
Until the nineteenth century the Jewish religion was alone
sufficient to insure among Jews in particular localities, cohesion

UNION AMONG JEWS. 55
and harmony. Beyond these localities such cohesion and har
mony were not deemed necessary, nor were they feasible. Com
munication and travel were so difficult that anything beyond
local organization was not to be considered. With the nineteenth
century, two new factors of controlling importance entered into
the history of the Jews.
The steam engine and the telegraph wire brought the Jews of
different countries into close touch. They were no longer stran
gers. The Jewish community which in former generations did
not extend beyond the confines of a city or a province, widened
out so as to embrace continents. The other new factor was the
birth of what has come to be called Reformed Judaism. When
the Rabbis began to dispute with acrimony about Judaism, the
laymen threw off the controlling influence not only of the Rabbis,
but of Judaism also. Over night, as it were, it was found that
the Jews of the world formed a single community, and that the
traditional bond which united them was being cut, untied or
worn away.
In New York City, at the period to which I refer, these fac
tors were most strongly in evidence. Facilities of travel had
brought here Jews from all parts of the world. They brought
with them different customs, habits of thought, phases of religious
belief, intellectual acquirements and inherited prejudices. Each
group sought to dominate the others, controversies arose, and
not only disintegration but destruction was threatened. But
above the din and confusion arose one clear note that has sounded
throughout the ages. "Though some of you be rich and others
poor, some intelligent and others ignorant, some refined and
others uncultivated, some pious and others irreligious, some nig
gard and others generous; though ye speak different tongues,
worship according to different rituals and have different habits,
yet have ye a common ancestry, a common religion, a common
history, a common peril and a common destiny, for ye are all
Jews." Upon this community it was possible — nay necessary to
build.— The dead must be buried, the sick nursed, the poor aided,

56 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
the widow comforted, the orphan reared, the ignorant educated,
the debased uplifted, the weak protected, and the welfare of all
safeguarded from the assaults to which then, as always, it was
subject. Therefore wisdom dictated that all points of cleavage
be eliminated and an effective union established upon a platform
acceptable to all. Towards this end leading minds groped at
first and later advanced with rapid strides. Great institutions are
not created ; they grow.
A few men organized on the lines just indicated. They
themselves did not grasp the importance of their work. They
builded better than they knew. In the first Constitution of the
Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, the central thought was that
of a Union of the Sons of the Covenant. All other ideas were
to be subordinated to the importance of Union. Its scope was
limited to this country, and its main purpose as stated, to secure
"a dignified representation of the Israelites of America in a re
ligious and social point of view and the elevation of the masses
in a moral and intellectual direction."
The first Constitution discloses that its authors were not alto
gether at home in the English language and that their thoughts
had not yet been clarified by experience and discussion. But it
is manifest that they had a great ideal and that they succeeded in
communicating it to others. The success of the organization
was pronounced and immediate.
It was the first effort in the history of the Jews to organize
(hem as such, on lines not exclusively religious or local. In its
success the Jews discovered themselves in a new light. They
found that their weakness could be changed into strength and
that the best elements among them could be employed to improve
the tone of the worst.
After the lapse of some years experience suggested many
improvements in administrative methods, and a clearer, broader
and more definite declaration of principles. The present Consti
tution was the result. Its author, Julius Bien, the present Chan
cellor of Foreign Affairs, grasped and expressed the genius of the
Order. What was originally a nebulous union of only local im
portance, he made a well defined organization to operate through-

UNION AMONG JEWS. 57
out the world. The preamble cannot be too often repeated. As a
declaration of principles it is comprehensively perfect.
"The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith has taken upon itself
the mission of uniting Israelites in the work of promoting their
highest interests and those of humanity; of developing, elevating
and defending the mental and moral character of our race, of
inculcating the purest principles of philanthropy, honor and pa
triotism ; of supporting science and art ; alleviating the wants of
the poor and needy; visiting and attending the sick; coming to
the rescue of victims of persecution; providing for, protecting
and assisting the widow and orphan on the broadest principles of
humanity." That the union of Jews on this platform was justified, desir
able and even necessary, requires no further argument, except to
those who in some shadowy way, oppose all distinctions among
men on account of religion, race, color or nationality. With such,
discussion is futile. They are wedded to the conviction that there
should be no organizations which recognize any distinctions what
soever. To them even patriotism, if they be logical, is narrow and
inhumane. They believe that the brotherhood of man makes a
brotherhood of Jews indefensible, forgetful that the same faith
would place a blood brother on an equality with an utter stranger.
If, however, the wisdom of forming this Union requires evidence,
as well as argument to support it, that evidence is supplied by
the history of our Order and of this District. Read that history
and learn of the results accomplished in works of benevolence,
local, national and international. Read of our Home for the
Aged — of our Maimonides Free Library — of our Benevolent
Funds — of our aid in the erection and conduct of eleemosynary
institutions — of our efforts in the cause of education — of our
share in securing treaty rights for our oppressed co-religionists
in Roumania — of our part in the Centennial celebration of the
nation, and many other potent expressions of our activity. " But
far greater than these achievements has been the influence ex
erted in the lodge room by those whose good influence was
needed by others. Our organization has brought into contact
those who were able to help, and those who needed help. It

58 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
brought about association and affiliation under circumstances
which repressed the evil and exalted the good in human nature.
Unceasingly it has made for the good and spiritual and has
made against the sordid and material. It served to develop in
telligence and character and aided in the discovery of trustworthy
leaders. To those qualified to lead it has offered a following and
an opportunity. No one who reads our history can resist the
conclusion that but for our organization the status of the Jew
would in all respects, be lower than it is.
In claiming so much, we are not unmindful of the errors that
we have made. It is frankly admitted that we have not always
pursued the wisest course. Most notable among these errors
was the endowment plan, under which life insurance benefits
were provided for members. This plan proved unwise in two
aspects. In the first place it was faulty as a financial measure,
and secondly it was a departure from the true purpose of the
association. It undoubtedly distracted the attention of the mem
bers and estranged miany desirable persons whose affiliation
would have been otherwise secured. It is easier to confess the
error, because we have survived and corrected it. After many
years of painful effort, and more painful endurance, we are emerg
ing from an evil which well nigh worked our destruction. Noth
ing could better evidence the real merit and vitality of our Organ
ization, than its survival of the Endowment folly. Happily we
may speak of it as a disease which has spent its course and from
which we are convalescent.
It remains to answer the challenge to our continued exist
ence. It has been urged that conditions have so altered since
our birth, that we have no warrant to persevere. This superficial ,
criticism has lost even its apparent force during the past few
years. But a short while back and especially in New York, it
was said that our charities are being satisfactorily conducted
by separate societies having special aims; "our community is so
large that groups are necessary and any comprehensive union
undesirable; anti-semitism is dying out; the American Jew has
no problems except such as are local ; the influence of the lodge-
room is no longer required or beneficial — in short, there is noth-

UNION AMONG JEWS. 59
ing to be done, your mission is ended and you should pass out of
existence." Since then the Dreyfus agitation in France has dem
onstrated that anti-semitism is likely to break out at any time and
place and that when it finds the Jews without organization their
plight is pitiful indeed. Since then the refugees from Russia,
Galicia and Roumania have raised the Jewish question to com
manding importance. Since then it has dawned on the world
that we are witnessing another exodus which promises to soon
change the habitat of the Jews to the Western Hemisphere.
Since then we have come to understand that in New York City
there have come and remained -more Jews than have been together
at any one time and place, since the destruction of Jerusalem.
Since then we have seen disasters working ruin to whole com
munities of Jews. Since then we have found it necessary to fight
persecution in Europe and to relieve its victims here. Since then
we have been busy finding homes throughout the world for Jews
driven from Eastern Europe. Since then we are beset by an in
crease of the poor, of the widowed, of the orphaned and of the
sick — and here in New York especially we have learned that these
are not problems of merely local concern. The conditions which
have congested the Jewish population of New York, and the con
ditions resulting therefrom, touch the life, happiness and destiny
of the Jews throughout the world. The tragedy of the Jew is
again to the fore, and he must realize that, under the favor of
1 Heaven, he must rely upon himself to avert or ameliorate its hor
rors. To do this, individuals or isolated groups are powerless.
There must be co-operation among all Jews. In short, to be
strong we must be united.
When crises arise it is too late to organize. Organization
must be prepared in advance. No one has ever claimed perfec
tion for our Order as an agency for solving practical problems,
but at all events it has come to be recognized as the best we have.
It was the first widespread Jewish organization ; it has endured ;
it has noble traditions and a great history; it is established
throughout the world ; it was and is available. Hence the critics
were silenced ; the rusty hinges were oiled ; the broken places re
paired, and the machinery so long inactive, because not in de-

6o LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
mand, began the task which, except by organized effort, was
unsurmountable. Let facts — facts yet so fresh that they have scarcely become
history — seal the warrant for our existence. How fairly they
stand forth to witness for us. The list is too long to be fully
told. A few must suffice. Let the hundreds of Jewish families
who were given a new start in life after the Galveston flood tes
tify for us. Call the many thousand Roumanian Refugees who
have been established in this blessed land, to give testimony.
Let the protest of our Government against the persecution of the
Jews in Europe be read in evidence. Let the awakening among
our brethren in the so-called "Ghetto" silence the last doubt.
But, say the critics, if your achievements be recognized and
your purposes appreciated, yet must you be condemned as a secret
body, indulging in the nonsense of a ritual of ceremony. Good
purposes shun not the light of day and symbols are relics of a
' barbarous age. So long as these are retained the best exemplars
of the Jews will not join your Union.
To these a simple answer is at hand. Our organization is
not a union of men already perfect. It is not an end itself, but
only the means to an end. It seeks rather than expresses the
ideal. It is a practical device to make men better, not a mere
agency for exhibiting men who are in need of no improvement.
It is not an aristocracy of brains or virtue. It is essentially dem
ocratic. It unites all classes to the end that the good may improve
the evil and the best the good. Being so designed, it cannot be
fashioned or conducted to suit the views of the few. It must be
adapted to its purposes and to its constituents. Those who moth
ered and nursed it, took counsel from the pages of history. They
learned that laws, regulations and customs, sacred or profane,
if made for those only who stand least in need thereof, will ut
terly fail to reach those who most require them. They knew
that the complete code contained in the Decalogue would have
been cold, meaningless and ineffective, if it had not been fused
into the very life of Israel by the fire of religious ceremonies.
They remembered that when the early Christians builded up a
great religion upon the martyrdom of a Jew, they made it learn-

UNION AMONG JEWS. 6l
able to the heathen, by incorporating even heathen observances
into those of the church.
The theory of government, of religion and of moral education
is simple, but to make them practically vital, the dreamer in the
study must become a student of men, as well as of ideas. Even
if it be conceded that as the world advances, the charm of mys
tery and of symbols will cease, we are yet far from that day. The
strongest organizations today are those which recognize this
charm, and if we reflect deeply, we must recognize that all men
and all nations are within its influence. When Victoria died, Ed
ward became King of England and Emperor of India by lawful
succession. Nothing was required to make his titles good in law
or fact ; yet from all quarters of the globe the richest and wisest
streamed to participate in or witness the pageant of his Corona
tion as King and the solemn proclamation of his accession as
Emperor. Men may smile or sneer at such ceremonies as absurd,
but no practical man of affairs can ignore their importance, so
long as they have a hold upon the masses. While we seek to
make men wiser and better, we must deal with them as they are.
If we refuse to do so, we shall enjoy no opportunities to influ
ence them at all.
And now, when we have answered those who challenge us,
what can they say to the challenge we make to them?
The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith is the first and only
organization of Jews, extending throughout the world, and de
signed to unite all Jews for the purposes set forth in its preamble.
It has passed the experimental stage. It has proved that such
a union is a necessity. It has no rival. Its failure would be a
calamity ; its success has been and is a blessing. It stands full of
courage and hope, confronting vast problems that only union and
organization can grapple with.
Five million Jews in Europe are suffering from poverty and
the denial of equal rights. A million Jews in this country and
the tremendous annual accessions to their numbers must be
guided and welded into an ultimate civilization which shall be
alike adorned by patriotism and the traditional virtues of Israel.
The poor, the widows, the orphans, the sick, the ignorant and

62 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
the downtrodden, must be looked after, congested districts must
be relieved, homes established, evil tendencies checked, virtues
implanted and fostered. In a word, never has the need been
greater to carry the extra weight which now, as ever, is placed
upon the Jew. Ours is an army, organized to war upon sorrow,
ignorance and immorality. The recruits are offered no glittering
rewards. It is a service of love, duty and sacrifice. The offer
we extend is not so much of privilege as responsibility; not so
much of reward as burden. Who feels the blood of his ancestors
beat in harmony with Jewish traditions, who hears in the cry of
sorrow the call to sacrifice, who feels the thrall of duty and can
find exaltation in the humility of self-effacement; who is not
ready to surrender his birthright, rather than defend it ; who has
within him the Jewish spirit which has tired Time and Torture, let
him enlist. Here especially is it needful that our ranks should
grow. Here, and in the near future, will be the storm center of
the Jewish question.
Like a mighty torrent, events are rushing upon us. We
must battle with disease, poverty, immorality, ignorance, crime
and debasement. The prospect is truly appalling. But God
helps those w.ho help themselves. If we bear up bravely, if we
increase the helpers, we shall speedily reduce the number of those
who need help. If we meet problems, instead of flying from
them, we shall master them. Prudence, wisdom, duty — all di
rect our course. As in all ages, the multitude will hang back, but
now as in all ages there will be those who vindicate man as the
image of his Maker.

JUDAISM IN AMERICA.
FBOM JHE
STANDPOINT OF A LAYMAN.
Address of Leo N. Levi, Esq., delivered at the Council of
Union of American Hebrew Congregations, in New Orleans, De
cember 4, 1894.
Mr. President and Gentlemen : — Had I consulted my personal
and private interests only, I should have declined to address you
on this occasion. Even the honor I now enjoy, than which I es
teem none higher, could not have tempted me to make the sacri
fices which my presence involves.
One consideration alone impelled me to set aside personal in
terests and to accept the invitation extended by your president.
I recognized then as I do now, that here would be convened
a body which represents Judaism and the Jews of America. To
those Jews and concerning that Judaism, I have a message which,
humble and modest as it is, I believed and believe it my duty to
deliver. To you as the agents and envoys of your constituents, I
shall entrust it, in the hope that when it shall have reached its des
tination it will at least quicken thought upon a subject of the
gravest moment.
When I reflect upon the purposes of this organization and the
effective and enduring character of its work I am impressed with
the propriety of discussing in its councils whatever touches nearly
the destiny of our ancient religion. You who have busied your
selves with equipping teachers in Israel, will not deem it beyond
your province to consider what is being and what should be
taught to and by those teachers.
From every Jewish pulpit we are wont to hear our shortcom
ings and sins inquired into and condemned. Our want of piety
and virtue is rebuked and we are asked by our spiritual advisers
. 63

64 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
to make our practices consistent with the faith we profess. From
their exalted positions the Rabbis in turn lead and drive us, with
appeals and denunciations, and we hearken and heed or remain
obdurate, as the case may be, with never an opportunity to say
one word by way of rejoinder.
Today, from this rostrum, in the presence of and in the name
of the laymen of our faith, I venture for once to "talk back."
As children we were taught a simple faith from a simple cat
echism, prepared by those charged with the duty of studying,
knowing and expounding the religion of our fathers. The edu
cation bestowed upon us by our progenitors we in turn must be
stow upon our descendants. We cannot escape the obligation if
we would, we would not if we could. Neither can we escape the
obligation to be honest with our children, and to require their
teachers to be honest with us. It is our duty as it is our privilege
when we have reached man's estate, to catechise those who have
catechised us and who will catechise our children. We are en
titled to know what we are asked to believe and why. We are en
titled to know what our teachers believe and why, and
when we ask we are entitled to replies that even our children can
comprehend, instead of answers that not even we can understand.
When the mocking heathen came to Shammai with his sneer
ing question the irascible sage smote him for his effrontery, but
even to him the gentle Hillel found it proper to teach our faith. If
the mocker could move the great teacher to expound the law to
his comprehension, shall we hesitate to ask with reverence for
light ? If this were an open question the answer would be. ready
and plain, but unfortunately precedents prove that our rights in
this respect are not admitted. If we seek for light we are deemed
presumptuous, and, figuratively at least, meet too often the fate
which the heathen experienced at the hands of Shammai.
Not the least, if not the most, remarkable feature in the intel
lectual development of the nineteenth century, is the disposition
to set aside everything that is ancient in order to make room for
something that is modern. So prevalent is this disposition that
even in mechanical arts and sciences, in which fundamental prin
ciples have been tested until their correctness can no longer be

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 65
questioned, these principles are ruthlessly set aside, by daring in
novators, in order that they may exploit some novelty, with which
to startle the world.
And so it may be said, that while the discoveries and inven
tions of the present era eclipse all those that have preceded it,
nevertheless it is true that worthless novelties are more prevalent
now than at any time past. If we boast, as we well may, of the
remarkable achievements of science with which our age has been
blessed, we must not forget that in every civilized country the
patent offices are packed from cellar to dome with inventions that
are without merit, and that these discarded inventions out-number
those in use in such a vast proportion as to afford food for serious
reflection. It is not, however, with innovations, discoveries and inven
tions, in the material world that I have to deal in the present dis
cussion. I have only referred thereto to show how all-pervasive
is the spirit of discovery, the thirst for novelty and the desire for
innovation during the last half of the nineteenth century.
Outsitle the physical and material sciences the spirit already
adverted to has manifested itself with even greater emphasis. No
doctrine, however time-honored, no law, however well estab
lished, no principle however completely demonstrated, has been
allowed to go unchallenged during the tremendous revolution that
obtains in our times. Perhaps in religion more than in any other
department of human affairs has the revolutionary tendency been
felt. In America especially, with a boldness that is startling, if
not admirable, daring minds have assaulted every tenet of every
religion with a recklessness that suggests that novelty rather than
truth is the goal of their efforts. Even the Jews who have always
been distinguished for conservatism have not escaped the preva
lent tendency. In all ages the Jews have been noted for rising
superior to the errors of their time, and preserving in their purity
the laws, doctrines and practices of their ancient faith. Their
philosophy, founded as it is upon their religion, has withstood
with varying firmness, but with uniform ultimate success, the as
saults made upon it during the ages by every system of adverse
philosophy, skepticism or unbelief. Even in the present era, the

66 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
vast majority of contemporary Jews are moving serenely onward,
unaffected so far as their religion and philosophy are concerned,
by the storms that rage around them. But in America and notably
in the United States a large number of more or less enlightened
Jews have surrendered themselves to the reckless and intoxicat
ing thirst for novelty, and have laid rude hands upon everything
and anything that offered an opportunity for exploitation. What
ever is ancient is by them considered banal, and therefore re
garded as beneath the dignity of an age that riots in the drunk
enness of the present, without respect for the past or the future.
The movement in which these Jews are and have been en
gaged is not factive, but altogether destructive. It does not build
up, but tears down. Moreover, its destructive processes are with
out any rule or system, apparently having no other object than to
destroy. And when the destruction is complete, there does not
arise upon the ruins of what has been destroyed any new struc
ture brought about by any process, either natural or factitious,
but on the contrary the destroyers reveling amidst the ruins they
have made, challenge the amazement and demand the admiration
of those who have witnessed their performance by pointing to
the destruction that they have wrought. They seem to thirst for
a celebrity that to most men would be odious, and might well ex
claim that, "The aspiring youth who fired the Ephesan dome out
lives in fame the pious fool who reared it."
It must not be understood, however, from the foregoing re
marks that I undervalue the achievements of this century or the
spirit which made them possible. Considered within its proper
limits, the ambitious spirit of the nineteenth century must always
remain to pale the past and light the future. It has advanced civ
ilization more in a single generation than was its progress for
centuries before. It has uncovered many falsehoods and de
stroyed them to make room for truths. It has engendered the
spirit of toleration and the recognition of human liberty, for
which we can never be too grateful. It is not with the true spirit
of reform that any rational man can find fault, for the progress of
civilization from the earliest time to the present received its im
pulse from reform ideas. But there is reform, and reform. There

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 67
is reform and there is revolution. There always travels side by
side with true reform a lawless spirit of wanton destructiveness
just as marauding parties accompany a regular army.
Recurring to the Jews in America, and their participation in
modern progress and modern methods, it is my purpose to con
sider the effect of it, especially upon the Jewish religion. From
the earliest times there have existed differences of opinion among
learned and pious Jews in respect of religious matters. The re
ligious literature of the Jews could scarcely have arisen but for
such differences of opinion. Certainly no one who is familiar
with the history of the Jews and the Jewish religion could, for
one moment, question the recognized right of individual judg
ment. It is well, however, to ascertain the nature of the differ
ences which have obtained from time to time among the Jews,
how they arose, by what standard they were tested, and how they
were disposed of. These differences may be divided for con
venience into three classes.
First — Differences as to the true interpretation of portions of
the Pentateuch.
in respect of these it may be said that learned and pious men,
recognizing the divine source and authority of the five books of
Moses as containing the law, differed as to the meaning of; certain
passages found in the law. By some the narrative, portion, pf. the
Pentateuch was construed literally, by others; figuratively. ,Sq,
with ordinances contained in the Torah. But in all such easels
and in respect of all such differences it may be said, without fear
of contention, that the Pentateuch itself was referred to as the
basis of discussion, it being recognized by all the disputants as the
obligatory and God-given law.
Second — There were differences, and always have been, as to
the binding force of traditional doctrines and practices not direct
ly enjoined in the scriptures themselves. These doctrines and
practices arose from interpretations of the scriptures by learned
and pious men, and were frequently, if not generally, promul
gated by reason of some local circumstance or environment. As
to the continued and binding force of such doctrines and prac
tices, there have always been differences of opinion, and these

68 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
opinions have been tested by reference to the Pentateuch itself,
which, in all such discussions, has been regarded as the binding
and God-given law.
Third — There have always been differences of opiriion rela
tive to changes in liturges and ceremonies, brought about by al
tered conditions, due to the progress of civilization. Much acri
mony has been developed by such differences; learned disquisi
tions have been made in consequence thereof, but the differences
have always been considered in the light of the Torah, and the
discussion has been whether they were in consonance with or op
position thereto. To anyone, therefore, who studies Judaism, the
conclusion is inevitable that considered as a practical religion
there is no rigidity about it. It is eminently a flexible and con
forming religion insofar as it affects the habits of the people and
their rites, ceremonies and practices. It has for its primal object
the harmony between man and God, and between man and his fel
low-men, and it has adjusted itself throughout all the ages by
slow and logical processes, to every environment in which it found
itself situated. But in so doing it must always be remembered
that it did not lose sight of its fundamental and cardinal doctrines
and practices.
The differences to which I have referred, all and always arose
in reference to matters not affecting the integrity of the Penta
teuch or its authority as determining the essentials and criteria of
Judaism. When I say this, however, I am not unmindful of the
fact that throughout the history of the Jews there have arisen
Jews by race who have assaulted Judaism itself. In almost every
age there have arisen men born of Jewish parents who, contam
inated by neighboring tribes or other religions, or imbued with a
skeptical spirit, have made war upon the fundamental and essen
tial doctrines and practices of Judaism. But in every such in
stance they were regarded and treated as foes of Judaism, and
there arose champions of the ancient faith to do battle with the
enemy, and in every instance those who sought to overthrow it
were vanquished.
Aaron was a priest in Israel. He was a brother of Israel's
greatets law-giver and prophet, and in the performance of his

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 69
priestly functions, for the worship of the Jews, set up a golden
calf. This, however, was not Judaism, and when Moses returned
from his visit to Sinai, he overcame the idolatrous tendency and
restored pure Monotheism as the cardinal underlying principle of
the Jewish religion.
In the histories of Hezekhiah, Josiah, Elijah, Isaiah, Zacha-
riah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Malachi, and a host of other kings and
prophets, of Israel, we may find multiplied instances of similar
nature. In all of them the integrity of Judaism was endangered
by descendants Qf Israel, whose efforts were frustrated by Jews,
who not only inherited the blood, but also the faith of their fath
ers, and who were ever ready to shed the former to preserve the
latter. Such precedents may serve as a warning against, but
never a,s a warrant for, their repetition.
From what has preceded, we may safely apply to any de
parture from what is time honored and traditional in Judaism, the
following tests :
1. Does the innovation proposed involve an assault upon the
integrity and binding force of the Torah? or,
2. Is it simply a reform in some matters of ritual or cere
mony not directly commanded in the Torah? or,
3. Is it merely a criticism of some interpretation of the scrip
tures, which the critic deems to be inaccurate ? and in this connec
tion, does the criticism proceed within the scriptures or is it
launched at them from without? In other words, is it a matter
affecting the meaning of the law, without impairing its validity ?
If the innovation belong to either of the last two, it must be
regarded as a matter of opinion, within the pale of Judaism, war
ranted by the progress of Judaism in the past; and even though
differences engendered by such innovation may remain irreconcil
able among the Jews, yet they cannot be regarded as inconsistent
with Judaism. For example, there are Jews who contend, most
earnestly, that the Creator must be worshipped with covered
heads, who deny the right of the sexes to worship together, who
insist that flesh of animals and milk shall not be partaken of at
the same meal, who deem it sinful to write, smoke, cut, ride, sew
or strike a match on the Sabbath day, even if no labor be in-

•JO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
volved. On the other hand there are Jews who take issue with
the former upon all of the contentions just mentioned. Here we
have differences of construction. The hermeneutics of one party
does not reach the same conclusion as the hermeneutics of an
other, but both are agreed that the law is contained in the Penta
teuch ; that when it is understood it is binding, and that it does
not lie within the province of man to overthrow the law or deny
its authority. They both treat it as the courts of the country
treat the acts of the legislature. The several courts or judges
may differ in their interpretation of the legislative enactments,
but they all agree that the enactments are binding as law.
If, however, the innovation consists of an assault upon the
authenticity and binding force of the Pentateuch, Judaism itself
is assailed. There is nothing in the history of Judaism which
would even give color to the suggestion that it denies the right
of individual opinion and the liberty of conscience. Even to those
who are openly at war with Judaism, sincerity is accorded, and it
has never been claimed that a belief in Judaism is an essential of
salvation. In fact, neither Judaism nor the Jews teach that faith
in anything is an essential of salvation. This is purely a Chris
tian doctrine. »
But it is requisite to ascertain the true nature of any innova
tion in order to determine whether it fall within or without Juda
ism ; whether it be a departure from Judaism or not. If it be as
certained to be a departure from Judaism, it does not necessarily
follow that the departure is wrong, or that he who has brought it
about will be doomed. But it does follow that the departure does
not carry Judaism with it, even though it be brought about by
Jews. If this were not so, then the departure from Judaism in
augurated by Christ and extended by his followers would have
carried Judaism with it and rendered the preservation of the an
cient faith illogical and unnecessary. The doctrines and practices
of the Christian religion are upheld and followed and have been
by untold millions of people. The same is true of the doctrines
and practices enjoined by Mohammed, and it may be that Chris
tianity or Mohamedanism is the true religion. It is undoubtedly
true that both were derived from Judaism ; and yet it cannot be

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 71
seriously contended by any thinking mind that either Moham
medanism or Christianity is Judaism. This is so because in each
religion which proceeded from Judaism, a new law was formu
lated that expressly superseded, modified or abrogated the Penta
teuch. Had Christianity or Mohammedanism consisted simply
of an interpretation of the Pentateuch, it might be with reason
contended in favor of each that it is the true Judaism. But no
such claim is made.
To illustrate the distinction which I undertake to make let me
briefly refer to the schisms in the Christian church. The Church
of Rome, the Greek Church and the various Protestant denomina
tions differ widely in their interpretations of both the old and the
new Testaments, but they all agree that the arbiter between them
in their differences is the Bible; hence, they may all with reason
claim to be Christian churches. But if a denomination should
arise, following the ethical parts of the Christian religion, but
nevertheless denying the divinity of Christ and the binding force
of his decrees, no man would be absurd enough to call it Chris
tian. It is equally true that any man or denomination denying
the binding force of the Pentateuch as containing the divine law
is without the pale of Judaism.
In the light of the propositions already laid down, let us con
sider the so-called Jewish reform movement in America. For
convenience we will assume that it has been in existence for half
a century. The first and most striking feature in reference there
to is its want of system. It has been spasmodic, erratic, and alto
gether negative. It has never had a great leader. It has none
now. No one has arisen as a reformer with a defined idea or pol
icy around which gather earnest disciples and followers, but on
the contrary the entire movement is chaotic, sensational and il
logical. It cannot be tested as a whole because it has no unity.
There is no cohesion among those who have projected and pro
pelled it except that cohesion which arises from negation. Each
so-called reformer has been a leader instead of a follower; each
has been a law unto himself ; each has denied any standard ex
cept that formulated by himself ; each has denied the leadership of
all others and has assumed it for himself. The so-called reform

72 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
movement in each congregation differs from that of all others,
and even in a particular congregation the movement takes its
complexion from the minister, who for the time being occupies
the pulpit ; and so it has come to pass repeatedly, when a minister
has died or resigned his position in a congregation, that his suc
cessor has preached a so-called reform Judaism which did not
consist with that which prevailed during the incumbency of his
predecessor. The Judaism of no reform congregation therefore
can be defined by reference to that of any other, and they resem
ble one another chiefly in the fact that they are all differentiated
from so-called orthodox Judaism.
The bewilderment which necessarily arises from the fact that
from each pulpit claiming to be Jewish a different Judaism is
taught, suggests the necessity of testing these various and con
flicting religions by reference to some standard. That standard
must be true Judaism. All of the so-called reformers proclaim
themselves as Jews and that their teachings are true Judaism. All
claim kinship with all other Jews in religious matters. These
claims are more or less disputed and the so-called reformers are
denounced by a vast majority of contemporary Jews, as radical
departers, not only from mere forms and practices, but from the
essentials of Judaism. In many cases these denunciations are not
confined to those who are termed orthodox Jews, but so-called re
formers denounce other so-called reformers as having departed
from the true faith.
To those who are wedded and obstinately cling to the Scrip
tures, to their literal interpretation and to all the customs and
practices imposed by Rabbis, by interpretation or otherwise, any
innovation is in conflict with Judaism.
There is, however, another class, and in it are embraced the
most enlightened Jews, orthodox and reform, who, however
willing in deference to changed conditions, to drop obsolete cus
toms, rights and ceremonies, not enjoined in the Pentateuch, are
yet unwilling to depart from the essentials of their ancient faith,
and to them it becomes a matter of vast importance to have a
standard by which to test the differences that exist between the

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 73
so-called orthodox and the so-called reformers and between and
among the so-called reformers themselves.
What then is the common ground upon which all Jews can
stand? As we have already seen in times past, when differences
arose as to interpretations, or as to practices enjoined otherwise
than in the Torah, the Torah itself was the arbiter. Is it still so ?
The laymen who have neither time, opportunity or inclination to
study minutely the history and the development of the Jewish
religion, and who by reason of their ignorance in respect of these
matters are utterly confounded by the differences that exist
among the ministers, have a right to know what is the common
ground upon which all Jews can and must stand, and it is the
duty of the Rabbis to answer the question that comes from the
lips of every earnest and bewildered Jew. What is Judaism?
What are its criteria? What are its characteristics? How is it
differentiated from all other religions? What is it necessary to
believe and to do in order to be a Jew religiously ? And be it re
membered when these questions are propounded, that the earnest
seeker after information does not ask what shall / believe ? What
shall / do to be saved, what shall / believe and what shall / do
to meet the favor of the Almighty, and what shall / believe in or
der to lead a pure life? But what is necessary to believe, and
what is necessary to do to bring myself within the defined limits
of Judaism? As one of those who are so confused by the differences that
have arisen, I venture to remark that the ethics of Christianity,
Confucianism and even Buddhism, if followed, would result in a
pure life, in justice and mercy to our fellow men, in the practice
of all those virtues which elevate and ennoble mankind. But
these ethics are common to all enlightened religions and of them
selves do not constitute a religion. Each of the religions named
is differentiated in one or more particulars from the others, and
Judaism, if it be a religion, is likewise differentiated.
Wherein and how?
Again and again the demand goes forth from those who are
ignorant to those who are learned : What is Judaism?
It would seem that so simple a question addressed to those

74 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
who have devoted their lives to a study of the Jewish religion,
should meet with a prompt and explicit reply. -But in this counr
try, and from the so-called reform leaders, it is apparently impos
sible to extract an answer. Will the rank and file submit always
to their silence?
In the Menorah Magazine for July, 1887, in behalf of thou
sands of Jews bewildered and confused as I was then and am
now, I addressed an open letter to the Rabbis of America setting
forth the difficulties under which I and those similarly situated
were suffering, and earnestly, humbly and respectfully prayed
for answers to certain questions contained in the letter. All the
questions were subsidiary to and finally led up to the one con
trolling question — What is Judaism? Define it, tell us what it is.
In adverting now to that letter, I appreciate the fact that I
may, with some show of justice be charged with indelicacy, and if
the matter under discussion were of less moment I should refrain
from calling attention to the communication. I am impressed,
however, with the conviction that in writing it I was not writing
for myself alone, but for a large class, and that when it was pub
lished it ceased to be mine and became the property of all those in
a like situation with myself. This impression is strengthened by
the reception which the letter received from the Jewish press in
this country and abroad. I cannot here undertake to quote all, or
even any great portion of what was said by the press about it. To
acquit myself, however, of an apparent want of modesty, I will
quote a few expressions to show that I cannot with reason claim
a proprietary interest in the questions.
The Jewish Free Press of St. Louis, July 8, 1887, says:
"The American Jewish youth is waiting with bated breath for
an answer to the questions propounded by Mr. Levi, and which
are re-echoed from a hundred thousand young Jewish souls."
On July 22, 1887, the Jewish Spectator, of Memphis, was tem
porarily in charge of Mr. B. W. Hirsh, a brilliant lawyer. On that
date a leader warmly commending my article and insisting that it
be answered, appeared.
The American Hebrew of New York, July 8, 1887, after quot
ing my article in the Menorah, says :

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 75
"We have no doubt that Mr. Levi gives expression to the
thoughts of thousands of sincere Israelites, and the answer should
be given to him by those entrusted with the position of speaking
in the name of Judaism. Though an individual propounds the
questions, they are, in fact, the queries on the lips of the Jewish
community. It is high time that the people should hear from the
lips of their teachers "What Judaism is," and not as the custom
has been "What Judaism is not." Should the appointed expo
nents of the Jewish religion fail to vouchsafe the coveted infor
mation, laymen may have to step forward and perform the teach
ers' task."
The Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia, on July 8, 1887, com
menting on the article, says : "It is in effect a call upon the re
form movement to define its position."
To an impartial observer, it would certainly appear that ques
tions so simple and so earnest, insisted upon by so many who are
entitled to be informed, should have been answered.
How, in fact, were they received, and how answered by those
whose duty it is to reply?
In the September Menorah, 1887, Rev. Dr. L. Kleeberg, of
New Haven, Conn., undertaking to answer the questions, says in
effect: "The ethical element of the Bible must be considered as
the real essence of Judaism." Then follow passages from the
Scripture as to the duty of man, enjoining conduct required by
every religion of note, such as Christianity, Mohammedanism,
etc. The ethical teachings upon which Dr. Kleeberg insists are
enjoined in the XV Psalm, and these ethical teachings, or this
"ethical element" to use his own language, is his answer as to
what is the real essence of Judaism. The learned Doctor seems
to have overlooked the fact that the question is not, "What is the
real essence of Judaism?" but "What is Judaism?" and he seems
to have entirely overlooked the fact that all religions teach the
particular ethical doctrines to which he has called attention. The
pertinent query arises: If a man lives as enjoined in the XV
Psalm, shall we ipso facto call him a Jew, a Christian, a Moham
medan, or what ?
In the same magazine for October, 1887, the Rev. Dr. B. Fel-

76 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
senthal, of Chicago, prints his answer in German. In the Novem
ber number of the same magazine the same reply appears in
English. I quote from the English version wherein he says:
"Judaism as a religion, is a power which sanctifies our life, and
which rests upon the fundamental principle of the acknowledg
ment of a sole and individual primitive power that conditions and
fosters morality ; a power in life which germinated and developed
itself and progressed in the midst of Israel and the Jews. Juda
ism is furthermore a religion which has established for itself such
customs, laws, institutions and ceremonies which were made
necessary by and fitted to the respective local and timely circum
stances and conditions of life among the Jews."
Again he says:
"Let us clearly understand it that we recognize and have to
consider as a Jew, anyone who says of himself that he is a Jew,
who declares that he finds himself in spiritual connection with
Judaism, who maintains that his whole mental life roots within
the soil of Judaism."
It is difficult to criticise such a nebulous answer. If it means
anything, it means that he is a Jew who claims to be a Jew. This
certainly does not resolve any doubts, or offer any standard by
which to test the claims of conflicting religious schemes all
claiming to be Jewish.
On August 15, 1887, in the Jewish Spectator, published at
Memphis, Tenn., the Rev. Dr. M. Samfield, the editor, says :
"We may safely predict that no replies will come forth to the
interrogatories published in the Menorah, not because they are
questions answerless and irrefutable, but simply because to fur
nish Mr. Leo N. Levi with all the information he desires in re
sponse to the thirty questions, would involve the publication of
about fifteen octavo volumes, printed in minion type. We hope
that no American Rabbi will undertake the gigantic task."
Judaism is assuredly a most complex religion if it cannot be
defined inside of the limits named by him.
The Rev. Dr. Voorsanger, in the Jewish Times, of San Fran
cisco, published Aug. 12, 1887, undertakes to reply, but instead
writes a most eloquent sermon showing how a man can live a

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 77
pure and virtuous life. This sermon might have been written or
preached by any Christian minister, any follower of Mohammed,
Buddha or Confucius. It nowhere undertakes to give a definition,
but devotes itself to the proposition that a man may live a pure
life and be virtuous without any theology or definitions. This
may be true, although I think the contrary is easily shown. But,
true or not, it is no answer to the questions propounded.
Rev. H. M. Bien, of Vicksburg, undertook to answer in six ser
mons which are now to be had in book form, but the value of his
answer is destroyed by the fact that it does not undertake to de
fine Judaism, but does undetrake to define the religious tenets of
the author. He adopts the XIX Psalm, as furnishing the coureet
guide for love towards God, and duty towards men, and dis
courses with more or less eloquence upon his theme. But again
it may be said that he has not given any answer to the query pro
pounded. Rev. Dr. Isaac M. Wise, the Nestor among the American Re
form Rabbis, in the Menorah for October, 1887, says :
"And I will betroth thee unto me forever ; yea, I will betroth
thee unto me in righteousness and justice, and in loving kindness,
and in mercy; and thou shalt know thy God." — Hosea 11-22."
"This formula contains a full and comprehensive definition of
Judaism what it is per se, in theory, and in practice, what it is,
was and forever will be, what are its criteria, its characteristics,
by which it is distinguished from all other creeds and systems.
"Judaism is the religion of the three-fold covenant between
God and Man, God and Israel as recorded and preserved in the
Torah, written by Moses in the book of the Covenant (Exodus
XXIV 1-8, 2 Kings XXII, 8-10 XXIII-24) expounded and re
duced to practice at different times by Moses, the prophets, sages,
and lawfully constituted bodies of Israel.''
Many other efforts more or less ambitious, were made to fur
nish answers to the questions. None except those that I have
mentioned need be dignified by any reference to them here. Suf
fice that they were less meritorious and further from answering
the questions or any one of them than those to which I have re
ferred. In passing I think it but just to say in respect of Dr.

78 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Wise that while his answer may not be sufficiently comprehensive,
at least it has the merit of being a definition. It undertakes to
assign Judaism to its proximate genus and to differentiate it from
all other religions by a mention of its specific differences. Whether
it be sufficient and accurate or not, I am unable to determine. If
it be accurate, if it be comprehensive, it ought to gain for itself
the consensus of all other Rabbis, whether reform or orthodox.
If it be inaccurate it should be criticised by other Rabbis.
It is manifest that with the single exception of Dr. Wise, none
of those whose replies have come to my attention have under
taken to give a definition of Judaism. Many have contended that
it cannot be defined. If so there must be reason for it, and we
are entitled to know the reason. When, however, such authority
as Dr. Wise and others undertake to define it and when we find
that lexicographers, philosophers, students and scientific men do
define it, to the comprehension of all men, we cannot be expected
to accede to the proposition that Judaism is incapable of definition.
Shall it not then be defined for us, by those who avowedly preach
and expound it? Shall we not demand such a definition, and
when the statements are made in response to our demand, how
shall we test them?
Prof. C. P. Tiele, of the University of Leyden, in his article
on Religion, published in the Encyclopedia Brittannica, says:
"Not only has every religion as a whole and every religious
group, to be compared with others, that we may know in what
particular qualities it agrees with or differs from them, and that
we may determine its special characteristics, but, before this can
be done, comparative study on a much larger scale must precede.
Every religion has two prominent constituent elements, the one
theoretical, the other practical, religious ideas and religious acts.
The ideas may be vague conceptions, concrete myths, precise dog
mas, either handed over by tradition or recorded in sacred books
combined or not into systems of mythology and dogmatics, sum
marized or not in a creed or symbol, but there is no living re
ligion without something like a doctrine. On the other hand a
doctrine, however elaborate, does not constitute a religion.
Scarcely less than by its leading ideas, a religion is characterized

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 79
by its rites and institutions, including in the higher phases of de
velopment, moral precepts in the higher phases, ethical principles.
It happens but very seldom, if ever, that these two elements bal
ance each other. In different religions they are commonly found
in very different proportions, some faiths being pre-eminently
doctrinal or dogmatic, others pre-eminently ritualistic or ethical,
but where one of them is wanting entirely, religion no longer ex
ists. Not that dogma and ritual are religion; they are only its
necessary manifestations, the embodiment of what must be con
sidered as its very life and essence, of that which as an inner con
viction must be distinguished from a doctrine or creed — a belief."
All of the standard dictionaries define religion as, "The recog
nition of God, as an object of worship, love and obedience." The
Imperial Dictionary further defines it as, "The feeling of rever
ence which men entertain towards a supreme being, or any order
of beings conceived by them as demanding reverence from the
possession of superhuman control over the destiny of man or the
power of nature."
As explanatory of the latter definition, the Imperial Dictionary
quotes as follows from Prof. Max Muller : "It may be easily per
ceived that religion means at least two very different things.
When we speak of the Jewish or Christian religion or the Hindu,
we mean a body of doctrines handed down by tradition or in
canonical books and containing all that constitutes the faith of
Jew, Christian, or Hindu. Using religion in that sense we might
say, that a man has changed his religion, that is that he has adopt
ed the Christian instead of the Brahamanical body of religious
doctrines, just as a man may learn to speak English instead of
Hindustani. But religion is also used in a different sense. As there is a
faculty of speech, independent of all historical forms of language,
so we may speak of a faculty of faith in man independent of all
historical religions. If we say that it is religion which distin
guishes man from the animal, we do not mean the Christian or
the Jewish religion only. We do not mean any special religion,
but we mean a mental faculty ; that faculty which independent of,
nay, in spite of sense or reason, enables man to apprehend the In-

BO LEO. N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
finite under different names, and in varying disguises. Without
that faculty no religion, not even the lowest worship of idols and
fetishes would be possible; and if we will listen attentively, we
can.hear in all religions a groaning of the spirit, a struggle to con
ceive the inconceivable, to utter the unutterable, a longing after
the Infinite, a love of God."
Here we perceive a distinction which has been lost sight of
almost altogether in the answers of the Rabbis heretofore advert
ed to. Judaism is defined in all of the standard dictionaries as "the
religious doctrine and rites of the Jews, as enjoined in the laws of
Moses." I do not quote this definition as being absolutely cor
rect, but merely for the purpose of showing that Judaism is sus
ceptible of definition, and that its definition has been undertaken
by lexicographers, whose efforts in that direction, whether suc
cessful or not, are at least comprehensible, and if not correct, may
be made so. Those who are in touch with Judaism and whose
vocation it is to study it, may certainly enlarge or correct the defi
nition as given in the dictionaries, if that definition requires en
largement or qualification.
There is no religion, and can be none, that does not embrace
both doctrines and rites. In every religion there must be con
tained a doctrine, a belief, a command, as well as a mode of life.
The acceptance of such doctrines and beliefs, obedience to such
commands and conformity with such mode of life, are the require
ments of the particular religion, and those who do not recognize
such requirements, place themselves beyond the pale of the re
ligion. And this is true, without reference to the virtue or sinful
ness of the particular individual. History is full of instances of
virtuous practices by free-thinkers, skeptics and even atheists.
Pure and noble men have existed in all religions, and there is
doubtless some community of spirit among all virtuous men. But
it would be absurd to contend because there is much in common
among all good men, that all good men are therefore Christians,
Buddhists, Jews or Mohammedans. All enlightened religions
have a common goal, each seeking to reach it by different roads
or methods. True tolerance recognizes this, and it is in no wise

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 8l
impaired by the claim on the part of each particular religion, that
its road and its methods are superior to all others.
The great age, the glorious history, the magnificent achieve
ments and the enduring quality of Judaism must certainly com
mend it to the earnest attention of every member of the Jewish
race. It should be approached by him, with what Mr. Gladstone
calls "reverential awe." Its criteria, characteristics and essentials
should be most earnestly considered, and if found true, as ear
nestly observed. Those who are charged, or have charged them
selves with studying and expounding Judaism, to say the least,
place themselves in a ridiculous attitude if they decline to make
the understanding of this ancient faith an easy matter to all men.
It should be demanded by every Jew, that his minister should ex
plain to him, in clear and explicit terms, what is the religion of his
forefathers and what are its essentials.
I anticipate that what I have said will be criticised by those
claiming to have a catholic spirit. It will be contended that I am
seeking to build a wall around Judaism so as to segregate it from
all other faiths and thus engender a spirit of intolerance. It will
be asked, as has already been asked, what matter it whether we
hold to a certain faith or practice certain ceremonies, so long as
we lead a pure and virtuous life. Such a question cannot well be
disregarded, for if it be unimportant to hold to any particular re
ligion, or to practice any particular rites and ceremonies, then the
complaint, which is the basis of this discussion, is itself without
foundation. I hold that it is of the last importance that a man
should follow a particular religion in order to lead a virtuous life,
and when I say "man" I do not mean a particular man or a partic
ular class of men, but I mean man in general.
While the child is of tender years, a command from the parent
is susceptible of enforcement, either through love or fear on the
part of the child for the parent. But there comes a time in the Me
of the child when its mind expands, and when its reason demands
an explanation of the mandates which it is called upon to obey.
If the father shall tell the child that he must not lie or steal or
commit violence, the child will ask why? The birds and beasts
that the child sees about him practice deception, commit theft, and

82 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
visit violence upon other birds and beasts. Why then should the
child abstain from these things, which it has set before it by ex
ample every day of its life? The parent will promptly respond
that the child must abstain, because lying, stealing and violence
are wrong. The child will then ask why is it wrong? Shall the
parent content the inquiring mind by saying that it is wrong, be
cause I, the parent, have so decreed ? Surely not. Will he under
take to find a basis in reason for the proposition that lying, steal
ing and killing are wrong ? Has anyone ever been able to demon
strate, without reference to some revealed law, that man commits
a sin when he lies, steals or kills ?
I am not unmindful of the argument "that every man possesses
certain rights, and that whoever invades those rights commits a
wrong; that every man has a right of life, liberty, property and
reputation, and that whoever invades these rights commits a
wrong. But if these propositons are to be accepted as self-evi
dent (and unless they be self-evident they cannot be accepted),
are they not equally applicable to every species of the animal king
dom, as well as to man? Does it not follow that lying, stealing
and violence on the part of the lion and tiger or any other animal
involve the commission of sin?
Such considerations must drive the parent at last to a choice
between teaching morality as a matter of expediency only, or as
obedience to the divine law. If he elects to teach morality as di
vinely ordained, he must be able to explain to the child when,
where and under what circumstances the law was given, and why
it is obligatory. This involves the teachings not only of religion
in its general aspect, but involves the teaching of a particular re
ligion. I apprehend, however, that it requires no great argument to
impress upon every Jew the importance of teaching Judaism to
his children. There is great need, however, of impressing upon
the Jews the importance of teaching true Judaism to their chil
dren. It is a grave breach of faith to a child to teach it a religion
which the teaeher does not believe to be true. For sooner or later
the child will discover what the teacher regards as spurious, and
will indiscriminately set aside the entire lesson because of that

JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 83
therein contained which is discredited by the teacher. But upon
higher grounds than even the welfare of the child should every
man avoid teaching what he believes to be false. No teacher of
religion, whatever be its form, can justify falsehood and hypoc
risy upon any ground whatsoever, any more than can any man
justify lying or any other form of wrong-doing. Doing evil that
good may come of it is a pernicious doctrine that can find no
appropriate place in any religious scheme, nor in the life of any
virtuous man. We cannot escape the obligation to teach a re
ligion to our children, nor the obligation to see that those charged
with the task of teaching are sincere in their work. It becomes,
therefore, for this reason alone, if for no other, of the utmost im
portance that the teachers of the particular religion shall be sin
cere in their teachings, and shall be in accord as to the essentials
of the religion they teadi. For this reason, among others, the
Jewish laymen should persist in their demand that the Rabbis
shall define Judaism, and shall stand by it or leave it.
I have already shown that the so-called reform Rabbis in the
United States are not generally in accord, and they are unable or
unwilling to define Judaism and to indicate the common ground
upon which they all stand, however great their differences may be
upon minor matters. In many instances they have suffered them
selves to become intoxicated by the iconoclastic and revolutionary
spirit of the age. They have yielded themselves to the superficial
skepticism of the present era, which is, after all, but a repetition
of the same manifestation at different periods of the world's his
tory. Whenever man has made great progress in the subjuga
tion of nature to his own wants, he has set up his own reason, his
own intellect as an object of worship. The human understanding
is set up by a process of deification to be worshipped by itself. It
undertakes to test every propositon by its own powers, and what
ever it is not able to grasp, conceive or comprehend, it rejects as
necessarily untrue.
Even in the time of that great philosopher, Montaigne, it was
the case, and of it he says :
" 'Tis a very great presumption to slight and condemn all
things for false that do not appear to us likely to be true ; which is

84 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
the ordinary vice of such as fancy themselves wiser than their
neighbors. * * * Reason has instructed me that resolutely
to condemn anything for false and impossible is to circumscribe
and limit the will of God and the power of nature within the
bounds of my own capacity, than which no folly can be greater.
If we give the names of monster and miracle to everything our
reason cannot comprehend, how many such are continually pre
sented before our eyes ? Let us but consider through what clouds,
as it were, groping through what darkness, our teachers lead us
to the knowledge of most of the things which we apply our
studies to, and we shall find that it is rather custom than knowl
edge that takes away the wonder and renders them easy and fa
miliar to us, and that if those things were now newly presented
to us we should think them as strange and incredible if not more
so than any others."
"He that had never seen a river imagined the first he met
with to be a sea; and the greatest things that have fallen within
our knowledge we conclude the extremes that nature makes of
the kind. 'Things grow familiar to men's minds by being often
seen, so that they neither admire nor are inquisitive into things
they daily see, (Cicero). The novelty rather than the greatness
of things tempts us to inquire into their causes. But we are to
judge with more reverence and with greater acknowledgment of
our own ignorance and infirmity of the infinite power of nature.
How many unlikely things are there testified by people of very
good repute which, if we cannot persuade ourselves absolutely to
believe, we ought at least to leave them in suspense, for to con
demn them as impossible is by a Temerarious presumption to
pretend to know the utmost bounds of possibility."
The innovations which find their genesis in such a mental
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 this 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 truth 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 peculiar
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 more
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 the 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 necessarily 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 held,
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-
ibis. They have 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. 89
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.
Occasionally we hear protests, more or less vigorous, against
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 it 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 periodicals 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 OF THE JEWS. 91
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 hiing 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 or diminished in num
ber for two thousand years. Tney 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
literature 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 Russia 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
w®uld 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 toward 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 I 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
Jewish. The Jew of Germany is as much imbued with the
patriotic ideas that have made the German Empire possible as
any subject who yielded his blood to form the cement of the
imperial fabric. And even in Russia, where the Jew has had so
little to kindle his patriotism, so intense is his love for Russia
that he weeps at the very thought of being driven from her bor
ders, even when he is offered an asylum in countries where he
will be subject to no restrictions on account of his race or
religion. The Jew is not only to be regarded as a Jew but as a citizen.
He is not an alien, but a compatriot. He is not a foreigner, but
a native. He is not an enemy, but an ally. He is a part and
parcel of the social organization amidst which he finds himself
and he must be so considered. If he stood apart in all things
from the civilization in which he dwells society might well inquire
into the propriety of suffering him to affect that civilization. But
he is already a part of it. He has helped to build it up, he has
in a large degree shaped its career, he remains to affect its future
course, and when society addresses itself to the consideration of
the Jew, it must regard him as an integral factor of itself, so
interwoven with the general fabric that anything which affects
him must more or less directly affect all.
It is a gross error, and a most unjust one, to consider the Jews
as a separate and distinct people in respect of any matter that is
not distinctly or peculiarly Jewish. In the pursuit of any calling,
trade or profession, pursued along legitimate lines there is no wis
dom or justice in regarding the Jew in a different light from that
which is shed upon any other member of society. It can be of no
concern to the consumer that the producer, manufacturer, or ven
dor of an article consumed is a Jew, Mohammedan or Christian,
a Frenchman, German or American. The prime consideration,
if not the only one, is the price of the article as compared with

WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 97
others of like character and quality. So, too, it can make no dif
ference in the arts, what is the religion or race of the artist, nor
in the sciences, nor the professions. The music which delights
an audience, is neither better nor worse for having been produced
by musicians not of the same race or religion with the audience.
And if it be contended, as it is in Germany and France, that
the Jews forming a small minority of the national population
practiclly monopolize certain branches of learning and art and
commerce, that fact is rather to be urged in their favor than
against them, unless it can be shown that this monopoly results
from methods peculiar to this people and in themselves illegiti
mate and hurtful.
In their domestic life the Jews should also be free of officious
intermeddling, unless the character of that domestic life is in
jurious to the public at large. The same may be said of their
religion and the practice thereof.
In short, the Jew should be treated as any other member of
society, as possessing full liberty to seek happiness along lines
of his own selection without any restrictions, except those that
are imposed for the general welfare of society. This principle
so manifestly correct is undisputed even by those most violent
in their denunciation of the Jews, but they curiously contend
that since the Jews are in a hopeless minority, the welfare of so
ciety is impaired by the success of the Jews. It is argued that
when they monopolize positions of vantage in science and art,
in the trades and the market places, they exclude others represent
ing the great majority from those positions. If this argument
were not persisted in with so much force and received with so
much favor it would scarcely merit attention. A few questions
addressed to those who offer it would certainly confound them
and utterly destroy the effect of the views they advance.
Will it be seriously contended that if the Rothchilds had
never lived, there would have arisen Christian financiers of like
eminence? That but for Moses Mendelsohn and Spinoza, there
would have been two great Christian luminaries in the philosophic
world to fill the places occupied by them? That if there had
been no Heine, there would have arisen in Germany a poet, who

98 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
could have blended as he alone has done, the Hebraic and Hel
lenic spirit? That but for DTsraeli, there would have been an
English statesman not of Jewish blood to create British unity and
symbolize it with an imperial crown? That Montefiore and
Baron de Hirsch have usurped and monopolized the field of phil
anthropy and that consequently there is no room for good works
on the part of other people ? To such questions but one answer is
offered, to-wit: That Jewish success, which excludes all rivalry
is due to certain methods of the Jews that cannot be practiced
by their competitors. If this be true, it is proper to inquire what
those methods are, and if they are illegitimate, they should be
suppressed. And certainly society, so largely outnumbering the
Jews, can have no difficulty in putting down illegitimate practices
indulged in by a minority to the detriment of society.
If, on the other hand, those methods are found to be legitimate
in themselves and end in such magnificent results, they should be
emulated and followed rather than condemned and suppressed,
otherwise society at large will practice the supreme folly of which
the Greeks were guilty when they ostracized their noblest citizen,
because they were tired of hearing him called just. Civilization
advances upward not only by stepping on its failures, but by cling
ing to its successes. It advances by pulling itself upwards to
wards those who are in the front, rather than by dragging the
leaders back to the common herd.
The Jewish Question is not to be solved by tolerance. There
are thousands of well meaning people who take to themselves
great credit for exhibiting a spirit of tolerance towards the
Jews. Tolerance presupposes inferiority on the part of those towards
whom it is exhibited and superiority on the part of those ex
tending it. In religious matters it is manifestly a proper spirit.
For the follower of any particular religion is justified from his
standpoint in believing his own to be better than all others, and
all others inferior to his own. It is absurd, however, to accord
to the Jew superior skill, talent and wisdom in the sciences and
the professions, the arts and in commerce, and then forsooth, out
of a spirit of liberality to tolerate him in these walks of life.

WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 99
The individual Jew of an inferior mold may be tolerated by
his superiors from a sense of justice or out of consideration for
the people to which he belongs, but the Jews as a class cannot
be tolerated, unless they be regarded as inferior. The charge
of inferiority is nowhere brought against them. Their religion
is denounced, their clannishness condemned, their disposition to
live by their wits rather than by manual labor is decried, but
mentally, physically and morally they are recognized as occupy
ing as high a plane as those of their competitors in the same
walk of life.
In Russia where the religion is a part of the State, there
is some logical basis for the exhibition of tolerance, but in coun
tries where church and state are divorced and where the Jew's
right as a citizen is as unquestioned as the right of any other
member of the community, his liberty, his privileges, his stand
ing in society must depend upon his own merits and not upon
the favor of others.
On the other hand, if the Jews should be justly accorded all
the rights possessed by other citizens, it should be because as
individuals and as a class they are entitled to those rights and
have not forfeited them.
If the Jews with justice cry out against persecution and pre
judice they must in justice recognize that they must claim no
favors. If as a class they are sordid, mercenary, dishonest,
unclean, parasitical, bigoted and unproductive as charged against
them by their enemies, society has the right to protect itself
against them by such measures, offensive and defensive, as are
best calculated to insure protection.
The evidence in support of all these indictments must be con
sidered and weighed and a verdict based thereon. It will not do
to invoke any high sounding principles of liberality, tolerance or
equality by way of demurrer to the accusations. Every society
has the right and the duty to protect itself against harm from
without and within, and if one remedy is not effectual to secure
that protection others may and always will be employed by or
against precedent. Civilization is always progressive and invents
new methods when old ones fail.

IOO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
I realize that in America such expressions on my part are apt
to be denounced as inconsistent with the genius of American
government. But I do not dispair of successfully maintaining
the doctrines just announced in the face of any sort of opposition.
It must not be forgotten by Americans who live under a written
constitution, that they stand almost alone among the great peoples
of the earth in their reverence for form in government. Else
where than in America form and forms in government are of
secondary importance. The objects of government rather than
clearly stated principles are avowedly held in the highest esteem
in trans-Atlantic and especially in autocratically governed coun
tries. And indeed, however much we honor precedents and bow
down before the Declaration of Independence and the Federal
Constitution, we, too, if we do a little healthy thinking, must
come to see that forms of government are means to an end and
not in themselves ends. And so this axiom may be relied on as
always true, that when axioms of government clash with its
objects, so much the worse for the axioms. Not only is this true
in matters of government, it is likewise true in social life.
We may repeat as often as we please the general statement
that all men are born free and equal, and that every man has the
right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness and the
worship of God according to the dictates of his own conscience,
yet when we seek to apply these declarations to practical life and
find in any given instance that they enable individuals or classes
to so develop their own careers as to unjustly interfere with the
rights and liberties of others, we usually find grim facts standing
in the way of mere theories.
The principle that each man shall so use that which is his as
not to interfere with the rights of others, whether or not it be
expressed in the law books or sanctioned by the courts, will find
expression, application and execution in the conduct of the public.
The supeme law of all free countries, if not indeed of all coun
tries, is justice, as understood and interpreted by the people.
This law formulates itself through the legislative branches of
government, but time and again have the people, impatient of
a change in the form of the law reasoned above and against these

WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. IOI
forms in order to accomplish justice for the time being. Much
as we may deplore indignities which are done to the forms of the
law at times, we cannot close our eyes to the fact, that whenever
an emergency sufficiently great arises, the people will disregard
the forms of the law in order to achieve the objects of organized
society. The Jew scarcely needs to be reminded of this truth, for
throughout his entire history he has rightfully or wrongfully been
subjected to persecutions and indignities that were more fre
quently in contravention of law than in conformity thereto. He
has never been able to shield himself against oppression and
tyranny by an appeal to the law. He never will. His case must
be broad, based on justice per se and not upon the letter of the
law. He must submit his case to the bar of public opinion, and
it must be tried fairly upon the evidence.
If I have dwelt so long upon this subject, it is because I
recognize that if the Jew has been denied so much that is right
fully his, he often claims more than his due. One of these claims
most persistently urged, is that there is no Jewish Question; that
the Jew is a citizen like every other citizen and that so long as
he abides by the law and does not subject himself to criminal pros
ecution or civil action, his doings are beyond legitimate inquiry
by the public at large. This contention on his part would cer
tainly be well based if he claimed nothing further than the right
to live in peace, but when he demands social recognition the
whole range of his conduct is a legitimate subject of inquiry
against which no technical demurrers can be interposed. When
he is charged with being sordid, mercenary, parasitical, filthy,
clannish and bigoted, he must admit the testimony in support of
the charges and if he cannot refute it, must accept the verdict.
Nor must the Jew be over sensitive about the inquiry. If with
any justice he can point with pride to the history and achieve
ments of his race, he should be grateful rather than indignant
at being classed as a member of that race.
The inconsistencies and the unwisdom exhibited in the con
sideration of the Jewish Question are not to be found altogether
on the side of those who are hostile to the Jews. If those who

102 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
declaim against- the Jew select as types the worst representatives
among them, it is too frequently the case that those who declaim
in behalf of the Jews have eyes only for the highest exemplars.
Someone has justly remarked that the truth lies between extremes
and about equi-distant from both.
If the Jews squirm and indignantly protest against Shylock,
Fagin and Svengali, they must be consistent and not claim as
types Scott's Rebecca and Lessing's Nathan the Wise. The cold
truth lies in this : The Jew has never been and cannot be typified.
Shylock was an individual and was pictured truly as Shakespeare
knew or imagined him. So of Fagin. Dickens was conspicu
ously strong in pictures from low life, and conspicuously weak
in drawing refined people of the upper crust. On the other hand,
Rebecca was the picture of a singularly sweet Jewess, while
Nathan, the Wise, was a thin disguise for the great Moses Men
delsohn. No people can be fairly judged by its superlatives.
The Jews are not and never have been as a class on the high plane
of Lessing's hero, or the low plane of Shylock or Svengali. The
same may be said of the Christians, Moslems, Buddhists or any
other people, nation or race. It would be silly to judge all the
Chinese by Confucius, or all the Americans by Benedict Arnold.
A race, a people, or a nation must be judged as a whole, and
who does not know or study them as such is unfit to judge.
When the Jew hater undertakes to judge the Jews by the few
unworthy ones within the range of his acquaintance, he commits
a grievous wrong. When the Jew, on the other hand, claims
for his people that they are truly typified by their best and noblest
exemplars they err on the other side.
The history of a race or people must be studied, their achieve
ments and their endurance measured, their failures and triumphs
compared, their difficulties estimated and their mission under
stood. We must look into their art, science and literature, their
religion and ideas of government, their social and domestic life.
In short, we must grasp the genius of the whole by a close insight
into the average or type of the class. Then and not till then
can we fairly judge where the people or race is to be placed, and
how they shall be treated. These will be judgments based on

WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. ' 103
facts; not mere outcries of a sentimentalism pitched as the case
may be in a key of love or a key of hate.
The Jews doubtless possess many virtues and many faults and
these virtues and these faults are not peculiar to them, except
so far as they find an emphasis among the Jews. They are a
peculiar people and certain qualities physical, intellectual and
moral are emphasized in them to such a degree as to be regarded
as Jewish qualities. The Jews are not slow to claim these qualities
as racial characteristics when the qualities are such as excite
admiration, but they are unduly sensitive to a criticism which
points out any quality attributed to them as Jews and which is
an impairment of their reputation. May not the truth lie in
this suggestion; that the success of the Jew, his sobriety, his
temperance, his energy, his physical and intellectual superiority
are all due to a certain intensity of character inherited and ac
quired, and that this very intensity operates upon his faults as well
as his virtues and lends to them an emphasis not to be observed
as a rule among other people. I do not wish to be understood
as advancing this as a proposition which commends itself to me
as indisputably sound. It does occur to me, however, that much
might be said in support of it and that in any event the Jew must
patiently recognize that he is constituted like other men, is sub
ject to the same infirmities, amenable to the same temptations
and liable to be guilty of the same wrongs, and that when he
proceeds in the wrong direction, being more vigorous, more
talented and more intense than other people traveling in the same
direction, he is liable to go further.
And this might well be admitted without any disparagement
to his claim of equality with or superiority to any other people.
After all, the question of greatest interest is, are Jewish
tendencies more generally in the right direction than the wrong
direction, and is the tendency towards good developing and the
tendency towards evil diminishing, or vice versa? This is the
question in which society at large is greatly interested and the
Jews more so. Both must address themselves towards cultivat
ing the tendency towards good and suppressing the tendency

104 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
towards evil and in this will be involved the same inquiry as
affecting the entire body of society.
I say this because I feel that history, both past and contem
porary, will demonstrate that while the Jews as a class have often
been superior to their environment, they have never been worse.
Both society in general and the Jews in particular should ascertain
what qualities and practices peculiar to the Jews have advanced
the Jews and made them better, stronger, more talented and more
virtuous than other people. And since like causes beget like
effects, these qualities should be emulated and imitated by all
other members of society and on the other hand. whatever is pe
culiar to the Jew, that impairs his vigor, his talent and his virtue
should be discouraged by society at large and eschewed, by the
Jews. It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the virtues
or the faults of the Jews. I am not addressing myself to the
merits of the Jewish Question, but to the standpoint from which
it should be considered. I venture to say, however, that such a
commission as I have already mentioned would point out in the
light of history, that in the march of civilization the Jew has been
a factor for good more than for evil ; that today he is advancing
civilization more than he retards it; that he possesess many vir
tues which society would do well to emulate ; that there is in his
religion nothing of evil to society and elements of good beyond
the power of estimation ; that in his family life there is exhibited
a purity of sentiment and tenderness of relationship and devotion
to obligation, that is nowhere equalled; that by assiduity, in
tensity of purpose, persistency, energy and the capacity for taking
pains, he rises to heights that account for his astounding success.
On the other hand they might with justice indicate, that hail
ing originally from the Orient and having been compelled for
twenty centuries to live in a society of his own, debarred from
mingling upon terms of social equality with the highest mem
bers of society, he has preserved in his tastes much that is char
acteristically oriental. That his intercourse with the best elements
of society has not been sufficiently protracted to enable him to
assimilate the refinements of taste and beget a grace which is to be

WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 105
found only among those who for generations have occupied the
plane of the highest gentility. That he is self-asserting to a
degree that often makes him obnoxious and that he is very sensi
tive to criticism. There may be other faults that might be laid
at their doors by impartial students. Whatever they be they
should be received with patience, considered without irritation
and corrected with that resolute spirit and intense purpose which
friend and foe alike attribute to the Jew. When the Jewish
Question shall thus be studied, it will soon be solved. The suc
cess of the Jew may be emulated and even be envied, but there
will be no effort to pull him down simply because he is a Jew.
Neither will there be any special privileges accorded to him be
cause he is a Jew ; nor will he be left free of criticism and adverse
judgment because the critic may fear a charge of prejudice. In
all things the Jew will stand as does every other citizen — upon
his merits, achieving such success as his merits deserve, suffer
ing from such failure as his shortcomings bring about. Then
too will it be understood and recognized what is too often now
forgotten, that every man's success in the main must depend upon
himself. In all the affairs of life, apparently within man's control, we
are prone to play at Providence. We love to regulate everything
so as to bring about or maintain an equilibrium as we understand
it. If one is too strong we try to weaken him. If another is too
weak we try to strengthen him, always having in view to make
the contest equal. Our continued failures do not deter us from
continuing the effort and perhaps it is best for us that we should
keep on trying. If it does no one else good, it does him good
who tries.
But in the race of life between peoples, neither individuals
nor governments can make rules or change them. The inexorable
law is fixed by nature under the guidance of nature's God. The
track is broad, the course long and beset with difficulties. The
racers are without handicaps of any kind. The start in the final
race is even; there are no favorites. The contest begins with
the tap of the bell and ends only when the winner comes under
the wire. There is no "weighing in" to test the weights, and

io6

LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

the prize goes to the victor without regard to pedigree or age.
Pluck, speed and endurance must win. It may be hard on the
beautiful and well-backed contestants who lag behind, but no
heart-aches of defeat, no humiliation on the part of the loser
should impel us to change the rule of the race. There would be
less elation and less sorrow if the prize were equally divided,
but without such elation and sorrow there would be no great
contestants. It is by victory and defeat, through joy and sorrow,
that we achieve civilization, progress and betterment. The battle
to the strong, the race to the swift seems cruel but it is the law,
which we would not change if we could, for we realize its lofty
quality — it is Justice.
The application of this law to the relations between the Jew
and the civilization of which he is a factor is all that he may
ask and less than which cannot with justice be accorded to him.
Let no misguided friend of the Jew ask for sentimental favor be
cause of the great beacon lights in history upheld by the Jews.
Let no misguided foe of the Jews turn his back upon that history
and subject them to oppression. Let justice be done, equal and
exact justice, in all respects equal and in all respects exact.

THE INTELLECTUAL AND ETHICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF THE
AMERICAN JEW.
By Leo. N. Levi.
In treating of my subject, it becomes, in a measure, neces
sary to consider the history of the Jews in America, for that
their history not only states but fully explains their mental and
moral evolution.
Leaving out of consideration the few pioneers who came to
the United States in the early days, we may, for the purpose in
hand, say that our children compose the third generation of Israel
ites in this country.
To the end that the progress achieved may be made clear, I
propose to examine each of the three generations in turn, and
shall endeavor to find the type of each era. The difficulties of
such an undertaking are not to be mistaken or disregarded. The
synthetic process by which from great numbers we form a typical
representative is rarely successful. The scope of human observa
tion is so limited, the fallibility of human discernment so common,
and the critical quality so rare, that very seldom, indeed, is a
so-called type more or less than the sum of the impressions cre
ated on the observer by a few elements of the class sought to be
typified. When we reflect further, that the deepest impressions
are made by extravagant characteristics, we must recognize the
danger of mistaking a caricature for a type. This danger has
been realized the world over, in respect to the Hebrews. Writers
and artists, as a rule, present as a typical picture of the Jew an
exaggeration of the worst specimen with whom they have come
in contact. Thus, in literature, it is common to find the Jew
as bent in form, ugly in feature, vulgarly gaudy, disgustingly
unclean, speaking a miserable jargon, wholly wanting in cul-
107

108 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
ture, and exhibiting a moral corruption that passes all compre
hension. He is painted as a low, cunning and vindictive crea
ture, who cringes to power and domineers over weakness. If
any virtue whatever be attributed to him, it is carefully minimized
by looking at it through the wrong end of the same glass which
was skilfully employed to enlarge his shortcomings. And this
process of depiction, which is in daily use, is called art. If the
Jew protests against being made the target of unjust prejudice,
he is assured that art loves truth and eschews prejudice. He is
told that, like the camera, art represents what stands before it,
registering the lights and shades, the straight and the crooked
lines. Nor may this be gainsaid; but shall we call them artists
who clothe virtue in the garments of sin and "apparel vice like
virtue's harbingers ?" The true artist seeks and finds truth in its
nakedness and purity. Error, though tenacious of life, yields
at last to time; but truth is immortal. The creed, the govern
ment or the people that is permeated by or built upon error must
inevitably perish from the earth; and whatsoever endures, de
spite the destructive friction of ages, may be safely credited, in
its genesis and its career, with the lasting elements of truth, that
"tire time and torture." This is the ultimate of all criteria, and
where shall be found the measure of the test save in the Jew?
The prejudice against the descendants of Israel is slowly but
surely receding before the march of genuine enlightenment. The
nations of the earth, one by one, are coming to see that their
numbers, power and influence, after centuries of oppression, evi
dence the sterling stuff of which they are made, and denounce
the grotesque knave who is dignified by false art with the honor
able designation of the Jew. It could not, without disgrace to
the world, be otherwise. If the sordid creature, in whom the
Israelites have been caricatured, typifies the race, what apology
can civilization offer for Jewish prestige and power in everything
of which civilization makes boast? Shall it be admitted that in
the long march of events ignorant cunning has triumphed over
intelligent thought; that courageous honor has yielded to craven
depravity and that free and manly virtue has receded before
servile sin? Assuredly not.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 109
The Jew is neither saint nor devil.
He never was more than man with all of man's frailties nor
less than man with all of man's aspirations towards the divine
ideal. But in some respect he differs from all other men and in
these specific differences are to be found the true elements of the
Jewish type.
When he has faltered and fallen by the way it was because of
the human weakness that at times forces the bravest to yield;
but in always rising from defeat to victory he has displayed
the sublime courage that he alone has truly learned from the
sweetest singer of Israel : "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror
by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day. Nor for the pesti
lence that walketh in darkness ; nor the destruction that wasteth
at noonday." Let us then look upon this people in relation to our subject,
as men, moved and swayed like other men, and only differing
from other men in the characteristics which typify them. These
characteristics are no peculiarities in dress or speech; they are
not mere idiosyncracies of manner, nor depravities of heart or
mind. On the contrary they are inherent qualities, modified,
it is true, but not radically altered, by the history which those
qualities have made. The history of the Jew has been to him
like the banks of a stream. They confine and mark the boun
daries of the current and in a large measure determine its
course, and yet the stream makes and changes its banks and works
its own passage to the sea.
The Jew began his career with a mission. To fulfill it he was
endowed with certain qualities. He has met obstacles that have
impeded and delayed him ; he has been forced to deviate from the
direct route and often to retrace his steps, but his course has been
as unceasingly onward as that of the stream, which starting from
some mountain top, channels its way through and around the
loftiest hills in its journey to the ocean's level. And as the stream
which started with only crystal water becomes at times impure
by the deposit taken from its banks, so the Jew whose mission is
divinely pure, has taken on dross from his environments. When
normal conditions are restored in the current of the stream the

IIO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
impure matter is precipitated and the water is restored to its
original clearness. Perhaps it will be so with him.
Israel was chosen as a nation of priests to teach to all the
nations that God is one, that his commandments make up the
only true moral code, and that the highest virtue and therein
the greatest happiness is only attainable through the worship
of God and the observance of his statutes. For such a stupen
dous task, the final performance of which was then and is yet so
remote, no ordinary qualities were sufficient. It required long
preparation to fit them for the undertaking. The idolatrous spirit
which again and again made them forsake their Creator had to
be eliminated. The carnal appetite that made them hunger for
the flesh-pots in preference to liberty had to be curbed. In lieu
of the cowardice natural to newly emancipated slaves, they had
to be invested with unflinching courage. But they had able and
inspired teachers, and after the prophets and sages had devoted
themselves to the great work of education we find that this nation
of slaves had become indeed a nation of priests fully equipped
for the grandest mission ever imposed upon any people. Not in
vain was Moses meek and Joshua bold ; not in vain was Solomon
wise and David eloquent with music whose cadence has not yet
died away. By persuasion, conviction and force, with music and
speech and fire and sword the education proceeded until through
out Israel there existed unwavering faith in God and unfaltering
observance of his decrees. The Assyrians and the Persians, the
Greeks and the Macedonians, the Carthagenians and Romans in
turn ruled the world with a temporary power founded solely on
prowess in the field — but the Jews alone maintained the faith
and practices upon which all true civilization is founded. The
Roman arms leveled the walls of Jerusalem, the Roman legions
desecrated the temple and scattered the nation of Israel, but the
fugitive and hunted Jews even in their flight hugged to their starv
ing bosoms the divine Torah. Such was the people that then be
gan their endless wanderings; the saddest story in history. It
is a story of murder, robbery, rapine, oppression, contumely and
debasement to which the Jews were almost continually subjected
for i, 800 years. Church, State and society combined in unceasing

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. Ill
warfare on the Jew. He was allowed neither freedom of con
science, thought, property nor person. He was denied the pur
suit of happiness and the worship of God. These were his
environments for centuries ; these were the banks through which
coursed for ages the limpid waters that had their initial flow even
beyond Sinai. It is not so amazing that the stream has become
more or less impure, as that it has not been dried up and lost.
How beautifully has a gifted daughter of the race depicted
the martyrdom and debasement of her people:
"Day long I brooded upon the passion of Israel,
I saw him bound to the wheel, nailed to the cross, cut off by the
sword, burned at the stake, tossed into the seas.
And always the patient, resolute martyr-face arose in silent rebuke
and defiance
A Prophet with four eyes; wide gazed the orbs of the spirit
above the sleeping eyelids of the senses
A Poet, who plucked from his bosom the quivering heart and
fashioned it into a lyre.
A placid-browed Sage, uplifted from earth in celestial meditation.
These I saw, with princes and people in their train; the monu
mental dead and the standard bearers of the future.
And suddenly I heard a burst of mocking laughter, and turning
I beheld the shuffling gait, the ignominious features, the
sordid mask of the son of the Ghetto."
It is at such a stage in the career of Israel that the history of
the American Jew begins.
When persecution had accomplished in many portions of Eu
rope, the result so graphically described by the poetess ; when the
most prominent, because almost the only apparent characteristics
of the Jew, were narrow bigotry, low cunning and ignorant su
perstition, a new light shed its flickering rays upon his sombre
fate. Through the dark and squalid alleys and into the dismal
homes of the Jewish quarters in Germany, Poland, Russia and
the Balkan Provinces crept strange, uncertain tidings of a country
far beyond the seas. There came from the lips of ignorant news-

112 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
bearers at second or third hand, strange rumors that there was
one country where freedom prevailed. As if to a fairy tale,
bearded men and hooded women listened to stories of the Great
Republic. They knew little of its geography, less of its history and
scarcely anything of its institutions. They had not heard of
the Declaration of Independence ; they did not dream of our bill
of rights and our peerless Constitution. Scarcely was there room
in their shrunken minds for the idea of civil, religious or social
liberty. But as tidings followed tidings, there quickened in the
barren souls a long smouldering aspiration. They thrilled with
an awakening love of liberty, like a long caged bird that sees
in its declining years its prison door ajar. The stripling whose
bent figure thus early patterned after that of his sire, stood erect
under the glorious inspiration of hope. The eye that glittered
only in cunning now shone with the lustre born of lofty ambition.
The youthful breast heaved in tumultuous agitation, and the slug
gish blood leaped from the heart like a high bred charger in
battle. And when the first exhilaration had subsided there re
mained a determined and restless purpose to seek the New Jerusa
lem. The love of home and kindred, the dread of strange lands
and of strange people, the terror of the sea and a thousand "hor
rible imaginings " had to be overcome before the youth could make
the grand venture. But the hour came. The mother's tears were
exhausted, the father's misgivings were quieted, the farewell ca
resses and blessings were bestowed, and the adventurer crept from
his home with the humility of a slave in his demeanor, but the
spirit of a hero in his bosom. We can fancy him now in his
grotesque attire, plodding along the highway to the seaside, car
rying his humble wardrobe in his modest bundle, and husband
ing every penny lest the scanty store should not suffice to secure
him a steerage passage. We can see him embarking on a journey,
to him as fearful as that of the "world-unveiling Genoese."
A transatlantic voyage is now a trifling matter ; but fifty years
ago it was so serious that only emergencies of great moment were
deemed sufficient to warrant it. And especially was this true
among the poor and illiterate. There was neither comfort nor
certainty for them at any stage of the long trip. They were

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 113
cooped in the filthy holds of slow sailing vessels, compelled to fur
nish and prepare their own food, and battle unaided with the hor
rors of sea-sickness. Small wonder it is that only brave spirits
dared it. The Jew, however, rose to the requirements of the occa
sion then, as he always has. He triumphed over every obstacle.
He made his way to the seaboard through strange countries, and
embarked among strangers who hated even the name of Jew.
He survived the sufferings of the voyage, and with renewed
hope and courage set his foot for the first time on free soil.
For those who have not experienced it, it is impossible to
properly appreciate the extent of the revolution made in his
life by his emigration to America. He left behind him every
thing that was calculated to degrade him; he faced every
opportunity to elevate himself. Accustomed at home to re
gard himself as socially and politically the inferior of those
about him, he now found himself in an atmosphere of liberty
and equality, and learned that neither race nor religion barred
his way. He discovered here a field open to all alike, in which
the highest patent of nobility was unsullied manhood.
Such a change was worth all the dangers and privations
endured to attain it, and which would not have been braved
but for a consummation so precious. It was not a mere de
sire to attain wealth that induced this exodus from Europe.
This is easily demonstrated. In England, France, Italy and
Turkey the majority of Jews were then and are now poorer
in purse, and the opportunities for the acquisition of riches
little, if any, better than in Russia, Austria, Germany and the
Balkan provinces; yet we find that very few Jews have come
to America or gone elsewhere from the countries first named,
while from the latter there has been a steady stream. In Eng
land, France, Italy and Turkey a measurably humane disposi
tion has been exhibited towards the Hebrews and they have
become attached as patriots to the countries wherein, if they
may not rise to greatness, they are at least not driven to
despair. In Russia, Germany, Austria and the Balkan prov
inces they have been subjected to all manner of indignities
to degrade and persecute them, and, in consequence, they sought

114 LEO N- LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
for avenues of escape. These indignities explain the low stage
to which the Jews, subjected to them, sunk. In no other way
can we account for the difference between the Israelites in coun
tries where they enjoy some liberties and those in which they
enjoy none.
To guard against misconception it may be well to remark
that not all the Jews who came to America, half a century ago,
were from the countries in which the Jews were oppressed.
Neither were those who came from the latter places, all ignorant
and degraded. As a matter of fact, there were immigrants from
all parts of the world, and not a few were distinguished for
learning, character, and even occasionally for wealth. But this
minority did not come because they were Jews. They came,
as many others did for change, excitement, love of adventure,
or the determination to improve even upon the conditions they
left behind. It is not proposed to deal with individuals or small
minorities. Neither shall I undertake to describe each phase of
motive or character. What is sought is the mental and moral
type of the Jews who came in considerable numbers to this coun
try something like fifty years since.
Comppsite photography is employed to ascertain physical
types by an extensive system of averages. In physical types the
most frequently, recurring and most prominent characteristics
will impress themselves upon the typical result. In this delin
eation, likewise, the picture takes its form and color from the
most frequently recurring and prominent characteristics of the
European Jews who first came in numbers to America.
The result is dismal enough, although not devoid of commend
able features. In it we find superstition, religious bigotry, cun
ning, blunted moral perceptions, rude manners, ignorance and
almost a total absence of culture. On the other hand we discover
thrift, energy, courage and hope, and underlying all the peculiarly
Jewish qualities of quick perception, frugality, temperance and
the fullest complement of domestic virtues. Such was the Jew
who fled from the narrow ljmits allowed him in Europe to make
a career amidst the boundless and countless opportunities that
opened to him here. His past fixed the goal of his ambition by

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. II5
comparison. He had been an inferior socially and politically.
His political equality was granted by our constitution, and he
resolved to attain social equality by the shortest route that his
wit could discover. His course was determined alike by choice
and by circumstances. He saw at a glance that this was a coun
try rich only in natural resources, and that to develop these cap
ital was indispensable. He saw further, that as we had no aris
tocracy founded on lineage or government regulation, that suc
cess in the absorbing employments of the people would create
the society of the future. The development of the natural wealth
of the country engrossed all attention, and he who should exercise
the highest influence and wield the greatest power in this direc
tion would outstrip his neighbors in the race of life. Wealth
was the avenue of power. In new countries this is usually the
case, and ours was no exception.
Circumstances best fitted him for a money-making career.
In Europe either by law or custom, he had been allowed to
pursue no other. He was unfitted for the learned professions or
the tilling of the soil. He understood something of commercial
principles and was an adept in mere trade. Accordingly he be
came a peddler and later a merchant. But the resolution to
become rich did not carry itself into effect. To fulfil it taxed
his energy, thrift and wit to their fullest capacity. Besides he
labored under many disadvantages peculiar to himself. His
dress, his manners, his language and his strict adherence to the
forms of religion all impeded him. These impediments he re
moved as speedily as possible. He conformed to the dress and
manners of the country, acquired sufficient of the language for
the purposes of trade, and one by one ignored the religious
ceremonies that proved inconvenient. When we consider that
he had no social obligations, no political ambition, no extravagant
personal habits, and that he was frugal, industrious and shrewd,
we shall understand how readily he succeeded in his chosen ca
reer. His early success was fruitful of mischief. It changed the
goal of his desires. He had sought wealth as "a stepping stone
to higher things," but he became intoxicated by the charm of
money getting until his ambition now grown gross by the food

Il6 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
on which it had fed, looked upon wealth itself, as its highest
aspiration. He toiled and schemed only for money and he felt,
if he did not exhibit, contempt for all occupations that did not
lead to wealth. He identified riches with happiness and sought
them as eagerly as ever the alchemist sought the elixir of life.
Then well nigh perished that precious essence of the ideal that
has ever pervaded the Jewish nature and emphasized its dif
ference from all others. It was this idealism that sustained the
Jew amid the severest of his trials and to which he ever had
resort for consolation. When driven to practice his religion in
secret and therein find his only solace for sorrow, he drew upon
his oriental imagination for a symbolism that appealed to his
ideal emotions. Thus there had slowly but steadily accumu
lated for his observance a countless number of rites and cere
monies, which, originally introduced to satisfy his emotional
nature, had come to be regarded as obligatory upon his con
science. Nothing saved many of these practices from being
ludicrous, but the sincerity and earnestness of their observance.
When we consider how sudden a revolution occurred in the lives
of the first Jewish immigrants to America we shall better un
derstand some of its results. At no time has the history of the
Jews been separable from the history of Judaism. Whether the
connection between the doctrines of that ancient religion and
the people to whom they were given, be divinely ordained and
therefore absolute, or not, certain it is that thus far the race
and the religion have been so fused, as it were, that none
can say just where the one begins and the other leaves off.
Judaism has always been not only a part of every Jew's life,
but of every event in it. Thus it was an integral part of the
thought, philosophy and education of those who came to this
country until aftar they had become Americans. But no sooner
had their minds quickened with the new civilization and their
eyes opened to the new deliverance than an anti-climax oc
curred. Here was life, bustle, achievement; here was an open
field for energy and ambition where the race was to the swift,
and the battle to the strong. Time was too precious to devote
to ceremonies that consumed the half of it almost, and thus

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 11/
trenched upon the opportunities for success. Besides, the views
generated by the broad scope of the new career condemned one
by one the rabbinical ordinances imposed as they were for ends
that they had outlived. The logical process by which these hith
erto sacred obligations were laid aside, if not accurate was force
ful, quick and ruthless. No pause was indulged in to analyze the
differences between essentials amd non-essentials. Consistency
was elevated above all other considerations, and having recon
ciled himself to a disregard of some part of his religion, the Jew
deemed it due to consistency that he should ignore almost, if not
all, of it. But this did not endure long. The immigrant, like the
balance of mankind, was a social animal. He required for his
happiness home, wife and children. Not for always could he con
tent himself with sleeping in barns and under hedgerows; not
for always could he endure the half hidden contempt of his fel-
lowmen without a longing for some sphere in which he was the
peer of his fellows. Then arose the family relation, and the in
fluence of the mothers in Israel became apparent. It communi
cated itself to the home, and the heap of ashes which marked the
ruins of his religion received repentant and longing glances from
the husband and father. Not only this, but in his home where
comfort prevailed there seemed a spectre of rebuke. In the still
ness of the night, at the festive board, at the bedside of the sick
and dying, at births and marriages and burials, a voice that was
storm-driven across seas uttered ominously in his ears the com
mand to "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may
be long in the land." Nor did the voice cease when gifts were
sent to aged parents to make the poverty that saddened their lives
disappear. It continued to sound until at last when the restless
heart cried out, "What is it I must do?" the voice changed to the
tender accents of dying fathers and mothers wafted softly over
the bosom of the deep : "Hear Oh, Israel the Eternal is our God,
the Eternal is One." Honor us in loving the Lord "with all your
heart and all your soul and all your might." Then amid the cold
ashes of the discarded religion was sought the divine spark of
truth that yielded not to the agencies that could destroy mere
forms, and lo ! it was there radiant, vital and eternal. Thus was

Il8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
saved on American soil the Judaism without which there can be
no Jews.
Its influence was soon apparent. Where it was possible syna
gogues were erected, benevolent societies organized and schools
instituted. And when, because of differences in nationalities and
shades of belief, discords arose in the house of God, the inventive
mind of the Jew established a great society formed upon such
broad principles that in respect of them no contention could arise.
I cannot pause even to outline the history of the B'nai B'rith. It
is unnecessary to do so here. I only refer to it to show that when
the pioneer Jews were still earnestly engaged in making money
they demonstrated their claim to the highest virtues by the grand
efforts they made to elevate and enlighten their fellow-men and
alleviate their sufferings on the broadest principles of humanity.
There was much in the first generation that we will not find
in the second. The first generation brought with it from Europe
some qualities that have not been transmitted and it imperfectly
acquired some that were born with the second.
I have already sketched the type of the first generation at the
time of the landing on American soil and in some respects the
effect produced by contact with the new civilization. The picture
would be wanting, however, in one of the essential features if I
failed to give proper prominence to one effect of the change.
The immigrant as a rule was scantily educated if at all, and not
infrequently the entire sum of his learning did not extend beyond
the Bible and the commentaries thereon. Beyond this he knew
little except some general principles of trade and barter. He was
unambitious' in Europe to shine either as a scholar, artist or man
of means, because as a scholar or artist he was practically denied
a career without becoming an apostate, and to advertise his wealth
was to invite plunder or confiscation. In Europe he had been
inferior to every rank in society and the humility natural to his
position had degenerated into servile deference to his fellow crea
tures. The sudden emancipation from such conditions was be
wildering. He exulted in his freedom to an extent that was
rather ludicrous than offensive. He became pompous in the
assertion of his equality with all men under the law and vulgar

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 119
in the ostentatious display of the wealth he so quickly acquired.
His house was furnished lavishly but with little taste, and he
imitated without discriminating judgment, the indulgences rather
than the essentials of polite society. Seeing society only on the
surface he was excusable for appreciating only its gloss and when,
as he thought, he had successfully acquired what he saw, he
speedily claimed to be a gentleman. He wore good clothes, lived
in a fine house, drove fine horses, frequented fashionable resorts,
gambled and dissipated as he daily saw gentlemen do, and in truth
believed himself one of the elect. His children were taught at
home to dress well and spend money, and at expensive rather
than efficient schools and under fashionable rather than com
petent masters acquired a desultory education without the benefit
of parental direction.
These children, who formed the second generation, grew up
with uncertain feelings towards their elders. They had been
taught to look with admiration to the polish rather than to the
true metal of society. Their minds had been filled with an exag
gerated idea of the importance of wealth and an underestimate
of the frugal methods by which it can alone be acquired with
safety. They naturally knew the English language, and derisively
laughed at the jargon of their seniors, and finally they were left
either without a thorough understanding of their religion, or
were so confused by the discords among theologians and the
ignorance of their parents, that they looked upon religion with
lofty unconcern or contempt.
In the good results of early religious training, in the domestic
virtues, in the faithful observance of the marriage vow, in the
practice of temperance and in physical development the second
generation was unquestionably behind the first. But on the
other hand, the child was born on free soil and wore his freedom
without effort; he was more manly and more scrupulous in his
dealings with the world. He was better educated, more refined,
more cultivated than his sire. His good clothes sat naturally
upon him; he knew what to do with and in his fine house, and
he learned that society makes polish, and that mere polish and
glitter do not make society. Many of them eschewed trade alto-

120 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
gether, and devoted themselves to literature, science and art.
They became actors, painters, musicians, lawyers, doctors and
chemists. Indeed they made a vast stride forward from the
position occupied by their immediate progenitors — without fully
covering the ground, however, between the starting point and the
goal. The second generation derided the vulgar claims of the
first, without appreciating that in kind but not in degree it was
guilty of a like presumption. But what of the third generation?
The seed has been planted, the grain waves green in the
fields- — what will the harvest be? '
We are the husbandmen, and upon us rests in the largest
measure the balance that shall be struck in the aftermath.
The influences that operate on every plant began with crea
tion. Climatic conditions and changes, seismic disturbances,
cyclones and tidal waves in ages long since forgotten, have all
in turn contributed some factor in the destiny of each seed that
is placed beneath the sod. But the immediate and almost con
trolling influence is the skill and energy of the farmer, who
studies the surrounding circumstances for lessons of wisdom to
overcome the almost numberless difficulties that occur between
sowing and garnering. The little ones who play about our knees,
who load our hearts with solicitude, yet lighten them of sorrows
— they compose the third generation. They are the tender plants
which we are charged with carrying to fruitful maturity. Upon
their lives influences have been at work from remotest ages, but
with us still rests the controlling force that shall shape their
careers. The harvest will depend upon the husbandman; and of us
it is thus spoken. Let us consider what we should aspire to do in
the premises and how our aspirations may be realized.
All parents whose natures are not abnormally corrupt, desire
the success of their offspring — but few are agreed as to what is
success. In the eyes of some it means wealth or power, or fame,
or learning, or several or all of these combined. By a minority
only, these are all but incidents in the careers of the young with
which heaven has blessed them. To them wealth, power, fame
and learning are glorious achievements indeed, but not the end

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 121
upon which their lofty gaze is fixed. Their ambition is to make
their children rise to the highest plane of manhood and woman
hood and deserve the praise which man and the favor which
God bestows upon true gentility. And what is true gentility?-
It is to achieve prosperity by honorable effort, to attain power
by the influence of spotless conduct, to gain fame by good works,
to acquire wisdom by the study of nature and of nature's God,
and above all to refine and elevate the spirit by thinking the pure
rather than the corrupt and by doing always the good and never
the evil. This it is to be the perfect gentleman or the perfect lady.
The father who toils to lay up riches for his sons and daugh
ters and trains them to guard and increase his store, ignoring or
slighting the nobler aims of life, performs a sorry service. He
gives them the power to satisfy their carnal appetites, but denies
them the ineffable sweets that are enjoyed even in poverty by
those who lead the intellectual and ethical life. And what
is power that is not based upon and guided by wisdom and love ;
or fame that does not attach to nobility of soul ; or learning that
leads not to Wisdom, and the practice of virtue ? They are all but
the outward trappings that at first dazzle the beholder only to
become grotesque and hideous when closer inspection reveals the
contrast with what is thus gaudily concealed.
If you would make your children successful, train them to
deserve success. If you would have them be rich, teach them not
only how to acquire riches, but how to use them. If you would
have them powerful, educate them to attain power for noble ends.
If you would have them learned, let their learning be so achieved
that it shall lead to the wisdom that so often lingers stubbornly
behind the course of knowledge. If you would make them suc
cessful, you must teach them to be happy, and to be happy they
must be honest, truthful, brave, upright, self-sacrificing and God
fearing. In a word, to be happy they must be virtuous. This
truth, though trite, cannot be too often repeated, for like most
truths it passes unchallenged and unappreciated, until at last it
dawns upon the mind that therein lies a treasure undiscovered
before. How shall the lofty ideal which I have pictured be realized?

122 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
What arts shall the husbandman employ to make the harvest
bountiful and good? I answer you with a truth as trite as the
one just mentioned — education. Educate the .body, educate the
mind, but above all educate the heart. I cannot present any
system of education in this disquisition, but I venture to suggest
that you become in some respects the teachers of your own chil
dren. Interest yourselves in their sports and pleasures. Take
part in them and give them such direction and scope that will pro
mote healthy physical development and divert the young minds
from defiling associations. Assist them in their studies and make
their labors agreeable rather than irksome. Stimulate their am
bitions by rewards and overcome their discouragements with
sympathy. Teach them by precept and example the nobility of
virtue. Nourish the sentiment so natural in children for the
true, the beautiful and good. Teach them self-denial, truthful
ness, honesty, courage, charity and piety. Let no incident, how
ever trivial, go by without making it leave upon their impres
sionable minds some lesson of wisdom or goodness.
Is this asking too much of fathers who have the cares of busi
ness, and of mothers occupied by the duties of housekeeping?
Perhaps so if the business or the house is to be set up as a fetich
to which the little ones are offered as sacrifices. But if you pursue
your occupation or keep your house for your children's sake, as
you should, then whenever one must suffer, spare the children.
Do not embellish a cage in which to imprison their natures ; do
not feed their stomachs with rich food and keep their minds and
hearts on starvation diet.
To paint the first and second generation has been a compara
tively easy task. To point the way for the third has not been
more difficult; but to foretell its fate would require the gift of
prophecy. I am, however, full of hope. Under normal or favor
able conditions the Jews have always advanced, and I anticipate
no exception here. The second generation has, in many material
respects, improved vastly on the first, and if we can only come
to see how far we are below the standard we should aspire to,
we will be better equipped to advance our children beyond our
selves. We are quick enough to recognize the difference between

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 123
ourselves and our immediate predecessors; but with that self-
complacency so common to all mortals, we are slow to find linger
ing in us many of the shortcomings of our ancestors, not to men
tion those that have been derived from our environments, not in
herited from our forefathers. If you would do your full duty
to your children, first learn to what extent you have failed in your
duty to yourself. Sum up your own qualities of head and heart,
and estimate in what degree you would have your children sur
pass you. Nor is this all. Study, in the light of your great re
sponsibilities, how you should demean yourself in order to bear
them with credit. Remember that children are imitative. Re
member that they will copy your faults as well as your virtues.
If you are indifferent about your religion, they, too, will be
indifferent, and without religion you cannot teach the only char
acter of morality worthy of respect. You may, indeed, without
religion teach honesty by pointing to the prison as the destiny
of thieves. You may teach regard for human life by taking
your children to a hanging; but if you would make them love
the right for the sake of the right, and not merely eschew the
wrong from fear of consequences, then you must instil into their
young minds and hearts the great principles underlying all re
ligions and furnished to them all by the Jews. Remember, too,
that if you would guard your children against race prejudice, you
and they must rise superior to it. You can no more escape
bigotry by shrinking from Jewish designations, habits, customs,
or religious practices than the ostrich can escape his pursuers
by burying his head in the sand. Be brave and teach your chil
dren courage. Do not obtrude your race or religion upon public
notice, but never withdraw them from the eye of friend or foe.
They are . here, parts of yourself, and you stamp yourself an
inferior whenever you shrink from the name or responsibilities
of your people or your creed. Nothing excites such contempt
and hatred as disloyalty. The military leader who profits by the
treachery of an enemy, while loving the treason despises the
traitor. It is true in every relation of life. The renegade is ever
abhorred. The renegade Jew is despised by all broad-minded

124 L&0 N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Gentiles and Jews for his disloyalty, while the fanatics who
induce his apostasy contemn him for having once been a Jew.
But there exists no occasion to warn Jews against apostasy.
It is not conversion to other religions so much as indifference to
our own that gives us pause. I foresee, however, a better era
in respect of this. The dissensions raging among theologians
are being settled or settling themselves. The mists are lifting
from the minds of the laymen, and they will rescue the essentials
of Judaism from the ruins made by mere destructionists. Out
of the chaos that reigns there will emerge the vital principles and
practices that have always made Judaism not only a great system
of philosophy, but also a matchless religion. See to it that you
do your part and direct aright the efforts of your children. Take
pride in your people and be a pride unto them. Do not despise
them lest you be despised of all men. Elevate your race through
yourself and your offspring, and look forward with hungry
ambition to the hour when it shall be recognized as a proud
distinction to be one of the chosen people. That hour, I con
fidently believe, can be and will be realized in America. With
all circumstances in favor of us, and native qualities that are
unrivalled, we shall progress surely upward from what we are
to what we should be, as rapidly as we have risen from what we
were to what we are. This is the mission of our children and our
children's children, and they, if not we, shall live to see the time
when, in the eyes of all men, no epitaph will contain such appar
ent and eloquent eulogy as the brief announcement, "Here sleeps
a true son of Israel." To deserve such lofty praise is greater
than to wear by right the richest crown that ever rested on a
royal head.

THE AMERICAN JEW.
Synopsis of address at a banquet given in honor of D. G. L. No.
7, I. O. B. B. at New Orleans, La.
It is a singular term. It carries with it no political associa
tion. When the American is found abroad and the estimate is
made of him by others, he stands as a representative of the
country, which is a kindergarten of liberty for all the world ; he
exemplifies the spirit meant by Grover Cleveland when he said,
in opening the "World's Fair," that this was the country which
made men. Gladstone paid tribute to the country of 3,000,000
men which framed an organic law to withstand the test of time,
and said it must have been an inspiration from God. A civiliza
tion has been builded here, which despite the sneers of Europe,
has brought all nations to the feet of Columbia paying tribute.
This inestimable liberty should be guarded against anything
which might impair its beauty and its strength. It is a country
of refuge, but those who seek refuge here must not only eat of
the bread of America, but partake also of American doctrines.
He is proud of being an American, but he has another lineage,
not inconsistent with the other, of which he was equally proud.
If there was inspiration in the American constitution, how much
more inspiration must there have been in the code written
thousands of years ago, only a few hundred words, which fitted
then, has never failed to fit, and will fit for all time. The Jew
gave the Decalogue as the foundation of civilization.
The Jew is the nobleman of all time, whose lineage goes back
before written history to traditions, which all men admit be
cause all men know them to be true. But today he claims Amer
ican citizenship as his proudest title, next only to that of
"American Jew." Four hundred years ago the Jews were ex-
125

126 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
pelled from Spain. Four hundred years ago America was dis
covered, and here he has found freedom of conscience and of
action. He has become an American citizen and intends to
remain one, claiming of the blessed mother of liberty those
blessings bestowed by her upon those who deserve it. He of
fered to her the testimonial of obedience to law and charity ir
respective of creed. When the persecuted Jew comes to these
shores the Jews already here could promise that he would be
come no burden, breed no disorder, renounce all allegiance to
other countries and devote himself to acquiring the principle of
citizenship. The children the members had seen today, were the
hostages that the Jews would rear, good citizens: the race and
the religion would never become objects of barter.
The speaker contrasted the expulsion of the Jews from Russia
and their reception in America, and they, have been casting aside
their disability, so as also to deserve the title of the "American
Jew." He called attention to the twin article in the North
American Review upon the "Sweating" system, which spoke of
the victory won in New York. It was because the laborers
were Jews, Russian Jews, and the article said that it was because
of their "dignity of endurance and courage to abide by the law"
that they won their fight against capital. He repeated his
own experiences with the immigrants, who were given the
declaration of independence and the American constitution
translated into their jargon. A week later they returned
with questions as to certain points in the constitution,
showing that they had really begun the study of the American
doctrine. There is talk of a German vote, and an Irish vote,
but never of a Jewish vote. Judaism was a faith which would
not suffer the indignity of political speculation. New York is
a close state and in 1896 there will be 60,000 Jewish votes in
New York City. If manipulated as a whole it might settle the
question of the presidency, but such a matter would be as im
possible as quenching the sun with a glass of water. The Baron
Hirsch relief committee is made up of men prominent in both
political parties, and if one of them were to attempt such a
thing he would be ostracized from his fellows and his plan de-

THE AMERICAN JEW. 127
stroyed. The Jewish people is a people capable of learning
something and forgetting much, taking care of the poor, build
ing up such structures as this asylum, making new citizens of
outcast orphans, making them men for soldiers and citizens, and
women for wives, and they can hurl back with defiance the
charge of Chandler that they are not entitled to become Ameri
can citizens.
The future should be judged by the past. The Jews of today
came here fifty years ago much the same as the Russian refugees,
and have done much for themselves and their country. They
have upheld commerce on land and sea, promoted science and
art, advanced in literature and have been loyal to the common
wealth in peace and in war. Somebody said the Jew was not a
soldier. When the roll was called, more Jews were found on
the side of the Confederacy alone than the proportion of Jews
to the population of the entire country. If the men on either
side were asked they would say that they met Jews doing duty
in the face of danger. There was nothing to be ashamed of
in the record, and he prophesied that the handful of American
Jews here today with their hands uplifted by their American
co-workers of other faiths, would lead to the same place the Rus
sian outcast, so that when the enemies of the Jews went upon
the hilltops and looked upon the industrious Jewish emigrants
in the fertile valleys below they would exclaim, "How beautiful
are thy tents, Oh, Jacob ; thy tabernacles, Oh Israel !"

ORGANIZED CHARITIES.
Address delivered by Mr. Leo. N. Levi at the Annual Meeting
of the United Hebrew Charities.
Certainly there is no greater cause than that which has
brought us together here to-night, and I am impressed with the
conviction that no man should allow the promotion of that cause
to suffer in the slightest degree by any lust for glory or fame.
And I believe that the few thoughts that I have to express will be
more effective if, in an informal way, they come to you, not as
the utterances of some wiseacre speaking downward from the
platform, but as the thoughts of a co-worker in the ranks, ad
dressed to his co-workers, with the design to provoke thought
and excite discussion, in order to reach the truth. This cause,
in which we are enlisted requires science rather than art; ideas
more than words; and ideas only as impulses to achievement.
I say it calls for science rather than art, because there is no
department of human activity that requires more to be reduced
to a scientific basis than the administration of charity. It has
been said here to-night incidentally that it is no longer an open
question that charity should be organized; but I cannot concede
the accuracy of the statement when I am confronted as I have
been, here and everywhere else throughout this country, with the
short list of subscribers to organized charities. If the conviction
that charity should only be administered through organization
were general and widespread, we could only account for the
paucity of subscribers by assuming the want of a charitable
impulse among our co-religionists. It is not true that that im
pulse is wanting. If anything, it exists too strongly, but is too
little subject to the control of reason. There is too much of that
indiscriminate personal benefaction, which has been so aptly
termed by Bishop Potter "the help that hurts."
128

ORGANIZED CHARITIES. 129
It is necessary, therefore, for this and kindred organizations
not to assume that it is the consensus of opinion that charity
should be administered only through organization.
Let me assure you, from a wide experience, that it is yet
necessary to do missionary work in that direction, and to educate
the people, and the whole people, to a perfect understanding that
charity has two aspects ; one emotional, the other intellectual. It
must proceed from an emotional impulse to do good, it must be
directed by an intellectual process that will guarantee the thing
desired. And there are still further lessons, the fruit of which
must be carried into effect, not only in individual good work,
but in corporate good work. Among such lessons is, that all
charity must proceed along lines that take no account of self;
that the pleasure of the giver, the fame of the giver, the rewards
of the giver, shall receive no consideration at all, or if any, in a
minor degree; that the great desideratum is effectiveness in the
interest of those in whose behalf charity is exhorted.
I hope I make that clear. I would I had the power to make
it as clear as it appears to me, that if there be merit in the charity
that is done for the pleasure that is extracted from it by the
giver, it is not possessed of that character of loftiness, of purity,
which attaches to charity that takes no account of self, that looks
not for the thrill of pleasure when the tear is dried and the groan
is stilled, but is done in response to that small still voice of con
science embodied in our religion from time immemorial, that
from him who hath a surplus there shall come to him who hath
not, the tithe that is in payment of a debt. I read the other day
in the list of contributors to this organization the initials of
some one unknown, "in payment of my tithe," and it excited in
me a thrill of admiration. I looked forward then, as I do now,
to the time when I may grasp the hand that penned those initials,
and say I have found one man who has avowedly done his
charity as the payment of an obligation, recognizing it as a duty.
I have been told by my learned friends of the cloth — and I
always get my religious and biblical learning at second hand
from them— that there is no Hebrew word for charity, but that
the word we use implies righteousness, signifying that whoever

130 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
possesses more than a sufficiency for his own needs is in justice
bound to assist those who have not sufficient; that a man in
respect to his surplus has a trust, and he is not at liberty to
dispose of that trust according to his liking, but only as befits the
welfare of the beneficiaries of the trust.
And so I have said before, and I say now, that a charity ill-
bestowed is a sin, for the bestowal of alms upon one who is un
worthy is the corresponding denial of charity to one who is not.
And it shall be no sufficient excuse for any man to say, "I was
governed by a good intention." Your duty requires, not only
that your intention must be good, but that your intelligence must
be good ; and if it be not sufficient to solve the problem, turn over
your contribution to those who are wiser than you. If these
lessons be taught, and taught intelligently to the people, there
will come many good results, not only in that we shall minimize
the "help that hurts," but in that we shall magnify the help that
helps, and we will strengthen the organizations that are inaugu
rated and conducted along scientific lines.
I purposely use the word scientific. It has been used here
to-night repeatedly in the interesting reports read, as if the work
that is being performed in the field of charity had already reached
a high scientific plane. I do not want to quarrel with anybody
who holds to that view, but for myself, I think it does better credit
to our intelligence to confess we are in the initial stages of that
science. I believe my statement will not be challenged when I
say that charity in this day is a branch of political economy, and,
I want to add, that, in my opinion, political economy is nothing
but common sense applied to big operations. How far have we
progressed in the development of that science ? Be it understood
that it is not the creation of any one man's brain, but the birth of
experience; that it has been extracted from the happenings that
come under our daily ken.
Scientific charity is of recent Birth. Let us study our diffi
culties rather than our triumphs to the end that the triumphs of
the future will surpass the triumphs of the past.
I referred to the fact that the list of regular contributors to
organized charity is a very short one. I am well advised of the

ORGANIZED CHARITIES. 131
conditions elsewhere, and I have learned that the conditions here
are not dissimilar. If you take into consideration the fact that
but a small percentage of the population is in need of charity,
you must realize that a very large percentage is able to bestow
charity. And if you compare the number who are able to bestow
charity with the number who bestow it, through an organization,
you will be amazed and shocked at the inevitable conclusion that
only a small percentage of our people do charity. Perhaps this
evil condition arises from the want of co-operation and sympathy
between those commonly known as the better class and those
commonly known as the lower class of our people, a distinction
which I do not think I am too critical when I say is largely de
pendent upon that legend by which we indicate the unit of value.
The result of that want of co-operation and sympathy is that the
poor man — the man in modest circumstances — does not feel
obliged to give his mite to the alleviation of want in others, and a
greater burden is imposed upon the rich. And this is evil in
more ways than one. It is evil in that when the burden becomes
too great, recalcitrancy follows. It is evil in this that if our poor
or our people in modest circumstances are not actively engaged
in the administration of charities to which they contribute, they
are denied the uplifting influence of benefaction, to him who
bestows. And the whole community is denied the benefit of their
subscription, their practical assistance, their surveillance in the
very districts where we suffer most from imposition and chi
canery. .
My judgment is, that even though it entails trouble, untold
trouble, and I know it will, no effort should be spared to make
the entire community, rich and poor — each according to his
means — contribute to the alleviation of suffering and want, so
that whatever our differences in religion, in politics, in social
standing, in wealth, in culture, or refinement, in the doing of
good, each according to the measure of his power, there should
be one level platform upon which every Jew can stand. And
there will flow from that union of effort the ultimate and finest
achievement of science in charity which has been well exemplified
in this great metropolis by the organization whose silver jubilee

132 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
we are assembled to celebrate to-night. Because, when all the
people are working to a common end, there will be one ideal in
charity work which, has always been so far and yet so dear, and
that is a scientific administration of Jewish charities modeled
upon a high form of government.
The need for the United Hebrew Charities brought it into
existence, and that need was, the evils that preceded it.
The report that was read here to-night, like the report of
every organized charity I have ever been made familiar with,
contained a plea for funds, a plea for moral support, a plea for
personal activity, and it should always be so — it indicates a
healthy condition. But let me call your attention to this: When
the list of subscribers to all these institutions is limited in num
bers, and burdens come to a point when the back cannot stand an
additional pound of weight, it is wise to consider if we cannot do
that which is most required and most urgent first. And that can
only be done by having a parliament or clearing house. In a
well organized government, at the beginning of every fiscal
period a budget is made in which there must be wise distribution
,of the revenues to the various departments thereof, so that the
most important shall not suffer by pampering the less important.
That is the highest expression of statesmanship. Shall we not
in the administration of our charities consider what revenues we
can expect to come from our people, and in what avenues these
revenues should be directed? Herein lies the highest essential
and highest strength of your organization; to demand the help
of every man, woman, and child in this community who has any
thing to give in the way of money, sympathy or effort in the
cause of charity.
With the dissipation of effort and division of energies — and
traveling sometimes along parallel lines and thus wasting energies
that should have been directed otherwise — there come troubles
that only an intelligent clearing house such as this can avoid.
•That idea can be extended still further and should be to the end
that we should not furnish niches of fame for ambitious men by
unnecessarily multiplying organizations. We should conserve

ORGANIZED CHARITIES.

133

our energies and direct them straight at the target of want. And
how can that be done?
To bring that about let us not refuse to go into associations
that are distasteful to us. Let me assure you that no great good
is accomplished in anything unless sacrifice precedes its achieve
ment. And if it becomes necessary to communicate with those
be'ow you in the social scale to bring about their co-operation in
money, time, in sympathy, and in effort, I say you owe that
sacrifice to the poor and suffering as well as the money you un
grudgingly give. There is nothing so becoming the lofty station
as humility, just as nothing so becomes the lowly station as pride.
If those who by the blessing of Providence have reached a high
plane will stoop in charity to those on a lower plane, those on the
lower plane will be ambitious to reach a higher plane themselves.
And in this we can make charity as noble and effective as when
we give a crust of bread to the hungry or clothe the naked.
I am admonished by the lateness of the hour that I must not
linger longer upon a subject so dear to me and upon which at a
more appropriate season I hope to deliver the message I have
in mind. The lesson to be learned, is in brief, that we should
all learn and teach, that we are not paying our debts, by in
discriminately bestowing charity, that we should avail ourselves
of the opportunities that present themselves in a long established,
well conducted and absolutely needed institution, and especially
in one that exercises a wholesome supervisory influence over all
and accomplishes much against those evils the prevalence of
which brought this institution into being.
These are lessons to be learned from this occasion, more
valuable than the thrill of pleasure that follows a compliment,
more valuable because they will lead to something good to be
accomplished in the future, rather than to the ecstatic contempla
tion of something done in the past. I do not appeal to you to
carry it to your homes and to your hearts. I demand it, not in
my name, not in the name of this organization. I demand it
in your name, as the duty that you owe to yourselves, the duty
that you inherited from your ancestors, the "noblesse oblige" of
the Jews.

LET WOMAN WITNESS.
History is replete with occasions when, because of unique
conditions a commonplace utterance has made an enduring im
pression; when commonplace men became effective agents for
good. The studied words of the wise often fall like cinders in
a marsh, expiring as they fall; while sometimes the rude ex
pressions of a clown, though containing but a spark of truth,
start a conflagration. In olden times the birth of a male child
to a Jewish mother was dignified by the remote possibility that
he might prove to be the Messiah.
These observations are offered by way of apology for ventur
ing, even in the most unpretentious way, to discuss a religious
theme in public. As a rule such discussion should be left to those
specially fitted therefor. In departing from that rule, I do so
with misgivings, yet hopeful that I may, in a small way, pro
mote a great cause by making a plea for Religion. Not an
argument, not an apology, not a defense, but a plea. I do not
venture on the domain of either science or theology, for of these
it may be truly said "fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
It however requires neither scientist or theologian to see how
pervasive are immorality and crime, and to measure these by
the decadence of religion. It was in former generations, if it
is not now, accepted as a current truth, that morality and right
eousness followed always in the wake of education. It was as
sumed that when the windows of the intellect were opened to
the light of knowledge, the warmth of virtue would enter the
soul. But there has come a disillusionment. Open windows
admit both light and warmth at times, but as often if not oftener,
sacrifice warmth for light. The world has grown in enlighten
ment faster than in virtue; indeed one is almost driven at times
to the gloomy conviction that virtue abounds most where en
lightenment sheds but feeble rays.
134

LET WOMAN WITNESS. , 1 35
I should be unwilling to advance that as a deliberate con
viction, but without misgivings I assert that enlightenment with
out religion is a factitious and unstable support for morality.
It is safe to say that in the decalogue is to be found a com
prehensive moral code; certainly so, if it be supplemented with
the Mosaic command "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
The civilization that is not based on that code is not sound;
unless they draw therefrom their inspiration, manhood is not at
once stalwart. And gentle womanhood is not free and pure.
And what if anything can make that code the controlling
influence upon conduct?
The skeptic will answer that the fear of public opinion and
of public law alone controls the conduct of those who are not
governed by superstitious fears; or that the mind of man has
painfully and slowly spelled out the code, as the dictate of wis
dom, supported by reason and sanctioned by almost universal
acceptance. The religious person even though not pious will say that the
code ought, of right, and in fact does, truly enter into life be
cause it is the Divine Law. To this last view I hold. Religion
occupies different planes, and to reach the highest one must
be devout and pious, as well as religious ; but the religious spirit
abides in the hearts and. is reflected in the lives of many who,
if not pious and devout, esteem themselves, not more, but less,
on that account. For the purposes of this consideration it is
not important to draw fine distinctions between grades of loyalty
to religion. What I insist on is, that unless virtue is regarded
as the mandate of God, its practice cannot be widespread, per
sistent or enduring. However well we fortify ourselves against
temptations, the enemy will break through at times, but when
Faith in Heaven is not among the defenders, then is resistance
weak indeed. A man cannot exist without air, food and water ;
he cannot develop his physical powers without exercise. This
is true now and it always has been. Why? The answer of
science is that the law of man's being so decrees— but this is
but another method of saying because it is the will of God.
Man does not reach his true moral development except by

I36 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
observing the code to which I have adverted. He never has.
Why? Again without circumlocution the answer is because it
is the Law of God. Man never has attained anything like even
an approximate observance of that code, save under the influence
of a religion which recognized a Supreme Power possessed of
Infinite attributes, making and revealing laws which as far as
understood were believed to be perfect, and whether understood
or not were accepted as authoritative.
If this statement be true, it furnishes an irresistible argument
that religion is a necessity of man's moral being and therefore
a Divine Law.
I assume that no one will question the validity of the moral
code contained in the ten commandments and the golden rule
of Moses. Men differ as to its origin, but not as to its merit.
Whence does it derive its sanction? Is it from common
consent? Or to express the same thought differently, from
public opinion ? If so, this public opinion makes the code moral,
and can also unmake it. It follows that it is not immoral to
be a polygamist in Turkey ; it was not immoral to steal in Sparta ;
it was not immoral to sacrifice human life to public sport in
Rome ; to burn Jews at the stake in the Middle Ages.
On the other hand, this code if always recognized and ac
cepted by public opinion, is a remarkable exception, for all other
mere creations of the human mind are constantly being modified
or altered. If this code has escaped the thirst for change it is
because it has the same authority behind it which makes food,
air and water necessities of life. Men may quarrel about the
origin of the law, but when the law itself is assailed the assault
is led and followed only by mental or moral perverts.
The same argument applies to the suggestion that human
law requires observance of the salient features of this code, and
human government enforces it. This suggestion is not more
than fractionally true and even if it were wholly so, what be
comes of the code if governmental law comes in opposition
thereto? If England, Germany, France and the United States
should unite in passing laws to legalize theft, perjury, adultery
and murder, would it be less wrong to commit these sins than

LET WOMAN WITNESS. I37
it is now? Nay! if all the world should unite in resolutions
and laws, that these things were virtues instead of wrongs,
would their moral nature change by reason of such resolutions
and laws? And if not, why not? Because the Right and the
Wrong are not measured by what Man says or does or thinks
about them. Men may weave webs of words and cloud the sub
ject, but in the end the mind cannot escape the conclusion that
unless it be because God commands, there is no more inherent
wrong in theft, perjury, adultery or murder, than in smuggling
or carrying on a business without a license.
The virtue that has no higher inspiration than fear of the
law or public opinion, is not entitled to the name. The same
may be said of the virtue that is based only on considerations
of policy. Whenever subjected to a crucial test it fails and
proves itself a counterfeit.
It is difficult if not unfair to support this proposition by
comparison of one nation with another, or of men differently
situated. The superiority of one or the inferiority of another
may be attributable to other conditions. But if we find people
similarly situated, having the same environment, enjoying com
mon joys, and suffering common sorrows, and discover marked
differences in their moral qualities, we may also discover evi
dence for or against the influence of Religion or Morality. And
so I call Woman to witness.
Women are not inherently better or worse than men. The
savage woman is as cruel and ferocious as her mate and submits
to his rule, not upon principle, but in deference only to his
superior physical strength. The women of Greece compared
indifferently with the men. They were regarded and treated
as inferiors, esteemed chiefly for their physical charms. Aspasia
shines forth as perhaps the greatest of Greek women and her
claim to greatness must be confined to her beauty and intellect
and cannot be extended to her virtues. The women of Rome
devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasure in its most odious
aspects. In the circus they looked on brutal and indecent sports
with unflinching eyes, and to the questioning glance of the
triumphant gladiator made answer with the thumb sign of death.

I38 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
In the Saturnalia and Lupanarium the noblest dames of Rome
were chief actors, losing no caste by engaging in public de
bauches, which would now be suppressed by law in even a semi-
civilized country. Patrician ladies whose husbands were heads
of government, commanders of armies, judges, painters, poets
and scholars — the very cream of society, paraded their own
iniquity and sneered at the eccentric univirae.
In Paris during the 18th century the upper classes set aside
the controlling influence of Religion, and in the decadence which
followed the women went to greater lengths than- the men. In
intrigue, treachery, deception, openly scandalous conduct, and
even crime, the women were willing partners or rivals of the
men. It is needless to multiply historical citations to prove that
when neither sex is restrained from wrong-doing by Religion,
the women become at least as wicked as the men.
I think it equally true that when men and women are alike
influenced by Religion, the virtues of men compare favorably
with those of the gentler sex. The truly religious man is as
well fortified against temptation as is his fair sister, and in
honor, fortitude, gentleness and mercy testifies to the uplifting
influence which makes him fearless of men and fearful of God.
But in this age the sexes are not equally influenced by Re
ligion. The men are neither as pious or as religious as the
women. As a rule they do not attend divine services, they do
not pray or worship in public or private. So engrossed are they
by the cares of business that they devote no time or thought to
the relations between themselves and their Creator. If they
affiliate with churches it is too often in a perfunctory way and
because it is still regarded as good form. Not only is this all
true, but beyond this is the deplorable fact that men commonly
sneer at religion and deride.it as a lot of superstitious humbug,
fit only for women and" children. And strangely enough they
as a rule are quite content to subject their women and children
to the very humbug which they regard as noxious.
On the other hand if the women of this age are not as a
rule religious, they are not indifferent to or contemptuous of it.
They do not decry it or speak of it save with respectful defer-

LET WOMAN WITNESS. 139
ence. They frequently if not regularly attend worship, and al
most unfailingly bring themselves in touch with their Maker
by prayer. If these premises be correct, the relative virtues of the sexes
will indicate if not measure the power of Religion. To that
power, working for the glorification of God and the betterment
of mankind, let Woman witness.
Recur to the commandments and compare our women with
our men. She, as a rule, is devout. She does not blaspheme.
She does not commit deeds of violence. She does not bear false
witness. She is honest. She is chaste. She is a good daughter,
a faithful wife, a self-sacrificing mother. She is compassionate
and merciful. She softens pain and solaces grief. She delights
in good deeds. With the graces of her heart she makes gentle
what is savage in man and leads her offspring from what is
debasing to what is pure. She is strong in her virtues and
trusted on account thereof.
And what of the men? Can it be said of them that in like
degree with women of the same social station, they are free of
the sins and shortcomings which denote unrighteousness? Are
they as clear in speech and thought, as truthful and honest
in deeds, as loyal, as brave in suffering, as resigned in sorrow,
as tender to the afflicted, as merciful to the downcast, as true to
their domestic obligations.?
Who can doubt the answer to such questions?
From every Judge on the Bench, from every officer of jus
tice, from every minister of the gospel, from every observer and
student of our civilization there must come the same testimony,
that in morals, in the sweetness and light of human nature, our
women are on a higher plane than our men.
Our women are in a measure free ; our men are in a bondage
self-imposed. The exactions of a bizarre life, the pace that kills, the mad
rush for wealth, the cringing to greater power and the oppres
sion of weakness, are links in the chains with which the modern
man has fettered himself. Manacled as he is, his nature shrivels

140 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
and hardens. He is becoming more and more mind and matter,
and less and less, heart and soul.
That women partake in a measure of his sordid appetites
and aspirations is not surprising. She could not escape alto
gether the corrupting and corroding influence of such associa
tion. That she has not become as bad as the men, is due only
to the fact that she has kept at least a low light burning on the
altar. From it she draws hope, courage and inspiration.
By it she learns that there is something in life besides,
and better than power, riches or fame. It teaches her humility
instead of pride; deference instead of arrogance; resignation
instead of revolt. There is for her more wealth in her Bible
than in her bank book; more power in the love of friends than
in the fear of enemies; more glory in an approving conscience
than in the plaudits of the multitude.
It would be an exaggeration to claim all this for all or even
the majority of women. The ideal is seldom attained and even
those who strive hardest to attain it exhibit infirmities of char
acter. But I do claim with confidence that the lofty ideals are
appreciated, studied, aspired to and striven 'for with fidelity,
persistency and success chiefly by those who are Religious. To
this let woman witness.
And now what shall we deduce from the argument. The
reciprocal influences exerted by the sexes on each other make
for good and for evil. Doubtless the religious tendency of
women exercises a salutary effect on men and conversely the
worldliness of men operates to lower the tone of woman's finer
nature. If men would but recognize the merits of Religion
and refrain from assailing it, it would be less difficult for women
to uphold it; if women would more aggressively stand for Re
ligion, men would not only cease their assaults but would more
generally come under its influence. If men wish to encourage
the highest and best qualities of the wife, the mother, the daugh
ter and the son, they must encourage these to be religious. If
the women wish their husbands to be models for their sons and
their sons to follow in the footsteps of worthy sires, they must
lead them to prayer.

LET WOMAN WITNESS. 141
Now it is, as in the past it has been, the mission of women
to lead their little ones to the altar, there to learn to know, to
love and to obey their Creator. Let them also break down de
rision and contempt and by sweet persuasion lead their husbands
and brothers too. Her power to do this will be denied or ridi
culed. But what of that? Time was when men gravely dis
puted as to whether women had souls. Only, in recent centuries
has she been looked upon as anything but a superior chattel.
She was not esteemed worthy to think on serious subjects or
pursue bread-winning avocations. She has proven her power
against tremendous odds. She will in the future continue to
testify in her own behalf.
In the past she has struggled to make herself man's equal.
She has in morals so far surpassed him, that her next great
mission is to make manlier equal. This is the demand upon her
powers. That she is equal to the task I have no doubt she
will give abundant testimony.

ADDRESS OF LEO N. LEVI AT THE LAYING
OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE NEW
JEWISH. WIDOWS' AND ORPHANS'
HOME AT NEW ORLEANS, 1886.
My Friends:
We are making history today. We are performing the initial
act in the erection of a structure that I trust, and confidently
believe, will endure in strength and usefulness long after we
shall have surrendered the burdens of this life, to assume the
unknown responsibilities of another existence.
The history of an age can only be correctly written during the
ages that follow when the pen of the historian is free from con
temporary passion or bias. Our age can claim no immunity
from the operation of this general and universally accepted rule.
The true estimate of our time is in the future and we can only
speculate on the verdict which will be rendered by the generations
to follow us. What will that verdict be?
I am no pessimist, but I cannot overcome the conviction that
mingled with the vast progress of our time, there will be found
elements of retrogression and decay. We have seen, it is true,
the invention of the steam engine, the telegraph, the improved
printing press, the railroad and a thousand other contributors
to man's comfort, but we must not be blind to the fact that we
have also produced the most destructive agencies ever known and
that their abuse is not subject to control. Moreover, if we have
rapid transit and quick communication, free education and cheap
literature, we have also increasing international complications,
immense public expenditures, heavy taxation, popular discontent,
agrarian agitation and the ever threatening commune.
If wealth has increased, it has become unhappily distributed
as to make a few powerful and overbearing, while the multitude
grown desperate in suffering, turn to anarchy as a relief from
142

LAYING OF CORNER STONE 143
a condition that they despair of otherwise alleviating. The his
torian who shall write of our times will overlook none of these
factors and we may well fear the judgment they will induce. May
it not be, that in our progress, we have held the torch of truth so
close to nature's face that we have burned away her fairest fea
tures? But if there be much evil to chronicle there shall not
be wanting material for bright pages in the narrative. In mak
ing up the history of ancient peoples, we rely not upon the written
evidence of events, manners, thoughts and character, but we look
as well to monuments, public buildings, architecture in its various
forms, and to a vast number of other sources that silently but un
erringly expound the truth. The pyramids of Egypt, the Acrop
olis at Athens, the Coliseum at Rome themselves speak history, in
mute but impressive eloquence. The future will treat the present
as we do the past, and I can fancy in the remote ages to come,
when as the result of revolutions which we cannot now foresee,
all the conditions of our present civilization have been radically
changed, the historian will resort to such materials to make up
his verdict on our times. My friends, we are building a monu
ment that shall serve him and us in that hour.
If the gaudy palaces of the rich shall tell of vice and pleasure
indulged at the price of human misery, there shall also be found
with the impress of this age upon their crumbling and moss-cov
ered walls unnumbered sanctuaries to speak of a charitable people,
offering tribute to the God of mercy. Such monuments are every
where among us. Throughout the length and breadth of this our
common country eleemosynary institutions of every kind, richly
endowed and ably conducted, uplift their sightly forms. Certainly
not less so than in the past, is the spirit of selfishness prevalent
among the people of this age. Perhaps by reason of the changed
conditions of life, if that spirit has not grown, it has had freer
play, but traveling alongside of it, and with unwearied step, is
the liberal spirit which makes our charities munificient and the
intelligent energy which makes them effective.
There seems to be a divine law of compensation which invests
every man and every age with some saving virtue. Thus the
darkness of the feudal ages is relieved by the brilliancy of that

144 LEO N- LEV1 MEMORIAL VOLUME
extravagant, but admirable chivalry that alone saved Europe
from absolute barbarism.
Ours is an age of selfish strife. The acquisition of wealth and
power is the universal ambition and to gratify which the most
questionable agencies are employed. To the philosophic or re
flecting observer there would appear to be in progress a barbarous
conflict among brothers, over an heritage ample for all if not
wasted in struggle, but the din of the battle, fierce though it be,
is not always heard. There are intervals when the combatants
rest from the fatigue of the fray and a temporary silence falls
upon the field. Then it is that the voice of the weak and suffering
gains audience. Then it is that the divine elements of man
become ascendant. Then it is that foemen cast down their arms
and unite in succoring the distressed. This is the saving virtue
of our time, and if the age of chivalry be dead indeed, it has
left as a legacy this cherished truth, that the bravest heart to
meet a foe, is soonest moved to pity.
My friends, we are making history today. The representatives
of seven great commonwealths are here assembled to assist in the
solemn ceremonies of this hour. The occupations of our daily
lives, our individual cares, our enmities, our private interests,
have all been laid aside, to the end that we might each share
in the beginning of an asylum for those helpless ones whom we
have volunteered to protect. Let us not be guilty of vainglorious
boasting, but let us at the same time feel better and nobler in the
reflection that herein we turn to the light the brightest side of
human nature.
The nature of man is like unto the face of the earth. On the
summit of the snow covered mountain, whose bleak and aspiring
peak is shrouded in impenetrable mists ; in the desert whose
waterless wastes have no alternation for quiet save in the dismal
cry of savage brutes ; on the storm beaten bosom of the sea, there
is sublimity but not beauty, but when gentle hills with verdant
slope lead to greener vales, when valleys teem with birds and
flowers, and the ocean heaves lazily under blue skies, we are
moved to softer emotions, and so with man.
In cold selfishness, silent hate, or noisy passion man may be

LAYING OF CORNER STONE I45
grand ; but he is only loveable in benevolence, justice and charity.
It is to these phases of human nature, as exhibited in our times,
that our contemporaries are erecting monuments in the shape of
charitable institutions. It is to these phases of our natures that
we are building this monument, and it is in that sense that I say
we are making history today. But, my friends, we are making
history not only as contemporaries, not only as Americans, not
only as Southerners, but as members of that wonderful tribe of
Israel whose crown of glory is its mission to endure with patience
and by sufferance to teach the word of God. We are making
history as component parts of the American Jews, whose wander
ing and blistered feet have found a hospitable welcome here,
where the constitution of a free and enlightened people guaran
teeing equal rights to all men before the law, touches and exalts
the persecuted heart like a divine benediction.
When the solid structure that we are about to erect along with
all surroundings shall lie crumbling prostrate before the great de
stroyer, when moss and ivy shall bandage the unsightly wound
that time has made and the curious traveler shall brush aside the
vine and chase the lurking serpent from this stone, what emo
tions shall be aroused in his bosom ? Shall he not stand in amaze
ment to muse over that ever recurring and never answered prob
lem of the Jew ? Let us today as befitting this occasion, briefly
consider what shall perhaps pass in review before him.
For centuries the Jews have endured in Europe and Asia a
series of persecutions unparalleled in the history of any other
people and which no other people could have survived. From
peasant to sovereign the Gentiles courted the favor of heaven by
the oppression of a devoted race and cruelty to the helpless Jew
was offered up as a virtuous tribute to the God that Israel gave
them. By the laws of almost every nation, by the customs almost
of every country, by the prejudices of every class, they were made
to wear the badge of inferiority, until the degradation heaped
upon them became an assimilated, but unnatural element of their
character. In Ghettos and Judengassen, in the lowest walks of
life to which they were confined, the plastic but indestructible
nature of the Jew partook of its environment, so that when the

I46 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
nineteenth century civilization sought to/ invest him with social
and political liberty, he was apparently unfitted to receive it. Nor
were they offered, save in a niggard spirit, by any but the young
nation, one irrefragable support of whose greatness is the unre
stricted right of worship according to the dictates of our own
conscience. The Jews along with other suffering people re
sponded to invitation offered by America. From Europe mainly
and largely within the past two generations there has been an
influx of Jews to our American shores, so that today about five
per cent of the Jews in the world acknowledge and pay allegiance
to the Stars and Stripes.
In the nature of things, the immigrants, while to a large extent
composed of adventurers, rather than desperate spirits, were in
the main made up of the most needy, illiterate, unpolished and
unsavory classes. Those who possessed a respectable measure of
comfort at home, rarely, if ever, sought enlarged privileges in
a distant country where the language, customs and laws were all
strange. There are today about 300,000 Jews in the United
States, composed almost exclusively of such immigrants as I have
described and their descendants within the third generation.
What should be the status of this people today ? Has this
country done wisely to invite the scum of Europe and Asia to
infest this land and madly riot in the privileges here extended?
Has the result justified the experiment of the general invitation
extended by the United States to the peoples of the world which
has borne such a variety of fruit? The refuge offered to the per
secuted and down-trodden has also been utilized by the scum of
Europe and Asia and the conservative mind is filled with misgiv
ings as to the result. The fathers of our country projected an
experiment in liberty, the wisdom of which may well be doubted
in the light of its development. I do not, however, propose to
discuss that question here, and I only mention it, in order, that
I may consider it in relation to our own people. If others have
imposed tyranny by virtue of the power derived of liberties en
joyed, no such charge can be laid at our doors.
The Jews have accepted freedom in good faith and for them
I say the privileges extended have not been abused. For them I

LAYING OF CORNER STONE I47
dare to say, to the amazement of a wondering world, here under
a beneficent government, we have risen in two generations from
appalling degradation to the full stature of American manhood.
I speak advisedly of the amazement of the world. Where can
any history, save perhaps that of our people, point to another case
of a down-trodden, persecuted, reviled and debased people who
have risen so speedily from the slime of the marsh to the pure
atmosphere of the hill tops? But perchance it will be said, I
claim too much ; that zeal has carried me to extravagance, the
alluring ante-room of falsehood. Let us therefore briefly can
vass the evidence :
The Jews came here poor ; they have grown rich. They were
illiterate ; today their children and grandchildren flock to the
highest seats of learning and bear away honors awarded to merit
They were uncultured, niggard and rude ; today they build stately
houses and fill them with rarest works of art. They came as
peddlers, butchers and swineherds; today they follow every pro
fession and vocation with credit.
They were indifferent to the government and its institutionsj
today they are patriots, and above aid and what is most germain
to this occasion, they take from their substance with unmeasuring
hand and bestow it in intelligent charity.
The truth of all these claims is so apparent that "he who
runs may read." It will be profitable, however, to examine some
what more closely into the charities of our people, and I ask your
indulgence while I present a few eloquent figures.
Thte is but a passing summary of the record and yet it speaks
a volume. No achievements in peace or war can testify so elo
quently to a people's virtue as the charities they accomplish. Nor
have our charities, as we have seen, been confined to our own
people. In every hamlet and metropolis when calamity of public
or private nature is called to popular attention, the Jew is ever
ready and foremost with his contribution. As the flower ex
presses in perfume its gratitude for fresh air and nourishing sun
shine, so the Israelite voices his thanks for freedom in the charity
he bestows. And could our grateful hearts find sweeter utterance
than in the "mercy which blesses him that gives as well as him
that receives?"

I48 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
It is by our progress, our culture, our education, our obedience
to law, our probity and above all by our good works that we are
discharging our debt to the country which has enabled us to
develop our natures, and I rejoice in it, both as a Jew and as an
American. I rejoice in the conviction that were Columbia to call
the roll of her adopted children and sternly demand which of them
have requited her motherly protection and love, the Jew could
step forward bearing the prints of industry and charity in his
arms and proudly answer, "I."
It would tax your patience too heavily to discuss at length the
causes which underlie this phenomenal development. Volumes
have been written to explain why in all climes and under all
circumstances the Jews have adapted themselves to their environ
ment, without surrendering that mysterious quality which pre
serves their identity as Jews and as such pushes them ever to the
front. There is something in the Jewish character which may not be
defined for it is divine. The lamp that burns forever in the heart
of Israel radiates the light of God. Mixed with all the grosser
elements of our nature is that undying and fundamental principle
of our faith, "love thy neighbor as thyself." Even the rude sav
ages that fitfully followed Moses were ripe for this grand idea
and the seed planted in the breasts of those newly emancipated
slaves has never perished. • As Hillel said to the heathen, "What
is evil unto thee do not to others." This is Judaism ; the rest is
all commentary. Is it extravagant to claim that the mission of our race* to pre
serve and promulgate this principle of love throughout all time,
is the key to the problem of our history ? The love of our fellow-
men, the spirit of charity in its broadest sense, is at once the
Jewish sustenance and rule of action. So long as it governs us
it will sustain us, and thank God the evidence multiplies daily
to the fact that the end is not yet.
Whenever the field is white unto the harvest the Jew is at
work. Whenever sorrow wails and suffering appeals, the Jew
is at hand to answer and to aid. Shall it not be always so?
Shall the arms that have borne so much give way to burdens

LAYING OF CORNER STONE I 1 49
now? Shall the spirit that braved the persecutions of centuries
quail before the light of long deferred enfranchisement? Shall
the sacred birthright of Israel consecrated again and again by
martyrdom, be bartered away at last? Believe it not. The lamp
whose flame is divine will never be extinguished. The future is
richer than the past. The past is freighted with our achieve
ments; the future is full of new duties from which we shall not
shrink. The record we have made is but an earnest of what we
shall do and in our modest way we here are doing our part to
that end.
Enjoying the fullest liberty ever offered by any national gov
ernment; untrammeled by tyrannical and debasing restrictions;
with free air for aspiration, and the right under heaven to ele
vate our natures to the divine ideal, we shall requite the priv
ileges we enjoy by the good which we accomplish. If we reap in
fields' of plenty, there shall be left for the gleaners who follow
in the harvesters' path, the tithe that belongs to the poor. Let
this asylum in some measure support the promise we thus make.
Let us not only build it, but conduct it on such humane and intel
ligent principles that it may be said in our midst as it may be
said wherever the Jews are suffered to prosper, that the distress
of the poor is the care of every Jewish heart. We must not, we
shall not falter in this mission, my friends. Our hearts are in it
and our arms will be strong for the task. Here will we shelter
and protect the widow, here will we shelter and educate the
orphan and may I not say for you and all of us to the widows and
orphans of this, our country, "though you drop tears as fast as
the Arabian trees their medicinable gum," yet shall you be com
forted. Though your wound be as deep as the limits of your
hearts, they shall be healed, for the providence of the Lord
shall lend the music of consolation to our words and soften the
touch of our hands as we rest them in love upon your afflicted
heads. Such, my friends, be the proclamation that we issue today, and
let it be so verified by our deeds that the afflicted shall echo and
re-echo again the time-honored prayer of our people, "Blessed
be the name of the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever."

A LAYMAN'S OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS.
Reverend Sirs:
In great perplexity of mind and to the end that I may be en
lightened, I appeal to you. I am advised by my investigations
that it is a traditional right and duty of the Jews to obtain instruc
tion from the rabbis upon any and all matters pertaining to
Judaism. It is in the exercise of that right and in the perform
ance of that duty that I now address you. I have chosen to cor
respond with you thus publicly, in order that those who are
perturbed like me, may have their embarrassments made known
by what I propound and removed if possible by what you respond.
I am an American born Jew, desirous of maintaining the
Jewish religion and my adherence thereto. I look with alarm
upon anything which impels the American Jew to a position
that may lead to his separation from Judaism. I have earnestly
watched the progress of Jewish affairs in this country and I am
so bewildered by their complexity that I am unable without your
gracious aid to determine my own position.
In this dilemma I am not alone. I have conferred with my
fellows in respect of my own perplexities, and I discover that
not less blindly than myself do they grope in the darkness. I
can not undertake to detail all the circumstances which have
produced this unhappy mental state. I must content myself with
the statement of a few outlines and leave to your fecund and
discriminating intelligence the elaboration of the details.
I have been taught that Judaism is a religion teaching certain
doctrines and the practice of certain duties. I have been taught
that the better to accomplish such instruction and practice, cer
tain ceremonies of more or less antiquity were observed. I have
been taught that mere forms and ceremonies had been modified,
increased or abolished from time to time by proper authorities
to meet the requirements of the ages in which such changes
occurred, but I have also been taught that the doctrines and
150

OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 151
principles of Judaism in their purity, were of divine origin and
not subject to be altered. In other words I have been led to
believe that Jwdaism was an independent existence; a fact inde
pendent of what men thought about it; a religion in short that
has a definition by which it may be identified without reference
to the people who profess it. I have been taught that Judaism is
a religion which Jews or anyone else might profess and that it
is not merely a conglomeration of the doctrines which members
of the Jewish race profess. I have always understood that if a
born Jew accepts the divinity of Christ he becomes from a re
ligious standpoint a Christian, and e converso, if a born
Christian rejects Christ and adopts the doctrines of Judaism he
becomes from a religious standpoint a Jew. Have I been prop
erly instructed? I anticipate an affirmative reply, for that I was
instructed by members of your calling. Being thus instructed,
behold what difficulties beset me, when having arrived at man's
estate, I make observations on my own account.
I observe that about three hundred rabbis presumably min
ister to the spiritual wants of the Jews in America. I observe
that Judaism is professed in and avowedly taught from about
three hundred pulpits in this blessed land of liberty. But alas!
I also observe that what is termed Judaism in one synagogue is
denounced as heresy in others and that when I seek to test the
true Judaism in order to repudiate the false, I discover that
you do not agree among yourselves. If I had but one of your
number to appeal to, I could doubtless obtain ex cathedra satis
factory . responses to all my queries, for I should ask no ques
tions that I myself could answer, and I would be unable to dispute
or doubt the correctness of those called for ; but your number is
legion! You are presumably all ordained and duly qualified as
teachers of Israel ; none of you has authority over the rest. You
are co-ordinate and co-equal, and hence when you differ among
yourselves, to whom shall I apply? Nor are your differences
trivial. There is the general schism between the orthodox and
the reformers, and among the reformers almost as many distinct
doctrines as there are rabbis. In this diversity of views, I might
look for the "common tie" in the race idea, but behold, a convoca-

152 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
tion of rabbis has declared that the Jews are no longer a race,
but only a "religious community." If this be true then the Jews
have a common religion, and that religion is Judaism. But the
questions recurs, what is Judaism?" And then again begins the
differences between yourselves. I am patient myself and will
labor long and earnestly for the truth, but it grieves me sorely to
observe so many of my fellows exclaim "a plague on all your
houses" and turn away from the fold entirely.
Perchance I do you wrong when I attribute the prevailing re
ligious differences to the want of uniformity in your teaching,
but I think not.
I have sought diligently and impartially for the causes that
underlie the present condition of affairs, and governed as I am by
the kindest feeling for your sacred calling, I am constrained to
believe that if all our rabbis were agreed to teach what they all
agreed was Judaism all the Jews would know what Judaism
meant, and as in other countries would observe it. Believe me,
when I assure you that I am far more charitable in my judgment
of the rabbis in American than the vast bulk of my co-religionists.
I hear every day -the charge made by Jews that not only do the
rabbis preach a distorted and false Judaism, but that they do not
believe even the little which they preach.
I hear it charged that what you teach the Jewish children in
the Sabbath schools, and what they profess as your teachings on
Shebuoth is not the doctrine which you believe in your "heart of
hearts." And when I have indignantly protested against this charge
of base hypocrisy on your part and ask how such facts as charged
can be reconciled with your calling, I am answered that many of
you are "rabbis for revenue only." It is said that many of you
teach what your congregations -like to hear, rather than what
it is proper for them to know.
It is charged that many of you eschew sermons altogether
and lecture upon social, political, literary and philosophical sub
jects, in order to avoid all questions of doctrine. Finally against
some of you the indictment is made that you employ your position
in Jewish pulpits to assail before Jewish congregations, the most

OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 153
sacred doctrines of Judaism, not even sparing the Torah itself.
"Can such things be ?"
I asked one of your number once if he could reconcile a re
pudiation of the verity of the Old Testament with Judaism. "My
dear friend," said he, "would you have me preach what I do not
believe? Would you have me teach the truth of the testament
when as an educated man I know it is not true ?" I answered him
as a friend, that I would not countenance hypocrisy nor restrict
in any manner the liberty of thought or speech, but that there
is a time and a place for all things. I conceived it then as I do
now that the duty of every man is to teach the truth as he believes
it, but if truth as he understands it, is in conflict with Judaism, a
synagogue should not be chosen to preach it.
It is an insult to decency for any man to accept the position
of rabbi and retain it as such, and in a Jewish pulpit to assail
Judaism to a congregation of Jews. It were as proper for a Cath
olic priest to preach Judaism in a cathedral. I advised my friend
to be a man and resign his place. I advise all rabbis who are not
Jews to do likewise. A few have done this, and as free lances
preach what they list. I may not, nay, do not, admire their teach
ings, but I admire their manhood which prompted them to with
draw from connection with a church that they were unwilling
fo undermine while paid to support it. Pray tell me, am I not
right? Do you blame me? I trust not, but if you do censure
me, give me the benefit of your reasoning, so that I may feel even
more charity for those rabbis whom I have observed to teach anti-
Jewish doctrines from a Jewish pulpit. They have not resigned.
If all the charges which I have stated be false then they should
be emphatically denied by every one of you. Nay ! if any of them
be false, in so far, they should be negatived.
But you ask me, what is it that you wish? Wait! Let me
show you some of the effects of the Jewish revolution in America.
On June 3d, 1887, in a prominent Jewish periodical, there
appeared without comment by the editor, a sermon on the Jews,
preached by W. H. Campbell, in the Congregational church at
Carthage, Mo., on October 10th, 1886. In the course of the
sermon the following significant language was used :

154 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
"The strict requirements of the old orthodox party is becom
ing a thing to be talked about in our Jewish families. While
they do not look with approbation upon the marriage of their
children with Gentile families, yet their family education is such
as to open the gates for such marriages. In the last few years
three such marriages have fallen under my own observation. A
few years ago the daughter of Rabbi Wise, of Cincinnati, one
of the leading Jewish teachers of this country, editor of one of
their papers, actually abandoned her home and married a Roman
Catholic. This simply shows the drift of the Jewish tendencies.
It shows us that invincible rampart of Judaic exclusiveness is
giving way, and that they with all the people of the earth, may yet
be reached and moulded by the blessed gospel of the Nazarene.
"The Jew lives today in the declining shadow of his father's
religion. He still disbelieves in the divinity of Jesus, but he is
abandoning the 'traditions of the elders' and placing himself on
the broad ground of agnostic or rationalistic disbelief in all re
ligion, where in common with the thousands of our countrymen
he may be reached by the Church of God." ,
The writer has been deeply impressed by the circumstances
which provoked, if they do not warrant such expressions.
But a few days since I had occasion to confer with a gentle
man in respect of matters affecting Jewish affairs. In the course
of the conference, I appealed to him for aid in the construction of
a Jewish synagogue. He declined on the ground that there was
no reason why he should contribute for such a purpose, for, said
he : "I am a Jew only by the accident of birth. It is true," he
continued, "I don't believe in Christianity, neither am I an atheist,
but in that I don't believe in the inspiration or verity of the Old
Testament, nor in the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish religion,
I can not consider myself as a Jew, otherwise than as a member
of the race, and for that fact I am in no wise responsible."
Recently in one of our largest citie's, a gentleman of prom
inence and ability delivered a so-called lay-sermon, in which it
was proposed to set forth the religious views of the American
Jews. In this lay-sermon, the lecturer denounced as obsolete doc-

OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 155
trines some of the most important and cardinal tenets of the
Jewish faith.
I could continue the recital of facts and occurrences which
give prominence and imminence to the question agitating my
mind and the minds of others viz.: "Is this so-called reform
movement in America merely an intelligent and conservative
movement designed and calculated to preserve Judaism by ridding
it of mere trivial forms and ceremonies instituted by rabbis in
a former age, or is it a revolution affecting doctrines and prin
ciples which if allowed to ripen will separate the Jews in America
from Judaism and make them easy prey for other denomina
tions ?"
Has this question not occurred to you? The Rev. W. H.
Campbell has evidently considered it. The American born Jew
is considering it, and moreover he proposes to have an answer
to it. It is not easy to solve the problem, because we have no
common locus standi, except that we want to preserve Judaism.
Having reached thus far the old question recurs: What is
Judaism? I read and you do, in the public prints, sermon after
sermon in reply to the thread-bare question, Why am I a Jew?
The question is monotonously uniform, but the replies are only
uniform in that they all disagree one with the other. In view of
such a state of affairs I deem it small wonder that my fellows
exclaim "A plague on all your houses."
Let us ponder boldly; 'tis a base abandonment of* reason to
resign the right of thought. My reverend friends, wax not wroth
at these questionings. Do not discard them with a sneer of con
tempt. Do not deride the presumption of laymen who question
your motives or deeds. Remember that you claim the right to
probe into the motives and deeds of Moses. Nay of Israel's
God himself. Shall you be exempt? Shall we not question?
With such examples before them, you must be patient when the
people doubt you, and ask an account at your hands.
We want light. There is a chaotic condition of affairs now
existent than precludes an intelligent selection of our course. Tell
us, what is Judaism?
When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick

I56 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
weather on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the
first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his
latitude and ascertain how far the elements have driven him
from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence and before
we float farther, refer to the point from which we departed, that
we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are.
To that end I beg particularly to propound certain inter
rogatories, to which I most respectfully pray for replies either
in the pulpit or the press.
I ask these questions in no captious spirit, and I sincerely trust
that each of you will regard them as entirely proper to be asked
and necessary to be answered. y
1st. Is Judaism a religion that may be defined so that it can
be distinguished by its elements from all other creeds, or is it sim
ply any system of doctrines professed by Jews?
2d. If it be a religion per se, are its fundamental doctrines
and principles of divine or human origin?
3d. If it be simply the doctrines maintained by the Jews, then
state what is Judaism when the Jews do not all believe alike.
Will the creed of the majority be entitled to^the name?
4th. If you answer yea, to the foregoing interrogatory, state
if the few hundred thousand reformed Jews have not moved
without the pale of Judaism.
5th. If on the other hand you answer that Judaism is a
religion per se then state if its cardinal, fundamental and dis
tinctive doctrines are not of ancient origin, whether human or
divine. 6th. Being ancient and well defined, and giving character, to
the religion, are these doctrines and principles the proper subject
matter of change and if so by whom may they be altered?
7th. Who is invested with the authority to make any change
in principles and doctrines as maintained aforetime and whence
was that authority derived ?
8th. If you answer that reason is the authority, then state
who shall test the quality of the reason, and whether if reason
conflicts with Judaism, it may be substituted for and take the
name of Judaism.

OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 157
9th. Was Maimonides a Jew, and did he or not know what
Judaism was, as taught in the Old Testament?
ioth. Is the Old Testament the proper source whence to
derive the truths and essentials of Judaism?
i ith. Is the Old Testament true ?
12th. Is the Old Testament an inspired book, or only the
work of human hands ?
13th. Did Maimonides correctly state the doctrines of Juda
ism in his thirteen articles? If not, in what particular did he err?
14th. Is it true that the rabbis in America are not in accord
in their conceptions or definitions of Judaism ?
15th. Is it true that many rabbis preach what they do not
believe ?
1 6th. Is it true that many rabbis believe that which they know
conflicts with Judaism and hence do not preach it?
17th. Is it true that many rabbis are rationalists, pantheists,
agnostics, materialists or skeptics? Do you belong to any of
these classes?
18th. Do you believe in a personal god ?
19th. Do you believe in the efficacy of prayer? That is to
say, do you believe that God hears and either grants or refuses
the prayers that we utter?
20th. Do you believe that Israel has the divine mission to
teach God's word?
2 1 st. Do you believe in revelation as narrated in the Old
Testament ?
22d. Do you believe in the sanctity of the Sabbath as a God
ordained holiday?
23d. Do you believe that a religious obligation rests upon
the Jews to practice the rite of circumcision?
24th. Do you believe that the Jews are simply a religious
community or a race of people with a divine mission?
25th. Do you believe that there exists any material difference
between Judaism and any other religion which teaches simply a
pure monotheism and morality?
26th. What are the distinctive and essential elements of Juda
ism?

I58 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
27th. If anyone does not believe in them does he not cease
to be a Jew from a religious standpoint?
28th. Do you believe in them ?
29th. Do you believe in anything that makes your belief in
Judaism impossible?
30th. Have you defined Judaism as you would have it, or as
it is? In conclusion let me again urge you not to ignore this appeal.
It will not go unnoticed. The inquiring mind must be satisfied,
and unless you desire to encourage the prevailing indifference
and hasten the hour when we "shall -sit in the shadow of our
fathers' declining religion," you will give earnest heed to the
problems presented above. "Under which King Benzonian?
Speak or die."
Awaiting your prompt and favorable consideration of my
great dilemma, I remain,
Your Most Obedient and Respectful Servant.

THE JEWS OF TODAY IN AMERICA.
Address delivered at Memphis, Tenn., 1884.
Some years ago a distinguished Rabbi in my presence pre
dicted the early decline and fall of Judaism, and the Jews. His
gloomy views were based upon the fact that among those Jews
who were not indifferent to their religion, there was discord oper
ating to bring about ruin.
So far from agreeing with him, I ventured to prophesy that
in the American-born Jew would be found a force not only to
perpetuate the Jewish religion, but to endow Jewish social and
communal life with such dignity and virtue as would add new
luster to our history. It is not yet timely to claim that my fore
cast was correct, but unless I am mistaken in the trend of the
hearts and minds of the young American Jews it was not without
warrant. It is hot to be gainsaid that in every direction we find affluent,
educated and talented young men who chafe under certain social
limitations; who sneer at their race and religion, and who, with
ostentation, manifest not only indifference to, but contempt for,
both. But to a great extent these are governed rather by self-
glorification, than any deep-seated aversion to Jews or Judaism,
and beneath the thin veneer of such self-worship, there abides
an ineradicable, although suppressed, devotion to the traditions
and duties, if not to the doctrines, of our race.
The Jew, while lamenting, loves the restrictions that environ
him. The scars of conflict, although disfiguring and fraught with
pain, are ever the sources of pride and the objects of affection to
him who wears them. And so the Jew, who perforce recognizes
the limitations which surround him as the evidences of his long
and heroic struggle with relentless foes, in his innermost heart
loves those limitations for the story they tell.
159

IfJO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
For all this, there are doubtless many of our young men who
are so far dissatisfied with their race and religion that they wish
to separate themselves from the one and to throw off the other.
But if there be among us some weaklings who ostensibly or
actually seek to kick over the ladder by which they have ascended ;
who would destroy the family Bible because in its pages is to be
found the family religion, and on its fly leaves the family pedi
gree, it is undeniably true that the great majority of our youths
are loyal to their people and to the essential principles of the
ancestral faith.
There are wide differences between the Jews born in America
and the foreign fathers who begot them. The thrift, industry, forti
tude and domestic virtues which distinguished the father appear in
a lesser degree in the son, but in the latter, in a greater degree, are
to be found a liberal education, the graces of refined society and
the pride engendered by an atmosphere of religious and political
freedom. The father spent his youth under conditions that nat
urally narrowed his point of view. Everywhere for him was
constraint. Even the study of his religion was conducted under
iron rules, and the observance of them enforced with such rigor
that no latitude was allowed for expansion of thought. When
he departed from his native home and established himself in
free America, it was entirely natural that the restraints which
obtained on the other side of the Atlantic should be thrown off
without moderation. Not equipped by education to make nice
distinctions, and accustomed to the mechanical observance of
religious ceremonies, there had come to exist in his mind a con
tusion between the spirit and the forms of the religion. When,
in the enjoyment of the new-found liberty, some of the forms
which had been regarded as sacred, were no longer observed, in
a spirit of bravado, others were set aside, and finally, to a large
extent, a derision of the religion took the place of its former
slavish observance. The acquisition of wealth intensified the
disposition to set aside the religion. It would be unjust to say
that Mammon had been set up to be worshiped, but it would be
less than the truth if I should fail to say that in many cases the
eager quest for gold had become so absorbing that neither time

ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. l6l
nor inclination was left for the religious life. But with the off
spring of these emigrants the conditions were different. They
grew up in an atmosphere of liberty. No restrictions of any kind
were imposed upon them. They were not driven to hardship and
suffering by the lash of poverty. They were not debarred the
privileges of education, but, on the contrary, wherever talent man
ifested itself in a youth he was urged, not only by his own inclina
tion, but by his elders, to develop such talent and to follow some
learned profession. And so we find that while less than three-
quarters of a century have passed since any considerable settle
ment of Jews in the United States, the walks of every learned
profession and every avenue of art and science are frequented
by Jews, who almost invariably have forged to the front rank.
These young men, if compared with their fathers, are lamentably
ignorant of the religion and history of their race. They have
devoted no time to that study of the law and commentaries thereon
which is regarded in Europe as the crown of glory, but they
have not remained altogether uninformed, and the larger outlines
of Jewish history and the essential elements of the Jewish faith
have found lodgment in their minds. If they be Americans, more
than Jews, their very Americanism makes them bold in respect
of their Jewish lineage. The courage and chivalry which they
prize as Americans make them cling with tenacity to the fortunes
of their people, and if this seems to operate at times to their detri
ment they face the situation without quailing. They are Amer
icans with all of the American assertiveness, pushing, jostling
and rushing through life, giving and taking blows with courage
and good humor, striking better because they are Americans and
enduring better because they are Jews. And to such men to
whom the intellectual life was a choice, the religious life becomes
a necessity. The barrenness of materialism fails to satisfy the aspirations
of expanded souls, and they seek, not in musty books nor in
cabalistic characters, for their faith, but in open volumes which
tell in plain and simple language those essential truths, concern
ing which there can be but little dispute. They are discontented
with existing conditions. Philosophy is unacceptable as a sub-

102 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
stitute for religion and as yet they are groping for a religion
which satisfies. On the one hand they reject a ritualism which
overshadows righteousness, and on the other, new departures
which destroy devotion. But the worshipful leaven is at work
within them and will cause them to follow Abraham who de
stroyed the idols in his father's house, and upon the sands of the
Chaldean desert found and communed with God.
This religious spirit is, however, of recent birth; indeed, it
may be characterized as embryonic. It has taken neither shape
nor form; it has set up no dogmas or creeds; it is simply an
aspiration after the truth, not so heavily covered as to be suf
focated, or so naked as to be frozen. But it manifests itself as
all true religious fervor does, in a yearning to serve the Almighty
through service to mankind.
This development of a religious spirit is not new in the
history of the world; indeed, I think I may safely say that the
substratum of all religion consists of the love which man bears
to his fellow-man. Upon this foundation he builds upward until
he has an adequate conception of the relation between himself
and his Creator.
The aspirations to which I have referred have developed and
are developing energies that are daily seeking subjects upon
which to operate. And these latter are not wanting. To the
young men and the young women of our race in this country
are coming problems, some arising from new conditions, and
others handed down by the short-comings, or short-sightedness
of the preceding generation. These problems are pressing and
numerous. I shall not attempt to advert to all of them, but those
which I shall mention will doubtless suggest others that are of no
less importance.
It is only within the past two decades that we have had such
an influx of ignorant and poverty-stricken co-religionists as to
make their presence in this country a matter for serious reflection.
Prior to the recent persecutions of the Jews in Russia and the
Balkan provinces, the emigration to this country from Europe
was gradual and voluntary, and those who came were able, by
unaided efforts or the assistance of relatives and friends, to estab-

ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. l6.1
lish themselves firmly and safely in their new homes. Their
prosperity came rapidly ; suffering and poverty were rare, and
out of the exuberance of charity the prosperous made provision
for the poor and the suffering without any careful study of the
proper bounds and exercise of benevolence.
Such organizations as were created were at first altogether
local, and based upon unpretentious European models. Aside
from the benefactions thus administered, individuals not only
contributed to every applicant for alms, but sought out deserv
ing cases of want for the pleasure of alleviating the distress
thus discovered. It goes without saying that even in small com
munities great impositions were practiced, but' those who were
imposed upon contented themselves with the reflection that it was
better to give to ninety-nine unworthy beggars than to refuse
one who was really deserving. This superficial view has been
the prolific mother of many mischiefs in philanthropic work.
A moment's reflection should convince any one that it is not
sufficient to have the charitable impulse and follow it by benefac
tions, but that it is also necessary to regard charity as a duty,
the performance of which challenges the highest intelligence, firm
ness and wisdom. The bestowal of alms upon the unworthy is a
corresponding denial to the deserving.
As the Jewish population of the United States increased the
philanthropic work that demanded attention overtaxed the pow
ers of local organizations. In the larger cities eleemosynary in
stitutions were established undertaking to provide for helpless and
deserving persons, for the care of whom the benevolent societies
were incompetent. It would be difficult to overestimate the en
thusiasm exhibited in the formation and the conduct of such insti
tutions. Local pride was inflamed and, especially among the
wealthy, was there a generous rivalry in the amount of contribu
tions offered for the establishment and maintenance of these vari
ous asylums for the poor. Men of more or less capacity volun
teered their time and attention, as well as their money, and their
efforts and their sacrifices were rewarded by the applause, not
only of local communities but of our people in all parts of the
country. The distinction thus bestowed upon the managers of

164 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
organized charities stimulated the founding of others in which
like distinctions were sought. A somewhat too rapid multiplica
tion was the natural result. It was not deemed necessary to study
whether or not a new charity was demanded or whether one was
more deserving than another. It was sufficient that what was
projected was good in itself, and that the means to carry it out
were forthcoming, either as the result of voluntary contributions
or such as were obtained by personal solicitation on the part of
those whose pride was enlisted to achieve success. This success
was estimated by the amount of contributions obtained, and the
manner in which they were employed. Costly and beautiful
edifices were erected, furnished with every comfort, and, I might
say, almost every luxury that ingenuity could suggest or money
provide, and a rivalry sprung up between the different institu
tions in which each sought to do better than the other by the
objects of their bounty. Those who were charged with the man
agement of a particular charity as a rule became so engrossed
in the work that they would devote little, if any, attention to
other benefactions, and in many instances, personal influence
operated so strongly in favor of one that others were unintention
ally impeded.
To not a little extent this condition prevails at the present
time. In some communities, men, actuated by a charitable spirit
that is more emotional than wise, or, in rarer cases, by personal
ambition, have called into being organizations which compete, so
to speak, with others, and exploit our people to such an extent
that their abilities to contribute are overtaxed. So long as the
Jewish public was able to provide for all of these benefactions,
without stopping to inquire which were the more deserving, the
evils referred to were not and could not be obvious.
But since there have come to our shores needy and ignorant
co-religionists equal in number, perhaps, to those who had, prior
to twenty years ago, successfully established themselves in these
United States, the ratio of those who need help to those able to
extend it, has risen so high that it becomes imperatively neces
sary to halt and take our bearings in philanthropic matters.
No efforts are required to arouse in the Jewish heart a char-

ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 165
itable emotion — it has always found an abiding place there ; and
if anything, it is too impulsive in answering the appeal of the
suffering. What is necessary is to educate the Jewish mind to a
proper understanding of our duty in respect of those who require
our assistance. It is requisite to teach anew what has always
been a doctrine of the Jewish church, that charity is simple jus
tice, and that as such it must be bestowed, not indiscriminately
but intelligently. The individual must be taught that ordinarily
the direct bestowal of alms upon the mendicant is an unwise, and,
therefore, an unjust depletion of the ability of the alms-giver.
Whatever the individual has to bestow in charity belongs not to
him but to the deserving poor. He is but a trustee. The fund is
a trust-fund in his hands in the disposition of which he should
take no chances, for the consequences of a mistake do not fall
upon him but upon the poor. Moreover, such haphazard and
undiscriminating charity offers a premium to the indolent to
forsake the paths of industry and rely upon alms for sustenance.
The time has arrived when we must deal with our needy from a
scientific standpoint. When we have measured our ability to
contribute to charitable work, we must see to it that our contribu
tions achieve the best results.
This can be done only through organizations administered
with the highest wisdom and without regard to personal ambition,
-or the pleasure derived therefrom by those charged with the
administration. Moreover, it is not only necessary that each
particular charity should be thus administered, but that each
should be administered with reference to all the others, having
in mind that the common object of all should be the well-being of
all. In every civilized government there are numerous depart
ments, each necessary to carry out the functions of the govern
ment, but each so related to all the others that by the operation
of all, if wisely conducted, the best results for the people can be
secured. No government can be a success, in which a less im
portant department is pampered at the expense of one that is
more important. If the revenues of the government are devoted -
to perfecting one agency when another is more required, disaster

l66 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
must surely result. To avoid such evils, at the beginning of each
fiscal period the statesmen who conduct public affairs make a bud
get of the expected revenues and of the expenditures required. In
the raising of revenues so as to create no unnecessary burdens,
and in the effective distribution thereof in the public interest, is
to be found the highest statesmanship.
After such a model should be created some system of philan
thropy in this country among our people. It is not my purpose to
formulate and declare a plan that will be effective to such an end.
I do not arrogate to myself the ability to outline a scheme that
would be satisfactory to others or even to myself, but if I can
make it apparent that some comprehensive policy, possessing
national as well as local features is required, I do not doubt that
the means to achieve the same will be found in a multitude of
counsel. I shall content myself with the simple statement of a
few general principles, the correctness of which I know will not
be challenged and the application of which to existing conditions
can readily be made.
To begin with, a means should be found to obtain from every
one, according to his capacity, contributions in effort and in
money for the alleviation of suffering, and for war upon igno
rance among our people. It is not sufficient that a few should give
liberally. It is necessary that all should contribute justly and this
is true, not only because the aggregation of many contributions of
money and effort will be of greatest service to the poor and the
ignorant, but because, what is almost equally important, it will be
of such vast benefit to those who give. There can be no objection
to great benefactions from the rich, but these must not excuse
proportionately liberal benefactions from those in modest cir
cumstances. Again, while great and occasional gifts should be
encouraged, a steady revenue for charitable purposes should be
more earnestly striven for. When it is ascertained, as it can be
with proper organization, what sums in each locality and in the
country at large, can be counted upon for philanthropic work, the
best thought and study should be given to such a disposition of
these revenues as will accomplish the greatest good where most
urgently required. We are no longer in that happy condition

ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. l67
when our means are greater than the calls made on us; on the
contrary, "the demands for help far exceed our ability, and it be
hooves us to so manage that if any demand be left unanswered it
shall be because one of a more pressing and deserving nature has
been complied with. It is because no adequate provision has been
heretofore made for such management that I find fault with the
administration of our charities up to the present time, and it is
in the hope mainly of reforms in the future that I venture the
criticisms contained in these remarks.
Conditions would be ideal if among our people in this country
there existed one great organization having universal support and
so equipped that it could deal effectively, and in the first instance,
with national matters, and in a supervisory capacity with district
and local affairs. Such an organization in which each member
would stand upon a parity with all the others, and in which the
individual contribution to the general funds would be exceeding
ly small, would afford an opportunity to even the poor among us
to add their means and their energies to philanthropic undertak
ings without lessening the opportunity or the impulse of those in
better circumstances to supplement the general revenues with
large occasional donations. Every member in such a society
would naturally feel a direct interest in every charitable enter
prise, which would not be left, as is largely now the case, in the
hands of a minority in each community because of their personal
popularity or their generous contributions. Moreover, at stated
intervals, representatives of the members could and would meet
in conference to consider, not only the ways and means of raising
revenues, but what is equally important, the direction in which
they should be expended, the rate of the expenditure and the
preference, if any, that should be given to one work over an
other. To carry out this idea it would not be necessary for existing
or future orphan asylums, hospitals, homes for the aged, etc., to
surrender their autonomy. It has been found that even in institu
tions founded and conducted by the B'nai B'rith and other orders,
a large measure of independence is wisely conferred upon the
management. But the occasion for establishing such asylums, the

l68 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
order in which they should be called into existence, the general
policy to be pursued in conducting them, the location of them and
kindred questions, should be confided to parliaments, so to speak,
in which large districts are represented and in which local pride
and personal ambitions must yield to the general good.
A practical illustration of this thought is afforded in the Sev
enth District of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. The
Jewish Widows' and Orphans' Home and the Touro Infirmary at
New Orleans were established without reference to the B'nai
B'rith. Both were originally more or less local in their opera
tions. But in time each sheltered and ministered to the helpless
and suffering from all the States composing the Seventh District.
Local contributions were inadequate for the service required, and
contributions from other communities were fitful and therefore
unreliable. Under such circumstances the Home first, and the
Infirmary next, sought sanction and support from the Seventh
District. Both applications were granted. From the funds of
the District each institution receives Two Dollars per annum for
each member of the District. In return the District is given rep
resentation on the Board of Managers, is furnished regularity
with all reports and in convention is afforded an opportunity to
influence the policy and administration of these institutions. Ev
ery innovation of importance is submitttd to the Grand Lodge for
approval. The annual consideration by the Grand Lodge of these
charities has proven a wholesome and effective agency. Moreover,
the close union between them and the Order has made it certain
that no rivals will arise in the Seventh District until circum
stances demand them. So accustomed are the people to rely
upon the wisdom of their representatives in the Grand Lodge
that if a new Orphans' Home or Hospital were proposed, an en
dorsement by the Grand Lodge would be a prerequisite of suc
cess. Among the evils I am combatting I mention only a few : per
sonal ambition, spite and vainglory too frequently give birth to
organizations having a worthy object in view, but for which there
is no pressing, if any, need, and the existence of which imperils
the safety and effectiveness of others more deserving because

ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. IOQ
more requisite. It would be amusing, if the results were not so
serious to contemplate the numerous associations in our larger
cities, all working on practically independent lines, each pushed
with energy and promoted with pride, and each, in a measure,
impeding or impairing the good work of the others — not pur
posely, be it understood, but because each draws from the com
mon stock of means and ability.
Think of a system, or want of system, if you like, of philan
thropic work in which time, talent and money are expended to ac
complish worthy, but not necessary, ends, and in which, for want
of means, helpless children are allowed to grow up in need and
ignorance, or, what is worse, to die for want of proper sustenance.
I have no desire to weary ydu with statistics, and candor com
pels me to say that I have no comprehensive and accurate statis
tics that I might employ on this occasion. I am warranted, how
ever, in saying, from such investigations as I have been able to
make, that in the larger cities, especially, not exceeding ten per
cent of the Jewish population are regular contributors to organ
ized charity. This testifies, most eloquently, to existing faults in
raising revenues, and the straightened circumstances of our most
deserving eleemosynary institutions prove how they suffer from
the existence of the less deserving. It goes without saying that
aside from the waste of energy and means involved in the condi
tions which I have named, there is necessarily an extravagance or
want of economy in the multiplication of societies. In most all
of these, salaries must be paid to executive officers, and other
expenses incurred that could be avoided or curtailed by more
comprehensive organization. I have in mind one association, na
tional in its character, which, according to the official reports, ex
pends one-fourth of its revenues in salaries. But yet another evil
has grown up, and which would be corrected if these problems
were studied scientifically and discussed along lines that took no
account of personal ambitions or pride.
In our asylums and hospitals too much attention has been
paid to art, beauty and luxury. There is too much pride in the
beauty of the structures and their surroundings; in the cost of
the buildings and the furnishings; in the high character of the

170 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
food and the service. The pleasure of exhibiting all these fea
tures to the glory of the management is not the least consideration
in the conduct of affairs. For one I am constrained to find fault
in those things which are generally esteemed virtues. When I
say this, my criticism falls upon myself as well as upon any other,
for until circumstances compelled me to reflect more deeply upon
the subject, I, too, rejoiced over the magnificence with which our
different charities were being conducted. But maturer reflection
has convinced me that in philanthropic work the pride and glory
of the philanthropist should be entirely subordinate to the well-
being of the object of his bounty. It is not for our sake that we
should give or do, but for the sake of those who stand in need,
and doing and giving are duties to be performed as if we were
paying a debt that might be rightfully claimed from us. If this be
a correct proposition, it behooves us to inquire who are our cred
itors and what must be done in order to discharge the obligation.
We shall' not do our duty if we overpay one creditor and deny
another altogether. We must be just as well as generous, and if
we cannot be both, let us be just. Can we satisfy our conscience
by taking one of a number of poverty-stricken proteges, and, as
it were, rolling him in the lap of luxury while the others are left
without any share, whatever, in our bounty? This is what is
frequently, if not generally, done under the present want of sys
tem in the administration of Jewish benefactions.
I cannot undertake, within the limits of a single address, to
go far into details. It will suffice, however, to illustrate my mean
ing, to deal even superficially with our orphan asylums. Every
where our people look with pride and tenderness upon these shel
ters for the helpless ones who are denied parental protection. To
me, as a rule, they are a reproach, not because those who contrib
ute to them and administer to them are not actuated by the loftiest
motives, but because in the genesis and careers of these institu
tions cetrain principles have been lost sight of, the non-observ
ance of which have led to great wrong.
Let me refer to an official report which is by no means unique :
In the Forty-first Annual Report of the Jewish Foster Home and
Orphan Asylum of Philadelphia, issued in 1896, is to be found the

ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 171
following language in the President's message : "For the first time
in the history of this institution, a period now covering forty-one
years, we have in the home 107 children, the largest number ever
housed at any one time. The number, however, might, by this
time, have been much larger if our income had warranted the ad
ditional expenditure. The applications continue as heretofore,
among them many worthy cases, which we are compelled to either
turn away or to put off until a vacancy occurs. While the Ad
mission Committee is justified in this course, the members feel
themselves much hampered in their work and great injustice is
done to many worthy orphans. This state of affairs should no long
er be permitted to exist in such a large community as Philadelphia,
whose citizens have always supported every noble charity so lib
erally. We cannot permit our Jewish orphans to go to other de
nominations for support, and when such a case occurs it is im
mediately drawn- to our attention and peremptory orders given
that the children must be taken care of by us. Cases of this kind
have occurred recently, and must occur again if we cannot pro
vide for them."
In the report for 1897 of the Jewish Hospital Association of
Philadelphia, it is stated that the Jewish population of Philadel
phia is about 50,000, but the contributors to the Hospital number
only 1,242. The regular contributors to the Orphan Asylum are
not materially in excess of those to the Hospital. It will be ob
served from the report that for want of funds the Orphan Asylum
has been compelled, habitually, to turn away worthy applicants
for admission. Should this condition of affairs exist, even though
no additional revenue? can be obtained? These 107 children are
housed in a palace ; they are the recipients of donations of food,
clothing, and a vast variety of comforts and luxury, the value of
which is not' charged as part of the expenses. And yet, without
counting rent, which among the poor is always a very consider
able item, it costs, in round figures, $200 per annum to maintain
each of these orphans. If interest be computed upon the value of
the Asylum, by way of rent, this per capita would be largely in
creased. Other things being equal, it is more economical to
house, feed and clothe a large number of people under a single

172 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
organization than it would be to house, feed and clothe the same
number of people separately or under smaller organizations.
The Cleveland Orphan Asylum in 1897 reported 500 orphans,
with an annual expenditure of about $60,000, making the per
capita expense $120 per annum as against $200 per annum at the
smaller asylum in Philadelphia.
I think it safe to assume that the cost of maintaining an adult
is ordinarily twice that of maintaining a child. An average fam
ily consists of man, wife and five children, or what would be the
equivalent of nine children. At $200 per annum for each child,
the expenses of an ordinary family would be $1,800 per annum;
but in order to be on a parity with these asylums, such a family
should have no rent to pay, no taxes to pay, no doctor's bills, and
should receive many donations of clothing, fuel, food, transporta
tion, etc., from day to day and almost daily. If the head of a
family had a fixed income of $1,800 and house rent free, with im
munity from taxes and doctor's bills, and should pose as an ob
ject of charity, he would be denounced as an unworthy creature.
Indeed, under such favorable circumstances, he would be ex
pected not only to support his family 'and rear his children
in comfort, but even to make some small savings. I do not doubt
that we have many among us on this occasion whose income does
not exceed the sum I have mentioned and who from it must pay
not only the expenses of maintenance that are properly chargeable
against the orphans, but house rent and doctor's bills. Again, I
find in some asylums that about $1,000 is employed permanently
for the housing of each orphan. Applying this same ratio to an
ordinary family, the poor man's home' should be estimated at
$9,000. But the per capita cost of housing 100 or 150 people in
one building is relatively smaller than to house the same number
of people in fifteen or twenty different buildings. It follows that
if the ordinary family were housed and sheltered in the same
style as is maintained in some of our orphan asylums, the poor
man's home would be an exceedingly expensive affair. When
such things stare us in the face, can we be satisfied with the state
ment that there are many orphans denied admission to our asy
lums because of want of funds ? Do not wisdom and justice sug-

ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 173
gest that we should adopt a different policy so as to materially
reduce the per capita cost and increase the number of inmates?
Moreover, leaving aside the question of cost, and assuming that
our means are adequate to take care of all the deserving ones in
the style which has been hitherto observed, is it well for the little
ones that they should be reared in luxury, so to speak, and after
a childhood passed under such circumstances, be launched out to
fight the world with no resources ? They may be well educated,
well disciplined in morals and manners, but coming as they do
from a little world of their own, in which there have been no
storms and no trials, in which they have felt no sorrows and en
dured no hardships, in which they have learned no self-reliance
nor cultivated any aggressiveness, in which every want has been
filled for them by the kind and tender hands of others, they enter
the world under the greatest disadvantages. They are like flow
ers that have been reared in a hot-house and suddenly compelled
to endure the chill blasts of winter.
We need reform in the administration of our charitable or
ganizations. We must seek to make them havens and not heavens,
and as havens they should be broad enough and roomy enough
to take in all who require shelter and sustenance, and to that end
let the sustenance and shelter be so modest in quality and
measured in quantity as to be sufficient and no more. This, in
my humble judgment, will be charity of a loftier nature than to
endow a few victims of misfortune with every comfort and lux
ury, while other equally deserving sufferers receive nothing but
our sympathy.
Doubtless these criticisms will not be received on every hand
in the same spirit in which they are uttered. We are all prone
to object to fault-finding which is directed towards ourselves. I
shall sincerely deplore any resentment engendered by my words.
My criticisms have a great object in view and should be received
with kindness. If I am correct the accused stand convicted of
no greater offense than being too generous, and reforms will fol
low ; if, on the other hand, I am wrong, it will be an easy matter
to show my error. Let the subject be discussed calmly but ear
nestly. Let the statistics be gathered from other institutions, espe-

174 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
cially non- Jewish, and let comparisons be made. Such investi
gation will demonstrate, that if orphans be housed in cheap but
healthful quarters, fed and clothed as befits people in humble cir
cumstances, at least two can be reared for what it now costs us to
rear one. If such a suggestion makes me appear harsh to the
wards within our walls, let it be remembered that I am consider
ate of those without. If your eyes swim at the thought of cur
tailing the comforts now enjoyed by our proteges, I ask what of
those who demand our protection and are wholly denied? He is
not a good father who feeds a favored few of his children on
dainties, while the others are permitted to go hungry.
If I have singled out our Orphan Asylums to comment upon
it must not be understood that the objections raised apply to them
alone. On the contrary, the objections obtain generally to our
eleemosynary institutions. Happily our own Orphan Asylum at
New Orleans is exempt from many of the criticisms I have ut
tered. No orphan has yet been denied admission to that refuge,
but let us heed the experience of others and look far into the fu
ture. In the report of President Gabe Kahn, dated March 20,
1898, occurs this significant sentence: "The wants of our Home
are constantly increasing ; so is the population of this city and of
the entire South, from which demands on our resources may be
expected to come in ever-growing quantities."
But I may be asked to indicate somewhat more specifically
than I have, how a practical remedy may be found for the evils
to which I have adverted. In reply I would say that I have al
ready pointed out that to the young men and to the young women
among our people must be left the solution of these and kindred
problems. I have also indicated that their work must be accom
plished through organization. It remains to be considered wheth
er a new organization is required. I think not.
We have one already that has been in existence for more than
a half century, that is not only co-extensive with the limits of this
country, but has established a firm foothold in Europe, Asia and
Africa. It has a history of which it may be proud, and if in that
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
wprds 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
Mfe, 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 ttye 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 comprehensive 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 imost 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 prevailing colors of virtue and truth. It is not t©
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. iSl
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 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
muscle of the Jews were required by the German states to off
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
chal 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. 183
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

I84 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
preservation of the religion, 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 a 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 think 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
table extinction of the Jews. A few years since, some of the
most thoughtful minds in this country had become gravely
impressed with the idea that we were at the beginning of the
end, and he who was daring enough to raise his voice against the
tendency of the hour, was derided as striving to accomplish the
impossible. This conviction was not confined to those who desired the
result which it portended, for many accepted it gloomily enough
as a truth which they claimed was irresistible. The writer never
shared this view, but has constantly been one of those who under
took to breast the torrent and to stay the hand of the destroyer.
The work which he now projects is in that direction. When it
was begun, the whole sky was dark with clouds and scarcely a
ray of hope was to be discovered, but in the short space of time
which has intervened between the inception and the completion
of this effort, large rifts have been made and the sunshine of a
future of promise for the Jews breaks over the landscape.

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 187
The radicalism which culminated at Pittsburg in 1885,
aroused a storm of indignation throughout the land which caused
its collapse at Cincinnati in the summer of 1886. The Pittsburg
conference which adjourned to meet at Cincinnati failed to con
vene. The new generation of American Jews free from the intoxi
cation resulting from sudden emancipation, and whose minds
have developed in an atmosphere of liberty, look at the questions
involved from a different locus standi from that adopted by the
Jews of a former generation. The American born Jew has had
the benefit of an American education. As has been said, he was
born and has grown up in an atmosphere of liberty ; he knows no
other condition. He is not impelled to license as the anti-climax
of enslavement; he becomes not riotous, in need or thought by
reason of any enfranchisement, for he has never been disfran
chised. Like most native born Americans, while ready to die for
republican institutions, he recognizes that republicanism does
not mean Anarchy and that the surrender of certain elements of
individual liberty is a pre-requisite to the preservation and main
tenance of liberty. And so in religious matters, when he has
come to contemplate the vast changes that have been made by
irresponsible persons in so short a time and in deference to so
sordid a spirit, his mind recoils and he refuses to recognize the
right of any man to rudely lay his hands upon the traditions of
his fathers. By his achievements in every sphere of life he has
conquered the prejudice against his people and has claimed as his
right, the respect of his fellow men. The triumphs of the Jews
in the arts, literature, science and in finances has cast around the
name of "Jew" a halo of which he is intensely proud. He is im
pelled to study the history of his people, to learn of their mar
tyrdom, their endurance and their triumphs, and since the his
tory of the Jews is. inextricably interwoven with the religion of
the Jews he has been compelled in studying their history to learn
their religion. And he has learned that what is divinely ordained
or derived from traditions that extends to a period whereof the
memory of man runneth not to the contrary, may not be rudely
cast aside, or brushed away by men, the fountain of whose au
thority extends not higher than themselves. For these so-called

l88 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
reformers who halt not for sentiment nor reason he has no re
spect, but rather says with Cassius,
"I had as lief not be, as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself."
The effort to decry the race character of the Jew, which of all
others is the most absurd, finds no sympathy in the American
Jew. I make these assertions now with no fear of a successful
contradiction, for the developments of the past year furnish in
controvertible evidence of their truth. But while the educated
and reflecting Jew is indisposed to be led by the revolutionists,
few have any definite, notions of what is the duty of the hour and
the great mass of the people by reason of the indifference which
has been planted, as has already been shown, in their natures have
failed to give the subject any consideration whatsoever. There
fore the author believes that he performs a simple duty to pre
sent his reflections upon the status, the duties and the destiny of
the Jews in this country, not in the- hope that his views will prove
acceptable to all those who read, but rather in the fond expecta
tion that those who read will be induced to reflect and to discuss
the views that shall occur to them by reason of the stimulus I
shall offer, and thus there may be evolved from a multitude of
counsel that wisdom which the emergency requires.
It is my purpose in the course of this essay to show that it is
the duty and the policy of the Jews to preserve their solidarity,
and that in order to secure such a result it is essential that the
highest respect should be paid to the history and traditions of our
people, to the preservation of our customs within certain limita
tions, and the practice of our religion with due deference to those
ancient forms that were practiced by our ancestors in times of
gravest adversity and peril; and this leads me first to inquire,
should the Jews perpetuate their race, or suffer themselves to be
merged into and assimilated by the different peoples of the earth ?

CHAPTER I
Wherein is Considered the Right and Duty of the Jews to Per
petuate Their Existence as a Distinct People.
In considering the duty and policy of the Jews in respect of
the preservation of their integrity as a people, it becomes neces
sary at the threshold to inquire into our right to remain an ex
clusive people.
This involves the wide subject of whether there should be any
distinct peoples, and if so, whether the distinction may be prop
erly made save upon national and territorial lines. It is con
tended, that as the Jews are only such because of a community
of creed, that they may not persevere in their exclusiveness with
out violence to the proper sensibilities of their neighbors. Voltaire
made this one of the chief bases of his strictures on the Jews
and even to this day we hear complaints made of the clannishness
of this remarkable people. If it were true that the Jews are such,
simply because of a community of creed, it would be proper to
inquire into the right of any religious community to* segregate it
self and in a measure abstain from intercourse with the world
at large, but it seems to me to be an idle discussion as to_the
propriety of certain facts which do not exist.
It is not true in the first place that the Jews are abnormally
clannish ; it is not true in the second place that the Jews are only
Jews because of their religion. This idea has become prevalent
because the Jews have no territorial and no temporal government
and hence are not accorded the dignity of a race. History con
tains no record, so far as I am advised, of any distinct people pre
serving their manners, customs, traditions and laws, and what is
more remarkable, the purity of their blood, without the cohesive
power of a country, and a temporal government, except it be the
Jews. The gypsies can certainly not be accorded so high a dis
tinction, and aside from them I know of none other that approxi-
189

I90 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
mates such an instance. At another place I shall discuss this re
markable characteristic of the Jewish people. For the present I
must assume that the Jews are not simply an indiscriminate lot of
people who hold to a common belief. A native Esquimaux, or
American Indian might conscientiously adopt every tenet of the
Jewish church, might practice, every form and ceremony imposed
by the Jewish laws and the Jewish ritual, and so far as the re
ligion is concerned, be a Jew, but yet, no one who will reflect for
a moment would class them with the Jews as a people. If the
truth were known, a very large percentage of so-called Christians
would be found to be believers in the essentials of the Jewish re-,
ligion, and yet, they are not Jews. It requires not only that men
should believe in Judaism, but that they should be the descendants
in direct line of that people who enjoyed a temporal government
and who owned a country up to the time of the destruction of
the second commonwealth. That great event took away from the
Jews their country and their temporal government; it scattered
them over the face of the earth, but it did not destroy the nation
al and race idea which was a part of their nature and of their
religion, and though nearly two thousand years have elapsed since
that memorable occasion, we find that there are more Jews today
than there were then, richer in the enjoyment of liberty, greater
in the exercise of power, further advanced in culture and with a
strain of blood preserved by steady, direct and undefiled flow
from the original source.
Who shall say then, that the Jews are no longer a race? The
world numbers seven million of them among its population.
When Moses led the Jews from Egypt to Palestine, it is estimated
that there were three million of the children of Israel in his train.
The seven million who now exist are the direct descendants of
that chosen people. Certainly it will not be contended that a
strip of territory over which a lot of men exercise dominion, nor
that a form of government which men may exercise, constitute
a race. Blood is the basis and sub-stratum of the race idea and
no people on the face of the globe can lay claim with so much
right to purity of blood, and unity of blood, as the Jews. Be it
remembered, that I do not claim nationality for the Jews as such

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. igi
for they have had no such claim since Jerusalem was captured by
the Romans, but nationality and the race quality are two separate
and distinct things. It is well known that when The Netherlands
were hard pressed by their enemies on one occasion, the grand
idea was conceived of utilizing the vast amount of shipping in
the Dutch ports for an exodus of the Hollanders and after their
departure to cut the dikes and flood the country so that it might
not become a prey to the national foe. Had this idea been carried
into effect and the brave Netherlands had forsaken their country
and gone abroad to populate as they designed, some distant land,
would it be contended that they had lost their race character by
reason of their exodus? It seems to me that such a conclusion
would be most lame and impotent. If I have reasoned to any
purpose, the inquiry of right in the premises is not to be limited
to the Jews as the exponents of a particular creed, but to the
Jews as a race. I recognize the anomaly presented by the fact
that this race, as I claim them to be, is scattered over the face of
the globe, divided up into many sections, and the different sec
tions owing allegiance to different governments, but what is
there about the Jew that is not anomalous? In everything that
pertains to him he is sui generis. There is nothing incompatible
between the preservation on his part of the race idea, and the ut
most fealty to the government under which he lives. I need not .
discuss this, for there can be no conflict of allegiance to a mere
idea, and a government. In his relation to his government, the
American Jew is an American citizen. He observes the laws of
his country, he contributes to the support of his country, he is
ready to fight her battles abroad and to spend his last drop of
blood and treasure in defence of her shores against any and every
invader, and if the ranks of the enemy be composed of his co
religionists, yet will he regard them as his enemies, for neither
his religion nor his race idea is ever suffered to interfere with his
patriotism, nor his allegiance to the powers that be. (My son fear
the Lord and the King Prov. 24-21).
The inquiry therefore broadens into the question, should
there be any classes among men — any distinctions because of
race, nationality, complexion, customs, habits, etc.?

192 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
There are theorists who would erase from the map of exist
ence every line that separates men from their fellow-men, classes
from other classes, nations from other nations, and even con
tinents from continents ; and their efforts are lauded as the high
est and most enlightened philosophy by the same class of critics
who extol a leaden-colored canvas as the perfect representation
of the skies. There is much plausibility in the proposition that,
as all men are men, endowed with the same physical and mental
attributes, constituting a distinct class of animals, subject to be
swayed by the same affections, manifesting like sentiments and
sensations, they should be brothers in the most exalted meaning
of the word. . It is claimed, in the words of the great "apostle
of freedom," that "all men are created free and equal;" that
all men have equal rights ; and that there is something essentially
and inherently false in any social or governmental system which
makes distinctions among classes of men or among individuals.
The vice of the argument lies in this : The enthusiast confounds
a law of classification with a law of existence. What science
has discovered for convenience of definition, has been accepted
as the key-note in the scale of human duty. To explain further:
A definition may be defined as that process by which any entity
is assigned to its proximate genu* and at the same time dis
tinguished from other members of the same class, by its specific
difference. Thus negro is defined as a "man" (his proximate
genus) "with black skin, flat nose and woolly hair" (his specific
differences from other members of the human family).
A moment's reflection will convince my readers that the
process of definition is necessary to intercourse between man
and man, and that the process was contemporaneous with the
inception of the means of intercourse. In primitive times when
travel was difficult and infrequent, the different classes of men
were strangers to each other. The sons of Ham knew only
their dusky companions, and to their minds the idea of man
had no wider range than their own particular type. So, too,
with the sons of Shem and Japhet. In the course of ages a
great number of different types were developed in each of the
great branches, and each type considered itself the family of

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. I93
man. But time and travel acquainted men with other men.
Herodotus discovered many species of men, and while he dis
tinguished them from the Greeks by many specific differences,
yet there were enough characteristics in common between them
all and the Greeks to assign them all to their proximate genus
"man." This synthetic process by which the Caucasian, the
Malay, the African, etc., are classed under a common designation
has given rise to the fallacy that all men are men — and hence
equal. It is perhaps true that all "men were created free and
equal," but in all respects save their political rights their equality
relates entirely to the particular moment of their creation. So
cially, morally and physically every man is different in degree
of merit from every other man. Only before the law are all men
equal. But equality before the law does not comprehend equality
upon any other plane. The two propositions are entirely distinct.
If it be true that because we are all members of the human family
we are equal and should fraternize, it is equally true that
all men and all cats are animals, and hence are equal
and should fraternize. We have the quality of exist
ence in common with all entities — are we for this reason
to be considered as violating a law of nature or a canon of duty,
when we use an inanimate object for our own purposes without
regard to its preservation or perpetuity? I appreciate the fact
that by reversing this argument we may be led to the logical
conclusion that any two objects, things or persons having specific
differences are foreign to each other and should not fraternize.
The answer to this is the solution of the whole problem. Nature
has implanted in every animate creature a selfish spirit whose
existence is necessary for the preservation of their natures.
Selfishness is not only necessary for the existence of animate
creatures, but it is the power under Heaven that works out the
fate of the world. It is the keynote of all harmony, and is the
basis of the highest virtues. The love of self brings order out
of chaos, civilization out of barbarism, government out of
anarchy, and compels the practice of the social virtues which
otherwise would give way to social corruption. I do not employ
the term selfishness to define that sordid and disgusting quality

194 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
which the word vulgarly implies, but I use it in that compre
hensive sense which embraces the love and advancement of self.
It is the love of self which precludes all men from being brothers
in the sense which enthusiasts would have us regard all men;
it is the love of self which precludes each man from remaining
to and for himself separate from his kind. Man is a social and
a progenitive animal. As a social animal he seeks society; as a
progenitive animal he procreates. His self-love extends naturally
to what is nearest and dearest to him. Self-love makes him
jealous of the society and exclusive possession of his wife ; self-
love makes him protect and care for his offspring and enforce
obedience from them. Thus the family relation, the highest
of earthly ties, grows out of self-love. Shall we deny the right
of any man to love his wife, the mother of his children, better
than he does a strange woman utterly unknown to him ? Selfish--
ness makes every man care for the members of his own com
munity or society, for every community or society is formed for
the benefit of its members, and each member must care for and
protect all of the others in order that he may derive the benefits
of the community or society. The process of thought is lost sight
of in the daily occurrences of life, but an analysis of the ordinary
affairs of the world will convince the most superficial thinker
that not only is the world operated according to the law of self
ishness, but that without that law we would drift into chaos.
It follows very clearly that by a natural law, the further is re
moved any person, object or thing from the existence of any
man, the less will be his love for that person, object or thing.
I do not mean physical propinquity of course, but I refer to the
influence of relationship whether of blood, community of tastes,
occupation, creeds, joys or dangers. The ratio, of course, is co
equal with that of relationship.
It has been remarked that all entities have the quality of
existence in common, but the relation is so slight that the love
it elicits is very faint. If I may use a figure of speech I should
compare love to the circle made on the surface of the sea by
dropping a pebble in the water. At first it is distinct and well
defined, but as it widens it grows fainter and fainter, until al-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 195
though certainly still existent it is imperceptible. Every man
bears some relation to all existence, and by reason and in the
ratio of that relationship bears love thereto. But existence is
composed of species beyond number. Comprehended in the im
measurable and infinite circle of existence are an infinite number
of smaller circles, none of equal size, none concentric with
another, none covering the same space, yet all related by the
common circle which embraces all, which is contiguous im
mediately to the great circles representing the first classification
of existences, and which great circles are contiguous to each
other, and contain again within themselves the species which
make up their hierarchy of existence. The tiniest snowdrop
on Himalayas' loftiest height bears some relationship to the
fieriest spark in the sun. The law of human nature which com
pels man's love to extend outward in all directions as the circle
widens from the spot where the pebble gave it existence, does
not impose upon him the duty of loving all things or all persons
alike. Without difference in degrees of love according to re
lationship, we should be deprived of the holiest and most exalting
ties and obligations and the sanctity of the home circle, the
institution of marriage, the parental, filial and fraternal love
would be swallowed up into that universal and uniform love,
which would, after, all, be but indifference.
If I have argued to any purpose it must be clear that if all
men are brothers it is because they are men, not because they
are governed by a common fraternal feeling — Sum homo nihil
humani a me alienum puto is a sentiment which with great
propriety might be extended. In a different degree but of like
nature is the truth, "I am an animal and I esteem nothing ani
mate as foreign to me." If I am asked at what point fraternity
should cease, I can only say that the limits are regulated by
circumstances. Wherever may be found a community of senti
ment, blood, circumstances, occupations, tastes, creeds, joys, sor
rows or dangers there will be found fraternal ties limited by
the particular community which engendered them. This is the
brotherhood of classes, and it is this fraternity which is derided
and discouraged by the visionaries who exclaim that all men are

I96 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
brothers, and there should be no castes, cliques, clans, nations
or peoples. An universal brotherhood would no doubt follow
the attainment of universal virtue and the perfection of the
human family. When the standard of human perfection is
discovered and all men attain that standard, then, and not till
then will all men be brothers ; but as long as men entertain differ
ences of opinions so long will there be classes. If the formation
of new classes could be discontinued, the classes now existing
might be merged into one (although I doubt even this) ; but
new classes must necessarily spring up. They may not come into
existence by any name, they rarely do, but circumstances form
them with unceasing regularity.
It is in entire conformity with the laws of nature for men to
unite in the pursuit of any legitimate object. Artists form so
cieties among themselves in which the "tie that binds" is the
love and practice of art. In such a society creed or nationality
go for naught, the open sesame and the ritual being art. To
the soldier every soldier is a brother. Every profession has its
freemasonry. Every devotee is a brother to the followers of
his own faith. The subjects of every government are united by
their common nationality.
Such circumscriptions operate nothing against the usefulness
of those thus circumscribed. We have all our parts to play, and
in playing them we can neither enter every circle nor confine
ourselves to one. There are certain duties which we owe to our
fellow-men in return for the benefits we derive from the social
state, and they must be performed.
To do less is to violate the law of our obligations to society,
which is the companion of the law of self-love in the govern
ment of the world.
Society is composed of elements owing to one another cor
relative obligations, the prompt discharge of which is a pre
requisite to the orderly regulation and progress of the whole.
Herbert Spencer compares society to an organic structure having
parts and functions analogous to those of animate creatures
in his comparison, "Government is represented by the regulative

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 197
functions of a living organism, and forms of government so
many varieties of the structure."
Professor Edmund Robertson, commenting in the Brittanica
upon the views of Herbert Spencer, announces the familiar truth,
that where men are united in groups there arises from their
union the necessity of action in behalf of the group. "It is, of
course, always a matter of difficulty to determine the exact
nature and degree of obligation which individuals owe to society,
for the reason principally, that the origin of society is lost in
the obscurity of unexplored antiquity. If there ever was a time
when society did not exist among the members of the human
family in some form or other, history is silent as to that era."
Various theories have been advanced in explanation of the
genesis of society, all of them being plausible, and none entirely
satisfactory. Professor Robertson in his article on government in the
Brittanica, briefly, but clearly, considers the various theories
that have been advanced, but he is unable to arrive at any con
clusion with reference to the subject, except the bare suggestion,
that government had its origin in the family relation. Locke, in
his essay on civil government, asserts, that men being by nature
all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this
estate and subjected to the political power of another, without '
his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself
of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of civil society, is
by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community.
Mr. John Stuart Mill in his essay on liberty and in his political
economy declares in favor of the largest scope of individual
liberty as being inherent and favors the doctrine of Humboldt,
to-wit: "The absolute and essential importance of human de
velopment in its richest diversity."
Herbert Spencer also maintains the natural and inherent
liberty of individuals without restriction and that government and
society are founded upon the voluntary surrender by individuals
of a portion of the liberties which are a part and parcel of their
nature and birthright.
According to such eminent authority, and plainly in accord-

I98 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
ance with reason, it would seem then that all men are born
with the right to do as they please, and that this liberty of action
is only curtailed by the requirements of society and government,
which themselves are the creatures of the individuals. Society
and government both were created and are maintained by the
operation of that law of self-love on the part of individuals, of
which I have already spoken. In the absence of civil society,
and of government, the individual must look solely to himself
for the protection of his own welfare, his life, his liberty and
his property. This constant vigilance, and perhaps this constant
state of war, as Hobbes would have us believe, was the case
with primitive man, was naturally distasteful, and to accomplish
its abrogation, the "social compact" was formed, either by ex
press agreement, or what is more probable, by the natural growth
of implied obligations. The stronger were compelled to sur
render their advantages by combinations among the weak, and
thus the basis was laid for measuring in a manner, the extent
of the surrender by each individual of a portion of his inherent
liberty. The first law of society, as of nature, was order. The
preservation of the peace and the pursuit of the ordinary avoca
tions of life without the constant menace of interference from
without, must have been the primary aims of those who leagued
together in the construction of some kind of social organization.
With the progress of time the scope of society's duties widened,
the governmental sphere was extended and the advantages of
fered by them to the individual gradually multiplied. There arose
accordingly a correlative increase of obligations on the part of
the individual to society and to government. The discharge of
these obligations by the individual to his fellow-men, to society
and to government, are in strict conformity with the law of
self-love which primarily regulates his course of life, for he
recognizes at a glance that any failure on his part begets failures
on the part of others and anarchy will speedily follow. The
citizen who maintains the law, is as often actuated by selfish
considerations as by patriotism and an exalted sense of duty.
Whatever may be the motive, however, for the discharge of
these duties, it is patent enough that they must be discharged,

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 199
and since our duty to society and to government is next in point
of importance to the duty which we owe our Creator, obligations
that we may assume of less solemnity must perforce yield if
they come in conflict with our duty to society, or our govern
ment If I have made myself clear, it easily follows that there is
no danger to society, nor to the government under which we
live, in the maintenance of certain species of class distinctions.
The right to unite and to organize for any purpose is inherent,
for it is a part of individual liberty, and it is only limited by
our obligation to our Creator, our government and to our fellow-
men. It follows that the formation or maintenance of any circle
that operates against the good of society, present or prospective,
or interferes with the performance of individual duty to society
or God, should be discouraged; that any circle which does not
operate thus prejudicially, but which in anywise contributes to
the enjoyment, elevation or advantage of its members, should
be encouraged. If it be remembered that perfect virtue in the
whole human family would bring about universal brotherhood,
every circle which promotes a virtue will be recognized as a
means to the great end, even though it have the appearance of
a step in the wrong direction. Heat is a great curative agency
in treating burns.
Nature is full of arguments in support of the propositions
that I have advanced, for, within the almost incomprehensible
unity of nature is comprised innumerable classes. Science has
undertaken as great a task in analyzing genera into their various
species by analysis, as it has in resolving species into genera by
synthesis. If the visionary contends that it is foreign to the law
of nature that men should divide themselves into classes, it
need only be suggested that nature herself presents us with
ineffaceable class distinctions. The Mongolian and the Cauca
sian are both men, but nature, or rather their creator, has en
dowed each with qualities, and invested each with peculiarities
that mark them as distinct types of the human family and so
through the whole range of the animal, the vegetable and the
mineral kingdoms we find entities that have a sufficient number

200 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
of common qualities to be classed under a given genus, and
yet possessing sufficient specific differences to be placed under
different classifications. Not only so, but nature places her
seal of condemnation upon any undue intermixture of incon
gruous elements. The hybrid and the mongrel are proverbially
inferior, and of them it has been said that they partake of the
worst qualities of both parents, and the good qualities of neither.
If the general doctrine which I have assailed were true, then
miscegenation between the African and Caucasian would be a
virtue, rather than a viblation of a natural law.
I have already shown that the distinctive character of the
Jew does not arise solely from his religion. It is true that his
race and religion are indissolubly connected, a fact which arises
in the main from the theocratic form of government under
which the Jews existed as a nation, but whatever be the cause
of this junction of the race idea with the religion, it is very cer
tain that the religion alone does not constitute the people; As
I have already maintained, a believer in the Jewish faith does
not by reason of that fact become a Jew. On the other hand,
however, a Jew by birth remains a Jew, even though he abjures
his religion. Disraeli recognized this, and though he professed
to be a sincere Christian, always claimed to be a Jew.
Assuming then that I have established that there is no in
herent wrong in the preservation of the solidarity of the Jew
as a people, it remains to apply the arguments which I have
adduced in support of this proposition to the particular subject
that we have in hand.
To apply the argument to the Jews is not without difficulty.
General principles are often easily deducible from a multitude
of examples, but when deduced it is not easy to apply them.
It is not doubtful that if the Jews are benefited by remaining
Jews in fact as well as in name, and no overbalancing injury is
done to society thereby, they should perpetuate their existence
as Jews. I leave out of consideration all questions of religious
duty.. This is not a discussion from a religious but from a
social standpoint. Aside from all considerations of religion, to
my mind it is clear that the Jew should remain a Jew, and the
Jews as such should preserve their integrity as a distinct people.

CHAPTER II.
Wherein is Considered the Possibility of Perpetuating the Exist
ence of the Jews as a Distinet People.
Before entering into the consideration of the propriety and
expediency of preserving the distinctive character of the Jews as
a people, it is proper to pause and consider the possibility of ac
complishing such a result. It is contended, that as all things
change and pass away, so too will the Jews suffer a radical alter
ation in their constitution and gradually pass out of existence.
The pages of history are pointed to in support of the prophecy
that in the course of human events this great people who have ex
isted so long, will cease to be. In other words, that it is inevita
ble destiny, and if this be true, it is said, why struggle against
the inevitable ? I do not share this view, and I beg the patience
of the reader while I submit the reasons which impel me to dis
credit such gloomy forebodings.
There is always something pathetic in the decay of power.
The strong man whose strength fails him always excites com
miseration. It is the inevitable in every life, but like death, which
none may hope to escape, it draws forth a sigh of regret, none
the less tender and heartfelt because wholly in vain. The history
of nations is fraught with a like pathetic destiny. Gibbon, of
whom it was said, "that he was the only historian of the
eighteenth century who survived the criticism of the nineteenth,"
remarks in his great history of "Rome's Decline and Fall,"
that "the history of all nations may be written in five words —
valor, greatness, discord, degeneracy and decay." Is this true of
the Jews ? Are we, too, passing along the great highway of de
cay in obedience to any inexorable law ? I trust, I believe not. If
so, however, this appeal is in vain. Therefore I pause to consider
that rule. Gibbon's sentence is dramatic, brilliant, climacteric and
striking; it is not without serious claims to accuracy besides. It
201

202 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
is obnoxious to criticism as being a prominent and attractive
fragment of that philosophy of history which assigns to each
historical event its place in the entire story, making them all fit as
nicely as the different scenes in a drama. The history of modern
historians reads more like fiction than truth, not perhaps without
reason. The plain recital of facts that once passed for history has
fallen into desuetude, and we have now subtle analyses of times,
characters, events, manners and customs, so ingeniously carried
out that the most remote events are brought into direct connec
tion and the most different results traced to a common cause. It
is not to be doubted that the study of history becomes largely
more profitable when it involves the search for the causes of
events as well as a knowledge of the events; but it is doubtful
to my mind if it be of advantage to let others do our searching or
thinking. The human intellect is ever restless and grasping. Man
suffers from curiosity and ignorance; there is always in him a
yearning not only to know that a thing is, but why and how it is.
There is great pleasure in the satisfaction of this yearning.
Whenever the mind finds a resting place; whenever in other
words it satisfies itself as to the how and why of anything, a
pleasurable feeling follows. Hence the popularity of modern his
tories. Historians who plausibly explain events and connect eras
with one another meet with favor because they satisfy this yearn
ing. It is because of this tendency of our natures that we are
prone to accept as true, such a law of history as that announced
by Gibbon. Let us consider that tendency more fully in order
that we may better understand whether our satisfaction with the
annunciation of the law is a safe basis upon which to predicate
its universal application. Every schoolboy knows and we all re
member the genuine pleasure derived from and in the study of
mathematics. To reach the solution of a difficult problem is a
great triumph. It elevates one's self in one's own estimation. It
makes the heart glow with self-satisfaction. But let it be remem
bered right here that the pleasure is equal whether the solution be
right or wrong so long as we deem it correct.
The same rule applies to the study of great philosophical ques
tions. The pleasure of solution is great, and so long as the solu-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 203
tion be deemed correct, the pleasure derived by the thinker is un
affected by the real truth or falsity of his doctrine. Unfortunate
ly, here the parallel ends. Mathematics is an exact science ; phi
losophy applied to political and social questions is not. In the
first an error is quickly and inevitably discovered ; in the latter it
may pass unchallenged forever. Therefore there is danger in the
propensity we have for reaching solutions — the yearning we have
for resting our minds on a conclusion ; for the solution or conclu
sion may be essentially wrong, although entirely satisfactory, and
our proneness to reach solutions and conclusions is apt to precip
itate us into error. Our anxiety to rest our minds is the prolific
mother of fallacies, and our errors of judgment are in the ratio
of our anxiety to rest our minds. Thus it is a well-known fact
that people who are slow to make up their minds are more gen
erally correct than those who jump at conclusions. The wish is
father to the thought, and conclusions are arrived at frequently
because they are plausible and afford a satisfactory rest for the
mind. Observe how attractive yet how painful are mysteries;
how irresistible is the impulse to account for them by an hypothe
sis. What youth has not pondered over the authorship of the let
ters of Junius or the identity of the Man with the Iron Mask?
Who has ever been indifferent to the solution of a local mystery
or could rest until his mind had adopted some theory in explana
tion? And let me ask in this connection how often have these
theories been verified by the development of the true facts ? If the
reflecting reader will recall a number of incidents that have come
under his own observation, and will compare his theories with
subsequently ascertained facts, he will appreciate the truth of this
paradox : Nothing is so apt to delude as the plausible. It is told
of a noted detective that he always doubted what seemed the
most plausible solution of a mystery. If this be true he was an
extremist, and probably more often deceived than not; but it is
not to be gainsaid that there was method in his madness. Gibbon's
brilliant sentence is a great relief to the mind in reading history.
It offers a rule that is plausible, and which explains much that is
otherwise perplexing. I am not prepared to denounce it as al
ways unsafe, but I cannot subscribe to it as being universal. Its

204 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
champion will argue down every fact that limits scope in order
to accommodate facts. This species of advocacy is as old as con
troversy itself. One historian will fritter away every fact that
operates against the perfect virtue or peerless greatness of his
hero ; another will smother every fact that would invest the same
character with a single "virtue among a thousand crimes." Nor
is this surprising. There is no doctrine so absurd but what it may
find devoted and able champions with sword or pen, and we are
so apt to cling to our own theories that our loyalty increases as
they are attacked. Such championship, however, overleaps itself,
and the champion himself, like Prince Rupert, after de
stroying and pursuing the enemy immediately in his front
finds himself hemmed in by others on either side. The great
soldier and the wise thinker are ever conservative. They
are willing and ready to keep their minds always in
unrest rather than adopt a false conclusion. The true philosopher
cares nothing for plausibility ; truth is his desideratum, and with a
judicial mind he is prepared to abandon a rule that will not ac
commodate itself to facts that he refuses to ignore or pervert.
If the reader has a mind to pursue this line of thought fur
ther than it would be proper to consider it here, I commend to
him the study of metaphysical writings. If you would seek an ex
planation of the manner in which the human intellect operates,
seek it in Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. You will find a satisfac
tory answer to many queries. Pursue your investigations further
and you will find that Kant, Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche,
Jouvins, Reid, Stuart, Hamilton, etc. are all equally plausible,
and that all differ more or less.
The rule which Gibbon announces for writing national his
tories has its exceptions, ' which may or may not be numerous
enough to destroy the rule. I shall not venture an opinion as to
that. It is only pertinent for me to inquire whether or not the
rule, if it be one, applies to the history of the Jews.
It is a commonly accepted doctrine that "revolutions never
travel backward," which is but a more general statement of the
rule which I have just criticised and, of course, is subject to the
same criticism. It is easy to say that a revolution or a history

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 205
pursues a course like an arrow shot into the air ; but it were just
as easy to compare them to a pendulum. Either comparison might
be defended, and both shown to be plausible; they are probably
neither correct. I do not wish to be misunderstood as decrying
the effort to find general laws.' That would be to decry science
itself, for the highest office of science is to discover laws in ex
planation of phenomena, and it follows that the discovery of the
most general law is the highest achievement of science. The high
est aim of science is the most general law, and the search should
and in the nature of things must be never-ending ; for it is a striv
ing after the infinite. What I do wish to maintain is that the
eagerness of the search is apt to make the seeker prematurely cry
Eureka, and declare as the law what seems to be, or is desired
to be, the law. That is to substitute the shadow for the substance,
the desire for the thing desired. It is the same weakness or im
pulsiveness which makes the eager miner mistake pyrites of iron
for free gold. The former looks like the precious metal, but when
placed in the assayer's crucible the delusion is dissipated. The
history of the Jews is not written in the five words of Gibbon ; it
is not a revolution that has never reversed its course. It is rather
like a mountain stream, whose source is on some inaccessible
height, whose course varies to accommodate the surface it tra
verses ; now winding around a hill, now creeping through a val
ley ; now dashing over a cliff ; ever and anon losing itself in the
bowels of the earth, to appear again with renewed vigor ; now ap
parently frittered away, only to gush from some distant rock on
the opposite side of a hill ; now pushing sturdily toward the sea,
and then winding its way around a hill toward the morning of its
existence; and at last typifying the future of the Jews by being
lost to human ken in some unexplored cave.
Neither their existence nor greatness as a nation or a people
had its genesis in their valor. Physical courage has always been
an incident, not an element, of the Jewish character. It has no in
dependent existence in their make-up, and always depended upon
something else. With some exceptions this may be said of all
Oriental people. The sense and fear of danger is highly devel
oped in them, and there is no cultivation of that indifference to it.

206 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
which has distinguished the great nations of Western Europe. On
the other hand in assertion or defense of a principle no people
have succeeded so well in overcoming physical fear in order to
wrest the right from the very jaws of danger. To my mind this
is the highest order of courage. He who marches with deter
mination to the cannon's mouth, with blanched cheek and flutter
ing heart, is a hero in that he overcomes himself ; he who rushes
forward with a laugh on his lip is but a little better than the
brute that does not appreciate danger. I have read somewhere
an anecdote of two soldiers riding into battle who represented the
two species of courage that I have mentioned. One was pale and
nervous, the other free-hearted and gay. The latter taunted the
former with being afraid. The answer came quick and to the
point. The pale soldier drove his spurs home, and as his horse
sprang forward, cried : "So I am, and if you were half as fright
ened you would be riding in the opposite direction." Nations that
are established in greatness may depend upon the courage born of
principle for defense, but a nation that has to carve out its destiny
must have courage independent of principle. Hengist and Horsa
had no principles to govern them, yet they boldly sailed out into
the tempestuous sea, through the stormy channel, and, landing
upon a foreign hostile shore, acquired by the right of conquest the
little island upon which has grown a nation upon whose domin
ions the sun never sets.
Theirs was a courage of which conquerors are made. They
knew but one law :
"The good old plan
That he should take who hath the power,
And he should keep who can."
This is the "valor" that Gibbon names as the groundwork of
national greatness. It has never been the substratum of Jewish
success. The Jews have fought often, bravely and well, but al
ways for principle. They have ever been patient and long suffer
ing, and needed leaders to urge them to battle, but once convinced
that the right and God was with them they marched unto battle

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 207
inspired by a courage that is not daunted by wounds or repulses,
and seldom indeed did they battle in vain. [See Joshua, chaps.
6 and 7.]
It would be impossible to name the basis of Jewish greatness
without opening the great Book. Save in that chronicle their
genesis is unwritten, and I am reluctant to quote that to many
of my readers. There is faith and faith. I know many intelli
gent persons who will implicitly believe a history of the moon
written by some imaginative astronomer from experiment with a
spectroscope, but who reject the general outlines even of a his
tory that has run the gauntlet of criticism for thousands of years.
The history of the Jews itself conclusively proves that Gib
bon's rule does not apply to the Jews. I have already shown that
their greatness was not based upon that kind of valor to which
the historian alludes. The most superficial student of Jewish his
tory is entirely familiar with the discord that prevailed among the
Jews at the time of their greatest apparent prosperity. The vic
tory of Titus in the siege of Jerusalem was due in a greater
measure to the discord which prevailed behind the walls, than to
the courage of the Roman legions that lay before them, and not
only in temporal matters were they then and have they since
been distracted by intestinal controversies. In religious matters
they have time and again been convulsed by the bitterest conten
tions, and they have degenerated in consequence of such discords
and other circumstances pressing upon them from without, but
they have never passed into the stage of decay. The nineteenth
century found them emerging from centuries of oppression, from
the evil effects of dissipation throughout the different nations of
the globe, from distractions arising from religious differences,
but notwithstanding we are confronted with the irrefragible fact
that the Jews are more numerous, more powerful, more culti
vated and more wealthy today than at any time in their history.
The mission entrusted to them by their God has not yet ended :
"And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and
make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will
bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee, and
in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Genesis, chap.

208 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
XII, 2, 3. The mission of Israel has not yet ended, nor will it
cease as long as Polytheism and immorality exist. In a memora
ble lecture upon the growth of "Ethical Monotheism," by Rabbi
Isaac S. Moses, of Milwaukee, delivered before the Unitarian
Conference at Madison, Wis., the following language was em
ployed: "In order to bring to mankind the flaming law of the
sanctity of life in order to teach the awful burden of man's moral
responsibility, Israel had to pass through a school df probation,
such as no other nation has ever passed. Every religion is judged
by its code of morals, but the true test of that code must be found
in the history of its development and in the character of its repre
sentatives. Intertwined with Israel's historical life is the progress
of his moral ideas. The God of Israel becomes the true God, be
cause the morale of Israel proves to be the true morality. What
explains the singular phenomenon, that of all the nations that
once flourished and formed mighty empires, no trace nor vestige
has remained except perhaps ruins and fragments ; but Israel still
exists, not merely as a relic of the past, but as a living wonder
of the indestructibility of the Jewish faith and race? What has
kept Israel alive amidst the destructive floods of fanaticism and
unending persecutions ? Was it merely his grand peculiar belief
in the One God, or was it not rather- his code of morals, the sanc
tity of his domestic life, the virtue of the men and the purity of
the women of Israel, that wrought this miracle of preservation
and survival of the morally fittest ? The colossal empires of Asia
crumbled into dust before the altar fires of Mylitta; the Greek
States imbibed their death poison from the lips of Aphrodite ; the
iron State of the Romans melted away before the glance of
Venus. Israel still lives, because he has made the Holy One his
God ; because he has heard the thunder word : "Ye shall be holy,
because I, the Eternal, your God, am holy."
But laying aside the consideration of Jewish greatness from
the standpoint of the Bible, and as the result of providential
guidance, let us consider it in the light of history. In my judg
ment the greatness of the Jews has been, and is not so much in
achievement of a positive character, as in endurance. Their

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 2CKJ
greatness consists more in what they have suffered, than in what
they have done.
Patience and faith have been their weapons, and with them
they have withstood for five thousand years every attack that
bigotry could organize, valor could undertake and cruelty con
summate. Other nations may boast conquests and triumphs born of ag
gression, but though the fruits of victory have been manifold,
they have not been enduring; and it may be truly said that the
nation whose greatness grows out of valor passes through the
stages of discord and degeneracy to decay. Persia, Athens,
Sparta, Macedonia, Egypt, Assyria, Rome and Carthage have all
played the same drama with different scenes. The Jew alone is
sui generis. But half the right is wrested,
When victory yields her prize;
And half the marrow tested,
When old endurance dies.
The greatest Jews suffered and endured to triumph. Jacob
suffered and waited for fourteen years only to triumph in the
possession of Rachel. Moses toiled in patience and meekly bowed
to the. fiat that forbade him the promised land. David suffered
throughout youth from the persecutions of Saul, and in his age
in the loss of his son; and Jesus, who is claimed to be a Prince
of David's house, wrought more in a moment with the blood that
trickled from his hands and feet than Pontius Pilate could achieve
in centuries with all the legions of Rome at his back. Nor is it
alone in the dim past that they have worked out a principle by
the resistance of virtue and the influence of patient courage. The
pages of profane history are as full of their triumphs as the
Bible. Nero was not worse than Torquemado ; the arena no more
terrible than the Ghetto — but the same power of resistance that
triumphed in earlier times over the persecutions of the heathen
and the Christian, overcame in succeeding years the onslaught of
the Turk and the Moor, the Spaniard and the English Puritan,
the German infidel and the Slavic bigot. Theirs has been a

2IO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
hardy growth that flourished in storm with more vigor than in
calm. "But from their nature will the tannen grow,
Loftiest on loftiest and least sheltered rocks.
Rooted in barrenness, where naught below
Of soil supports them 'gainst the Alpine shocks
Of eddying storms ; yet springs the trunk and mocks
The howling tempest, till its height and frame
Are worthy of the mountains, from whose blocks
Of bleak, gray granite into life it came,
And grew a giant tree ; the mind may grow the same."
The same poet, Byron, in "Childe Harold," who wrote the
above, and who suffered so much himself, says:
"All suffering doth destroy, or is destroyed,
Even by the sufferer, and in each event ends."
Invoke the past for nations that have escaped calamity and
suffering only by ceasing to be, and a thousand will respond ; ask
for those that have destroyed calamity and suffering by living
them down with patient courage, and the answer will come but
from one — an answer spoken in the calm, brave voice of the Jew :
"Thou callest me, and I am here." In this virtue of endurance
I believe the Jews have a safeguard against the decay that has
marked the history of all other peoples.'
Nor has this spirit of endurance passed out from the Jewish
character. They are as strong today in that respect as at any
time in their history, and the chronicles of our own times point
out as many Jewish martyrs as the history of Spain during the
terrible dominion of Torquemado. The outrages that have been
committed in the Balkan provinces and throughout all Russia,
and even in civilized Germany, may well challenge ancient history
for parallels, but throughout it all the inflexible spirit of the He
brew has withstood persecution, and the light which burns on the
altar of the chosen people is yet undimmed.
Jews become apostates at rare intervals from choice, but under

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 211
compulsion, never. It is true, that at times under great stress Jews
have feigned conversion. Thus Prescott in his History of Ferdi
nand and Isabella, in the chapter devoted to the inquisition, says,
"In this crisis the only remedy left to the Jews was a real or
feigned conversion to Christianity. St. Vincent Ferrier, a Domin
ican of Valencia, performed such a quantity of miracles in fur
therance of this purpose as might have caused the envy of any
saint in the calendar, and these, aided by his eloquence, are said
to have changed the hearts of no less than 35,000 of the race of
Israel, which (significantly adds the historian) doubtless must
be reckoned the greatest miracle of all."
That this power of resistance still exists among the Jews of
our own time is not only proven by the results of persecutions
in the East but by the sorry returns of the various societies
founded for the purpose of proselyting the Jews. Statistics show
that after the expenditure of thousands of treasure, only at rare
intervals have such societies secured an ostensible convert, and
the majority of these soon proved to be hypocrites, who merely
abjured their religion in order that they might possess themselves
of the tempting bribes which such organizations offered to pre
sumed Jewish avarice.
Their long history of suffering for principle's sake is the
legacy of the modern Jew, and it were the most barbarous disre
gard of the holy sentiment of national and family pride to cast
it aside. Reverence for ancient institutions and loyalty to the
principles out of which they grew are not the proper subject of
commendation by argument. They are sentiments that grow and
exist in noble natures, like the wild violet in the forest. The
subtlest chemistry can not discover the particular law under
whose operations the wild flower grows, nor substitute its growth ;
neither can logic discover the fount in the human organization
whence flow our noblest sentiments. But we have an instinct
common to us all which commends or condemns any development
of the human mind and heart, and by this standard I feel safe
in declaring that the strongest evidence of moral decay in any
people is indifference to the traditions and principles of its fore
fathers.

212 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
The Jews in America have been relieved in a great measure
of the pressure under which they have existed for years, and pros
perity, coupled with liberty, has filled many of them with that
pride of self which condemns all humility as degrading and all
reverence as maudlin. Like the stream to which I have compared
them they have been a great force as long as they have been con
fined to high and narrow limits, but now that they are freed
from restrictions they are in danger of spreading in a thin, ex
posed sheet over the surface of the earth, and thus being ulti
mately lost. Shall we not rather channel for ourselves new and
greater courses, in whose confines we shall continue to be a noble
stream? Shall we not confine ourselves in the banks of Prin
ciples and Loyalty to the ancient traditions of our fathers, and
thus preserve our integrity? We can if we will; and shall we
not? What answer can the mind make to this plea of the heart?
What reply can Utility make to this demand of Right? For
myself, I should not care to inquire the consequence of keeping
faith with my ancestors. To me it is sufficient that I am one
of that people who have ever been a part of the world, yet dis
tinct from it, and who, through storm and calm, have existed
in their distinctive integrity J just as the gulf stream has flowed
on forever as part of the sea, yet as a river running its endless
course with the ocean for its banks. It were faithless, cowardly
and inhuman to forget or disregard our past ; and to cease to be
in principle what our fathers were, is to forget or disregard.
I do not contend that manners and customs should not change,
but I maintain that the integrity of our people, the sacredness
of the tie that unites us, the almost family relation among all
Jews, which has been our safeguard in all ages, should be pre
served in the exercise of that holy duty which was enjoined by
the great Law-giver: "Honor thy father and thy mother that
thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God has
given thee."
When Regulus was called upon to break faith with the Cartha
ginians, whose treachery has become proverbial, or advise his
people to a disadvantageous treaty, he turned his back upon his
country and his people, his wife and his children, his honors and

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 213
his life, because it did not become him, as a -Roman, to betray his
country nor, as a man, to violate his pledge. His life is the bright
est page in Roman history, because it exemplifies the principle
highest above all others, that the noblest virtue is to do right with
out regard to consequences. "Not bestowed
In vain should such examples be."
We who are the "heirs of all the ages ;" we whose veins con
tain the oldest and the purest blood; we who have survived
Nebuchadnezzar and Semiramis, Alexander and Caesar; we who
can point to the ever-fresh monuments of our greatness, monu
ments whose age make modern the crumbling walls of the Coli
seum; we the people who antedate all others and have outlived
them all — we should remain firm in our devotion to all that has
given substance to these boasts, with the same faith in results
that made Daniel calm and brave when he was cast among the
lions. It is a solemn duty, and there the inquiry should end, but
just as it is necessary to teach honesty by showing that it is the
best policy, it may be proper to go further and show that as a
matter of expediency it is best that we remain Jews, and to that
consideration I shall address myself in the next chapter.

CHAPTER III.
Wherein is Considered the Expediency of Preserving the Exist
ence of the Jews as Such.
In the consideration of any question of duty the welfare of
others is of as much consequence as our own; in the considera
tion of a question of policy, our own advancement is the only
end in view. Unhappy the man who regulates the progress of
his life only by the law of sordid self-interest. Such a creature
carries a natural impulse to an extreme that makes it unnatural.
He distorts the law of self-defense into a pretended right of uni
versal and indiscriminate war upon the world. He becomes the
hated of man, the victim of God ; for no love can extend to one
devoid of love; no mercy be vouchsafed to him who displays
none. Though it be not in the Decalogue, not less divine is the
injunction: "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
I am not blind to the fact that the vast majority of njen are
iswayed by influences of both good and evil, and that while no
man is perfect in virtue, no one is wholly steeped in evil. It-
would avail nothing to preach to men if they were either wholly
good or wholly bad. In the one case it would be,
"To paint the lily
Or gild refined gold."
In the other it were "To cool the sun by fanning it with a
feather." But when men desire to do right and only go astray when they
persuade themselves that what is politic is right, it is important
either to show that what is politic is not right — or that what is
wrong is not politic. Either effort if successful should change
their course, for no good man would forsake the right from mo-
214

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 215
tives of policy; no intelligent man would knowingly go counter
to his own interest in the exercise of a wrong.
As I have stated, to my mind it is sufficient to know that it is
a solemn duty to be faithful to our traditions. But I have friends,
honest and true in desire, who differ with me and who defend
their position with no little power. It is contended that no par
ticular form of religion, no adherence to particular customs is
necessary to gain the favor of Heaven ; that therefore it becomes
simply a question for consideration, whether,
"Here upon this bank and shoal of Time,"
virtues may be practiced without regard to creeds, rites, cer
emonies or customs, and that neither our religion nor our customs
should be preserved unless they be shown to further our temporal
welfare. In respect of that, it is urged that so far from being a
benefit they are the reverse. That bigotry and oppression, perse
cution and outrage are stimulated against us by our exclusive-
ness and unity ; that if we disintegrate and sacrifice our integrity
as a people, intermarry with Christians, forego our little cliques,
abjure the Synagogue and the rite of circumcision, oppression
and bigotry, persecution and outrage will die out for want of
fuel, and we will ride untrammeled on the highest wave of our
modern civilization.
I have stated the position fairly and shall treat it with respect
ful consideration. I shall not enter into any theological discus
sion as to the necessity of religion in general or particular for
the salvation of the soul. That is a field too full of stones and
stumps for my reaper. I take direct issue with the proposition
that we will be advanced morally, physically, mentally or socially
by merging our existence in the common mass of mankind. For
the sake of discussion I will concede, what I do not' otherwise
grant, that religion is of no consequence in the determination
of our life beyond the grave.
I have already treated briefly of the general proposition, that
in order for man to attain anything approximating universal
brotherhood, he must limit his sphere to confines vastly more con-

2l6 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
tracted than those aimed at. It is equally true that he must, as
that he should. History incontrovertibly proves that, howsoever
alike different species of men be, there always must be different
species, which are genera to other species. To illustrate let us
suppose that by selection members of every species of man or
any other animal were associated together in community, with
equal rights, privileges and duties. Is it not evident that in a
short time there would grow out of this chaos a distinct species
or breed ? The maturity of man is so far removed from his birth
than we can only study this problem with reference to him in the
pages of history; among the lower animals we can make actual
observations. It requires but little experiment to show, and wider
experience demonstrates that no matter how haphazard any sys
tem or want of system in breeding is conducted, out of it will
grow a distinct breed. In the make-up of any old woman's poul
try there may be blood of every known variety infused into the
stock without selection or skill, but nevertheless in a short time
her chicks can be distinguished from those of her neighbor on
the adjoining farm. In the English, French, German and Span
ish peoples we find a great variety of blood indiscriminately mixed
without regard to results, and yet while possessing many qualities
in common they are distinct in thought and feeling, physical,
moral and intellectual organization, speaking different languages,
governed by different laws and practicing different customs.
From these experiences we may learn this lesson, that in
crossing breeds a new breed is made — that when one is extin
guished by a failure to keep it pure a new strain is either formed
or largely modified. Therefore if classes are undesirable nothing
is gained by surrendering ' our particular classification. We
merely make room for another, the quality of which we can not
foretell. When I say another, I refer not only to those that may
take an independent existence, but also those whose previous
characters are modified by new infusions. Now if we are to
selfishly consider the benefits we are to derive from ceasing to
be Jews, it behooves us to inquire wherein we may be advantaged
by crossing our breed, and by continual crossing extinguish its
independent existence. I devote myself especially to the ques-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 217
tion of blood for this reason. If we remain exclusive in our mar
riages we perforce must remain so to some extent in our social
life; and e converso if we surrender our social exclusiveness we
necessarily forfeit the purity of our strain by permitting mixed
marriages. "Man is fire and woman is tow,
Bring them together and away they go,"
and that, too, without regard to questions of religion, philosophy
or social science. The Jews are famous for their intellectual
power, their moral habits, their physical development and health,
and their pure social intercourse with one another. It is not nec
essary to parade with sophomoric eloquence the exemplars of our
intellectual power. The world concedes that, for their number,
the Jews produce more great men than any other people on the
globe. It is as readily conceded that their moral, physical and
social habits and development are of the highest order— so high
indeed that they have never been surpassed, and perhaps never
equaled. Such a coincidence of high and noble qualities must be
due to a law which if ascertainable may throw light on the ques
tion under discussion. It is a well recognized doctrine that na
tional characters arise from a community of blood, climate, laws
and customs. The same may be said of the Jews who, in some
respects, constitute a nation, though they claim the globe for
their country and the "Powers that be" for their rulers. If this
be true, that the community of blood, customs, religion, etc., has
created the Jewish character, why change the law that is fruitful
of such glorious results ? We are the result of a natural selection
that has been going on for thousands of years. We have pre
served pure a strain of blood that in the beginning was better than
all others and that shows no sign of impairment. Why should we
abandon methods that have placed us in the front ranks of men ?
The stock-raiser carefully guards the purity of his best strains,
fearing that the infusion of other blood may impair the quality of
his stock. Why should not we be equally jealous of ourselves?
This may be claimed a harsh and unfeeling view of the matter.

2l8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
It may be urged that other and higher than mere blood consid
erations claim attention, but may I ask whence characters grow,
if not from blood and associations ? Besides, in what else will we
be benefited ? Shall we in America have higher privileges under
a Government that declares all men free and equal before the
law ? Shall we make more money, we who now enjoy the un
enviable distinction of being a nation of money-getters ? Shall we
be more cultivated, educated or refined because we forfeit our
birth right? Shall we be more beloved by our fellow-creatures
when our consciences shall upbraid us for being openly at war
with our religion and our traditions, while our Christian broth
ers sneer at us for being secretly faithful thereto ? Shall we have
to struggle less for a livelihood when we become "men of the
world?" Shall we, whether we abjure religion or not, be hap
pier because the door of a mixed society is smilingly opened in
our faces and more smilingly closed on our backs ?
Ah ! but it is said that the name of Jew is a millstone around
the neck of ambition; that it mars a career. So thought Samuel
Rogers when he had Benjamin Disraeli baptized in the Church
of England. Did that ceremony aid the great Jew? Was he not
always in the public eye and his own esteem of the same people
as his great friends, the Rothschilds ? Did the people of England,
the haughtiest and most addicted to caste of all the great West
ern powers, love Disraeli less because he championed the cause
of the Jews in Servia, Bosnia, Herzogovinia, and paraded with
pride through his works that he was a Jew? Turn to his con
temporary, Edward Lasker, who was not reared out of his faith.
Did he not rise despite his birth, and hold his hands upon the
heart-strings of Germany? Contrast him with Disraeli. The
latter not a Jew, except by blood, espousing the cause of the
Jews amid the plaudits of the world; Lasker, a Jew in every
thing save heart, turning his back upon the Jews when bigotry
assailed them, only to merit and receive the first condemnation
expressed for him by the civilized world.
The world is cold to unwarranted claims in whatever guise
they come ; it is liberal to merit in any garb. The laurel grows
for the Jew as for the Christian. It is true that, everything else

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 2IQ
being equal, the Jew is at a disadvantage, because of the pre
judice against the Jews as a class, but it is equally true that he
who is inherently great will rise in spite of the prejudice. Cer
tainly no one unworthy the laurel may wear it, because as to him
there is no prejudice. The prejudice which prevails against a
class is only an incubus in the beginning. As soon as any indi
vidual proves himself superior to the faults of his class that pro
voke prejudice, he is made an exception, and in being made an
exception is treated with more consideration than if he did not
belong to the execrated class. Unquestionably the evil reputa
tion of the Jews injures every Jew among the Gentiles until he
makes a reputation for himself, but when that reputation is made
the name of Jew is honored in the man and the man honored in
the name. But, I am asked, why suffer the disadvantage con
ceded in the outset of the race? Why not start on equal terms by
giving up the name and qualities of the Jew ? To this I answer
that the favorite does not always win the race. He may start
under more auspicious circumstances, but speed and endurance
must win. Besides, the seeming disadvahtage may be a blessing
in disguise in that it stimulates energies that would otherwise
lie dormant. It is certain that the persecutions of the Jews have
developed their greatness. May it not be that the necessity for
greater exertion to attain their ends was the secret of the success
of the great among our people ? Moreover, if we free ourselves
from this disadvantage we assume others. Nature distributes
her compensations as the clouds do their raindrops. A man must
have some religion or none, and whichever he chooses he will
find himself more or less handicapped thereby. In particular
localities one religion may offer greater inducements than others,
but, as a rule, it matters not what faith is professed. The race
will be to the swift and enduring. A striking proof of this is
found in the proverbial failure in life of the sons of great men.
They start in their careers with the prestige of a great name, they
enjoy the patronage of a wide circle of family friends, but when
the ancestral fire is wanting the family light grows dim. If this
be true of those who have a positive advantage, how true must it
be of those who only enjoy the negative advantage of a free

220 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
field and a fair fight ! I am convinced that every legitimate assist
ance in the beginning will aid in securing success at the end,
but an advantage or seeming advantage secured at the cost of a
principle will prove a detriment before the end is reached. "The
mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine."
Success is the reward of merit alone, and merit needs no
aids that are purchased at the price of the noblest sentiments.
In every department of life there is a republic of excellence, and
he who possesses the highest excellence may become a president.
Is the music of Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn less admired because
they were Jews or the sons of Jews ? Do students ignore Spinoza
because he was a Jew? Does the interest flag in reading Auer-
bach and Heine because they were Jews? Who is it that would
pluck a flower from the immortelles that grace the venerable fore
head of Sir Moses Montefiore,?
It is the sheerest nonsense to think that, individually, we suf
fer in this country because there is a prejudice against Jews.
There is no prejudice against a Jew who is worthy of the name;
it only extends to those who disgrace the name. A gentleman
who does honor to the name derives honor from it, for
"He gives but to receive again,
As the seas return the rivers in rain."
The unsuccessful man is always casting about for the excuse
for his failure, and the last explanation to strike him is his own
deficiencies. It is a safe rule that he who lays his failure at the
door of his -creed or race, seeks an illegitimate parent for his
own abortion. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves that we are underlings."
I do not dispute that in barbarous countries or among bigoted
peoples, where the Jews are persecuted as such, there may be a
positive advantage in not being a Jew. But there is no need for
a utilitarian argument to such Jews. Faithful to the traditions

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 221
of the Jews, they are more adherent to their religion and their
customs in adversity than in prosperity. With them it suffices
to know and feel that it is right to be Jews. The suffering that
grows out of the exercise of that right they leave to the God of
Israel, in whose inscrutable wisdom and justice they place a
sublime faith. I should not omit to mention one other disadvan
tage arising from the desertion of Judaism and Jewish modes of
life. The renegade from any class is a marked man. He be
comes a "Fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow, unmoving finger at."
The Jewish renegade is execrated by the Jews as a traitor
and a coward ; by the Christians as a hypocrite and a time-server.
Consistency and sincerity are qualities that always excite admira
tion and respect. The most prominent among the respected and
esteemed Jews are those who are Jews at heart and avowed Jews
before the world. It may apparently avail a man to abjure his
religion and his people, but it is equally true that at times there
is an advantage to be derived from absolute falsehood and de
ception. I trust I shall not be misunderstood as arguing that in remain
ing Jews it is essential that we abstain from association with non-
Israelites. I hold no such views. I am in favor of intercourse,
but the intercourse that I favor is as far from an indiscriminate
intermixture as it is from absolute exclusion. I favor intercourse,
conducted upon a sound philosophy, applied to social life. I
shall have occasion to treat of that subject further on, and I only
mention it now to guard against misapprehension. Thus far I
have confined myself to the consideration of the single question :
Shall we as Jews perpetuate our solidarity as a people preserving
our faith and traditions, and our social characteristics? I have
sought to show that our perpetuity depends upon ourselves ; that
we as a people are superior to that law of decay which affects
all others. I have sought to answer the question by showing
that it was a duty to do so, which if it properly might be, in fact
1 I

222 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
is not affected by any considerations of true policy. Let it be
remembered that I have discussed the question thus far solely
from the standpoint of the Jew — I shall later »n consider it in
another view.
Assuming that the question I have propounded should be an
swered affirmatively; I next proceed to inquire into the proper
course to pursue in order to insure the integrity of the Jews.

CHAPTER IV.
Wherein is Considered the Loyalty Due to the Traditions and
Customs of the Jewish Ancestors.
No problems are so difficult of solution as the problems of
casuistry. When the reasoning powers are applied to the solution
of delicate questions of right or wrong they utterly fail, except
they derive conclusions from premises that do not properly ema
nate from the reasoning powers. Indeed, it may be safely an
nounced as a sound proposition that all rules of conduct that the
reason approves are deducible from the moral sense. It does not
follow that the rules will or must be correct because of this
fact. It is not certain that the moral sense itself has not been
perverted if originally pure, and, moreover, in the process of
deduction elements may creep in to defile the purity of the law.
A stream may gush in crystal clearness at its head, and be a filthy
volume at its mouth. The truth of the general proposition thus
briefly mentioned is illustrated by the power of what we call con
science. Under some name, that element of our spiritual nature
which turns to the right and from the wrong, without effort or
delay, has been recognized all over the world, and at all times.
Its voice is often drowned by false logic, but it is never silent.
It seldom, if ever, errs ; the reasoning faculties are as often wrong
as right. Almost any act can be plausibly defended by the under
standing, but when the Reason has whitewashed an escutcheon
the Conscience irrepressibly points to the fact that beneath the
coat of white is a dark and repelling substratum. I remember
once as a student of ethics I asked our learned instructor this
question : "If I saw an East Indian woman, in the exercise of
her religious belief, about to cast her infant into the Ganges,
should I prevent what I conceive to be a murder and deny her
the exercise of her religious belief, or should I be tolerant and
suffer a murder ?" I should have no difficulty now in answering
223

224 LEO N- LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
the question; but then it presented difficulties to one who be
lieved in what is popularly and erroneously called the exercise
of the freedom of conscience. The professor's answer was char
acteristic: "I might fail to satisfactorily explain my course, but
I know that my moral instincts would impel me to prevent the
sacrifice, and I would do it." There are some things about which
we can not reason, they are so deep ; there are others about which
we need not, they are so clear. Twestern said much the same
thing about the existence of God.
I need not say that I believe in this moral sense. I believe
that every well balanced mind acknowledges its existence. .
Utilitarians may and do argue that patriotism is a virtue be
cause it is politic, but the martyrdom that has been suffered by
millions of patriots is an answer to the argument which no logic
can meet. The love of country has a higher origin and a broader
base than mere policy. It is true that nations are created or
rather grow out of that selfishness which I have discussed, al
ready, but that selfishness is merely a longing to satisfy a want
common to all mankind, implanted in us by a higher power to
work out an end that we know not of. Mere logic and utilitarian
ism breed such apothegms as ubi bene, ibi patria; the moral sense
breeds such heroes as Regulus and Leonidas and Arnold Winkel-
ried. Patriotism is a virtue positive and per se, and hence a duty
universally recognized and universally practiced. It is but a
specific form of that loyalty which we owe to a higher power,
upon which we depend, whence we sprung and to which we are
indebted for existence, improvement and protection. Loyalty to
different powers and different institutions may co-exist without
conflict, for the fealty due to the one may be of a different nature
to that which is due to another. The population of the United
States is heterogeneous in its elements, but homogeneous in its
compound. The common bond of American citizenship closes the
political gap between people that by education and from nativity
are widely apart ; but notwithstanding this community of loyalty,
the Frenchman continues to love France and hate Germany, and
the German still loves Germany and hates France. It is not
objected to in our country that American citizens of German birth

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 225
or extraction should celebrate great German triumphs with en
thusiasm ; nor that Frenchman should glow over the victories of
the Little Corporal. Die Wacht Am Rhein and La Marseillaise
float undisturbed on our breezes, for we know that when the
national harpstrings are sounded, the Germans and the French
will attune their voices to a common key and sing in harmony the
"Star Spangled Banner."
There is nothing inconsistent in the Jewish reverence and
love for the traditions and customs of the Jewish fathers.
It is the same order of loyalty that makes the natural
ized emigrant weep or rejoice in the sorrows or joys of the nation
whence he sprung. It is true we have no land that we may call
our own. There is not a foot of ground upon the face of the
globe under absolute Jewish dominion, for even the Jewish cem
eteries are parts of nations in which the Jews are citizens or
subjects, independent of their being Jews. But while we have
no nation in that sense we are a people distinct in ourselves,
though scattered broadcast among the haunts of men. 'Quam
fluctus diversi, quam mare conjuncti. Their derivation from a
common source, the unparalleled purity of their blood, the same
ness of their creed and traditions, the melancholy uniformity
of their sufferings, the same fears and hopes, the same customs
and idiosyncrasies, make the Jew of Asia Minor a compatriot
of the Jew of the United States. The bond exists and it is rec
ognized. The great centenarian, Sir Moses Montefiore, is its
living exemplar.* From our shores of freedom the ships of
aid and encouragement have been launched for tyrant ports, laden
with good cheer and substantial offerings to our persecuted
brethren abroad.
Was it wrong for us to aid the persecuted Jews in Roumania
and neighboring provinces, while others busied themselves with
missionary work in Central Africa ? Was our loyalty misplaced *
Certainly our government thought not so when at our instance
it remonstrated against the outrages, and recognized our sym
pathetic sufferings by sending a Jewish Consul to Bucarest*
?Written before his death in 1885.
*Benj. F. Peixotto during Grant's administration.

226 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Our moral sense tells us that this loyalty is right, and we may rea
son as we please we can not uproot it. We have no Jewish nation
whose laws we are called on to obey ; we have no common home
to improve, to love or defend; we have no temporal gvernment
to support, but we have in common a past of our fathers full of
suffering and triumph, patience and courage, heroism and wis
dom, piety and truth ; we have in common a present for ourselves,
great in the growth from the seeds sown in that past ; we have in
common a future for our children that shall give fruition where
there is but foliage now. To that past, this present and the future
we owe fealty. It is a duty to the exercise of which we are
admonished by the still small voice of conscience, the neglect of
which will engender the bitterest remorse.
Let not this loyalty be confounded with the loyalty that the
Roman Catholic pays to Rome. The Pontiff still claims a tem
poral power for the See and as the head of the Catholic hierarchy
he rules the Catholics of the world. To the Catholics he is the
Vicar of God, whose bulls are revelations from on High — and
if it chances that governmental laws come in conflict with the
decree of Rome the Catholic is called on as part of his religion
to cling to Mother Church. Our loyalty is subject to no such
objection. To compare the two is to compare opposites; the
distinction between them is their entire difference from each
other. I shall not argue that it is proper to nourish this sentiment of
loyalty. I have discussed it sufficiently if it be in need or will
admit of argument. I assume that it should be nourished and
cultivated as a virtue of the highest order. I urge this nourish
ment and culture as one of the means by which the Jews can
be perpetuated. If we be true to the traditions of our fathers
we shall live as long as filial devotion engenders self-esteem and
the admiration of the world. Without our history and our line
age we are nothing, and it behooves us to cherish them more
fondly than the aristocrat does his genealogy. Our family tree
was rooted on creation's dawn, and destined, I trust, to flourish
until the latest day.

CHAPTER V.
Wherein is Considered the State of Judaism in the United States.
I have already stated my reluctance to touch upon the subject
of religion, and if I feel called on to give it some consideration,
it shall be but a brief and passing notice. The discussion of our
social duties would be incomplete without some mention of our
religion. It has become fashionable in America to reform "Judaism."
The phrase is either absurd or inaptly chosen. The religion of
the Jews can not be reformed or altered by the hand or mind of
man. That would be to tinker with the handiwork of divinity.
We might as well seek to alter the operations of the solar system.
The practice of our religion is, however, the proper subject of
change. Independent of any form of religion known to us,
there are certain natural rights which occasion reciprocal duties.
The observance of the duties which grow out of the rights of
others is the religion common to all. Differences have arisen as
to the best mode of practicing the duties we owe to one another,
and as each mode materializes and gains supporters it takes upon
itself the name of a distinct religion. In so far as each teaches
the exercise of correct principles each is divine and may not be
altered ; in so far as they adopt or practice methods of instruction
they are perhaps all human. Judaism has no broader limits than
the tablets on which were inscribed the Decalogue. Who obeys
the Commandments is a Jew so far as religion is concerned. It
has been found, however, that just as it requires a criminal code
to prevent crimes against governments, so it requires religions to
prevent violations of the Ten Commandments, and to encourage
the practice of the positive virtues, which are expressed in or
implied from them.
It has been shown that man is actually selfish. This quality
in its normal condition is a virtue, but under the corrupting
influence of our animal appetites it is in constant danger of be-
227

228 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
coming a grave fault. Once developed in its unnatural vigor by
animal wants or desires, it clouds the reason and deadens the
conscience, until our natural duties are forgotten or wilfully dis
regarded. To counteract this tendency, churches have been built,
so that under the melting influence of "fretted arch and long
drawn aisle," selfish ends may be forgotten and natural duties
become prominent. We are all subject to the effect called enthu
siasm — that frenzy of the mind to which we are indebted for the
greatest triumphs of mankind. The bravest soldiers will lose
courage if they are denied the inspiration of music and the na
tional flag; the veriest coward glows with courage when
he hears his comrades cheer a response to the martial music
of the drum and fife. Orators infuse into the most apa
thetic an interest in public affairs by arousing their enthusi
asm. Religious fervor is a powerful agent in bringing about the
practice of virtue and the avoidance of sin. The ceremonies and
forms most calculated to produce the desired end have every
where been adopted, and as different people require different rites,
ceremonies and forms to make them fervid with virtuous desire,
different forms of religion have arisen in different portions of
the globe. The Oriental people require peculiar forms, etc., which
are supplied by Buddhism and Mohammedanism. Europe is sup
plied by the various forms of Christianity. As times change and
the world advances or retrogrades, changes are necessary in cere
monies, rites, etc., hence the importance in every church of an
hierarchy, whence may be derived authority for such modifica
tions as are required. In the absence of such government con
fusion must predominate, and chaos will supervene. Instance the
Christian churches. Under Rome and the Czar there is uniform
ity in two of the branches, but the departure inaugurated by
Luther and Calvin has bred a multitude of churches having little
in common but their origin and the essentials of their creeds. It
is said that churches breed half the world's troubles. This is a
mistake. It is the difference among churches that gives rise to
contention — not their existence. Were there but one church it
would doubtless be corrupt in its ministers, but it could not be
bellicose. A multitude of churches insures a clean ministry and

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 229
a belligerent spirit. What is the proper mean between these
extremes, is not my province to discuss. What I am leading to is
the proposition that a multitude of churches to practice the same
creed under different forms, engender such confusion, contention
and strife that the creed itself is in danger. Thus children in
contending for a toy nearly always destroy the subject matter of
controversy before the title is established.
Forms of religion must change with men and conditions. The
forms of Judaism are no exception. I am not opposed to the con
servative and gradual alteration of ceremonies that should fall,
as many have fallen, into desuetude ; but reform does not mean
revolution. In trimming off unnecessary foliage from our church
tree, let us guard against hacking down the tree itself. We have
no real hierarchy, and may be said to have had none since the
Sanhedrin — consequently the "reforms" are not uniform. The
result could be easily forecast were it not already foregone.
Each Jewish minister is a free-lance, and each is ambitious to
originate something new, an achievement that he thinks is accom
plished by destroying something old. They are fettered by noth
ing but traditions and each has his pruning-knife whetted anx
ious to cut off a more substantial limb than his neighbor. The
fashion is little over a quarter century old in America and the
poor old tree is so bare of limbs and foliage already that it is
scarcely recognizable. When I see the work of such men as
Felix Adler I am reminded of the similarity between them and
Gloster, who thought that:
"The aspiring youth who fired the Ephesian dome
Outlives the pious fool who reared it."
Can we do nothing to stop this desecration ? Can we not fetter
the inconoclasm of these ruthless destroyers?
Lord Bacon, in his essay on Innovation says, "It is good also
not to try experiments except the necessity be urgent or the util
ity evident; and well to beware that it be the reformation that
draweth on the, change, and not the desire of change that pre-
tendeth the reformation, and lastly, that the novelty, though it be

23O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
not rejected, yet be held for a suspect, and as the Scripture
sayeth, "That we make a stand upon the ancient way and then
look about us and discover what is the straight and right way
and so to walk in it.' "
Let us pause for a while and consider the present indifference
to the forms and ceremonies of our religion in its relations to
the righteous conduct of the people. The present reform move
ment as expounded by its leaders, is an effort to reduce religion
to a rational basis, and to reject everything that cannot be recon
ciled with the understanding of its adherents. In the nature of
things a platform so narrow affords no room for traditional cus
toms, forms and ceremonies, nor does it extend a habitat for the
miracles narrated in the Scriptures. That this reform move
ment must eventuate in a failue, seems to my mind so clear that it
requires but little argument to show it. Were the movement of
an intelligent and conservative character, directed to eliminating
and altering some of the obsolete and ineffective forms of our
worship, and were it the result of a desire common to the mass
of the people, the success of it would be immediate and its course
unaffected by anything in the nature of revolution. But an effort
to rationalize religion is an absurdity upon its face. The very
phrase, "A rational religion," as interpreted by those who coined
it, involves a contradiction of terms. A creed formulated for the
government of the world in its moral aspect, which is not based
either in revelation or tradition, can have no firm foundation.
Reason is neither deep enough nor broad enough to support a
structure of such towering height and such ponderous weight.
The decalogue is conceded to be the best moral code ever yet
promulgated for the government of the world, and so-called ra
tionalists uphold and maintain every syllable contained in that
wonderful revelation. If the divine character of the commands
be disputed, but the truth and worth of them maintained, it be
hooves the rationalists to furnish an affirmative argument in
favor of each of said commands. Can this be done? Is it pos
sible to establish by pure logic, and from premises which re
quire no resort to tradition or revelation, the truth of any sen
tence in the decalogue? It is a startling challenge, and yet I

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 23I
make it without fear of a satisfactory reply, that it is impossible
by mere argument, independent of the Scriptures or tradition,
to establish the correctness of any law laid down in the com
mandments. For example, what will the rationalist say in support of the
command "Thou shalt not kill ?" Where will he find the premise
upon which to base a train of reasoning leading to such a con
clusion? Will he find it in the nature of man? Will he find it
in the course of nature that surrounds and environs mankind?
Will he find it in the animal instincts which observation teaches
him exist in the human organism? Will he find it by analogy
from the brute creation? Most assuredly not.
If he lowers his gaze from the skies and looks about him and
at his feet, he will find nothing to warrant the interdict against
homicide. He will find that the animals prey upon one another,
that the birds of the air and the fish of the sea prey upon one
another; he will find that man in his primitive natural state
engages in almost ceaseless warfare against his kind ; that might
is recognized as the only standard of right; that there exists no
conscience in the savage which gives rise to remorse because of
the slaughter of a fellow being. Nay, more, he finds that the
savage satisfies his hunger by using the corpse of his human vic
tim as his daily food. If he argues that the institution of society
cannot exist if homicide be permissible, the reply comes swift
to the surface, that society supervenes the nature of man and is
the creature of mankind, not man the creature of society, and if
society requires an absolute change in the nature of man in order
to render its existence possible, then is society falsely based.
Again, what argument is offered by anything in nature in favor
of the right of property and in support of the interdict against
theft? Do we not find that the animals seize what they have
the power to take, and retain what they have the power to hold ?
Is not this true of the birds and of the fishes ? Is it not true of
man in his primitive and natural state? Is it not true, even
according to the theory of the evolutionist, that the fittest sur
vive because of their fitness, and because by reason of their fit
ness they are able to enjoy those things which are necessary to

232 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. i
sustenance, and thus are the unfit deprived of them. Nature pre
sents a continual round of thefts justified apparently by the di
vine economy. It is only man who is forbidden to steal, and why
this distinction if it be not founded upon some broader and
deeper basis than mere reason. I might go through with all of
the commandments and show that none of them can be sustained
upon mere and purely logical grounds.
Surely a religion can have but little claim for respect if it
denies the divine character of the decalogue and yet fails to es
tablish the commandments upon some other basis than that fur
nished by the Scriptures.
The new school further maintains that the practice of mere
forms and ceremonies is neither essential to salvation, nor to the
practice of morality and hence it is permissible to abrogate all
forms and ceremonies that do not consist with contemporary
ideas. I propose to consider this proposition, for it involves an
error that has become exceedingly popular. I copy here some
reflections upon this matter prepared at another time and, which
were delivered in a public lecture.
"Religion, in its generic sense, has been defined as the recog
nition of God, as an object of worship, love and obedience. With
out regard to differences in creeds, a system of devotion which
fulfils the conditons of the definiton may be termed a religion —
and without regard to incidental errors in the system, if it be
based upon a recognition of one God, as the fountain of exist
ence and authority and the object of adoration, love and obe
dience, to that extent the particular religion is true. The object
of every religion should be to elevate the morality and thus in
sure the happiness of its devotees. To this end all other aims
must become subservient, as they are naturally subordinate and
incidental. Religion considered as a means to the attainment of
a pure life is divisible into two main aspects — to-wit: faith
and practice. Faith deals with matters existent, and upon it is
predicated rules of human conduct. Practice is the conduct regu
lated by the rules derived from faith.
The recognition of God as an object of worship, love and obe
dience and as the fountain of existence and authority to which

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 233
we are accountable is matter of faith — and he who makes such
recognition possesses religion to that extent. Such faith, how
ever, may be conceived as coexistent in the same individual, with
the most immoral practices. Whenever, in fact, a wilful wrong
is committed, we have an exhibition of practice which is at va
riance with faith. Morality may possibly be practiced without
faith in those matters which constitute religion proper, although
no system of practical morality could be founded without refer
ence to some supernatural and final authority. The inquiry is
not so practically important as the manner and means of prac
ticing morality. The vast majority of mankind possess religion
pure and proper. That is to say they recognize God as an object
or worship, love and obedience, and as the source of all existence
and authority. It is equally true that the great majority of those
possessing this religion desire to practice morality. At this point,
however, the ground ceases to be common and the roads fork
in a thousand different directions.
There are those who claim that not only is faith an essential
in the scheme of salvation, but that the practice of forms and
ceremonies are indispensable either to morality on earth or safety
hereafter. This class embraces all of those who, claiming truth
in faith and practice for themselves, consign all others to perdi
tion. There are those who believe that practical morality is neces
sarily based upon religion as already defined, and that when
morality thus founded and derived is attained, the essential obli
gations of life, have been complied with. This, as I understand it,
is the essence of Judaism as a religion. To characterize Judaism
by reference to its peculiar forms and practices rather than by
the essentials just named, is to confound a name used in classifi
cation, with the very substance itself.
Such an analysis of Judaism — the reduction of it as it were
to its elements — has not always been and is not productive of
unmixed good. False logic leads as often to error when the
premises are true as when they are incorrect. Since pure Judaism
does not make mere matters of form and ceremony — mere rites
and rituals — essential to salvation, the hasty reasoner concludes

234 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
that he may abandon them without peril either to the happiness
of his existence in the unknown hereafter, or to the morality of
his conduct in this earthly span of life. It is to this not un
popular — this plausible and dangerous fallacy that I desire to
especially direct attention.
It may be conceded for the sake of argument, if demanded,
that a man whose thoughts are always pure and whose feelings
are always natural and noble and whose deeds are always good
and who believes in Monotheism attains to the highest aims
of Judaism, without reference to whether he complies or not
with mere matters of church discipline or practices the forms
and ceremonies which serve in a measure to distinguish the pro
fessors of Judaism, from the members of other churches. Such
a concession might perhaps be demanded, as a logical issue of
the Judaistic scheme.
But it is the boldest error to assume because of such a base
possibility, that no convincing reason remains for the preserva
tion and practice of rites and ceremonies. Man is a complex
organization. He is both animal and spiritual. He is both ra
tional and emotional. He acquires knowledge, both by intuition
and by induction. He has desires that spring from calculation
and from mere sensation. He is impressionable both by in
fluences that would affect natures purely animal and by those
that would move natures purely spiritual. His conduct is actuated
by mere feeling, emotion and impulse, or by deliberate design
founded on ratiocination. In dealing with such a complicated
organization all its parts must be considered. If men were free
from all animal qualities they could be governed without any
systematized code of laws other than would be furnished by
or evolved out of their very constitution. If they were purely
animals, they could be controlled solely by their appetites and
their fears.
Every well regulated system of civil government recognizes
and provides for the phenomena due to this dual nature of man.
A code of human laws that treats of men as mere brutes inevita
bly leads to revolution, because it is unbearably cruel; the code
that regards them as angels results in anarchy, because it is

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 235
wanting in the strength requisite for order. A pure despotism
is only possible where the people have not reached to the full
stature of manhood ; Utopia is only possible when the people have
risen above it.
To commit murder is a crime. It is a crime whether for
bidden by the law of the land or not and being thus forbidden
does not make it more a crime. Every well balanced mind will
admit so simple a proposition. If then it be regarded by all as a
crime, why forbid it ? Or to go a step further, why interdict the
carrying of concealed weapons? The answer is simple enough.
Man has that element in his nature which makes it unsafe to
rely solely upon his knowledge of the right and his desire to
practice it. His conduct must necessarily be goverened in great
measure by his feelings.
Far be it from me to enhance without warrant, the dignity
of the emotional part of our nature, but I should be blind if I
did not recognize that when all is said and done, the world is
governed, careers are made or blasted, happiness is secured or
lost, mainly by the emotions of men.
The greatest events of history have been and always will be
the result of sentiment. No amount of education can eradicate
from human nature, the potent influence of the heart as contra
distinguished from the mind. No man is above it. When in the
history of Rasselas we read of the sage who claims that he has
found happiness in the elimination from his nature of all emotion,
we discover an appropriate anti-climax in his grief over the death
of his child. Nothing illustrates the proposition better than the
death of one that is near and dear. Are you a philosopher who
reasons that since death is inevitable, grief is unwise and un
manly? Have you steeled yourself against the heartaches that
weaklings feel when the grim destroyer stands at the bedside of
their beloved ones? If so carry your philosophy always with
you. Take it to the cradle of your expiring child. Watch its
fluttering pulse and dying gasps, close the eyelids in their last
long sleep, compose the rigid little limbs and turn away. In such
a moment can the shield of philosophy keep from your breast

236 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
the shafts of anguish ? Believe it not. The bosom will shake and
the tears will fall, none the less freely because in vain.
And will you say that such experiences are unproductive of
results on human conduct ? Is there a man so constituted as to be
impervious to feeling? One whose breast is unmoved by grief
or joy, by love, admiration, awe or adoration? Search the wide
world over and there is not one. The great painters of human
nature all move their characters by their feelings. To substitute
any other motive power would be infidelity to nature.
But feelings do not operate on the abstract. They must be
in contact with the objects upon which they are exercised or they
will not respond. They must be moved by some influence before
they in turn give direction to human conduct. It requires no
argument to demonstrate that if the emotions are improperly
moved, they will operate in the wrong direction and thus effect
uate a positive wrong. And further that if not properly aroused
they will become dormant and thus omit the performance of what
is right. Consequently there can be no doubt that every indi
vidual who desires to practice morality, should always seek to
subject his feelings to proper and to shield them from evil in
fluences. And the most boastful of those who claim that they
are capable of doing the right without extraneous influence, are
daily governed by influences that proceed from without. Let
me illustrate. Take a man who claims that he knows what is
right and that he always does it -without pressure of any kind.
Such a man will surely admit that such charity as he is able to
dispense, is a duty. Go to him dressed in purple and fine linen
and solicit money for a family of starving children. Perchance
his heart will not beat a throb faster as he mechanically gives
you a contribution and when you have left him the subject
passes from his mind. Yet this man has done a charity. Now,
if you can, lead this man to the hovel to see the pale faced, hol-
lowed-eyed little ones. Let him hear their piteous cries. Bring
him face to face with the misery and behold the change. The
heart beats high in his breast; his eye dim and with a feeling
of intense gratification he relieves the sufferers. This, too, is

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 237
only a charity, but it is as much purer than the first, as a living
rose is purer than a painted counterfeit.
And thus in our everyday life we are governed by subtle in
fluences which we cannot see, but which impel us to evil or lead
us to good. The play, the opera, the books we read, the conver
sations we engage in, the company we keep, the landscape we
see, the very air we breathe all move us to become better or
worse. Nothing is so potent for good as devotion. Voltaire,
who scoffed at all religion, recognized the good influence of
churches. The very thought that in our devotions, we design to
cast off all evil considerations and bend our minds and hearts
to the contemplation of all that is true, beautiful and good in
God's creation works upon the dormant elements of our natures,
as the sun does upon the buried seed. The strains of solemn
music, the pure sentiments that emanate fom the pulpit, elevate
the spirit and strengthen the determination to practice what we
believe. The prayers we utter and that we hear our children
breathe, the traditional feasts and fasts of our people, made holy
as it were by their hoary antiquity lead us up to the consideration
of duties that we would otherwise ignore. It is not that the
chanting of a hymn or the uttering of a formal prayer will of
themselves make us good and pure ; but the music and the prayer,
the festival and fast cause us to think of higher and better
things and thus elevate our natures. It follows that the practice
of forms of religion becomes influential in the ratio of the at
tention with which the forms are observed. When the mind and
heart are bent to consider why and wherefore certain forms are
carried out and what they are designed to symbolize, we then
rise from the concrete to the abstract, and are enabled to think
of the purely spiritual by means of what is tangible or visible.
The mind is unequal to pure abstract truth. Who can think of
charity, without also thinking of an object upon whom or which
it is to be bestowed? Who can think of filial duty without at the
same time thinking of parent and child? We only rise to the
contemplation of human virtues by the contemplation of their
manifestations. Thus the greatest teachers of morality taught
by parables.

238 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
When the attention does not become fixed, the practice loses
much, but not all of its virtue. Attention is one thing; inten
tion is another. In the illustrations already cited of the two as
pects of a charity we can see the distinction. In one aspect there
was a formal and I might say unfeeling contribution. Here was
a want of attention. In the other instance the relief was given
with a compassionate tear and a tender heart. Here was both at
tention and intention. Yet while there is a difference in degree
of merit, both acts were good. So in the observance of forms of
religion. Let us take the Day of Atonement for the sake of il
lustration. It is common to hear men say that they have no
faith in the efficacy of fasting. That it is nonsense to suppose
that abstinence from food and drink for twenty-four hours can
clear them of sin. Hence they do not fast. But they do not
stop here. Since they do not fast, they deem it manly and coura
geous to boast of the fact that they do not observe the holiday
in that respect. Such hardihood naturally leads to abstinence
from the prayers appropriate to the solemn day. The prayer
book remains closed and perhaps even the synagogue is not at
tended. The next step is the pursuit of his usual occupation,
and lo ! what started out to be a simple denial of the efficacy of
fasting winds up in a practical denial of the doctrine of penitence.
And such a man claims to believe in God and would resent as an
insult the slightest imputation upon his desire to be moral. He
boasts that he can be and is moral without such trumpery prac
tice. He does not keep any holiday because, as he argues, if I do
not keep Kippur day it would be hypocrisy to keep any other
holy. Finally he eschews all religion and allows his moral nature
to depend upon his own boasted understanding and the chance
influences of everyday life. And perhaps he grows and thrives.
But may it not be said that his is the growth and thrift of the
weed that flourishes in marshy ground and deadly atmosphere,
while the flower requires constant attention to develop its perfec
tion? I pity the creature that is unable to think of his sins with
sorrow. I pity the creature who is unwilling to compel his mind
and heart to contemplate his own shortcomings and who to that

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 239
end will not sacrifice a physical comfort. There is no Jew who
does not understand the significance of the Kippur day. Every
Jewish child knows what it means. It is only the stiff-necked
fool who predicates an argument upon the intrinsic virtue of fast
ing. He knows in his own heart that no saving power is attribu
ted to mere abstinence from food and drink. He knows that the
day is set apart for the contemplation and reparation of the
wrongs we have done, to consider our sins, to repent of them
and to make resolution for a better life. He knows as you and I
and all of us know that fasting is merely an incident. That it is
a means of bending our minds to holy thoughts. That by the
abjuration of physical comforts we symbolize our design and
desire to minify the animal and magnify the spiritual in our na
ture. Is it not a notable thing to do ? Is it not beautiful to con
template that on that day throughout the world nearly six mil
lion Jews have turned their backs on all worldly matters. That
they are contemplating their sins and repenting, that enmities
cease, reconciliations are effected, forgiveness extended and re
venge abandoned? Let me not be understood as claiming that
all who fast and pray become good thereby. Perhaps on the mor
row the carnival of sin will with many begin a new career. But
who can measure the good that penitence does even among the
depraved — and who shall say that many are not altogether led to
higher and better things by the contemplation amidst such solem
nity of their own corrupt past.
"I hold it truth, with him who sings,
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping stones
Of their dead selves to higher things."
And there is virtue in the mere intention to observe this day.
Though the poor sinner may not be able to bring his lips to
prayer, or his tongue to the utterance of penitence, yet by sub
jecting himself to the discomforts or sufferings of abstinence he
evidences an intention to observe the traditions of his fathers, to
observe his religion, to worship his God, to atone for his sins.

24O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
And such an intention thus expressed, though coupled with no
attention to the true spirit of the occasion, elevates the man to as
high a level as he can reach, and in the end he perchance will
learn the nobler lesson of spiritual penance and devotion.
The forms and ceremonies of religion necessarily change with
times and conditions of life. But while they obtain they should
be observed and practiced; for a disregard of form and cere
mony inevitably leads to a disregard of substance, and the ob
servance of them naturally leads to the contemplation of the
morality which they teach and which we are thus reminded to
practice. A flag flying at the masthead of a ship is only a piece of rag
unworthy in itself of a serious thought ; but when that ship is an
American vessel and the flag our national banner, we would
guard the worthless rag with our lives, our fortunes and our sacred
honor. The flag is our emblem and love for it and the protec
tion we give it, is the form in which we practice our patriotism.
So long as we guard it from insult our nation is safe from foreign
aggression ; let us become indifferent to its fate because it is only
a piece of bunting and how long would it be before the tread of
a foreign foe would echo in the National Capitol?
These fasts and festivals, rites and ceremonies are the means
of attaining the practice of morality. They serve that end and
as we love the end they serve, we should honor and observe the
means by which we accomplish that end. The man who irrever
ently boasts of his diregard of them may attain the reputation of
strong-mindedness among the weak and indifferent, but in the
eyes of all good men, Jew and Gentile, and in the eyes of God, he
is like unto the traitor who would drag his country's flag in the
dust, to show how little he cares for a mere rag."
It is necessary to meet and overcome the desecrating spirit
of those who lay their ruthless hands upon everything that is
sacred in our history and our religion.
Already the conservative Jews are drawing back in alarm.
They recognize that we are no longer inspired with noble
thoughts and virtuous resolves by our religious gatherings.
The cold sermons and classic concerts that distinguish the Amer-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 241
ican synagogues arouse no religious fervor, and our children, too
consistent to attend other churches and repelled by our own,
are growing up in ignorance not only of Jewish ceremonies but
also of Jewish faith. It will not do to say that if the principles
be practical no forms need be followed. It is true that the lat
ter are secondary to the former, just as garments are secondary
to the persons they protect and adorn, but abolish the forms or
cast away the garments and the principles and persons to which
they are secondary will freeze to death. Civilization and en
lightenment do not make us superior to the aid of enthusiasm
in the practice of virtue. The French logicians claim to formu
late a complete code of moral laws without the assistance of
religion, but even the cynical Voltaire confessed that "if we had
no churches we must needs build them." We can not live in the
rare atmosphere of pure thought. We must have the oxygen
and nitrogen of feeling or we expire. We have advanced in
many things, but in morals we are the same as ever. We live,
we sin, we suffer, repent and die, and so it will be to the end.
I lose patience with the shallow fools who boast of "our nine
teenth century civilization" as doing away with the "super
stitions of religion." In what have we become civilized? It is
true we have perfected all kinds pf machinery, we have facil
itated commerce by rapid transportation and communication,
etc., ad libitum, but is crime less frequent, are wars less bloody,
sufferings less acute, misery less prominent and universal? Oh,
shame to the boaster, when it is remembered that to-day there are
millions who are persecuting the Jews in civilized Europe. Shame
to the boast that ignores the Tisza-Ezlar trial! Shame to the
boast that is flaunted in the eyes of those who see nihilism and
socialism honeycombing the social structure of all Europe.
We are not and never will be above the need of religion.
It controls us in spite of our reasoning powers, however pro
found we may be. The greatest thinkers have been ruled
through their feelings. The delicate touch of a woman's hair
has changed the fate of nations by influencing the heart of the
greatest and most powerful men. ' Shall it be said then that we
are not amenable to the influence of the solemn yet sweet sur-

242 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
roundings of the temples where we unite in prayer to Israel's
God. The veriest unbeliever can not remain unaffected amid
such influences, and though he scoffs at our God, he will be
swifter because of those influences to worship God by his deeds.
We must perpetuate our religion. To perpetuate it we must
stop this wholesale and indiscriminate desecration of its forms.
It is much easier, however, to point out evils than to prescribe
remedies. It is easy to say what should not be done, but ex
tremely difficult to indicate what should be done. I venture,
however, to make some suggestions here which occur to me as
being the solution of the problem presented by the apparent or
real conflict between some of our forms and practices, and the
remarkable progress of our present age.
As has already been remarked, mere forms and ceremonies,
not being essential to salvation, and being after all merely the.
means by which the human heart or soul is brought to the recog
nition of its duties, these forms and practices are the proper sub
ject of change whenever such change becomes necessary in
order to effectuate the true objects for which the forms and
practices were instituted. The experience of the world proves
beyond any question that they cannot be entirely dispensed
with. I do not propose to engage any further in the discussion
of that proposition.
Forms and ceremonies must naturally change, but how, and
when, and by what authority? Is it not best to follow the
scriptural injunction, "Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways
and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way, and
walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls." — Jer. vi, 16.
Changes should be made only in deference to a universal de
mand and only because the old forms by reason of adventitious
circumstances have ceased to be effective, but no one should
arrogate to himself the right to determine when the emergency
exists for the inauguration of such a change. Innovations
should always be made with the greatest circumspection. It is
often better to endure the evils that we are accustomed to than
by precipitation engage in some novelty that perhaps will end
in greater embarrassment than that sought to be escaped. To

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 243
make intelligent and conservative changes in our rituals, in our
ceremonies and our rites, it should be recognized as necessary,
first, to have a consensus of opinions that such a change as is
proposed is not only expedient, but requisite, and, second, that
such changes be made by some recognized authority. Such an
authority is a necessity both to ascertain what is necessary and
to determine how such necessities may be provided for. Where
and how shall such an authority be created? In Germany and
France, as has been remarked before, there is something in the
nature of a Jewish hierarchy, inasmuch as the rabbis are sup
ported by the state and are governed inter sese by the prescrip
tions of their Sanhedrins or synods. A synod of rabbis in Amer
ica would perhaps attain the desired end, but it is not easy to
convene such a body. Each rabbi being independent of the rest,
it is next to an impossibility to obtain from them all a sur
render of their individual views so that they might all stand
upon the platform of historic Judaism and then proceed as a
body to bring about such reformations as are necessary, and
such only. I would propose that the American rabbis should
form an association recognizing Judaism in its conservative and
orthodox forms; recognizing the Jewish creed and the Jewish
religion proper as something too sacred for human hands to
touch; but recognizing mere rites, forms and ceremonies as the
proper subject for intelligent change, so as to make them con
form to the spirit of the age and thus increase their effective
ness. Such" changes, however, should be made gradually and
not with a mere desire of change, and only as necessity demands.
Such an association or synod should create from among its
members a central authority to pass upon mere matters of disci
pline during the intervals between the convention of the whole
body. Such an organization could entertain propositions to
bring about such changes as are needed and such only, and no
innovation should be recognized as being in consonance with
Judaism, except made under the sanction of some such author
ity. Thus would the occupation of the free lance in the pulpit
come to a most timely end, and our sacred religion, which has

244 LEO N- LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
been the target for. so many treacherous marksmen, stand once
more in her. ancient dignity before her children.
This is. a hare suggestion of mine and one to which I am by
no means wedded. Perchance some other plan might be pro
posed that would cause me to renounce the one I have men
tioned. Perhaps, even in the . absence of any substitute being
offered, I would yield to argument against the feasibility of
mine.. : I should, perhaps, not leave this subject without a more com
plete discussion of the remedies which I propose for the evils
I point out, but I will be excused when it is considered that it
is the duty of the people to demand the remedy and of the: rabbis
,to supply it. It would be presumptuous in me to formulate, a
olan of procedure. . It must arise from a multitude of minds
after the exchange of ideas. : It: is our. province to recognize our
want and firmly demand a uniform mode of worship, which
while conforming, to the times and our conditions shall not so
far trench upon traditional methods as to be entirely dissimilar
from the practices of our ancestors. What we desire we know,
what we need, we must, ascertain, what will answer our needs
let our church leaders supply.

CHAPTER VI.
Wherein is considered the Intermarriage of Jews and Gentiles.
It has been shown, I trust, that the preservation of the Jews
as a people is due in a large measure to the veneration they have
displayed for their traditions and their religion, and the contin
uance of this veneration has been urged as a powerful means for
perpetuating the integrity of the Jews as a people. There is
another cause, however, which must not be overlooked. The
Jews have preserved the purity of their blood. If that has been
a virtue, it was one born of necessity, rather than choice. Until
a period within the memory of men still living there was scarce
ly if any country on the face of the globe in which race preju
dice had became so faint as to permit of intermarriages between
Je\ys and Gentiles. But of late years, and especially in America,
it has become possible for the Jews to pass upon the question as
a matter of choice, instead of accepting, as heretofore, a solution
dicated by necessity. Being now, to a greater or lesser degree,
a matter of choice, it becomes important to consider the question,
shall Jews confine themselves to their own race in matrimony?
My views will be understood before I express them. I am of
the opinion that the question should be answered in the affirma
tive. The reasons which lead me to that conclusion will prove
more interesting, however, than the bare opinion itself.
The young and the impulsive are apt to argue that love is su
preme in dictating the selection of husband or wife. That nature
intended man and woman to mate, and inspired individuals with
a passion which directs and brings about a proper union; that
it is worldly and unnatural to deny the heart its choice because
of any conventional or politic reason, and being unnatural is
wrong. The argument may seem puerile to practical people, but, in
asmuch as it is so generally accepted and urged, it merits some
consideration. 245

246 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Nature, or rather the Creator, provided for the perpetuation
of the human family by making sensual love and philoprogeni-
tiveness integral parts of human nature. These are qualities
that are common to all animals. Upon this fact is based the
claim that nature's promptings should govern in the choice of
husband or wife. The vice of the argument lies in the disregard
of the distinction between lust and love. One is purely an ani
mal desire; the other is the offspring, or rather union, of ani
mal passion and the more divine affections, such as admiration,
respect, or esteem. If the mere animal passions should govern
man as they do the brute in the selection of his mate, no answer
could be made to the argument, but the very institution of mar
riage itself repels such a suggestion. The lower animals have
no guides but their passions, and have no limits to their con
stancy or continence but their desires. We, however, recog
nize an obligation incumbent upon, us to cleave unto the partners
of our beds until death the tie doth sever. It is not my purpose
to discuss marriage either from a political or religious stand
point. It is immaterial whether we consider the marriage rite
as a sacrament God-ordained, or simply a civil contract, in
dissoluble save on the grounds of public policy. In either aspect
the obligations assumed are of life-long duration, and the con
sequences following their assumption of the most solemn nature.
Marriage has been said to be "a fit nursery for the common
wealth," and in this aspect it lies at the foundation of govern
ment. But beyond and underlying this it is the one and only
substantial basis of society. It insures the education of the hu
man family by making certain the parentage of the young. It
strengthens and perpetuates parental and filial affection by the
constant associations and reciprocal duties engendered by the
family relation. Around it are clustered, in it are enfolded,
from it emanates every human virtue that makes man the con
necting link between the brute and the angel.
Such a solemn, such an enduring relation should not be
lightly entered into. No mere sexual desire, no impulse, no feel
ings inspired by physical charms, should alone be permitted to
govern the choice of a partner in the marriage state. The keen

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 247
edge of youthful appetites wears but too soon away. The dura
tion is in the inverse ratio of its keenness. Unhappy indeed are
those who unite their destinies upon so fragile a foundation. For
when time has cooled the hot blood of youth and the judgment
comes into play nothing may be left upon which to build or
maintain the happiness of home. The profoundest depths of the
mind should be sounded, the ripest powers of judgment exer
cised and the most careful display of taste made, in the choice
of husband or wife. It is absurd to say that love is blind and
the heart can not be governed by the head. The most charming
of all young men and women are to be found among those re
cently married, for the reason that the most charming in any
age or society are as a rule first married. Now, if it were true
that the heart is ungovernable, would it riot follow that every
young wife or husband must have scores of desperate and heart
broken lovers whose mania supervened the marriage? And is
it not true that no honest man or woman ever indulges the idea
of being enamored of another's wife or husband as the case may
be? To confess an inability to control one's passion by pride,
duty or propriety, is to admit that one is more animal than hu
man. There is something sublime in the old song :
"I could not love thee half so much,
Loved I not Honor more."
The natural or logical proposition deducible from such prem
ises as I have mentioned is plain. When considerations of duty
-and propriety are equal let the impulses of the heart, or body if
you will, make the choice of a mate; if duty or propriety stand
in the way of such a choice, do not make it. Let me not be un
derstood as advocating the marriage de convenance. It is as
much to be decried as the marriage on impulse or passion. I
strongly and emphatically uphold the good old custom of al
lowing the young folks to make their own selections subject to
the approval of their natural guardians.
Returning now to the subject proper of this chapter, it re-

248 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
mains to be seen if there be any considerations of duty or pro
priety which should preclude the intermarriage of "Jews and
Gentiles. If there be none, mere race prejudice should not be
allowed to interfere. As I understand the Jewish religion there
is no inhibition in its laws against the intermarriage of a Jew
with a Christian, therefore I can not trace any objection on that
score. Wherein then lies the obstacle? Theoretically, or rather
in the abstract, there is none — man and woman were designed to
procreate, and whether Jew or Gentile, if otherwise equal, all
men and women stand on a parity before God, and in this
country, before the law. Theoretically and in the abstract, ' the
same reasoning applies to marriages between the negroes and
the Caucasians. Save for some local restrictions in the latter
case, the parallel is perfect. But our law-makers in many
States have for manifest reasons prohibited, with heavy pen
alties, the offense of miscegenation. It is certainly no more of
a malum per se than a marriage between a Spaniard and an
Irishman, but it is made a malum prohibitum because of its
frightful consequences. It is unnecessary to dwell upon or elabo
rate the political and social disturbances that would follow the
practice of miscegenation. They are too apparent to need dis
cussion. I do not pretend, of course, that marriages between Jews and
Gentiles would be equally prolific of misfortune. Politically
such marriages would have but little or no influence, but I do
maintain that in social relations they would bring about, as a
rule, what they now accomplish in isolated eases, an unhappy
state of affairs. Look at the home that grows out of such a
union. Around the hearthstone there is religious strife or the
callous indifferance in religious matters, that is the only price
of peace. Beneath the roof-tree, uncongenial and opposing re
lations meet to scowl or sneer at each other. The doors of all
society are open to such a family as a matter of necessity or
politeness, but none have "welcome" as a greeting. The children
grow up without any religious training of the heart or with what
is more common and unfortunate, a contempt for religion grow
ing out of the home surroundings and parental examples. In

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 249
the nature of things, some of the children will follow the re
ligion and people of one parent, while others will travel the op
posite road, and thus is severed the natural tie that makes the
fraternal relation so beautiful to behold and so fruitful of good.
Society is deeply interested in such unions, for they are made at
the expense of society.
I have not overdrawn the picture. If anything, I have done
it scant justice. All the evils I have named and a thousand
others flow from such mixed marriages, and these evils are the
price of a brief indulgence in animal pleasures. I do not gain
say that there are exceptions to the rule. They prove rather
than disprove the rule itself. In rare cases such marriages are
happy and result in a worthy and affectionate offspring ; in rarer
cases still such marriages are justifiable. In remote countries,
sparsely populated, the choice may be between such marriages
and a worse relation. In such a case the selection is plain, but
under ordinary circumstances, it seems to me clear that Jews
should avoid marriages with Gentiles and Gentiles with Jews,
upon the same principle that we avoid marrying the insane, the
consumptive, the scrofulitic or the negro. We marry for the
advancement of our happiness in life and to procreate offspring.
In transmitting life we should do so in such manner and under
such circumstances that our offspring may have a life worth
living. In taking a step which is to affect our happiness, we
should take it with reference to our happiness to the end of our
lives, else we may barter the noon and evening of our days for
a few hours of bliss at dawn. The prudent traveler in cross
ing a desert does not drain his flask to assuage his thirst at the
outset, but husbands every drop with rare calculation to make
the supply reach to the journey's end.
The argument I have offered on this subject is more compre
hensive than the subject' itself, for it applies to all ill-assorted
unions. It addresses itself entirely to the understanding; it is en
tirely utilitarian. Besides this argument ab inconvenienti to the
Jew there is another growing out of the general duty that he owes
to his people. If it be a duty of the Jews to preserve the soli
darity of the Jews as a people, it is the duty of every Jew

250 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
to contribute to that end. It is manifest that nothing would
operate so surely to disintegrate the Jews as intermarriage with
other peoples. It is not always true that majorities absorb and
assimilate minorities. The Jews are a striking exception. But
if the barriers of distinction are thrown down complete assim
ilation must ensue. Take away the influence of Jewish sur
roundings and education, and Jewish children will grow up as
heathens or Christians. Lord Beaconsfield and Mendelssohn,
the musician, are prominent proofs of this fact. The former,
especially, was proud of his lineage, but he was a Christian by
belief and at heart, because from infancy he was taught to be
lieve in the religion of the Christians.
One of the regulations of the Roman Catholic Church limits
the marriages of its members to professors of that faith, save in
certain excepted cases. The avowed reason of the rule is to
perpetuate the religion by insuring the education of children in
the Church. The regulation is founded in that great wisdom
which characterizes the government of the most systematic in
stitution that has ever existed. From the Catholic standpoint
the regulation is positively good; from no standpoint is it ob
jectionable except that the Church itself is an evil. So too
from the Jewish standpoint it is a virtue to abstain from mixed
marriages; from no standpoint is the abstinence objectionable
unless it be true that the world would be better if we ceased to
exist as Jews. I shall consider that problem further on, and I
trust I shall make it plain that the world would suffer by the
assimilation of a people to whose distinctive existence and the
fruits thereof it owes so much of its progress, government and
happiness.

CHAPTER VII.
Wherein is Considered the Education of Jewish Children.
There was a time when gentlemen were thankful that they
could not read or write, but such indifference to the advantages
of education no longer exists. I need not, therefore, offer any
arguments to convince my readers that they should educate
their children. It is unfortunate that experience has not shown
the best mode of education, as well as it has proven education
to be an advantage. No more difficult problem has ever taxed
the human mind than the proper method of education for the
young. The greatest thinkers have bent their thoughts to the
subject, but it still defiantly issues its challenge to the phi
losopher. Education is analogous to government. In fact, it
is a species of government, and like government, it is always
an open question. We may theorize over abstract propositions,
we may plan Utopias, we may draft seemingly faultless consti
tutions, but we can not provide against all the evils that are
wont to creep into the government of people. So, too, with
systems of education. Men are similar in many respects ; they
are different from each other in more — and general rules for
their government rarely avail. Children are but lesser men,
and the difficulties are relatively as great in the management of
them. Pursuing the analogy, we may learn a lesson from it.
Statesmanship in the studio is of an easy accomplishment; yet
nothing is so rare as a great statesman. General principles of
right and wrong are easily deducible; their application to par
ticular cases very difficult. The statesman must be practical,
must be governed by circumstances, must adapt himself to
events that could not have been foreseen. In educating children
we should be practical, tractable and elastic. No fixed rules
can govern us. The puny child may not be treated with the
same freedom as the robust ; the slower mind must not be driven
251

252 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
too hard, or the brilliant allowed to go too fast. To the good,
practical judgment of every parent must be left in a great meas
ure the particular method of culture for his children. Assum
ing then that education is an advantage, that a liberal educa
tion is of special advantage, and that the parent knows how to
educate his children, let us consider whether there be special or
any reasons why Jewish children should be peculiarly educated.
It requires ordinarily thirty years of study to form a man's
mind and establish his character. Beginning in his sixth year
he should study books for fifteen years and then study men for
fifteen more. What is meant usually by education is the training
which he receives during the first fifteen. It is very clear that
natures may be warped, expanded, shriveled, perfected or cor
rupted by associations and extraneous influences. That goes
without saying. It is equally true that the mind and heart of
man is more susceptible to such extraneous influences in youth
than in manhood. It follows that during youth children should
be guarded with special care against such influences as may
tend to deteriorate their characters. Sooner or later we must all
come in contact with vice and sin, but when the impressionable-
ness of our nature has given way to mature principles, we cope
with such influences at least on equal terms. Sooner or later the
Jews must rub up against the world. We must mingle with
people of the world, must deal with them, fight them and with
them. If we are thrown into association with them from in
fancy up, the result is easily foretold. We will take our com
plexion from such association and lose the distinctive virtues
which are our boast. We still preserve that reverence for our
parents which we inherit from the patriarchal times. By suf
fering our children to mingle indiscriminately with other chil
dren, we endanger the perpetuation of that element of our char
acter. The good is not so contagious as evil. Bad example is like
the speck in garnered fruit; it spreads with fearful rapidity.
The less discriminate we are in the associations with which we
surround our children, the greater is the danger of their be
coming corrupted. We should not think that mental training

THE JEWS ,IN. AMERICA* 253
alone is to be considered in educating our children. Their man7
ners, habits, . methods of thought, and, most of all, their morals,
should be considered. It is necessary that they should have
some associates, else they lose the stimulus of emulation, but the
opposite extreme from isolation is perhaps the greater evil. I
am very clear that children should be educated in groups ; I am
equally clear that the groups should not be constituted by the
indiscriminate collection of individuals. Avowing such views,
I shall doubtless be charged with being antagonistic to the free
school system. I anticipate it by declaring here that I am, on
the contrary, an earnest advocate of it. The two positions are
entirely consistent.
The institution of free schools is clearly and properly within
the. police power of every government, and the revenues de
rived from taxation may and should be applied to the free edu
cation of any one who desires education. I may add that I am
not clear that compulsory education is not also a proper exer
cise of the same governmental prerogatives. But because the
government tenders free education, it does not follow that it
must be accepted; if education be made compulsory, it does not
follow that government schools must be attended. The free
school system is founded upon the public policy which, requires
enlightenment among the people. Society at large is the bene
ficiary, and it is to attain that benefit to society that the system
is inaugurated and maintained. This is the only argument up
on which it can be sustained; it is an argument that can not be
refuted. As a citizen I favor free schools, because the education
they afford, imperfect as it is, is better than none, and society is
benefited thereby; but as an individual I prefer to pay to sup
port free schools and send my children to more select places. As
a: citizen, I regard only the good of society; as an individual, I
look for the good of my own children.
: If, in my judgment, there were but a shade of advantage in
the private over the public schools, and I could afford the cost,
I should not hesitate to avail myself of that advantage. In the
nature of things all classes of children frequent the public
schools. The offspring of the vilest characters are attendants,

254 LEO N- LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
and while the sins of the parents may not crop out in the child
the chance of their reappearance is not inconsiderable, and is
one we should not take if it may be avoided. It may be said
that if the rich withheld their children the poor lose the bene
fit of good associations, and thus society is prejudiced. To this
I have two answers : Society is founded upon the selfish regard
of each parent for the welfare of his own young. It is nature's
law that we should look after their good first and in the end
society is the gainer by such selfishness. Again, it does not
follow that the rich afford the best associations. Many, nay, I
may say a majority, of children afford good associations even
though they be of poor parentage, and poverty compels the chil
dren of many gentlemen to attend the free school.
The same reasoning that leads me to the conclusion that nd
man, if he can afford it, should fail to send his children to
private schools, convinces me that every consistent believer in
any faith should send his children to a school founded upon that
faith. A man who has been educated as a consistent Roman
Catholic, will, after a few years of bustling in the world, lose
the prejudices that are engendered by his training and become
a better member of society than one whose mind has been cul
tivated while his moral nature has grown up in weeds; and so
in any other religion. The danger of narrow-mindedness and
bigotry is very small. These are superficial faults that are worn
away by a little friction with the world, and when they are
worn away a solid character founded upon correct moral prin
ciples is left to withstand the many temptations of life.
In my judgment Jewish children should be educated in
Jewish schools. There they should be taught the liberal sciences
and arts along with a knowledge of their history and their re
ligion. In the nature of things many are too poor to afford the
expense; they should be assisted. Many live in remote com
munities where such schools can not exist. In such cases it
becomes the duty of the parent to teach his children at home
that which they can not learn at school.
It may be said that under any circumstances the parent could
and should do this. I grant the claim, but alas! many are not

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 255
qualified, many will not take the time, and more have not the
patience. Let it be remembered that I am engaged in discussing how
we can preserve the integrity of the Jews as such, and that I am
arguing to show that not only is it a positive and direct ad
vantage to educate our children as Jews, but it is absolutely
necessary to our preservation. Experience has shown that our
young people will be weaned from our people if allowed to in
discriminately associate with the Gentiles. The young have no
armor to oppose bigotry and prejudice, and too often do the
persecuted ones seek refuge in skepticism or apostasy from the
shafts directed against them. There can be no possible disad
vantage arising from exclusive schools, save the bugbear of pre
judice. It is argued again and again that if we continue to be
exclusive, we shall continue to be the target for prejudice.
I do not admit this conclusion, but even granting it, is it not
true that if in deference to prejudice we surrender our qualities
as Jews, shall we not cease to be Jews? A superficial analysis
of the prejudice directed against us will show that the prejudice
is either against our faults or our existence. In so far as we are
faulty we are justly amenable to censure, but unreasoning preju
dice goes further and antagonizes our habits, good or bad, be
cause we who practice them are Jews. We can not satisfy such
bigots. They are like the wolf with the lamb in the fable. It is
our duty to ourselves, to properly educate our children as Jews,
and if we are true to ourselves, we can be false to no one. Any
prejudice against the right will be lived down; it can not be
overcome by concessions.
The Jews have conceded everything but their religion for
centuries, yet they did not advance until in France and America
they were allowed to follow their own bent and did it. In
France and America we act with more independence than any
where else in the world; we have more rights and are more
respected in France and America than anywhere else. The les
son is so plain that he who runs may read. The world respects
the consistent and manly practice of principles, and we shall
gain more favor by making ourselves good Jews than by con-

256 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
stantly seeking to hide the fact that, we are Jews. I for one
should be proud to point to Jewish seats of learning. I am
proud to point to our charities and our synagogues, and the
world esteems us because we take such good care of one an
other. Let us suppose that we had exclusive Jewish schools
(and we have some already) and that a Gentile should censure
us for their institution, what would be the basis of his. objec
tion? None but that such schools tend to perpetuate the Jews.
Is it not clear that no other objection can be offered and that
we can not defer to a prejudice that can not be diverted from
ourselves without a severance between ourselves and, our his
tory, our traditions and our religion. No liberal man can or
will censure our exclusiveness in education or marriage; no un
reasonable man can be satisfied by a seeming acquiescence to the
demands of his prejudice. Let us always find out what is right
for us to do and do it; let us discover what is best for us to
do and if right do it, and we need not trouble ourselves about
the opinion of the world. The world sooner or later gets right
in its opinions, but never from concessions made to prejudice.
The sacrifice of principles to- prejudice feeds it and it. makes it
grow ; the independent practice of right is its deadliest foe.
Nor can it be successfully maintained, that exclusive educa
tion engenders bigotry and narrow-mindedness. If the educa
tion of the Jew were confined to the school room and the limits
of the school room were narrow and confined, the result upon
the mind of the pupil would probably be bigotry and narrow-
mindedness, but the Jew like others, is educated more after; the
school room is abandoned than while he is under the direct in
fluence of the pedagogue. Moreover, it is impossible to launch
upon the world any young mind that is fresh from its books,
that is free from a multitude of prejudices. The smoothness
that comes from attrition with the world soon follows however
the rough edges that are left by contact with mere books.. The
Jewish child is no exception to this rule. If, when he emerges
from his exclusive school he looks upon the world with colored
glasses, he will soon learn that his vision will be clearer and his
conception of external objects more perfect. if viewed with.un-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 257
obstructed gaze, and the prejudices that he takes with him from
musty tomes will one by one be surrendered until he comes to
look upon his surroundings from the standpoint of a citizen of
the world. Practical experience establishes the truth of this
proposition more forcibly than any amount of theories. There
are schools in which the Jews are educated as Jews and from
them emerge men of high talent and great energies, who achieve
unbounded success in the world, and not less so than those who
have their infant minds molded by contact with environments
that are foreign and hostile to them. The Jewish youth who is
educated in the German universities is apt to become, as ex
perience shows, either an apostate to his religion in fact, or
what is worse, a hypocrite, in that he ostensibly abjures a faith
which in truth he reveres. All efforts that have been made to
proselyte adult Jews, have proven abortive. The explanation
of the failure is to be found in the fact that the Jewish child has
been educated as a Jew. Once we permit the ever active mis
sionary to invade the school room and practice upon the impres
sionable minds of our children the perpetuity of our people will
end. Israel will cease to have a distinct existence among the
peoples of the earth and the historian alone will be left to weep
over our faded glory. "Art and eloquence
And all the shows o' the world, are frail and vain
To weep a loss that turns their light to shade.
It is a woe 'too deep for tears' when all
Is reft at once, when some surpassing Spirit,
Whose light adorned the world around it, leaves
Those who remain behind, not sobs or groans,
The passionate tumult of a clinging hope —
But pale despair and cold tranquility."*

*Shelley's Alastor.

CHAPTER VIII.
Wherein is considered Jewish social life and its proper
regulation.
Having taken the position that as Jews we should educate
our children in Jewish schools so far as practicable — and should
confine ourselves in marriages to our own people, it may be as
sumed that I favor exclusiveness to a certain extent in social
life. - My reasons against mixed marriages have been sufficiently
considered. My reasons for exclusive schools have also been
stated. It remains for me to explain why adult Jews should be
to a certain extent exclusive in their social life. I may say
in the outset that my convictions grow out of considerations
that apply with equal force to all classes of people, as well as to
the Jews. Whether necessarily or not, it is inevitable that classes
should exist in society. All men are not equal, and I believe it
is safe to claim that they never will be. Some are better, purer,
braver, more enlightened and more refined than others. In no
country since creation's dawn have all men been on a footing of
social parity. To create social equality it would be necessary
to elevate the lower, or degrade the better elements. The pro
cess of elevation and degradation is constantly in progress.
Those that are high, fall ; those that are low, rise. In that law
of social life is involved much of the advance of civilization.
I shall not stop to consider it at length as it would, involve
too wide and far-reaching a digression. In every man whose
nature is normal there exists the ambition to rise in the social
scale. Such ambition is worthy and should be stimulated. It
has given to the world many of its greatest heroes. If it were
possible to abolish class distinctions in society, this ambition
would perish for want of nourishment. When I mention class
distinctions I do not refer to classes before the law. Before the
258

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. • ¦ 259
tribunal of justice the fustian should rank with the velvet. Gov
ernment should confine itself to the protection of society which
creates it for that purpose, and not seek to become greater than
its creator by prescribing the elements of society. There exists
no valid reason why any man should be esteemed better than
another, save because of his merits. If he is not possessed of
such merits, it is a wrong upon society for government to give
him such pre-eminence; if he be deserving public opinion will
furnish the elevation without the aid of governmental interfer
ence. Aristocracy is a great good when based upon merit, and
in every country independently of laws on the subject there
exists such an aristocracy. Its elements are constantly chang
ing. New members are being constantly admitted and old ones
expelled. Its sphere is the world, its open sesame, gentility. : To
every one, irrespective of race or creed, it is open, provided the
applicant be possessed of the requisite qualifications. It should
be the aim of every man to join this circle.
The history of the Jews has precluded them from belonging
to this class in any considerable numbers. It is needless to
rehearse here what is presumed to be well-known to all of my
readers. Suffice it to* say that by reason' of oppressive laws and
bigoted persecutions, the Jews have for centuries been com
pelled to resort to subterfuges, hypocrisy and other doubtful
practices, which all operated against their enlightenment, moral
ity and refinement. In this great country we are relieved from
the causes which have generated the evil in our habits and na
tures, and it behooves us to illustrate our elasticity and inherent
virtue, by advancing to the high plane of gentility from which
we have so long been debarred. But we can not spring from the
cellar to the roof. The persecuted "dog of a Jew" whose gab
erdine was but yesterday the garb of dishonor, can not in a
day, by casting his old vestments aside, become a gentleman.
Liberty permits and enjoins us to improve, but again I say, "re
form does not mean revolution." Our progress must be grad
ual in order to be sure. It has already been abundantly proven
in America that Jews may and do obtain a safe footing on the
broad plane of gentility. The instances are limited, because1 our

200 LE© N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
opportunities have been of short duration. We are as a class
in America in a chrysalis state. We are as different among
ourselves individually as we are from the world as a people.
Our general character is passing through a formative period.
Sooner or later, I confidently expect that such a proportion of
Jews will improve, that, despite a large element of dross among
us, we shall be called a people of gentlemen. To that end we
should strive with untiring devotion. In that effort we should
aid each other with fraternal unselfishness. How shall we best
accomplish that end?
The answer will be offered at once, that since the exemplars
of gentility mostly abound among the Gentiles, we should asso
ciate with them as much as possible, in order to wear our own
rudeness away. I have always been met by this suggestion,
and while the answer thereto is complete, its practical operation
is difficult. If gentlemen were willing to meet all Jews on a
parity because they are Jews, we should doubtless derive much
benefit from such association. But, while it is true that no gen
tleman refuses association with another because that other is a
Jew, he will not, as a rule, associate with a Jew unless he be a
gentleman. As we are far from being all gentlemen, we can
not reasonably expect to be admitted as a class into good so
ciety. If, therefore, we desire as a class to associate in social
life with Gentiles, we must seek our level or meet with humil
iating repulses. Our level in social life is quite low, and those
among the Gentiles who rank with us in social attributes are far
below us in other respects. From such associations we should
derive no good and much harm. I apprehend that no one will
gainsay the two propositions I have announced, viz: 1st. That
we kave no right as a class to expect recognition as equals from
gentle society. 2d. That from association with the lower ele
ments we should experience more evil than good. But, un
fortunately, our people are vain. We are apt to "see the mote
in our neighbor's eye, and ignore the beam in our own."
We are much like the Puritans who thanked the Lord that
they were not as other men. I shall find no end to the number
of Jews that will agree with me when I assert that we as a class

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 26l
are not gentle, but alas, , I should have to search like Diogenes
with a lantern for one who does not claim to be an exception.
Herein lies a great difficulty. We are critical enough to detect
our neighbors' shortcomings, but once we have acquired wealth,
rich garments, commercial standing, etc., we imagine that we
have crossed over the line that separates the lower from the
better classes. Impressed with this idea many of us turn our
backs upon our own people and obtrude ourselves upon others.
The result is ridicule, prejudice, disgust and often rude rebuffs.
Society can not be obtruded upon. It will not tolerate it, nor
does it require it. It draws its members by attraction, just as
the sun draws the moisture to form clouds. Whenever we
possess the necessary qualifications gentle society will discover
it, and extend its invitation to us. Meanwhile let us be modest.
While we strive for great ends, do not let us anticipate the
honors we aim for. It is the fool who wears the laurel before
the fight.
But while it is true that but a small minority of our people
have attained the standard required by good society, there are
unquestionably some who have. The questions will be asked:
Should this few continue to associate with the Jews who are
confessedly beneath them, or mingle with their equals of other
creeds? Is there any good reason why a Jewish gentleman
should associate with a Jewish boor? To such inquiries I make
this answer: The Jewish gentleman should associate with his
equals, irrespective of creed or nationality, but he should not
entirely deny himself to his own people. He has a double
duty to perform. As a gentleman he owes his co-operation
to gentle society; as a Jew he owes the benefit of his example
and association to his people. He should be to them a preceptor
by example. His life should be a standing encouragement to
ambition, a standing rebuke to rudeness. As before stated, we are
passing through a formative period. We have no distinct char
acter at present, for the many heterogeneous elements have not
had time to arrange themselves into a consistent whole. In due
time we shall settle down and then there will be classes among
us as among other people.

262 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Until recently a community of suffering has kept all Jews on
a level with respect to one another. Liberty permits us to
emerge from that condition and regulate our relations
among ourselves upon a different principle. We shall
have an aristocracy among ourselves as certainly as there
was one among the Jews before they became the target
for universal persecution. Until that time at least we
should assist each other unto the end that while our char
acter as a people is being formed, the better elements
may predominate. We should be a school unto and within our
selves. It is sad indeed to see how prone are our Jews to forget
and abjure their own people. When prosperity and opportunity
enable a Jew to rise superior to his people, how seldom does he
concern himself about what is behind him. He is like the selfish
climber who draws the ladder up when he is at the top, instead
of holding it in place for the next. It will, I trust, be remarked
that I do not favor non-intercourse with Gentiles. On the con-
trary^ I strongly oppose it. When our children grow old enough
to have well-settled convicitons on matters of principles, I favor
a general association with their equals drawn from any source.
In many instances I think the finishing touches of a liberal edu
cation should be derived at a cosmopolitan university. I believe
that social intercourse between the better classes of different
peoples is a benefit to both, but I am equally clear that the lower
class will be prejudiced by such admixture.
It will further be observed that I do not base my conclusions
upon prejudice or fear, nor upon the theory that the Jew and
Gentile are like oil and water, and will not mix. I can not base
it upon prejudice, for I have none. I love not the Gentile less be
cause I love my people more. Moreover, I am frank to admit
that while we have stronger and more enduring virtues than
any other people, we have also deep-rooted faults which preclude
us from claiming equality with the better class of Gentiles. I
do not object to association because we are superior to the
Gentiles, but because we are inferior to their better class. I do
not oppose intercourse because of any fear, because I am con
vinced that any adult Jew who has been properly reared as

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 263
such is in no danger of abjuring his religion, because of such
intercourse. The young or the ignorant or the hypocrites may
become apostates from Judaism, or intermarry with the Gentiles,
but it is a rare occurrence for an enlightened adult Jew to be
come an honest convert to any other religion. I do not oppose
intercourse because the two peoples can not mix, for the idea is
absurd. We mix with them every day of our lives. We mix
with them in business, in politics and on the field of battle, why
should we not mix with them in social life, other things being
equal ?
In leaving this subject I may be allowed to say, that in this,
as in education and intermarriages, we must be governed largely
by circumstances. There are communities where there can be
no distinct Jewish society, there are circumstances under which
the bar of exclusiveness should be raised higher than usual, or
thrown down entirely. The discretion of some of our people,
and their good sense, may be trusted more than others, and, in
fact, a thousand exceptions may be found to the general rule.
I have already sufficiently commented upon the argument
founded upon prejudice against our exclusiveness, ' and I shall
not devote any attention to it here. If it be in the line of our
advancement to be more or less exclusive, the world is the gain
er, and any prejudice against it is unreasonable and should not '
be regarded. The careful reader will have observed that in discussing the
proper relations that should exist between the Jews and the
Gentiles I have considered the parties as classes. In that aspect
of the matter, as I have already shown, I favor, for the present
at least, a policy of largely restricted intercourse. For fear that
I shall be misunderstood, I deem it proper to discuss, in ad
dition to what has been written, the relations of individual Jews
to Gentiles as a class, and of the Jews as a class to individual
Gentiles. Nothing is so calculated to quicken the perception, mature
the judgment and broaden the mind of a person as intercourse
with others. Travel in strange lands has always been recog
nized as one of the most valuable means of education. When

264 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
such intercourse can be had without endangering the morality
of the person seeking it, it should be encouraged, but when, as
I have shown, it is fraught with grave danger, it should be
avoided. The medicine which benefits a strong man may be
death to a child. In these matters we must exercise the same
judgment that governs the intelligent physician in prescribing
strong medicines.
The reasons which obtain against a general intercourse with
Gentiles do not and can not apply to individual Jews who are
free from the shortcomings that give force to those reasons.
Given a Jew who is possessed of noble instincts, who is edu
cated, pure, refined and gentle, and there exists no reason why
he should not seek the society of his equals in the great world.
Such a man does not shrink from the name of Jew. He is proud
of it and stands ever ready to defend it. He is not sensitive to
the mention of his people, but stands ready to extol their virtues
and palliate their faults. He is in no danger of becoming an
apostate, for his heart clings to the traditions of his ancestors,
and his mind recognizes in the simple grandeur of his creed the
incomparable truth of God-worship. He will not intermarry
with the Gentiles, for he is an aristocrat, proud of his lineage,
and to his children he would bequeath an unmixed strain of
pure Jewish blood. But he will mingle with high-minded and
cultured people. He will teach them the philosophy learned
from centuries of suffering ; he will show them the patience that
no persecution could destroy, a courage that no terrors could
daunt. He will learn in his turn the blessings of the liberty his
people now enjoy, he will grow strong in his permitted man
hood, he will read in the liberality of a new era the palladium of
his people's future and will grow more devout in his praise of
Him who after so many years has at last shown us the silvery
lining of the clouds. And he will not selfishly hug to himself
the privileges he enjoys and the lessons he learns, but he will ,
come back to his people and show them through himself the re
ward which lies within the reach of every Jew who does honor
to the name. He will not scorn his people because they are not
his equals. His people are to him an Alma Mater, to whom he

THE JEWS IN AMERICA.

265

will return again and again with loving words, just as the faith
ful son returns to his humble mother in her lowly hut, albeit he
has conquered the world. The Jew that fails to give his people.
the benefit of his culture, refinement and success, can only be
likened to those ungrateful children who, though sprung from
humble parentage, rise in the world and then ignore their pa
rents as incumbrances.
I am thus earnest in denunciation of such baseness, because
the history of our people proves how prone they are to ignore
the past. In times of suffering they were ever contrite and
humble to superior authority, devout in religion and tender to
one another; but when prosperity dawned upon them they be
came haughty and impatient, indifferent to their holy religion,
and rude to one another. In this they resemble those plants
which flourish in dark and noisome places, but become dwarfed
in the sunshine.
I can not too strongly urge upon parents the duty of im
pressing duly upon the minds of their children the obligations
they owe to their people. They should be taught that it is
neither a disgrace nor a misfortune to be born a Jew ; that there
is no higher patent of nobility. Our history proves us to be
like the rich soil which grows in luxuriance the most noxious
weeds and the choicest flowers. Remembering always the
source of the growth — the fundamental virtues within us — the
soil as it were of our natures, we should not flee from the weeds,
but rather pluck them out, to give stronger growth to the
flowers. Let me now briefly consider the relations of the Jews to indi
vidual Gentiles:
It not infrequently occurs that Gentiles of culture and re
finement, impressed with the history and inherent virtues of the
Jews, desire and seek social intercourse with our people. I
should be grieved if I have created the impression that to
such people I would close our doors. On the contrary I would
extend to them the warmest welcome. They do us a double
honor in that they become our guests, and that in their conduct
they recognize our virtues to overbalance our faults. Finally,

266 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
let me remark that by intercourse I mean that unrestrained com
mingling of spirit as well as of persons. In the nature of things,
from reasons of expediency and motives of courtesy, there
exists, and must continue a formal admixture, which is devoid
of any flow of soul. Against this, under any circumstances,
there can be no valid objection, for in it there is little if any sig
nificance. Life would not be worth living if it were not for the many
pleasures experienced in social intercourse. In the meeting of
friends or congenial companions the cares of life are forgot
ten, the spirits are set free as the spring sunshine frees the ice in
the frozen river, and all the generous and better emotions are
put in exercise. Freedom from restraint, ease, the sense of
home must be present, to accomplish such results. Uncongenial
elements, if brought together, utterly fail to generate the happy
feelings which should predominate. We seek society in order to
obtain such pleasures. The associations which I have referred
to are the kind which are sought in compliance with the native
social demands of our being.
The better to facilitate such happiness in every country and
in every age, various kinds of organizations have existed as
they exist today. The Jews have theirs.
For many reasons they are exclusive. In theory they should
not be so. In our social organizations we should, in deference
to the argument which I have already named, admit any con
genial and worthy Gentile who honors us with his application.
But what may be theoretically correct may be found practically
wrong. It certainly is a wrong to exclude a worthy person be
cause he does not happen to be a Jew; but on the other hand
where are you to draw the line. If we make the qualities of
gentility prerequisites to admission among us, we shall exclude
those who may justly charge us with being no better than they.
When we shall have passed through the formative period and
have progressed far enough to have a true aristocracy of our
own we may carry out in practice what is undoubtedly true in
theory. But while we are undergoing formation, so to speak,
we must either remain unto ourselves, mix indiscriminately with

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 267
others, or the few advanced Jews must abandon their more un
fortunate brethren. Of the three evils the first seems to me
unquestionably the least.
In advocating this view I have had to encounter the objection
that we are doing that which if done to us would give us great
pain. I have been asked, what if an organization should ex
clude us because we are Jews ? Would it be right ? To such I
answer this : If a number of Roman Catholics felt that because
of that common tie they could enjoy social life by and through
an organization composed solely of Roman Catholics we should
not feel hurt at being excluded. Along with us would be ex
cluded many others, and it would be apparent that the exclusion
was not directed outward but inward. In other words we
would not be excluded because we are Jews, nor the Protestant
because he is a Protestant, but we would all be excluded be
cause we are not Catholics. So again if the American Colony
in Paris excluded from their social organization all but Ameri
cans, the Austrian or Italian have no reason to complain. If
only Austrians were excluded there would be just ground for
complaint. If from any organization only Jews were excluded,
and the exclusion applied to all Jews, we would have a right
to resent the affront, for it would be designed as such. It is
clear, however, that when we exclude all but Jews from our or
ganization, there is no assumption of superiority in ourselves,
there is no imputation of inferiority in others. We simply de
clare that we can best attain the pleasures of social life by ex
clusion, and for that reason we prefer to remain exclusive.
The gist of the whole matter lies in the intention. When Jews
are denied admission to a public place because they are Jews,
a stamp of inferiority is sought to be fastened upon us. But if
a Jew be denied admission to a Catholic institution because he
is not a Catholic nothing of ill or inferiority is imputed to him.
A Protestant Christian or a Mohammedan would meet with a
like rebuff.
But the question is an idle one. Gentiles do not trouble Jew
ish organizations with their applications, nor do they feel hurt
at the knowledge that they can not be admitted as members.

268 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
The objection which is formulated in the question grows out of
a morbid fear that we will do that which will excite the anti-
Semitic spirit of the world. Such a fear is groundless. Wher
ever that spirit exists it will develop without waiting for such
provocation. In America the great principles of liberty have al
most destroyed that spirit, and it is only individuals who re
ceive censure; the Jews as a class are not the objects of preju
dice. The genius of this our new Jerusalem forbids such class
prejudice, and it is dying out.
"Fused* in her candid light,
To one strong race, all races here unite ;
Tongues melt in hers, hereditary foemen
Forget their swords and slogan, kith and clan;
'Twas glory once to be a Roman;
She makes it glory, now, to be a Man."*

*Bayard Taylor's "National Ode."

CHAPTER IX.
Wherein is considered Jewish Charities.
The tendency toward generalization among modern Ameri
can Israelites has in many instances been carried to a point from
which even sectarian charities are denounced. It is but the log
ical issue of the doctrine which condemns exclusiveness in social,
educational and religious matters. There is no stronger argu
ment against the confinements which surround our social and
religious life than against the limitation of our charities. From
the standpoint of those who eloquently advocate the universal
brotherhood of man, it must be sinful to house and feed and
clothe the Jewish orphan, while the juvenile and parentless Hot
tentot is not sufficiently supplied with red flannel shirts and
Bibles. The answer to such objections is not difficult.
It is true that charity should be universal, just as it is true
that we should love all of our fellow-men. But, as already
shown, if we love one another with a like degree of affection
our love would be indifference, and would thus cease to be of
value. It is equally true that if we could distribute our char
ities with impartial hands to all the needy in the world, it would
fail in its object, which is the relief of suffering. Charity
should be universal in the sense that everybody should be char
itable, but it is absurd to contend that every charitable person
should bestow his gifts universally. Charity loses its virtue
when it is not effective, and it is more injurious than beneficial
when not wisely bestowed.
Each individual can afford only a certain contribution for
charitable purposes — so of communities and classes. Experience
has demonstrated that when the contributions of a large number
are combined more good is accomplished by the aggregated
fund than by a like sum distributed directly by the individuals.
I need not pause to explain the premises of this universally ac-
269

27O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
cepted conclusion. The reasons are obvious. The main reason
is the power and effect of concentration as contrasted with the
weakness and inefficiency of diffusion. A volume of water con
fined between banks scours for itself a channel to the sea; if
diffused over a wide surface it becomes stagnant and evaporates.
Charitable contributions should be concentrated for intelligent
and effective distribution. The distribution should extend to
the furthest limits within which it will always be effective. The
object being effectiveness, the limits should be fixed with ref
erence thereto.
I do not by any means advocate that Jews should absolutely
confine their charities to the Jews — but I maintain that when
the means of the Jews are limited they should first be appro
priated to alleviating the wants of those having the highest
claim. The doctrine that charity begins at home needs no cham
pion. The heart of every humane person furnishes evidence in
its support that is unanswerable. It is upon that doctrine, and
no other, that I contend that since our means are not co-equal
with all objects of charity, we may and should properly first
devote them to caring for Jewish wants.
The wisest and purest international jurists hold that, while
in the abstract every man has the right to exercise his natural
prerogatives in any clime, yet it is competent for any nation to
abridge those prerogatives among foreigners in order the
greater to benefit its own citizens. Thus one nation may be
starving for want of a market for the exchange of its own
product for breadstuffs, and yet another government may be
justified in protecting its own people by denying the commerce.
• Again, in case of pestilence, not only does one nation quaran
tine against another, but communities in the same nation shut
themselves up against their neighbors. This' is not only the law
of self-defense; it is also the principle that charity begins at
home. Nations and communities care first for their own suffer
ings, as in duty bound they should, and so with classes by what
ever limits they are defined. But it is contended that there
should be no classes founded on religious belief. As I have
already shown, the Jews are to be classed more by reason of

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 271
the race idea than because of the Jewish religion. But con
ceding the fact upon which the objection, is made against classes
based on religious belief, is it sound? I have not discovered
any reason for such a distinction save one, and of that I shall
make brief mention in the next chapter. It is conceded by all
that all suffering should be alleviated as far as possible, and
that every rrian should contribute his quota to that end. It
follows then that every Jew in want is entitled to aid, and that
every Jew of means should be charitable, and so of every Gen
tile. It is too clear for argument that if Jewish contributions
were indiscriminately made, and Jewish suffering left to the
charity of the world at large, the suffering Jews would not re
ceive as much aid, nor would Jewish contributions accomplish
as much good as now. Under a system of sectarian chari
ties imposition can be better guarded against than under any
other system, and beyond all question a better organization can
be effected for the distribution of contributions. The world at
large is interested in such results as well and as much as we,
for if we effectually care for our own poor we relieve the bal
ance of the world of that charge.
But there are a multitude of other arguments in favor of
sectarian charities. The contributors are brought into more
direct contact with the sufferers and are moved by this and the
further consideration of a common faith to more liberal con
tributions. Again, in orphan asylums and homes for the widows, the aged
and infirm, if sectarianism be observed, the inmates move in a
congenial atmosphere; they can be educated from a common
standpoint and practice their religion at a common altar. These
and many other advantages are incidents to sectarianism which
argue in its favor. The corresponding disadvantages are equally
potent against mixed charities. But the great argument is ef
fectiveness. Every church recognizes this and practices it, and
herein lies another advantage, for different churches emulate
one another in the good they accomplish, and are thus led to a
more liberal support of their respective charities.

CHAPTER X.
Wherein is considered the prejudice against the Jews.
I now come to consider the only argument I have ever heard
advanced by the Jews against Jewish charities : It gives rise to
prejudice! There is something so cowardly in this that I have
but little patience with it. If it were true that prejudice is
aroused against us because we house and clothe pur poor and
educate our orphans, it would become us as men to defy a preju
dice that would do us honor and shame those that display it.
Shall we shrink from virtue because it is jeered at or condemned
by the wicked? Alas, it is too frequently the case that men are
misled from the right because evil minds ridicule and decry it.
We have indeed degenerated if we can not endure what, under
this government, can only be a prejudice. Our history is full of
the manhood that withstood the persecution of every tyrant from
the earliest ages to the present.
But, is it true that the exclusiveness I have advocated ex
cites prejudice? Have we not always been exclusive? And were
we not in the greatest degree the objects of persecution when
we were compelled by law to be exclusive ? Are we not respected
to-day as a class by right-thinking men for virtues that are pecu
liar to us as a class ? When Disraeli gave his "Coningsby" to the
world he was not the Premier of Great Britain, and, as such,
arbiter of the fate of Europe, but his genius smote a chord in
the public heart that furnished answering music, unhushed to the
present day. Read what he says of the Jews, and remember that
it was received with favor by the reading world of this progres
sive century:
"You never observe a great intellectual movement in Europe
in which the Jews do not greatly participate. The first Jesuits
were Jews ; that mysterious Russian Diplomacy which so alarms
Western Europe is organized and principally carried on by Jews ;
that mighty revolution which is at this moment preparing in
272

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 273
Germany, and which will be, in fact, a second and greater re
formation, and of which so little is as yet known in England, is
entirely developing under the auspices of Jews, who almost mo
nopolize the professorial chairs of Germany. Neander, the
founder of Spiritual Christianity, and who is Regius Professor
of Divinity in the University of Berlin, is a Jew. Benary, equally
famous, and in the same University, is a Jew. Wehl, the Arabic
Professor of Heidelberg, is a Jew. Years ago, when I was in
Palestine, I met a German student who was accumulating ma
terials for the History of Christianity, and studying the genius
of the place ; a modest and learned man. It was Wehl, then un
known, since become the first Arabic scholar of the day, and the
author of the life of Mohammed. But for the German profes
sors of this race, their name is legion. I think there are more
than ten at Berlin alone.
"I told you just now that I was going up town to-morrow,
because I always made it a rule to interpose when affairs of
State were on the carpet. Otherwise, I never interfere. I hear
of peace and war in newspapers, but I am never alarmed except
when I am informed that the sovereigns want treasure; then I
know that monarchs are serious.
"A few years back we were applied to by Russia. Now, there
has been no friendship between the Court of St. Petersburg and
my family. It has Dutch connections, which have generally sup
plied it ; and our representations in favor of the Polish Hebrews,
a numerous race, but the most suffering and degraded of all
tribes, have not been very agreeable to the Czar. However, cir
cumstances drew to an approximation between the Romanoffs
and the Sidonias. I resolved to go myself to St. Petersburg. I
had, on my arrival, an interview with the Russian Minister of
Finance, Count Cancrin. I beheld the son of a Lithuanian Jew.
The loan was connected with the affairs of Spain ; I resolved on
repairing to Spain from Russia. I traveled without intermission.
I had an audience immediately on my arrival with the Spanish
Minister, Senor Mendizabel; I beheld one like myself, the son
of a Nuevo Christiano, a Jew of Arragon. In consequence of
what transpired at Madrid, I went straight to Paris to consult

274 LEO N- LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
the President of the French Council: I beheld the son of a
French Jew, a hero, an imperial marshal, and very properly so,
for who should be military heroes if not those who worship the
Lord of Hosts?"
"And is Soult a Hebrew?"
"Yes, and others of the French marshals, and the most fa
mous, Massena, for example; his real name was Manasseh; but
to my anecdote. The consequence of our consultations was, that
some Northern power should be applied to in a friendly and me-
diative capacity. We fixed on Prussia, and the President of the
Council made an application to the Prussian Minister, who at
tended a few days after our conference. Count Arnim entered
the cabinet and I beheld a Russian Jew. So you see, my dear
Coningbsy, that the world is governed by very different per
sonages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the
scenes." "You startle and deeply interest me."
"You must study physiology, my dear child. Pure races of
Caucasus may be persecuted, but they can not be depised, except
by the brutal ignorance of some mongrel breed, that brandishes
fagots and howls extermination, but is itself exterminated, with
out permission, by that irresistible law of Nature which is fatal
to ours. "Favored by Nature and by Nature's God, we produced the
lyre of David; we gave you Isaiah and Ezekiel; they are our
Olynthians, our Philippics. Favored by Nature we still remain;
but in exact proportion as we have been favored by Nature we
have been persecuted by man. After a thousand struggles, after
acts of heroic courage that Rome has never equaled; deeds of
divine patriotism that Athens, and Sparta, and Carthage have
never excelled ; we have endured fifteen hundred years of super
natural slavery, during which every device that can degrade or
destroy man has been the destiny that we have sustained and
baffled. The Hebrew child has entered adolescence only to learn
that he was the Pariah of that ungrateful Europe that owes to
him, the best part of its laws, a fine portion of its literature, all
its religion. Great poets require a public; we have been con-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 275
tent with the immortal melodies that we sung more than two
thousand years ago by the waters of Babylon and wept. They
record our triumphs; they solace our affliction. Great orators
are the creatures of popular assemblies ; we were permitted only
by stealth to meet even in our temples. And as for great writers,
the catalogue is not blank. What are all the school men, Apuinas
himself, to Maimonides, and as for modern philosophy, all
springs from Spinoza.
"But the passionate and creative genius, that is the nearest
link to Divinity, and which no human tyranny can destroy, though
it can divert it ; that should have stirred the hearts of nations by
its inspired sympathy, or governed senates by its burning elo
quence, has found a medium for its expression, to which, in spite
of your prejudices and your evil passions, you have been obliged
to bow. The ear, the voice, the fancy teeming with combina
tions, the imagination fervent with picture and emotion, that came
from Caucasus, and which we have preserved unpolluted, have
endowed us with almost the exclusive privilege of Music; that
science of harmonious sounds, which the ancients recognized as
most divine, and deified in the person of their most beautiful
creation. I speak not of the past; though were I to enter into
the history of the lords of melody, you would find it in the annals
of Hebrew genius. But at this moment even, musical Europe
is ours. There is not a company of singers, not an orchestra in
a single capital, that is not crowded with our children under the
feigned names which they adopt to conciliate the dark aversion
which your posterity will some day disclaim with shame and dis
gust. Almost every great composer, skilled musician, almost
every voice that ravishes you with its transporting strains, springs
from our tribes. The catalogue is top vast to enumerate; too
illustrious to dwell for a moment on secondary names, however
eminent. Enough for us that the three great creative minds to
whose exquisite inventions all nations at this moment yield —
Rossini, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, are of Hebrew race ; and little
do your men of fashion, your muscadins of Paris, and your dan
dies of London, as they thrill into raptures at the notes of a Pasta

2f6 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
or a Grisi — little do they suspect that they are offering their hom
age to 'the sweet-singers of Israel !' "
It will be observed that DTsraeli assumes and insists upon
classing the Jews as a race and not as a religious community.
When the "Lasker Resolutions" and Bismarck's treatment of
them were before the American Congress, Mr. Cox, the veteran
member from New York, recognized Jewish merit in the fol
lowing memorable words :
"This is not merely a matter of dignity or comity between
nations. It is a matter of much higher concern. This manly man,
Herr Lasker, was a type of a great class. He was a friend of
labor. He was its interpreter and prophet, its friend and ad
viser in a realm where the word of the Kaiser was law, and lib
erty was suppressed by penalty and force. He was the repre
sentative of democracy in the largest sense of that term. He
was an orator and a splendid type of the great race that has
come down to us from the 'chosen people' in earlier times. The
tribute paid to his memory was also a tribute to the race from
which he sprung — a race whose history runs back into the dawn
of time. To that race we owe our entire system of ethics and
the preservation of the foundation of religion. Amid centuries
of glorious nationality, and through long ages of intolerance and
most cruel persecution, Hebrew virtue, pride and courage re
main untarnished by the hand of time. In everything that broad
ens civilization, Hebrew genius, intellect, research and learning
stand forth pre-erhinent.
"What a race has been stricken by the death of this dis
tinguished German and Hebrew? I say it is only a part of the
history of persecutions which in this day of the nineteenth cen
tury are a humiliation and not to be tolerated in this country.
In the Middle Ages one nation alone sacrificed six hundred
thousand Jews. They were the flower of science, the devotees
of literature, skilled in art, and enthusiastic in poetry. They were
men of industry, enterprise and commerce, honest, social and
hospitable. I would not suffer for a moment that we should give
even a possible shadow of excuse for bowing before this terrible
specter of persecution.

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 277
"Twice I have called the attention of the House — on the 21st
of May, 1880, and again on the 31st of July, 1882 — to the perse
cutions of the Jews in Russia. We have become used to the per
secutions in that country. It is a part of its barbarism. But it
is only ^within the past few years that the same ruthless system
of persecution has obtained in Germany. The time of Hebraic
liberty will come, and I trust soon, as it has come in this and some
countries in Europe, notably in Spain, which has invited the He
brew exiles of Germany to her shores. To the Hebrew race it is
proclaimed by God Himself in Holy Writ : T will shake all the
nations, and the desire of all the nations shall come, and I will
fill this house with glory, said Jehovah the Lord of Hosts.'
"It becomes us especially, who have offered an asylum to
these stricken people, and in view of their remarkable attain
ments in all that civilizes and blesses, that the indirect insult to
their race, through one of its distinguished sons, shall receive no
mitigation by tenders of semi-sympathy to the organ of auto
cratic power, even where that power is concealed in the silken
glove of an accomplished statesman.
"If gentlemen have only noticed the signs of the times in
Russia, in Austria, and especially in Germany — where the anti-
Semitic movement is fomented by those very nearly connected
with Prince Bismarck — they will see the animus of this attempt
to humiliate us, or rather of the insult cast upon the American
Congress over the dead body of Herr Lasker."
I could multiply instances without limit to show the esteem in
which the Jews as such are held. We have our class defects for
which we all suffer, and which each individual must live down,
but we also have class virtues for which every Jew gets credit
until he proves himself an exception to his class. I repeat,
that in our charities we should not confine ourselves to Jews,
and indeed we do not. Having alleviated the wants of those near
est and dearest to us, we should then extend our aid to others.
That such is our habit is proven by countless instances. Sir
Moses Montefiore devoted his life to Jewish charity, but having
his hands strengthened by every civilized nation in Europe he

278 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
was enabled to extend his sphere of usefulness.* To-day the
world is offering tributes of joy on his centenary and is extoll
ing the greatest philanthropist of the age; and yet he is recog
nized as having kept always prominently before him as a first
duty the ministration to Jewish suffering :
"This above all, — to thine ownself be true ;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

?Written during the year 1885, while the great philanthropist was alive

CHAPTER XL
Wherein is considered the interest of society in the preservation
of the Jews as such.
If it be true that society at large would be benefited by the
extinction of the Jews as such, or by the decadence of their dis
tinctive manners, customs and beliefs, the arguments which I
have employed lose all their force. It will be observed that in
what has previously been written I have addressed myself to the
Jews as such, from a common locus standi, and that society at
large has not been considered in the discussion. Thus far I have
devoted myself to inquiring the benefits that will inure to the
Jews from the preservation of their solidarity. It remains to
be considered how the world will be affected if the views I hold
shall prevail and be followed by the Jews. If it were possible
that the Jews could be benefited by pursuing a course which
would entail a disadvantage to the general public, that disadvan
tage would be an irresistible and unanswerable argument
against the pursuit of that course. Every man and every class
of men have the inalienable right to exercise and enjoy the largest
liberty compatible with the good order and happiness of society,
and in correlation society has the inalienable right to abridge the
liberties of individuals or classes to the extent required by the
good order and happiness of society. Upon these correlative
rights are founded the whole structure of political and social gov
ernment. Whenever either right is infringed, the equipoise is
disturbed, the structure is in danger of downfall.
It is easy to formulate this rule, but none is so difficult to
apply. The adjustment of these rights depends upon human
minds and hearts, and the inherent fallibility of both is exhibited
in their work. The application of the rule to the question under
consideration is fraught with great difficulty. Theorists and vis
ionaries may content themselves with the argument that if the
279

28o LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Jews be sincere in their manners, customs and beliefs, any abridg
ment thereof would be intolerant, and, as intolerance is wrong,
the Jews have a right to exercise their manners,- practice their
customs and employ their belief. But this argument begs the
question by assuming that intolerance is a wrong. Intolerance
is not always wrong — for 'wrong may be what is not tolerated,
and it is unquestionably a virtue to be intolerant of what is not
right. Truth is intolerant of error; virtue of evil, and against
such intolerance nothing can be urged, though the error or evil
be practiced with never so much sincerity. It is commonly be
lieved that our government is founded in a large degree upon
the principle of universal tolerance, and this fancied element
of our institutions is extolled as one of its most attractive
features. This belief is an erroneous one. I am aware that the founders
of our Government, warmed by the French Revolution and heated
by our own, delivered themselves of many loose expressions,
even in our laws and public documents, that gave color to the idea
that this is a country of universal tolerance, but a moment's re
flection will demonstrate that the idea is false and unfounded.
The experience of the world shows that in the struggle between
the rights of individuals and the rights of society as represented
by governments, the latter always prevailed, and to guard in a
measure against a recurrence of that evil, the principle was in
grafted upon our Constitution, that not only should individuals
be unrestrained except as required by the public good, but that
in considering the propriety or expediency of restriction every
doubt should be in favor of the individual. This is written every
where between and on the lines, and this is the extent to which
we have traveled toward universal tolerance. To have gone fur
ther would have exceeded the bounds of reason.
Freedom of conscience is a right which is enjoyed inde
pendent of governmental license, and which is practiced in spite
of governmental inhibition. Torquemada himself, with all the
machinery of the inquisition, and backed by all the power of
Castile and Arragon could not prevent the weakest and poorest
Jew in Spain from denying Christ in his heart. The utmost that

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 28l
can be done by power is to prevent the promulgation of beliefs,
and the practice of obnoxious forms of religion or inhibited man
ners and customs. This is the extent of human power, and to
that extent it may be exercised whenever its exercise is demanded
by consideration of the greatest good to all and the least pressure
upon any of the members of society.
As a rule, the power has been employed to oppress individuals
and classes, rather than to protect society. It is abused oftener
than legitimately exercised, but it exists none the less. Gun
powder has perhaps done more harm than good, but its well rec
ognized evidence as a physical and mechanical force is not there
by impaired. Such instruments are given to mankind to be used
at their peril. When mountains are leveled by explosions to
make highways for commerce, when sunken reefs are blasted to
make safe passage for ships, we give thanks for the discovery
or invention of dynamite; but when fine buildings are demol
ished and innocent lives destroyed by the same agency, we are
apt to consider it a curse rather than a blessing. Our maledic
tions, however, should be directed to those who misuse the power,
rather than to the power itself, and we should address ourselves
to protecting ourselves against the misuse rather than against
the thing which is misused. Dynamite, without evil men, would
be an unmixed blessing, but evil men, even without dynamite,
will always be a curse. To drop the metaphor and return to our
subject proper, I would say that we should not and may not decry
intolerance any more than we should bewail the invention of dy
namite, for if intolerance be always directed against evil it would
be an unmixed blessing. But who shall decide when the power
should be exercised?
The repository of a power that is not restrained by a higher
must, in the nature of things, exercise that power in its own dis
cretion and at its own peril. Every government is in its internal
affairs sovereign. Society is sovereign in its own sphere. So
ciety must always judge what it will tolerate and what it will not
endure. For an error it is responsible to posterity and to God.
To limit the liberties of others is a dangerous exercise of power,
and one fraught with grave responsibility, and, as society is al-

282 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
ways stronger than individuals, the exercise may be delayed with
out danger, and should be avoided except in cases where no doubt
exists as to the propriety thereof. But when no doubt exists and
the institution to be suppressed is unquestionably fraught with
great danger to the well-being and safety of society, no maudlin
sentiment can or should interfere.
To illustrate: suppose that a religious sect should spring up
in the United States whose exercises required the sacrifice of
human life (a crime that ignorant fanatics attribute to the Jews),
and suppose that, in the practice of this religion in all sincerity,
human beings were slain; does any one maintain that such things
should be permitted in deference to a visionary idea that to pro
hibit it would abridge the freedom of conscience?
Society, like individuals, may and must protect itself. We
have laws against polygamy which punish it as a crime, although
practiced in the name of religion ; and we have laws under which
we can segregate and even banish lepers and other infected per
sons whose presence in the country is dangerous to the public.
We are intolerant of personal liberty in a thousand ways, and all
upon the principle that the good of the whole is better than the
good of any part, and that every man is presumed to surrender
to society, in return for its benefits, so much of his natural rights
as the well-being and safety of society requires. Every man is
master of himself and his property, but subject always to the limi
tation that the control of both must not interfere with the public
weal. The old maxim of the law embodies the principle : Sic tuo
utere ut alienum non laedas, "so use what is thine as not to injure
what belongs to others."
To guard against misapprehension, I repeat that while the
power to suppress exists and the repository of that power must
judge when it shall be exercised, that repository exercises the
power at his peril. It is responsible to God above all for its acts.
He invests all men with the power, but none with the right to
do wrong. If I be correct in my reasoning, it follows indis
putably that society may frown upon Judaism and suppress Jew
ish institutions, manners and customs, if these institutions, man-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 283
ners and customs do not consist with the general good, or, to be
more accurate, if they endanger the general welfare.
If, therefore, any one be sincerely intolerant of the Jews, let
us not regard him as perversely violating a great principle, but
rather as one who is honestly misapplying it. Let us strive to
show that there exists no occasion for this intolerance against us,
instead of denying the right of its exercise at all. To do other
wise is to be intolerant ourselves — a fault not the least prominent,
alas ! that may be laid at our doors. I am firmly impressed with
the conviction that there exists a strong prejudice against us;
that to a large extent it is honest ; that to some extent it is pro
voked by ourselves, but that altogether it is unwarranted. I be
lieve that the world would be the greater loser by the extinction
of the Jews, and in the succeeding pages I shall endeavor to show
as briefly and as dispassionately as I can why I would regard it as
a universal calamity to wipe out that great people in whose an
nals mixed with all their faults are to be found the highest ex
amples of all that is noble and sublime in man.
"In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; be
cause thou hast obeyed my voice." (Genesis xxii. 18.)
If I shall be able to show that most of the faults laid at the
door of the Jews are common to all men and are not distinctly
Jewish faults ; if I shall further show that their distinctive faults
are mainly due to enforced conditions of life and protracted per
secutions ; if I shall show that no other people under similar cir
cumstances resisted temptations so well, and preserved virtues
so long ; if I shall further show that in the midst of temptations to
evil, they not only resisted evil, but developed positive virtues
and great intellectual power ; and if I shall be able finally to show
that the voluntary tenets and practices of the Jews are responsible
for the good that is in the Jew, and not chargeable with the evil,
then I take it the world is better off for the existence and preser
vation of the Jews as such. Let us discuss the premises in order
to support the conclusion.
Character is a conglomerate. It is made up of inheritance,
education, association and surrounding circumstances. An indi
vidual who is born of worthy ancestors, who is properly edu-

284 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
cated, who mingles with unexceptionable associates, and is sur
rounded only by ennobling influences, rises to the fullest stature
of moral manhood. There may be an occasional exception; by
a miracle of God the sun once stood still. But if any of the afore
said elements of character be omitted, and in their stead be
brought a factor of evil, the result depends upon the relative
strength and endurance of the contending elements of good and
evil. Thus we see not infrequently the offspring of noble parents
disgrace the patronymic by reason of evil associations or im
proper education; while on the other hand, from the lowest
origin spring the grandest heroes. These seeming anomalies
are but examples of a great law of human development. The
most hardened criminals have been reclaimed by proper influ
ences ; the loftiest natures have been degraded by the temptation
that assailed their weakest point. None may cease so far to be
human as to retain no spark of the Divine. None may rise so
far toward the angels as to retain no taint of the brute.
Goethe wrote somewhere, I think in his "Wahrheit und
Dichtung," that no man had ever had all the good eliminated
from his nature. Walpole held that every man had his price.
Both were right. There is something divine in man that corrod
ing influences can not destroy, and there is something brutal in
him that subjects him to temptation, which, if it fits his weak
ness, will cause his fall. Whatever be the native qualities of a
man or a people they will have their complexion altered more
or less by influences brought to bear thereon for good or evil.
The character that is susceptible of the highest improvement in
response to the least influence, and that is proof against degrada
tion for the longest period and through the most numerous and
trying temptations, is the most sterling. If it can be analyzed
and understood, it should be emulated and preserved.
Nothing is so degrading as contumely. Self-respect is the
sheet-anchor of personal honor, and the respect of others is the
vital principle of self-respect. It matters not if the contempt
and contumely to which one is subjected be deserved or not, if it
be exhibited toward a man it causes him to shrink in sensitive-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 285
ness from the world's gaze, it engenders his indignation and
hatred, it breeds a spirit of vengeance, and finally he broods
until vengeance is achieved through crime, or peace is secured
in a desperate and ignoble indifference. How full is life of
illustrations to this rule. Every prison is full of creatures noble
once, but driven by the disgrace of the first fault to the madness
of professional crime, or reckless indifference to disgrace. When
from a prison career — where the surroundings are reeking with
crime, corruption and temptation — a man emerges with few
faults and many virtues, he has demonstrated a heroic and manly
character that merits all praise.
After the battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans took
possession of England. They found in the Saxons the sturdiest
and most liberty-loving and incorruptible people of Europe, and
yet ere long the influence of power and wealth, persecution and
bribery overcame the Saxon purity and ingrafted upon the parent
tree a Norman scion that has borne most of the English fruit.
History is full of examples to prove how easy it is to corrupt a
people and undermine their manhood.
It records radical changes in the character and constitution
of every nation, and but few in the march of two thousand
years have escaped utter destruction.
"Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they?
********* their shores obey
The stranger, slave or savage ; their decay
Has dried up realms to deserts."
The influences that have brought about the decadence of so
many mighty empires are the temptations and pressures to which
they have been subjected. As a rule, human conduct is governed
by the fear of punishment or the hope of reward. By these
means the virtues of men and of peoples have been overcome
since the first fall. Miraculous almost is the escape of him who
is driven to evil by fear or tempted by rewards.
The Jews since the dawn of the Christian era have been

286 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
subjected to the degrading influence of the world's contumely,
that fruitful source of desperate corruption and shameless brut-
ishness. They have, moreover, been impelled by the fear of per
secution and the hope of reward to forsake their creed, to abjure
their traditions, and surrender their individuality.
It has been a mighty battle that has been waged for nearly a
thousand years. There has been ranged on one side the sneers
and the power of the world, against a few isolated creatures with
no country, no system of laws other than those of religion, no or
ganization, no vernacular — with nothing to sustain them but only
the creed that God himself taught them, and the traditions and
customs that came down to them as a sacred trust from those
who were admitted even into the Divine Presence. From such a
struggle, not yet ended, the Jews, though victorious, have not
come out unscathed.
In many instances the practice of religion has been with
them the strict observance of rites and ceremonies and the utter
disregard of morality, which is the essence of the religion.
Driven from the ordinary walks of life, they have become money
lenders par excellence, and being forced even in this vocation to
duplicity and chicanery for defensive purposes, these evils have,
in a large measure, become a part of their character. Compelled
to be hypocrites, hypocrisy has entered into their composition,
and being denied the benefit of the laws of even natural rights,
they have come to look upon Gentiles as enemies whom it is law
ful to spoil. Falsehood, deceit, hypocrisy, dishonesty, ignorance,
uncleanliness, boorishness, may all be laid at their door. They
have become and have been false, deceitful, hypocritical, because
the world forced them thereto either by degrading or oppressing
them; they have become and have been dishonest because by
dishonesty they lost no position, nor by integrity could they gain
any. They have been and have become ignorant at times because
education was denied them in the ordinary course, and if stealthily
acquired, received no recognition. They have been and remain
uncleanly and boorish in some countries because they have been
driven from general society and denied any of their own. What

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 287
people similarly situated could have escaped the faults that are
found among the Jews ? What people, under the most favorable
circumstances and conditions, is free from them? Are not these
faults common to all, and are they not the rule rather than the
exception with the most highly favored among the nations of
the globe ? The municipal laws of every modern civilized people
are chiefly directed to the punishment of crimes among which
stand prominently perjury and theft. Deceit and falsehood are
the fruitful sources from which nearly all of modern litigation
springs. It requires no search to find all of these faults among
the most cultured and freest peoples of the earth — and Diogenes
might still hunt with his lantern for honest men. With all the
appliances of modern science pestilence has not been subdued,
and the filth prevailing among the people at large is the greatest
promoter of these plagues. The Jews usually escape, for, despite
the charge of uncleanness made against them, they are to such an
extent superior in this respect to the Gentiles that the plagues
seem to pass them over now as it did in Egypt centuries upon
centuries ago.
There is but little that is characteristic of the Jew in the faults
of the Jews. They have weaknesses like other men, they sin
like other men. But the Jew is everywhere prominent as an
object of comment, and the development of his shortcomings
gives rise to more discussion and makes a deeper impression than
that of other men. It is the tendency of the human mind to
generalize. I have already shown how prone we are to adopt
general rules to explain particular phenomena. The Jew being a
prominent object of attention, the superficial observer (who is
largely in the majority) is apt to notice particularly the failings
of such as he knows, and to generalize therefrom the want of
virtue among the Jews as a class. Nothing could be shallower.
If it were true that Jews are more corrupt than other men,
the fact would easily be explained by their history, and thus
relieve the Jewish religion, customs and traditions of the re
sponsibility therefor. A man is not wicked because he is a Jew,
but in spite of it. But it is not true that they are worse than
other men in the same walks of life. The Jewish merchant, law-

288 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
yer, doctor, artisan or laborer is in all respects the peer of the
members of the same occupations — in many respects he is facile
princeps. I have admitted much more as chargeable against the Jews
than can be established by resort to history. I have done so be
cause I am arguing to convince others, not to please myself, and
my purpose will be best accomplished by the course I have pur
sued. The intelligent student of history and of men will require no
argument to explain a state of facts that he knows does not exist
even though I admit it; the prejudiced and ignorant would not
believe a denial that they will not verify, but they may yield to
an argument that they can not refute and which destroys the
force of that state of facts even though it existed.
There is nothing in the Jewish religion, customs or traditions
that should breed wickedness or corruption. The traditions relate
to deeds of heroism and courage, sublime resignation and charity,
self-sacrifice, martyrdom and faith. The Jewish customs and
practices are simple, healthful and pure; they are nearly all
founded on the Mosaic laws, which modern science approves as
the most wonderful code of sanitary and domestic regulation ever
formulated. The Jewish religion teaches that the greatest piety
is morality. On the contrary, the traditions, customs, practices and religion
of this people have bred heroes and statesmen, savants and poets,
philanthropists and Samaritans, to such an extent that though
composing but a small fraction of the earth's population, the
Jews have given to nearly every generation an immortal name,
and have shaped the destiny of nearly every government under
the sun since and before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Jew.
Let us glance briefly at the chronology of the Jews since the
Christian era and note the great names that serve as landmarks
in modern Jewish history.

CHAPTER XII.
Wherein is Given a Brief Resume of Jewish History since the
Christian Era.
For eight hundred years after the birth of Christ the Jews
were the objects of persecution at the hands of Pagans, Chris
tians and Mohammedans. During the first century Caligula per
secuted them in Rome, Jerusalem was besieged and captured by
Titus, the temple was destroyed and the chosen people of God
driven from the holy city. The stars that shone on Galilee looked
down upon a dispersed and desolate people. The pagan legions
of Rome overspread the Holy Land, and the forests of Lebanon
and Zion echoed the lamentations and shrieks of a devoted race
hunted to the death. Peace and security were conditions remem
bered only as a time long since departed. In the second century
Akiba became a. martyr, and the children of Israel were forbidden
to even enter the city of their ancient glory. In the year 530
Justinian formulated laws against the Jews that were designed
to work their extirpation, but, despite the engines of destruction
brought to bear upon them, they survived and preserved their
customs, manners, traditions, learning and religion. With the
beginning of the ninth century opened a new era for the Jews.
Haroun Al Rashid, in the Orient, and Charlemagne, in the West,
fostered and encouraged the talents of the indestructible and irre
pressible people. They rose to eminence in commerce and litera
ture, and became the repositories of the wealth and the learning of
the world. The Christian clergy became jealous of their power and
fomented new persecutions, but it required something more than
priestcraft to strike with success at a power so great as theirs.
In Morocco and Spain they became the intimates of the rulers,
and their merchant princes supplied the belligerent monarchs of
Europe with the sinews of war. Great minds arose, and radical
reforms were instituted among them. The Scriptures, by trans
lation and commentary, were brought nearer to the common
289

200 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
understanding, and among other reforms polygamy, that relic of
Oriental barbarism, was interdicted.
But the two hundred halcyon years were at an end when the
institution of chivalry was enabled to spend its pent-up and ex
travagant enthusiasm in an effort to regain the "holy sepulchre."
The fanaticism aroused by Peter the Hermit fell on all heretics
alike. The Jews were spoiled of their wealth to equip crusaders,
and their learning ceased to inspire respect among men who only
respected physical strength.
In France, Germany and England the oppression of Jews
was deemed a virtue in the eyes of heaven. But the endurance
of the Jews was not overcome. In Spain they found a refuge,
where they could at least exist.
Here arose, in the twelfth century, the great Judah Hallevi,
the great Aben Ezra, and the yet greater Maimonides.
Moses Maimonides, as he is usually styled, his name being in
fact Rabbenu Mosheh ben Maimun Haddayan, was born at
Cordova, on March 30, 1135. He lived to be nearly seventy years
of age. He was, without doubt, the greatest philosopher and
scholar produced by the Jews since the beginning of the Chris
tian era. No contemporary or other philosopher during the
Middle Ages, Jew or Gentile, approached him. He seems to
have mastered every branch of learning, sacred and profane, and
to have possesed the rare genius of giving to the world the benefit
of his vast learning after distillation in his incomparable mind.
As the bee sucks sweets from every flower and yields them again
in concentrated and purified sweetness, so he gathered knowledge
from every source and gave it forth again, improved, digested
and made attractive. He acquired knowledge and dispensed wis
dom on all subjects. He wrote on theology, metaphysics, mathe
matics, astronomy and medicine, and even poetry was not beyond
his versatile genius. As pure in heart as he was strong in mind,
he led an immaculate life, and declined to profit by his sacred
learning. Driven from Cordova by persecution, he fled to the
East, and his talents being recognized, he was raised to the highest
position of personal trust. Saladin, of Egypt, made him his
own physician, which office he held at the time of his death,

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 29I
which occurred at Cairo in 1204. He wrote in Hebrew and in
Arabic, and most of his works have come down to us. His
Mishneh Torah, a systematic codification of the Jewish law, is
yet a text-book for Jewish theolgical students, as is his com
mentary on Rosh Hashanah and the Mishnah. His Moreh
Nebuchim, or Guide to the Perplexed, is rarely read at the pres
ent time, but as a work of general interest to philosophers it is
still held in high esteem. It is said that Moses Mendelssohn
became great through his earnest study of Maimonides' Guide.
I quote from Professor Shiller Szinessy, of Cambridge, who says,
in a short essay on Maimonides: "To sum up in a few words
the merits of Maimonides, we may say that, with all the disad
vantages of the times in which he lived, he was the greatest
theologian and philosopher the Jews ever produced, and one of
the greatest the world has seen to this day. As a religious and
moral character, he is equaled only by a few, and surpassed by
none." Of Ibn or Aben Ezra, Dr. Mendez de Solla writes: "Abra
ham Ben Meir Aben Ezra was born of a noble family at the
beginning of the twelfth century at Toledo. He was a man of
extensive erudition and wonderful genius, perfectly familiar alike
with the Aristotefian philosophy and the closest . interwoven fea
tures of rabbinical literature. Taking in consideration the age
in which he lived he was really eminent as a commentator, gram
marian, philosopher, physician, astronomer and poet. In his fiery
spirit, in the ardor of his imagination, and in his humorous vein
he is unequaled by any of the Jewish literati. His style is pure,
expressive and original; his sentences are elegant, sometimes
lively and full of wit, but often so brief as to be obscure. Like
many of his contemporaries he had a great inclination for travel
ing. This taste is worthy of remark as presenting a striking
contrast to the life led by the monks and Roman Catholic clergy
of that period. This desire of becoming personally acquainted
with a world in which they met so much hostility is especially
observable in Aben Ezra. The various places from which he
dated his different works show in a literal sense that he was a
wanderer on the earth. As a commentator on the scriptures he is

292 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
valued without exception by all. His hymn on the soul is a
practical development of the idea, that every night, during sleep
the soul, released from the body, ascends to heaven to give an
account of the work done during the day. His poetical works
extend also to nuptial hymns, elegies, satires, and even a series
of verses on the game of chess. He visited also Palestine and
held converse with the learned men of Tiberias upon the Maso-
retic text of the Bible." He died at the age of seventy.
From the beginning of the Crusades there has been but little
intermission in the persecution of the Jews. In 1290, Edward I.
expelled them from England ; eight years later they were hunted
down by Reindfleish's mob in Bavaria. In 1306 they were ex
pelled by Philip the Fair from France, and some years later
were subjected to horrible outrages in Austria and Bavaria by
the Armleder mob. In 1348 there was a general massacre of
Jews throughout Germany. The Black Death was raging, and
to the horrors of the plague were added those of religious perse
cution. How sublime indeed was the courage that, amid such
suffering, could be true to the faith whose keynote is the mag
nificent invocation: Shemai Israel Adonai Elohenu Adonai
Echod. It would be tedious to follow in detail the status of the Jews
throughout the period of which I write. It is one long chapter
of suffering and horror, throughout which shines ever resplend
ent the star of Jewish loyalty to the Jewish faith and traditions.
The following, taken from an article by Dr. Julius Wellhausen.
of Greifswald, will convey a fair idea of their condition during
the Middle Ages :
"Having according to the later medieval system, no rights in
the Christian state, the Jews were tolerated only in those terri
tories where the sovereign in the exercise of free favor accorded
them protection. This protection was granted them in many quar
ters, but never for nothing. Numerous and various taxes, which
could be raised or changed in a perfectly arbitrary way, were ex
acted in exchange. But in countries where the feeling of nation
ality attained to a vigorous development, the spirit of toleration
was speedily exhaustel. The Jews were expelled by the act of
Li

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 293
the State. England was the first kingdom in which this occurred
( 1290) ; France followed in 1395 ; Spain and Portugal in 1492
and 1495. In this way it came about that the Holy Roman Em
pire, Germany, Italy and adjoining districts became the chief
abode of the Jews. In the anarchy which there prevailed they
could best maintain their separate attitude, and if they were ex
pelled from one locality they readily found refuge in some other.
The emperor had indeed the right of extirpating them altogether,
with the exception of a small number to be left as a memorial.
But in the first place he had in various ways given up this right
to the States of the Empire and moreover his pecuniary resources
were so small that he could not afford to forfeit the tax, which the
Jews as his "servi camerae" paid him for protecting their persons
and property. In spite of many savage persecutions the Jews
maintained their ground, especially in those parts of Germany
where the political confusion was greatest. They even succeeded
in maintaining a kind of autonomy by means of an arrangement,
in virtue of which civil processes which they had against each
other were decided by their own Rabbis in accordance with the
law of the Talmud."
Spain seems to have been especially a refuge for the Jews un
til about the close of the fourteenth century.
Here Mr. Sen quoted at length from Sr. Mendes de Solla's
erudite work on "Post Biblical History," and we omit these
citations and refer, the reader to that great contribution to Jewish
lore. During the reign of Dom Pedro, the Cruel, Samuel Albulafia
was Minister and Santob di Carrion the poet laureate, or rather
Court poet. Albulafia built, at Toledo, a magnificent synagogue
in which the Jews openly worshiped God according to the dictates
of their own consciences. During the reign of Alphonso V. of
Portugal, a Jew (1470), Don Isaac Abravanel, was privy coun
sellor to the king. Abravanel was an erudite scholar, a financier,
statesman and philanthropist. In 1484 his prestige and power in
creased by his appointment as Minister of Finance to Ferdinand
and Isabella.
Perhaps no era in the history of Spain is so glorious and

294 LE0 N- LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
famous as the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Young, beauti
ful and popular, they united two fond hearts in marriage and
buried in a common crown the traditional hatreds of Castile and
Arragon. Under them Spain became a nation and rapidly rose
to the proudest station among the great powers of the earth.
The chivalry of Spain was world-famous. Her poets charmed
every court in Europe, and the foundation was laid for that
power which dominated Europe until the English defeated
the "Invincible Armada." Under Ferdinand and Isabella,
Spain achieved the end of the long and bloody wars that had
been raging in Southern Spain between the Christians and
Moors. The name of Isabella would be immortal had she done
nothing else except devote her jewels to the explorations of
Columbus. From her fair brow and arms she stripped her or
naments, "And took from braids of long black hair,
The gems that gleamed like starlight there,"
to enable the adventurous Genoese to discover a new conti
nent.* But alas, the fanatical spirit of Rome overspread Spain
like a pall of darkness. The young King and Queen, devoted
heart and soul to mother Church, came under the domination
of that relentless priest, Torquemada, and the Holy Inquisi
tion began its work. The horrors of that inquest are familiar
to even the superficially informed. It began in 1481, and for
eleven long years the Jews of Spain endured its terrors rather
than forsake the vine-clad hills and sunny valleys of their be
loved Spain. But their patient and courageous suffering proved
of no avail.
Mr. Prescott, in his admirable history of Ferdinand and
Isabella, has given a graphic description of the status of the
Jews in Spain before and at the time of the Inquisition, and in

*History now refutes this, and shows that a Jew furnished the money,
as shown by Kaiserling in his work on the subject. See the Jewish En
cyclopedia.

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 295
preference to any mere compilation stated in my own words I
quote from his work. See 7th Chapter, Vol. I. of Prescott's
Ferdinand and Isabella.
*In the 17th Chapter of this splendid history is given an.
eloquent account of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, of
the sufferings they endured and the great loss suffered by Spain
by exiling the 160,000 thrifty, cultivated and wealthy Israelites.
From that time to the present the decline of Spain has been sure
and steady. Frederick the Great was wise in saying that no
nation profits by persecuting the Jews.
In 1492 occurred the three most notable events in the reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Jews were expelled from Spain,
Columbus sailed for America, and Granada, the Moorish cap
ital, surrendered to the chivalry of Leon and Castile.
In the fall of Granada, Mohammedanism forever lost its foot
hold in Western Europe, and the Christianity of Rome has been
supreme in all Spain since the day when the weak and defeated
Moorish King rode over the hills in flight and paused to take
his farewell glance at the towers of his famous capital. The
spot is still known under the name of the "Last Sigh of the
Moor" — "el ultimo Suspiro el Moro." . The Church of Rome had
cause to rejoice over the year 1492. The hated Moslem and
the despised Jew were driven from the proudest of the Christian
nations. On August 2, 1492, by royal edict, the Jews were exiled from
Spain. On the day following Columbus sailed on his perilous
voyage. Truly, it may be said they "builded better than they
knew." Little was it dreamed on that sweltering day when the
cheers of Spaniards gave god-speed to the departing mariners,
that a country would be discovered by them wherein equal rights
would be offered to the children of those despised Jews who were
sadly leaving the sunny slopes of Spain.
"There is a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them as we will."
Singularly enough, among those whom Columbus took with
him on his perilous voyage was one Louis de Torres, an Israelite

296 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
who had ostensibly embraced Christianity under the persuasive
influence of the Inquisition. Columbus took him because of his
great familiarity with oriental languages, which it was supposed
• would come into requisition by the discovery of the Eastern shores
of Asia. Torres must have enjoyed the confidence of his com
mander, for when Columbus, mistaking Cuba for Asia, desired
to send messages to the great Khan, he entrusted this danger
ous and delicate mission to Torres and one Jerez. It was on this
journey that tobacco was first discovered by any European (see
Irving's Life of Columbus, Chapters 3 and 4).
The great wealth and learning of the Jews always insured
them a welcome in one country when expelled from another.
When driven from Spain they fled to Holland, Portugal and
Germany, and when driven from these countries they fled to oth
ers, great numbers flocking to Turkey, where they rose to great
prosperity. The Reformation distracted the attention of the Christians
from the Jews. The Church had its hands full with Luther and
Calvin, and the Reformers were driven to sore straits themselves.
The Reformed Christians and the Jews were like the tiger and
the deer when driven to an island by a flood. A common mis
fortune insured peace. Thus we find Luther early in the Refor
mation defending the Jews ; two score years later, when he felt
his ground to be safer, he turned upon them in fierce assault.
The flood had subsided, and the deer was lawful prey.
The sixteenth century added many names to the Jewish pan
theon. In all of Europe the Jews flourished with varying, but
rather brighter fortunes. During this time flourished Loans,
Eliah Levita, Caro, Rossi, Medigo, Modena, Mordecai, Meisel,
Gans, the astronomer, Rabbi Loew and many others. The seven
teenth century was one of constantly varying fortunes. The Jews
were expelled from Frankfort in 1614; practically so from Po
land in 1628 ; from Vienna in 1670. But they were admitted to
Germany from Poland in 1628; they settled in Brazil in 1642
and in New York and New England in 1654. In 1655 Manasseh
ben Israel, the author of a "Defense of the Jews," pleaded with

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 297
Cromwell for the admission of his people into Merry England,
and eleven years later the Israelites were allowed to return.
The Spanish and Portuguese refugees of the previous century
in large numbers fled to Amsterdam, where soon arose a powerful,
wealthy and learned colony of Jews. They enjoyed much respect
from the honest burghers of the Dutch capital, and furnished
many famous names to the history of Holland. Notable among
these are DePinto, Suasso and Melo, the philanthropists; Saul
Morteira, the great rabbi, and Uriel Acosta and Baruch Spinoza,
the skeptics. To Berthold Auerbach, another Jew, we are in
debted for a magnificent picture of the times and the progress
of Jewish thought (vide his "Spinoza"). Acosta's career was a
tragedy. His independence of thought led him to reject the
dogmas of Rome under which he was reared. His father be
came a convert to Christianity under the influence of Portuguese
persecution, but the young Uriel returned to Judaism and passed
over to Amsterdam to enjoy the liberty of his conscience. Here
he made assaults on the corruptions in the Jewish worship. Twice
was he excommunicated, and twice restored to the Jewish fold.
His personal sufferings were permitted to color his views on re
ligion, and the opposition to his assault on mere forms of the
religion drove him to disbelieve the essence thereof. He lacked
consistency and enduring courage, and, according to Jewish le
gends, after recanting, he died by his own hand. He left several
able theological works.
Spinoza possessed a great mind and a great heart. His per
sonality was merged in his philosophy. His own sufferings and
privations were as naught to him. Always cherishing a warm
love for his people, he gradually drew away from orthodox Jew
ish ideas. He was made a rabbi while very young, and was
deemed a prodigy of learning and controversial talent. His pan
theistic philosophy is well known. His luminous mind and won
derful reasoning powers have gained for him the title of "father
of modern philosophy."
During the eighteenth century the Jews made vast progress
toward emancipation. In 1723 they were admitted to citizenship
in England. In America they became more numerous, and in

298 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
1728 opened the first American synagogue in New York. Less
than five generations have pased since then, and now every town
of any pretensions in the United States boasts a Jewish syna
gogue. The first silk manufactory of Prussia was established by Jews
in 1730. In 1748 the great Montesquieu, recognizing the merits
of the Hebrews, pleaded for their emancipation, and invoked a
spirit of tolerance for the devoted and long-suffering people.
At the same time Lessing and Gellert, in Germany, discarded and
repudiated the fashionable prejudice against Jews, and wrote in
their behalf. Among his works nothing reflects so much glory
upon the name of Lessing as "Die Juden" and "Nathan Der
Weise." His efforts in behalf of the Jews are directly due to the influ
ence of the great Hebrew luminary of the century, Moses Men
delssohn, who was Lessing's great friend, and the prototype of
Nathan the Wise.
Moses Mendelssohn was born on September 6, 1729, at Des
sau. His father was a "transcriber of the law," that is to say a
professional copyist of Hebrew manuscripts. At the early age of
three years Moses was taught the wise sayings of the Talmud. He
was educated by the pious and learned Rabbi Frankel, with whom
he subsequently went to Berlin. His pure life and great talents
soon brought him into notice. He became the intimate of Les
sing and Gellert, and one of the leaders of German philosophical
thought. In a competition he took the prize even over the great
Kant, who was one of his rivals. His successful contribution is
still famous and much studied. (Ueber Evidenz in Metaphysi-
chen Wissenschaften.) It would be tedious to enumerate his
works and influence. Through him a spirit of tolerance toward
the Jews was generated in Germany, which received much
strength from the liberal authors who preceded the French Revo
lution. It is said of Mendelssohn that "every visitor to Berlin,
Jew or Gentile, sought to make his acquaintance at a kind of
Salon which he held in the afternoons." Yet Frederick the Great
refused him election to the Berlin Academy. This tyrant is said to
have remarked that "no government ever prospered by oppress-

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 299
ing the Jews," but he yielded, nevertheless, to prejudice, and ex
cluded from the Academy the author of "Phaedo." The grandson
of Moses Mendelssohn, Felix, is known as one of the greatest
musical authors of the world.
With Mendelssohn begins properly the end of mediaeval and
the opening of the modern history of the Jews. I have not under
taken even to give an outline of the Jews of the Middle Ages, be
cause neither the limits nor design of this article will permit of
any historical excursions. Much more am I precluded from under
taking any extended notice of modern Jewish development. Great
names crowd, one so fast after the other, that I cannot pause even
to mention them. A few of them (and only a few will I set down
here) will serve to show how wonderful indeed has been the
achievement of the Jews despite the degrading influence of per
secutions during the dark ages. Of the effect thereof I make the
following quotation from an article by Israel Davis : "The perse
cutions of the Middle Ages had produced their natural effect. Cut
off from their fellow-citizens, excluded by oppressive laws from
all trades except that of peddling in old clothes, and even from
buying certain classes of these ; specially taxed, confined to Ghet
tos and Judengassen, strictly prohibited from entering some
towns, limited in numbers in others; forbidden to marry except
under restrictions designed to check the growth of the Jewish
population; disabled from enjoying Christian servants, or being
members of trade guilds, the Jews seemed by their abject condi
tion to deserve the evils which were its cause."
Reflect for a moment on such a condition as is above por
trayed being the fate of a people for centuries, and then ask your
selves what must be the native virtues of that people if they
emerge with honor and furnish more heroes in proportion to num
bers than any other people, oppressed or free. Consider that Wes-
sely, Lowe, Marcus Herz, Heine, Borne, Gans the jurist, Rahel,
Neander the historian, Jonas and Zacharias Frankel, Hildeshei-
mer, Jost, Zunz, Rapaport, Geiger, Graetz, Furst, Steinschneider,
Herxheimer, Herzfeld, Phillippson, Lehman, are the names of
Jews. Berthold Auerbach, whose hand was upon the heartstrings
of the German people, was a Jew ; Heinrich Heine, that remark-

300 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
able character in philosophy and resplendent light in poetry, was
a Jew ; Edward Lasker, the peer of Bismarck in politics, and his
superior in all other respects, was a Jew; Rubenstein and Joa
chim in music, Traube in medicine, Lazarus in psychology, Beri-
fey and Bernays and Wehl in philology, are the names of Jews.
What a magnificent galaxy they all make, and yet they are all
taken from Germany only and within an hundred years !
Notwithstanding the multitude of great names added to Ger
man history by her Jewish subjects, the Jews have been consis
tently and persistently persecuted by the German people and gov
ernment. It was not until 1803 that the infamous Leibzoll was
finally abolished in Germany. This was a tax imposed specially
on Jews whenever they crossed the boundaries of a city or petty
State. In 1812 they were recognized as citizens, but after the war
of liberation, in which they distinguished themselves, they were
subjected to new restrictions, or a revival of those that had fallen
into desuetude. During the Liberal movement, in 1848, their
liberties were enlarged, but it was not until the establishment of
the German Empire (1871) that civil and political equality was
accorded to the Jews. Even this did not stifle the spirit of intol
erance. A few years later Stacker, the preacher of the Emperor,
became the head of what is called the "Anti-Semitic" movement.
Leagues had been formed throughout the Empire to ostracize the
Jews and otherwise persecute them. That the movement was not
distasteful to the Iron Chancellor (Bismarck), goes without say
ing. The court preacher would not have dared to have identified
himself with the movement save with the sanction of the ruling
genius of Germany. It was only in deference to the outraged pub
lic opinion abroad that the Government finally interfered to pre
vent such outrages as resulted in the destruction of the synagogue
at New Stettin.
The avowed grievance on the anti-Semitic leagues is the prom
inence of the Jews in science, literature, art and commerce. It
is alleged against them that they monopolize the commerce of Ger
many and control her finances. What an argument for persecu
tion ! What an apology for crime ! What a commentary on Ger
man civilization! The Jews of the German Empire constitute

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 301
only one per cent of the population ; they have just emerged from
centuries of degradation and persecution; only emancipated in
1871 and yet the most powerful nation on the continent, and one
that boasts the highest order of thought, education and develop
ment, encourages leagues to combat them! Ninety-nine men
uniting against one!
When Napoleon plowed the fields of Germany with the hoofs
of his war horses and made them fertile with German blood and
bones, the Jews were favored by the panic-stricken Teutons.
Their talents, their treasure and their valor were needed and all
were given with alacrity. When the invaders were driven back
the Jews were placed under a cloud again — and today when Ger
many dominates Europe, the Government smiles at assaults on the
people that gave Lasker to lead the fight for constitutional liberty.
Wonderful indeed is the people that in a nation of fifty odd mill
ions can and does furnish the leaders in science, politics, literature,
art and commerce out of a pitiful one per centum of the whole
population. Let us now glance for a moment at the progress of the Jews
in France. It is to be observed that the Jews are a patriotic peo
ple. Under whatever government they exist, they are as a rule
loyal to the "powers that be," and wherever they have been ac
corded liberty their devotion has known no bounds. The favorite
countries of the Jews are France and the United States.
In 1790 Mirabeau and St. Etienne championed the claims of
the Jews for equal rights in France, and in 1791 they were admit
ted to full citizenship by act of Assembly, which was confirmed in
the Constitution of 1795. The Jews testified their grateful appre
ciation of the privileges thus extended, by pouring out their blood
and contributing their wealth in the fearful conflicts in which
France became engaged.
In 1807 the great Napoleon convoked the celebrated Sanhedrin
to formulate a code of laws for his Jewish subjects. It was a
great event for the Jews, and yet greater for France. I shall not
pause to analyze the work of the Sanhedrin. It is matter of his
tory. The liberties accorded by Napoleon to the Jews, and which
have been continued to this day, completely eliminated the Jewish

'02 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
question from French politics. The Jews became prime factors of
French civilization, but no longer vexed the statecraft of the gov
ernment. France does not offer as many prominent Jewish names
as Germany. Separate development has not been stimulated in
France by political restrictions as it has been in Germany. The
general character of the French Jews is higher, however, than
that of German Jews. They are freer from the hereditary faults,
and more pronounced and consistent in the display of hereditary
virtues. They are more pious, yet freer from cant ; they are more
cultured, yet less disposed to the skepticism so common among en
lightened Germans.
Among the great French Jews of the country I will only men
tion Adolph Cremieux, the statesmen Fould and Goudchaux, the
savants, Jules Oppert and Halevy, Meyerbeer, the composer, the
philanthropist Baron Hirsch, and the distinguished members of the
French branch of the Rothschild family.
As already stated, the Jews were readmitted to England in the
time of Cromwell. In 1658 they were first permitted to bury a
Jewish corpse in a licensed Jewish cemetery. As late as 1845 i*
was doubted if even English-born Jews could legally hold lands
in England. In 1754 popular clamor succeeded in effecting the re
peal of Mr. Pelham's Jewish naturalization act, which had passed
the year previous. The statute de Judaism, which prescribed a
particular garb for the Jews, was only repealed in 1846, but it was
then a dead letter, and had been for two centuries. By the re
form act of 1832, the right of suffrage was extended to the Jews.
The progress toward full recognition, it will be observed, was ex
ceedingly slow. Macaulay and Lord Russell, great as was their
influence, fought for long years in vain to fully emancipate the
Jews. Baron Lionel de Rothschild was five times returned to
Parliament by the city of London, and was eleven years a mem
ber before he was allowed to take an oath omitting the words "on
the true faith of a Christian." In 1858 this insuperable obstacle
was removed. Seven years before Salomons took his seat, having
omitted the words. He was, however, fined and obliged to retire
by decree of the Exchequer Court. Until 1828 the number of Jew
ish brokers in London was limited to twelve. Sir D. Salomons,

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 3O3
the first Jewish Sheriff of London, could not qualify until by a
special act passed by Lord Campbell, an oath was prescribed which
he could take. Two years later (1837)' Sir Moses Montefiore was
elected. The latter was an alderman for ten years before he
could qualify, Lord Syndhurst's act (1845) enabling him to do so.
English history boasts many great Jewish names. In theology
we have in the latter part of the seventeenth century Jacob Aben-
dano and David Meto; in mathematics, Sylvester, Sarmento and
Gompertz, both of the latter being fellows of the Royal Society.
Among linguists there are Goldstucker, Zedner and Deutsch;
among barristers, Goldsmid and Judah P. Benjamin, who, how
ever, more properly belongs to the United States. In literature,
da Costa, who in 1769 — the date of his death — was Secretary and.
librarian of the Royal Society; Isaac Disraeli, Benj. Disraeli, Da
vid Ricardo, Lopez and many others. In politics, Beaconsfield,
Salomons, Montefiore and Rothschild and a long list of others
who are philanthropists as well. In all other countries of the globe
we find great men who are Jews, in all departments of life. In
the United States they fill positions of prominence and trust in all
the spheres of private and public life. Among our leading states
men, orators, lawyers, physicians, theologians, artists, musicians,
actors, capitalists, financiers and merchants is to be found the ir
repressible Jew.
On the 16th of January, 1825, there was founded in Charles
ton, S. C, the Reformed Society of Israelites. Through the kind
ness of my friend, Mr. Abraham C. Labatt, one of the original
signers of the Constitution of that Society, I have, been permitted
to read the Constitution of the Society and the ritual adopted by
it. The originators were men of marked intelligence, courage
and purity of purpose, as is evident from their work. They
breasted the storms of indignation that grew out of their innova
tions, and bravely continued the work which was perhaps the
foundation of the American reform movement. I must leave to
some historian of the Jewish Church the work of analyzing the
history and progress of the Society. I merely mention it to show
that in a free country enlightened Jews, relieved from the pres
sure of persecution, directed their energies to reform. This move-

304 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
ment, however, had no radical tendencies. It did not address itself
to doctrines, but merely to ceremonies. It was at a later date and
by a different class of men, that innovations were made upon the
body as well as the habiliments of Judaism.
The reform movement, whether well or ill-advised as a policy,
unquestionably grew out of the purest motives. The Jew has in
every age been distinguished for untiring and restle'ss energy.
Amidst persecution he had no time for reform. All his strength
and resources were husbanded to meet and ward off hostile as
saults from without. In America, however, he was almost entire
ly free from persecution, and the innate powers of the Jew were
directed to self-improvement. As a monarch at the end of for
eign wars directs his attention to internal improvement and re
form, so the Jews in America, for the first time in centuries at
peace, turned their eyes inward. Unfortunately what was con
ceived in such a laudable spirit, has been carried to most unwar
ranted limits. It would be surprising indeed if they did not go to
extremes. Sudden freedom is always characterized by excesses,
but the conservatism and natural balance of the Jewish mind is
asserting itself, and ere long there will be evolved a symmetrical,
logical and attractive ritual and system of worship. Recent de
velopments in the United States give unmistakable color to this
prediction. The people have asserted themselves and the leaders
have heard from them in unmistakable terms. When at Pitts
burg in 1885 the Rabbis issued the celebrated Delphic oracle en
titled the "Postulates of Reason" — and at the same time paved the
way for the abolition of the holy Jewish Sabbath antl the covenant
of Abraham, a storm arose which demonstrated a fact which had
been overlooked. Beneath the apparent indifference of the Ameri
can Jews there slumbered a great and indestructible love for the
ancient creed. The new generation clung to it not only for its
great truths and beauties, but also because of its great antiquity;
and the elders under the influence of their children's enthusiasm,
felt the old earnestness quicken in their hearts. They reminded
themselves or were reminded that it is not good "to cast stones in
the well from which they had drunk," and they hastened with re
newed devotion to the long-neglected shrines. A new impetus

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 305
has been given to Judaism in America by the collapse of radical
ism in 1886, and it would require a prophet to foresee the great
ness of the Jews in the land of liberty. It may aid the reader in
speculating upon that future to be informed of a few of the
achievements of the Jews in the United States up to the present
time. They have not been few or unimportant, for the heat of
radicalism and the cold of indifference in religious matters have
been alike impotent to affect the innate charity of the Jews.
Throughout all ages and all manner of calamity they have illus
trated by their lives the sweet gospel of Moses : "Love thy neigh
bor as thyself." (19 Leviticus, 34.)
I have been unable to find any comprehensive statistics con
cerning the American Jews, but from the meagre data available
I have been able to collate a number of interesting facts, which if
they be not strictly accurate, may be safely received as within,
rather than beyond the truth.
There are four great charitable fraternities in the United
States, viz. : the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, with an ag
gregate of nearly 25,000 members ; the Free Sons of Israel, with
nearly 12,000 members ; the Improved Free Sons of Israel, with
about 3,300 members, and the Kesher Shel Barzel (Iron Link),
with over 9,000 members. All of these great organizations are
founded and conducted upon philanthropic principles. From offi
cial reports I find the B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant), aside
from and exclusive of endowment and sick benefits, bestows an
nually almost $150,000.00 or $6.00 per capita in charity. The av
erage in District No. 7, composed of Tennessee, Florida, Alabama,
Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisana and Texas, is over $9.00 per cap
ita, and exceeds by far the average in any other district. The ag
gregate membership of the other three orders named is about
25,000, and if we credit them with an average per capita char
ity of $4.00 per annum, we have a quarter of a million dollars con
tributed by the fraternities alone. But notwithstanding the vast
extent and usefulness of these orders, we find in nearly every im
portant town where the Jews reside, a Hebrew benevolent society
whose sphere is local. Certainly not less than $250,000.00 is an
nually distributed by these organizations.

306 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
The Jews in the United States own, support and successfully
operate a number of great charity hospitals, among which are
Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, Jewish Hospital in Philadelphia,
Hebrew Hospital in Baltimore, Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati and
our own Touro Infirmary at New Orleans.
In addition to these they own, support and successfully oper
ate a large number of charitable asylums, such as the Hebrew Be
nevolent and Orphan Asylum in New York, Foster Home and Or
phan Asylum in Philadelphia, B'nai B'rith Orphan Asylum in
Cleveland, Jewish Orphan Asylum in Baltimore, Pacific Orphan
Asylum in San Francisco, Home for Aged and Infirm at Philadel
phia, Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York, Familien
Wiasen Verein in Philadelphia, Deborah Nursery and Protectory
in New York, Sheltering Guardian Society in New York, and
the Jewish Widows' and Orphans' Home in New Orleans. I
have possibly omitted some of the Jewish eleemosynary institu
tions which are entitled to rank along with those I have men
tioned. Besides the above there are great numbers of relief, free burial,
free fuel and free school societies in the larger cities.
The annual cost of the conduct of these various institutions I
have deemed it safe to place at not less than $500,000.00.
The private and miscellaneous, but strictly Jewish charities I
have, after careful consideration, placed at an average of $1.00
per capita or $300,000.00. We have then a grand total of $1,800,-
000.00 expended annually by say 300,000 Jews in strictly Jewish
charities, an average per capita of $4.33 1-3. Estimating that
there is an adult male to every six persons, we will find that there
are but 50,000 male adult Jews in the United States and as the
burden falls almost exclusively upon them, their capita aver
ages $26.00 per annum. But it is well known that the Jews are
charitable to others than those of their own faith. I venture to es
timate their general charities at one-half of their sectarian chari
ties. That would swell the grand total to nearly $2,000,000.00
per annum, or an average per capita for each male adult of $40.00.
If the same generosity were displayed by the people at large
the charities of the whole country would reach the enormous

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 3O7
amount of four hundred millions per annum, a sum larger than
the national revenues and almost equal to the value of two cotton
crops. It must be remembered that in my estimates I have not in
cluded the sums paid out for sick or endowment benefits. These
I consider beyond the pale of strict charity, although in many re
spects they may be considered as falling within it. I have also
excluded congregational expenses. There are about three hun
dred congregations in the United States, being one for every
1,000 Jews, and the annual expenditure is not less than $1,000,-
000.00, or an average of $20.00 per capita for each male adult.
The great fraternities pay out annually to Jewish widows
and orphans in the shape of endowments, more than $500,000.
In the larger, towns and cities there are Young Men's Hebrew As
sociations, Dramatic and Literary Societies, schools of various
kinds and in fine every species of organization designed to en
courage science, literature and art.
But while the Jew is sectarian in his charities and his plea
sures he is not so as a citizen. They belong to all political parties
and there is no such thing as the Jewish vote.
In this country, moreover, the Jews have ceased to be mere
money makers. They are invading every walk of life. In law,
medicine, journalism, art, literature, engineering; in music and
the drama, they are to be found in great numbers and generally
in the front rank. When we contemplate the wonderful attain
ments of the Jews in this country we are impelled to exclaim with
Balaam: "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob; thy tabernacles,
O Israel ! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the
river side, as the tree's of lign-aloes, which the Lord hath planted,
and as the cedar trees beside the waters." (24 Numbers, 5 and 6.)

CHAPTER XIII.
Wherein is Considered the Cause of Jewish Greatness and Its
Destiny.
I have only endeavored to give the briefest outline of Jew
ish progress from the beginning of the Christian era to the pres
ent time. To have undertaken more would have enlarged the
limits of this work far beyond its original design, and would
have led me into a field that I have neither the ambition, the
time nor the ability to explore. My purpose has been solely
to state in meager outline the prominent events of Jewish his
tory in order that therefrom I might obtain, and present the
factors of a problem, that it is proper for me to consider in
this essay.
It will have struck the reader as remarkable if not amazing
that there should still exist a people who for so. many centuries
have been oppressed, persecuted and condemned — and yet more
marvelous must appear the fact that this people, the Jews,
is great in numbers, spread over the whole face of the globe,
enlightened and civilized to a high degree, physically, morally,
and intellectually unsurpassed, excelling as financiers, artists,
statesmen, musicians and philosophers; — ^wonderfully free of
criminals and prolific of moral exemplars and seemingly but
launched upon a career of unrivalled greatness. What is the
mystery of this indestructibility? Why do the Jews continue
to exist under conditions that have destroyed all other peo
ples ?
A casual reading of history will discover that whenever two
heterogeneous peoples have come in contact the one absorbed
the other, or by amalgamation the two formed a new stock.
And further, that when assimilation did occur the weaker people
inevitably passed away.
The aboriginal American, for example, savage though he
308

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 399
was, presented the noblest form of man in his native state.
Brought in contact with a superior people, he refused to assimi
late, and in a few centuries the Indians have dwindled to a mere
handful of drunken, treacherous wretches. The gypsies are
rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth, and it is so of
every race that preserves the purity of its blood and the prac
tice of its customs while subjected to the pressure of a superior
power or powers. In all history the Jews stand alone. They
are sui generis. To them no general rule in the philosophy of
history can be applied. For two thousand years they have
been scattered, hunted down, murdered, pillaged, tortured and
despised; during all that time they have been stanchly loyal to
their Penates and their religion, and to-day they are stronger,
wealthier, freer, more enlightened and more powerful than ever.
What is the explanation?
In discussing the origin of Jewish greatness I have already
shown that the Jews can not be judged as other people — and
again must we seek for new methods in solving the problem of
Jewish indestructibility. The religious fanatic will satisfy him
self with the simple explanation that it was prophesied of old by
those divinely inspired, and that they are the special care of
Providence. Disraeli attributes it to the fact that they are an
unmixed race of Caucasus.* Spinoza explains it by the stub
born adherence of the Jews to the rite of circumcision, and
numerous other writers have advanced as many different theo
ries.* But something more than a prophecy; something in addi
tion to unmixed blood, and certainly something higher than a

*In "Coningsby" occurs the following : "You can not destroy a pure
race of the Caucasian organization. It is a physiological fact ; a simple
law of Nature, which hasbaffled Egyptian and Assyrian Kings, Roman
Emperors and Christian Inquisitors. No penal laws, no physical tortures
can effect that a superior race should be absorbed in an inferior, or be de
stroyed by it. The mixed persecuting race disappears ; the pure persecuted
race remains. And at this moment, in spite of centuries, tens of centuries
of degradation, the Jewish mind exercises a vast influence on the affairs of
Europe. I speak not of their laws, which you still obey ; of their literature,
with which your minds are saturated, but of the living Hebrew intellect"
tRenau and Wellhausen maintain with much force that the Jews ate
no longer an unmixed race.

3IO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
mere rite, must be found to explain such phenomena as are
found in the lastingness of the Jews.
Not any one of the peculiarities to be found among the
Jews, but all or nearly all of them are responsible for it. Not
the rite of circumcision, not their unmixed blood, not their ex
clusiveness, not their religion, not their sanitary and dietary
Taws, not their close and familiar communion with their God,
not any one of these, but all of them combined have produced
virtues physical, intellectual and moral, that nothing inimical
could withstand, and which have withstood assaults of every
character and of the longest duration. The elements that make
up a national or race character are as manifold as those which
enter into the constitution of individual characters — and there
is as little likelihood of finding perfection in the one as in the
other. All a priori reasoning must fail in practical sociology,
for the factors of the problems are always doubtful and fre
quently as uncertain as the solution which we seek to obtain.
We must obtain theories by inductive reasoning based upon
wide experience and practical observation. Plato and others
constructed perfect governmental machinery upon paper, but no
Utopian constitution could stand the strain of practical opera
tion. The founders of the American Government, rich in the
wisdom of experience, framed the most perfect government
ever known, and yet in less than a century millions of lives and
treasure were spent to explain its meaning.
The philosopher and the theologian will map out a perfect
theory of education and moral discipline, and the military com
mander will formulate a perfect system of tactics; but be the
theories never so plausible, experience, has shown, as it always
will show, that mere theories will not serve to educate the mind,
the conscience or the body. Moreover there are operating influ
ences that are recognized but not understood or explained. The
Almighty permits us to see His works, but withholds them from
our understanding. Thus in medicine we find that physicians
use certain drugs to produce certain effects, and that the effects
are produced, but how or why they can not explain.
"Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers * * * "

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 311
It is perhaps not possible to perfectly explain the history of
the Jews and why they have outlived the influences that have
destroyed all other peoples similarly situated. But we do know
that they have survived events that have been all powerful
against others and powerless against them; we do know that
they have remained strong under circumstances that made oth
ers weak; intelligent when others grew ignorant; wealthy
when others grew poor; brave when others grew cowardly;
refined when others became savage, and lastly, moral when oth
ers became debased and criminal.
We know further that this people are distinguished by cer
tain peculiarities; that they have their own religion, from
which all others sprung, and which is none the less vigorous
because so often in parturition; that they have a peculiar sys
tems of laws semi-religious and altogether sanitary; that they
have traditions and customs to which they cling with unequaled
tenacity; that they are exclusive in social life; that they are
jealous of the purity of their strain; that their homes are gov
erned by the old patriarchal principle; that filial and fraternal
duties are practiced as of course; that they are singularly free
from crime; that their vital statistics are better than any other
people; that they are brave, enterprising, quick-witted and
reliable, and above all that they worship one God, not so much
according to a particular form, but in accordance with their re
ligion, which teaches that morality is religion.
We may not be able to discover the nexus between the pe
culiarities of this people and their indestructibility, but it is only
fair to connect the two and attribute the latter to the former.
And further, it is but fair to argue that if such peculiarities
have enabled this people to withstand a powerful pressure
toward evil and have propelled them toward the good; if they
have produced a people so strong, so brave, so powerful, healthy,
enterprising, intelligent and law-abiding, then the world at large
would be the loser if any of these peculiarities were abandoned
 for to all of them we may fairly infer is due the character
of this people, and the character and works of this people are
of value to the world.

312 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
I shall not pause to argue so plain a proposition as this
latter. If the distinguishing characteristics of Jewish social
and religiou life are responsible for the virtues of the Jews
and not for their faults, the proposition is self-evident. But
it will be as it has been maintained, that the virtues of the Jews
are theirs as men, and not as Jews; that the same individuals,
if Christians, would have developed the same qualities of head
and heart. This is possibly true. Certainly the contrary can
not be demonstrated, but it can be established as highly prob
able. If two sets of individuals live in the same climate, enjoy
like surroundings and are subject to the same laws, and one
set follows one hygienic system and the other set another, we
naturally judge the merits of the respective systems by the re
sults. Yet this is far short of demonstration, for perhaps, with?
out any system, the one set may have remained healthy as a
class and the other grown sickly. The Jews have not enjoyed
equal advantages under the law or in the schools, and yet they
have, as a class, outstripped their neighbors. This fact is phe
nomenal and may not be explained by the theory of chance.
If chance operates consistently for two thousand years, it rises
to the dignity of a law. There is but one explanation, and that
is the spiritual, domestic and physical life of the Jews.
The practice of their religion, the observance of their tradi
tional customs, their oriental devotion to their parents, their ex
clusiveness, their pure and comparatively unmixed blood, are
the basis of their greatness. Who would endanger the structure
by undermining the foundation must crave the infamy of that
wild youth who fired the temple of Ephesus that his name might
be ever remembered. I have frequently insisted that the Jews
have less to fear from the bigotry of others than they have
from their own indifference. The world has come to recog
nize them as indestructible. Their destiny lies with themselves.
The opportunity afforded them by' the civilization and liberality
of the nineteenth century surpasses all those enjoyed since they
had a kingdom and a king. In most of the enlightened nations
of the world, and notably in England, France and the United
States, they have found a new Jerusalem. The future is theirs

THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 313
to be great or pass away from the earth forever. What will
tbey do with it? Will it come to pass when the traveler from
New Zealand stands on London bridge and muses over the ruins
of St. Paul's that he will also seek in dusty tombs for the his
tory of the last of the Jews, or will he marvel then as we marvel
now, that this one people of all others, and the only one, should
survive pyramids and temples, coliseums and catacombs, des
potism and constitutions — and remain ever vigorous and young,
as indestructible as the ocean by which they are so fitly sym
bolized ?

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE.
A Commencement Address Delivered Before the Graduating
Class of the University of Texas, June 14, 1899.
In the physical sciences the outposts of one generation are
points of departure for the next. Not so in the philosophy
which deals with man's morals and happiness. There is scarce
ly a proper rule of human conduct which is not to be found in
ancient writings, sacred or profane. The restatement of them in
later days has consisted simply of giving new words to old
ideas. The precepts of wisdom so early pronounced in the history
of man have since been accessible to him as an inexhaustible
storehouse of wealth. Their intrinsic merit has been invested
with the charm of epigrammatic expression, and in proverbs
the highest truths have been given universal currency. Unfor
tunately the treasures thus ready to our hands are not gen
erally enjoyed. The great majority of men fail to profit from
either precept or experience. Of the rest, by far the greater
number learn only from what befalls themselves and die before
their education is half completed. The remaining few grasp
the lessons taught by others, and to these we attribute the gift
of genius. The commonplace, more than the extraordinary mind, re
quires counsel, but seeks it less eagerly and is benefited less
thereby. So the weak plant requires more nourishment than
the strong, but is slower to send out roots in quest of or to
utilize it when found.
Lessons of truth are like the countless seeds which plants
yield in their efforts at reproduction. An insignificant number
germinate, and of these how few escape destruction before the
bud develops into blossom, the blossom into fruit and the fruit
into seed again. It is only under favorable conditions that the
314

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 315
germ, however perfect in itself, will sprout and grow. If the
soil be barren, the climate hostile or the planting unseasonable,
there will be "none, or bitter fruit." The plainest truths ever
uttered even by inspired lips will not find lodgment and growth
in minds that are sterile, abnormal or distracted.
When the triumphs of war inflame the mind, the philosophy
of peace speaks to unlistening ears. Power silences reason,
and the lust for conflict breaks the barriers of righteousness.
It is an unequal contest between swords and syllogisms. The
fairest breeze evokes no music from a harp with broken or dis
cordant strings. v
Therefore, every occasion of solemnity or joy is seized by
the teacher to impart an appropriate lesson to minds made im
pressionable by the event celebrated. "A word fitly spoken is
like apples of gold in pictures of silver."
Thus impressed, I come not to interest the old by reminis
cences of the past, or the middle aged by discourse on the pres
ent, but to bear a message to the young whose eyes and hopes
are set upon the future.
The college final is life's commencement. For the young
men and young women who have finished their school studies
to-day a new career begins. They stand at the edge of a forest
into which they are about to plunge. As they proceed with wis
dom or folly so shall they be happy or miserable. If they have
any conception of the solemnity of this hour, what I shall say
will not be commonplace to them, however it seems to others.
The modest guide post which cannot claim a glance from the
experienced traveler, deeply interests him who is a stranger to
the road.
Young women and young men ! Do not consider your school
ing as completed. The end of college days is the beginning
of a new education, in which the study of man in the practical
affairs of life makes up the entire curriculum. Do not look
upon the world as holding the prizes for which you must seek.
Success in life depends, not upon what youth finds in the world,
but upon what he brings to it. And what is that success, to
achieve which you have studied here and are content to toil

3l6 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
hereafter ? Nothing is more important to consider, for if you
proceed blindly or erroneously you will realize too late in bit
terness and sorrow the truths which the experience of others
makes so plain to those who have the wit to learn.
Success is not synonymous with riches, or power, or fame.
It may embrace one or more, or all of these, but who sets either,
or all, as his goal, will grow heartweary in the quest and be
heartsick even when the end sought is attained. Let me not
be misunderstood as preaching a gospel of poverty, servility or
indifference. On the contrary, I hold riches, power and fame
in high esteem as ornaments and utilities of life. They are aids
to success, but must not be confounded with it.
The most appalling evil which pervades society is the dis
position to make riches the one great object of effort and sacri
fice. From the earliest times sages have pointed out the folly,
the misery and the sinfulness of this disposition. The uniform
testimony of those who have thus devoted their lives is against
it, and yet men and women, generation after generation, with
apparently incurable fatuity, pay any price for mere wealth.
Health, peace, contentment, domestic happiness, reputation, aye
even honor, are all thrown into the scale to make the weight
demanded for riches, which, when acquired, cannot repurchase
what has been paid for them, or secure other goods to take their
place. If Robinson Crusoe on his lonely isle had exhausted his
strength, undermined his health and denied himself recreation
in order to build more habitations than he required, his folly
would have been patent; but how few can see that beyond a
certain point riches are as useless in the busy haunts of men
as superfluous habitations would have been to the famous cast
away. Wealth is desirable enough as a means, but to make it
the end of existence is the supremest folly. A strong arm is
also desirable, but to make it abnormally so involves waste of
time and effort, besides impairment of the general vigor.
So uniform and universal is the proof that great wealth is
an unworthy and disappointing end that few are willing to pro
claim the acquisition thereof as their life purpose. But many

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 317
delude themselves and strive to delude others by the avowal
that wealth is sought as a "stepping-stone to higher things."
Of these the most prominent are power and fame — the twin
vanities which lure men from the paths of virtue and happi
ness. Power weighs heavily enough upon him who by reason
of his fitness has it imposed upon him, it overwhelms him who
is vainglorious enough to seek it. A wise king once said that
"whoever knew the weight of a sceptre would not stoop to pick
it up, though he saw it lying on the ground."
And why should men seek fame when history so clearly
proves that the only fame worth having ever eludes those who
pursue it and flies to those whose deeds are prompted by duty
alone ?
I hold it true that whoever deserves the good opinion of his
fellowmen desires it. In praise he recognizes the sanction of
his life by those who are influenced or affected thereby. But
such a man does not shape his course to catch the popular
breeze, or fancy himself great because he has attained an ephe
meral celebrity or won public office. He does not forsake the
paths of peace, and the pleasures of home save when duty calls.
The strenuous life is lived by him with courage when it is im
posed by duty, but he does not seek it for its vain rewards. He
distinguishes wisely between the patriot in arms and the soldier
of fortune. Only by ascertaining the true mission of life, devoting every
energy to its fulfilment and subordinating thereto all meaner
things, is happiness attainable, and happiness is success.
The true mission of a woman is to be wife and mother; of
a man to be husband and father. In that proposition is con
tained all of the rights and duties of both sexes, and the key
to human happiness. It is the law of animated nature, the pre
cept of philosophy, the command of religion.
The uplifting of woman from the ignominious station to
which she was assigned in ancient and darker ages; her induc
tion into the fields of science, literature and art; her participa
tion in the conduct of bread-winning industries, have not re
lieved her of the obligations or shorn her of the privileges

3l8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
which hallow and crown her. Woman is no longer regarded as
man's slave, plaything or divinity. From these conditions she
has been freed by the broadening civilization of these later
days. But her emancipation must not be misunderstood or mis
applied. She affronts her own dignity by any imitation of the
habits and conduct peculiar to man, for in that she confesses
the superiority against which she so earnestly protests. In the
highest development of her own faculties along natural lines
lies her mission of honor, usefulness and happiness. Though
her increasing strength of mind and body enables her to enter
fields that her predecessors never trod; though she shine in the
learned professions and win laurels in book-making, painting
and sculpture, yet remains she a woman glorified alike by the
limitations and the privileges of her sex. If she pursues any
calling or career which disqualifies her from her real mission,
she subordinates the higher to the lower purposes of life and
makes that the end which should be only the means.
The devotees of art are wont to prate of art for art's sake,
as if it were some deity to be worshiped in preference to others
that are recognized. I confess I have never appreciated this
doctrine, if it may be so designated, and it has always struck
me as a weak and vain attempt to escape those obligations to
God and society which rest alike upon the peasant and the poet,
the hewer of wood and the sculptor.
So, too, we hear occasionally of women who set up art,
science, literature, or even philanthropic work, to be worshiped
and who set aside all considerations of family as impediments
to success. I pity all such women. Though they suffer their
minds to deal with problems only of vast, universal or infin
ite importance, though they toy with unfathomable mysteries
and fancy that with rhetorical flashes they can make clear the
darkness which the steady light of wisdom cannot penetrate,
they miss the greatest of all lessons and lose the greatest of
life's compensations. The abnormal aspirations of such a woman
have blinded her to the light of love and made her deaf to the
music of infant voices. They have shrunk her soul to the nar
rowness of her own purposes and left no room for God's.

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 3I9
There is no education too high for a woman. There is no
equipment, physical, mental or moral, too great for the office
of wife and mother, and if she qualifies herself to be self-sup
porting she will the more highly esteem relations into which
she is not forced by her helplessness. What I plead for in the
training of woman is fitness for her career as a woman — not
fitness merely to compete with men.
What I have said in regard to the gentler sex is the opin
ion of most women and all men. The same reasoning upon
which that opinion is based applies with equal force to man.
Lord Bacon stands almost alone among great thinkers in
his opinion that marriage is an impediment to greatness, and
his statement that the greatest deeds have been performed by
men who had not charged themselves with wives and children,
he fails to support with examples or authority.
Lucretius holds that the civilization of mankind resulted
from marriage and ' the family relation, and Horace regarded
the contempt into which home and family had fallen as the
fountain-head of all the ills that fell on Rome. Juvenal's famous
invective was not against marriage, but against the corrupt
women of his time.
A recent American law writer of high ability, after deep re
search, concludes that "Marriage is a relation divinely instituted
for the mutual comfort, well-being and happiness of both man
and woman, for the proper nurture and maintenance of offspring
and for the education in turn of the whole human race;" and
again, that "in the family, rather than individualism, we find
the incentive to accumulation, and in the home the primary school
of the virtues, private and public." "Marriage," says Sir James
Mcintosh, "is, the fit nursery of the commonwealth." History
abundantly proves that the civilization of a nation can be meas
ured by the home life of its people. The home gives effective
ness to religion, tone to social life, stability to government and
nourishment to the arts. It engenders worship of God, devotion
to country, love for our fellow-men and the self-uplifting to
higher and better things not otherwise obtainable.
Nomads never progress far in civilization. They have no

320 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
homes in the true sense of that term. The downfall of Greece
and Rome in ancient times, and of France in the last century,
was due, in each instance, to a misconception or disregard of
the home life.
You young men are rich in health, youth, energy, courage,
intelligence, education and ambition. Perhaps you think with
such wares you may aspire to some great destiny in which the
home or family plays none, or an incidental part. If so, I would
suggest that the consensus of opinion for many centuries upon
a question of the kind under consideration is disregarded only
by a temerity which shades into folly. Moreover, among the
matured men within your acquaintance are many who in their
youth possessed the same equipment in which you now rejoice.
They had their wares; observe what disposition they made
thereof and the results. If you study their lives with half the
zeal and intelligence you have bestowed upon your books, you
will learn lessons of priceless value.
You will learn how true it is that the wastefulness of youth
makes the want of later years, and that this applies equally to
riches, health and mental force.
You will learn that the intemperate habits which are laughed
at as the permissible follies of youth, even when discontinued
before they become fixed, yet leave in wasted vitality and a
debased moral sense their enduring mementoes.
You will learn that youth with its energy and courage, be
they never so great, steadily recedes before the conquering ad
vance of Time, and that the pleasures which were mistaken
for happiness mockingly desert their old victims to seek the
new. You will learn that he who chased the flying form of fame
fell panting in the race dishevelled, bruised and spent, while to
the misery of failure were added the jeers of the amused on
lookers. You will learn that he who made riches his one objective
point, either failed to attain it; or worse still, made the difficult
ascent only by throwing away, in whole or part, health, peace,

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 321
friends, self-esteem and the joys of domestic life. You will
learn that he lost the grain of life for its golden husk.
You will learn that the boasted freedom of him who hath
not wife or children is so hateful to the possessor that he will
counsel all his friends to that sweet bondage, the avoidance of
which was his undoing.
You will learn further that though a man has achieved every
thing else for which he strove, but has failed in the home and
family life, he has not found happiness ; that if he has succeeded
in the home life, the pain of failure in this or that endeavor
soon gave way to his enduring joys.
If reflection convinces you that the true mission of man is
to be husband and father; to establish and maintain a perfect
home and to be the competent head of a worthy family, you
will have a market for your wares — a definite goal for your am
bition — a purpose to attain which you can and should begin
work at once. Do not underestimate the task.
You must determine at no distant date where you will es
tablish yourself. In making your decision, keep in view your
future home and family life. Do not be content because you are
a young man, with a location unsuitable for such a home life
as you aspire to. Study the climate, the healthfulness, the beauty
and productiveness of the region, and the moral and intellectual
tone of its people. Examine the county records and the court
dockets. If you find that the people are not home-owners and
that the dockets are crowded with divorce suits, go elsewhere.
Having located, address yourself seriously to whatever call
ing you have chosen. Make yourself master of it, and pursue
it with industry and fidelity. Returns will soon follow proper
effort. Then will come great dangers. The first successes are
apt to make youth think that the future struggles will be light.
He too often becomes intoxicated thereby and not only loses
the fruit of victory, but relaxes his vigilance and wastes his
reserve forces. Thus the untrained captain, unmindful of the
long strong line of battle which lies ahead, fancies that he has
touted the enemy by driving back a few skirmishers.
Let one success be a step to the next and push on. Be eco-

322 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
nomical. That home which you have in view will be humble or
stately, bare or beautiful, according to your means, and unless
you be economical your earnings will not grow and your patri
mony will not remain.
When recruits are mustered in the officers impress upon
them the importance of caring for their health. It belongs, say
they, not to the soldier, but to his country, and it is as much the
soldier's duty to preserve it as his arms and ammunition. Your
health does not belong to you alone. It belongs also to your
country, to society, and above all, to your family. Your vital
forces will decrease from day to day according to your con
sumption thereof. They are limited to the requirements of tem
perate life. If your labors, your habits, or your pleasures be
abnormal, those forces will not only be prematurely exhausted,
but their quality degraded. The glow of modern life is too
often secured by burning it up. We study anatomy and physiol
ogy in a perfunctory manner and only learn that we have stom
achs and nerves when their derangement is accomplished.
But industry, economy and health do not complete the qual
ifications which are required of you. Between the home and
its social and political surroundings the most intimate relations
exist. If society be debased or benighted, the moral and in
tellectual tone of its constituents will be affected thereby. There
fore, the uplifting and betterment of your social environment is
your right and duty.
The precious rights of life, property and liberty are guaran
teed by our State and our country. To insure the purity and
wisdom of public laws, and the efficient and just enforcement
thereof is not less the concern of the citizen than his own
private affairs. The citizen participates alike in the glory and
disgrace, the impotence and greatness of his country. From
the individual to the nation flow the power, virtue and wisdom
it enjoys, and to the individual these are returned in the bless
ings of order, protection and progress "as the sea returns to the
rivers in rain." These reciprocal obligations require every man
to be active for the public good in peace and war. Not active
in exploitation of the public coffers, not active to secure power

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 323
and glory for their own sakes, but active as patriots rendering
the service that is due simply because it is due.
In the ideal home to which every true man should aspire,
all the virtues must unite. The wife and mother must bring
the graces, the patience, the purity and the piety which make
her domestic throne a shrine; the husband and father must
bring the high qualities which distinguish the good citizen, the
patriot, and the man of righteousness and honor. Solomon
has described the woman; David the man.
In nothing is man so eloquent as in setting forth the attrac
tive virtues of woman. As son, lover, husband or sire, he lays
at her feet the tributes of praise. But alas! too seldom is the
tribute of words accompanied by the tribute of conduct. If we
exalt woman for her patient industry, her self-sacrificing devo
tion, her tender ministrations and her chastity, and cast her off
for want of these, we find justification in the requirements of
family and society. Nor can the justice of this be denied. The
sternness with which we avert our faces from the unworthy
woman measures our esteem for her who is not. But this jus
tice, if exact, is not impartial. The family and society make
no demands upon one sex which should not be asserted against
the other. They are not enforced with equal severity, it is true,
but this is due to- a perversion of rights and not to a difference
between them. The man who renders himself unfit for his holy
mission as husband and father is as culpable as the woman who
does like violence to her duty as wife and mother. To set a
high standard for woman compliments her; to set a like stand
ard for ourselves glorifies her. To make ourselves worthy oi
the virtues we require in her is the only just recognition thereof,
and the only rational basis of union. The perfect union is not
between the indulgent angel and the flattering sinner, but be
tween two thoughtful serious persons, having in mind their
mutual obligations and resolute to fulfil them. In poetry and
romance the beauty of love is made holy; in the happy home
the holiness of love is made beautiful. Considerations such as
these should govern in forming the marriage relation. Upon
man more than upon woman rests the responsibility for results.

324 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Immemorial custom confers upon him the initiative ; nature and
training have made him the stronger. He must not stop at a
careful inventory of the contributions which will be made to the
home by her who is to preside over it; he must examine his
own. They cannot be too many or too great. Indeed, they
rarely are enough. He is strangely free from man's infirmities
who is altogether worthy of a woman's honor and a woman's
love. He is indeed remarkable among his kind if he can be
set up as a model for those to whom he has transmitted life.
To be such a model is manifest duty, and brings manifest com
pensations. "In the place of the sires there shall their children
be." You upon whose childhood and youth so much pains have
been given by the parents now already nearing the close of
their days, are what your parents made you. They are respon
sible for you, and as you reflect credit or discredit upon the
home from which you came, so are they rejoiced or saddened.
Like responsibilities will rest on you hereafter. Young as you
are, it is not too soon to think of them. Grapes do not grow
from thorns. The life you live is the life you will transmit;
the habits of your life will be examples for your offspring.
In your recent examinations, if you have been faithful stu
dents, you have not exhibited superficial proficiency as the re
sult of extraordinary efforts during the few weeks preceding
the close of the session, but have demonstrated that throughout
the term you have been training your minds by assiduous appli
cation to your studies. The diploma which does not mean that
is worthless. The preparation for your career in life should proceed in
the same way. You cannot degrade your person, your morals
and your mind by intemperance, debauchery and debasing asso
ciations and expect in future years -to suddenly qualify your
selves for the home and family life. If you have the elements
of success you stand ready to make every sacrifice which suc
cess demands, and you will with fidelity bend every energy
and faculty to making yourself fit physically, mentally and mor
ally not only to be a good citizen, a noble patriot, an able expo
nent of your vocation, an upright and honorable man, but to

THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 325
be all of these and more, the worthy husband and father. That
is the successful life.
This is all very trite. So are the Ten Commandments. So
is the Declaration of Independence. So is the Constitution of
our country. In the name of that country, its honor and its
happiness, I beg you as factors in the destiny thereof turn not
away from the truth because it is not new. On the contrary,
let new ideas like strangers, while received with hospitality,
be held under suspicion until they have proven their claim to
your confidence.
Modern civilization engenders new thought, but not new
principles of right. The coining of phrases results in counter
feits unless they contain the metal of truth. Nero acquired no
immortality because his courtiers called him a god. The Crea
tor did not cease to exist when the French abolished Him, and
the Decalogue cannot be repealed by men or nations. Not des
tiny, but God, reigns, not might, but right, is the proper rule
of conduct. '
It is because in these days so many time-honored principles
have been assailed by insidious sophistry or brazen power that
I have been impelled to employ this opportunity to assert and
defend your true mission. Cupidity, ambition, and the brutal
instinct of combativeness, under euphemistic titles, invite you
to barter your precious wares for worthless trinkets. You are
told that we of this age have outlived the traditions of our
fathers; that religion is an exploded superstititon ; that vic
tory is better than honor; that aggression is the mark of cour
age; that the duty of power is to dominate and spoliate the
weak; that in the downfall of others is to be found our own
uplifting; that to tread the paths of peace and the orderly de
velopment of home is to lead a life of ignoble ease.
Against such heresies I come to enter my earnest if humble
protest. Let us learn wisdom from the nations whose greatness
was destroyed by their crimes. Let us learn anew that the vent
for our talent and energies is not in the strenuous life which nour
ishes itself by preying on others, but in that other and better life
which takes sustenance from Nature's swelling breast; that the

326 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
virtue of the citizen is the source of social and national great
ness, and that this virtue is fostered, not in the camp of the con
queror, not on the rostrum of the demagogue, not in the counting-
room of syndicates, but in the home. Happy the man, happy
the woman, who grasps these truths — for they shall find that the
family is a dynasty, the home a kingdom, the fireside a throne.

FLAG PRESENTATION.
May 2 est, 1898.
"Colonel Riche, Officers and Privates of the Gal
veston Regiment: The name which your regiment bears is
honored wherever commerce has planted the seed or garnered
the harvests of civilization. It stands for success wrested by
energy from refractory environments. It stands for a city
already in the front rank of the world's great seaports, and
famous everywhere for the virtue of its citizens. These, fiom
the oldest to the youngest, are proud to be Galvestonians. In
the nature of things, they could not all be here to-night, but
this magnificent gathering is here to represent them, and
through me to deliver an appropriate message. From the center
of this community, quivering from the throbs of a vast com
merce, to the suburbs where the cotter's humble home is glori
fied by domestic happiness, our people greet you and speed you
with one voice and one heart. (Applause.) Some long for
peace, some thirst for war, but all are for our country. (Enthu
siastic applause.) The differences among us preceding this con
flict are laid aside, and we all now read in the success of our
arms a new epoch of justice, humanity and freedom. (Re
newed cheering.)
"You will soon go forth to encounter the hardships and
perils of war. You go consecrated by our name and inspired
by the love of a country, great because her sons fatten her with
their thrift in peace and protect her with their valor in strife.
"To your safeguarding in this time of trial our people —
your people — have directed me to give this sacred emblem of
our nation's sovereignty. (Tremendous cheering.) This is the
massage which I bear.
"I cannot express in words the hopes and fears of humanity
as reflected in these stars and stripes, but I venture to tell you
327

328 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
that conditions of the trust we impose upon you in delivering
this flag, to your keeping.
"To you is allotted the duty of not only preserving the al
ready splendid military record of this city and this state, but
also of adding new luster to the time-worn page. On the his
toric plain of San Jacinto our fathers made the enemy remem
ber the massacres of Goliad and Alamo. (Applause.) If you
be worthy sons of such sires ; if you be fit guardians, when you
plant or carry it in 'the red front of war' you will make the
Spaniards remember the reconcentrados and the Maine. (Pro
longed cheering.)
"We expect you to bring back this token of our confidence;
but not as bright and as glossy and symmetrical as now. It
may be full of rents and flutter to the breeze in smoke-stained
patches, but it will be all the dearer because of the rents and
stains that shall tell us where ft has been. We will read your
records in the wounds it bears. (Applause.) They will assure
us that when the awful din and carnage of grim war put you to
the supremest test you guarded our flag with unshrinking
breasts, and carried it forward with resistless arms. We will
know that you planted this standard in lands where God's soft
est breezes have waited so long to make the music of freedom
by playing with its folds. (Cheers.) That hour has come, for
nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that
the colonial victims of Spain's misgovernment shall be free.
(Applause.) "But not alone must you be valorous under this banner. Be
effectively so. There is honor, it is true, in fighting to the death
even though the fight be lost. Such honor even our enemies
claim ; but as for you, remember that as Americans and as Tex-
ans your traditions and your history require you not only to
fight, and if need be to die, but above all, to fight and win. ( Ap
plause.) "Be cool as well as courageous, resolute as well as gallant;
'immovable in defense, irresistible in attack. Where this flag
waves let foeman find the unyielding pluck which neither time
nor torture can subdue. (Cheers.)

flag presentation. 329
"But you are charged with doing credit to this flag in other
scenes besides those of battle. There are duties of the camp as
well of the field. You must endure privations, fatigue, menial
labor, hunger and pestilence. Upon the demeanor of this regi
ment in these relations rests also the honor of this banner, and
so I say, if there be one among you, officer or private, who has
not in cold blood, with a sedate mind, resolved to faithfully obey
every command to which he is amenable, and to patiently bear all
the ills which I have mentioned, let him not profane this stand
ard by daring to march beneath it. .
"Galveston expects every man to do his duty. (Enthusiastic
applause.) You recognize the sentiment (renewed cheering)
and recall the occasion when it thrilled the world. Let us draw
inspiration from it. It came from our kindred across the sea,
when they fronted the same foe who faces us now. Forgotten
are enmities which divided us from England in days gone by.
We only remember that we are of one blood and animated by
the same aspirations for freedom, justice and fair play. (Pro
longed cheering.)
"The sturdy speech which is common to them and to us is
never so much in tune as when it tells of deeds like Waterloo
or Trafalgar. Boys, I charge you to carry this flag so there
will be new and not less glorious themes for song and story in
our mother tongue. (Applause.) I do not doubt you will.
Nor do I doubt that when this cruel war is over the whole
world will listen to our words when we sing the homely lines
which our English brethren have made into a classic:
"We do not want to fight,
But, by jingo, if we do,
We've got the men, we've got the ships,
And we've got the money too."
(Much cheering.)
"Some of you will never return in the flesh. In this crisis,
for many of you will be snapped the link which unites the yes
terday without beginning and the to-morrow without end. We

330 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
sorrow already in anticipation of the fearful price which must
be paid for liberty and justice. But it has been ever so, and
now as always, it must and will be paid from the treasures of
American valor. (Applause.)
"One word more: you will teach anew in battle how Ameri
cans can fight and win and the lesson will be written in blood.
But you will meet others besides the armed foe. Prisoners,
non-combatants, helpless women and children will be encoun
tered while your blood is still afire with the fury of conflict.
In such solemn moments look at this flag and remember that
our fame rests on your deeds. You are Americans and gen
tlemen, and you will teach the world that as such you have
only lead and steel for contending foes, but for all the rest the
tender care and protection of brave men. (Prolonged ap
plause.) "Take this flag, with all its inspirations and its burdens —
take it with our prayers. 'May the Eternal bless you and guard
you. May He cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious
unto you.' And through your valor may our country soon con
quer a peace that shall open for us a new and enduring era of
freedom and justice in which all the world may share." (Pro
longed cheering.)

ADDRESS ON HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN
CONSTITUTION.
In the common disposition to acquire knowledge respecting
matters far removed, we are not a little prone to overlook more
important truths that he immediately before us. The eye which is
fixed upon some distant point does not comprehend in the scope
of its vision the most proximate objects. It is this same mental
idiosyncrasy that makes us overwise regarding the future, and
over-foolish regarding the present. We have all heard learned
and plausible prophecies as to the future destiny of a country, the
present status of which was a sealed book to the prophet. And
recurring to my first statement, who has not heard the pedant tell
of the fauna and flora of Africa, Asia or Europe, without being
able to give the correct names of the modest flowers or musical
birds that grace his own garden. The habits of the house cat are
unexplored mysteries to many who can discourse learnedly about
the polar bear. The Bible, that nearest and dearest of books, is
even among many who pass for intelligent and cultivated, best
known by hearsay.
When I protested against making any remarks upon so thread
bare a theme as our organic law, the gentleman who invited me to
address you assured me that the field was ripe unto the harvest.
It was confidently stated that very few of the average Americans
could tell with any accuracy how our Presidents were elected.
Such statements startled me at first, but a little investigation con
vinced me of their correctness. I have found young men and
young women, too, who know more about the Republics of Greece
than of the one under which they live. I have found others who
know all about Magna Charta, and very little about the Declara
tion of Independence. I have talked with native Americans who
know as little about the true development of our nation as they
do about the rise of some ancient dynasty whose history has been
lost to the world. 33i

332 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
Having learned all this I have not only become reconciled to
my task, but I am pleased with it. It is true it offers no scope for
originality, unless I ignore the objects of these meetings. But
upon reflection I hold that originality is oftener a curse than a
blessing, especially to those upon whom it is inflicted. And after
all the best originality is not the discovery of new truths, but the
correct application of old truths to new conditions. It is with
truth as with the Cereals. The world is not so much concerned
in discovering new varieties, as in increasing the acreage and har
vests of those already known. If I can drop a seed in fallow soil
tonight and make it germinate one blade of knowledge; if, to
change the metaphor, I can direct a single mind to the study of
the genius of our government, it matters not to me that the means
have been made to my hand by others.
I shall not attempt to discuss the constitution of the United
States, upon any presumption that it is familiar to us. When I
was invited to appear before you, the courteous bearer of the
invitation indulged the presumption that I knew all about the sub
ject, and my promised audience nothing. There was some con
siderable violence to truth in this idea, but just where I will not
undertake to say. Suffice that I have adopted one part of it. I
shall treat the subject as if you knew nothing about it. In doing
so, I feel sure I shall be wide of the mark ; not more so, however,
than you will be in adopting the other part. In any event we will
both be safe. If you hear an "oft told tale," its merit will save it
from your harsher judgment ; and if my knowledge be very lim
ited, at least what I shall say will be correct, because I shall speak
by, if not from the books.
Within the limits I have prescribed for myself, it will be neces
sary for me to treat the subject cursorily, because anything like a
comprehensive history of the constitution would carry the treat
ment beyond my ability to discuss and your capacity to endure.
It would necessitate a complete review of American history,
prior to the constitution. This would involve the consideration of
the Declaration of Independence, and the causes which led to its
adoption. We would have to examine into the separate charters
of each of the thirteen colonies and the governmental systems pre-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 333
vailing in each. We would be required to study the articles of
confederation and the revolutionary war, and then we would but
have done the prefatory work. There would remain the constitu
tional convention, the legislative debates, the constitutional amend
ments, the rise of political parties, the radical differences of con
struction, the late war and the era of reconstruction. Whole li
braries have been written about this remarkable constitution, so
that it would tire you to have read to you only the titles of the
works treating of it.
We must content ourselves with a mere mention of the most
salient points —
The thirteen original states were before the adoption of the
constitution distinct colonies, each existing under a distinct char
ter from the crown of England. Privileges granted and restric
tions imposed in some of these charters were altogether or partly
omitted from others. They were all dependents on the King of
England ; they were all inhabited by people of English birth or de
scent ; in all, English was the common language ; to all or nearly
all, the savage was a common foe and Europe a common field
for commerce. Upon all, England, through parliament, sought to
impose and did impose burdens, which at first excited separate
complaint, and afterwards united protest; which led first to re
sistance by one and finally to revolt by all.
But while the colonies had so many interests in common, there
were not a few circumstances in which their interests were dis
tinct or hostile. In some fishing, ship building and shipping were
chief industries ; in others, manufactures and in still another class,
agriculture. In some the slave was deemed a necessity ; in others
where he was not required, slavery was an abomination. The
colonies were of different dimensions, population, climate and
local situation. They were naturally jealous of one another, and
it required in the first instance a great common danger to relegate
to a second place the manifold differences which bristled among
them in opposition to union. That common danger was the threat
ened tyranny which England was seeking to establish in the reg
ulation of Colonial affairs.
In 1765 parliament passed the "stamp act." This was followed

?^4 LE0 N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
by other despotic measures and the mutters of a coming storm
were heard by those who knew the temper of the colonists. Still
there was no mention of resistance by actual force. Patrick Hen
ry in 1765 defined in the Virginia assembly, the rights of the col
onies to make their own laws and impose their own taxes. He
was the great Home Ruler of his day. Following the Virginia
assembly came that of Massachusetts, which proposed a congress
of the colonies. The proposition met with favor and in October,
1765, the congress convened at New York. It breathed a spirit of
loyalty to Great Britain that gave no promise of the outbreaks
so soon to follow. This congress indeed enjoys its greatest sig
nificance from the fact that it showed the colonies' that by such
conventions they could unite for their common welfare.
After the parliamentary attack on the charter of Massachusetts
in 1774, Virginia suggested and Massachusetts called the second
convention of the colonies. It is commonly called the first Conti
nental Congress, because the one held in 1765 was so meagerly
attended as to hardly deserve the title. The congress of 1774 was
attended by the representatives of twelve of the thirteen colonies,
Georgia alone not being represented.
This congress again respectfully addressed the crown, but
there was an unmistakable undertone, which was clearly audible.
It was prominent in two measures adopted. One was the articles
of association, in which a plan was matured, by which everything
English was to be boycotted (as we would now say). The other
was an expression in favor of the resistance made by Massachu
setts to English aggressions and the implied promise of support
if force were offered by England to subdue the opposition. Trou
ble was anticipated from these measures and the delegates fore
seeing it did not adjourn sine die, but to meet again in May, 1775.
In April, 1775, the conflict at Lexington occurred and the
first blood was shed in the struggle for liberty.
When the congress met on May 10, 1775, the condition had
arisen which recalled the implied promise made to Massachusetts
eight months previous. The pledge was not forgotten nor vio
lated. An army was recognized, rather than organized, as the
American Continental Army. George Washington was chosen to

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 335
command it and his commission as commander in chief was issued
on June 17, 1775, the very day on which was fought the battle of
Bunker Hill. But all this time there was only resistance, not re
volt. On the contrary, while fighting battles, equipping war ves
sels, issuing paper money and exercising all the prerogatives of a
nation, the idea of independence was protested against with hor
ror. But in January, 1776, Thomas Paine's common sense pamphlet
openly advocated Independence. It met a warm welcome every
where in America, and the course of events strengthend its popu
larity. In June Richard Henry Lee moved his famous resolution,
and on July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the masterpiece of Thomas
Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence. This was the birth
day of the United States as declared by the highest Court in the
land. You will observe that this Congress was composed of delegates
from distinct sovereignties and that no form, however crude, had
been adopted for managing the common affairs of the colonies.
They met like so many allies in a common war. It was not until
near the close of 1777, that this Congress adopted the articles of
Confederation, and these were not acceptable to New Jersey, Del
aware and Maryland.
If we had time, it would prove profitable to examine in detail
this first expedient at government. It was a lamentable failure.
It contained no element of cohesion, except that which proceeded
from the danger of war. When that was pressing there was some
unity of action among the colonies ; when it was removed even
temporarily, Congress was treated with indifference or contempt.
So weak indeed was this semblance of a- government that our in
dependence may be attributed rather to the unpopularity of the
war in England, than to the vigorous efforts of the colonies. It
may surprise you to learn that at no time did England have more
than 33,000 troops engaged in the Revolutionary war and these
were in a large measure mercenaries. In 1782 the war ended and
in 1783 a treaty of peace was entered into.
All danger from without being ended the troubles at home
began. Peace brought on the greatest crisis of the Western

33^ LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME
world. The colonists who bared their bosoms to the bullet for the
sake of liberty, could not be stirred to enthusiasm to preserve it.
The people and the country were poor to a degree that was pain
ful. Commerce was at a standstill, agriculture had more or less
been neglected, and now the citizen turned wearily from the public
cares to provide for the pressing needs of himself and family. The
tax gatherer was treated with contempt or violence, and the gov
ernment's treasury was empty. The troops were clamoring for
pay and the officers for rewards. They cried for bread and Con
gress could only offer stones. Liberty degenerated into license
and the prevailing discontent among the soldiers and the indif
ference among the civilians offered, but two apparent alternatives,
anarchy or a King. Washington was urged to accept a crown,
and doubtless he could have established a dynasty had he not put
aside the temptation between him and the popular freedom for
which he had fought so ably and endured so much.
The only escape from the alternative named was in another and
stronger scheme of government, in which liberty should be pro
tected by power, adequate for its preservation against attack from
within or without. To attain such a scheme seemed well nigh im
possible. Difficulties unnecessary to mention stood in the way of
a Convention and it was only by an accident that one was as
sembled. The navigation of Chesapeake Bay was the subject of a con
ference between Maryland and Virginia in 1785, the delegates
meeting at Washington's residence. At this meeting Maryland
proposed a convention of the colonics for the regulation of com
merce. It met at Annapolis in 1786 and proved a failure, but
when it adjourned another convention was recommended by it, to
meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787. Congress approved the call,
and just eleven years after Congress at Philadelphia had declared
the colonies free, the great convention assembled at Philadelphia
to insure their liberty by establishing their Union.
The constitutional convention was not a large body of men.
There were only fifty-five delegates, but every delegate was an
intelligent giant. The choicest spirits of the colonies were assem
bled in the solemn consideration of an instrument upon the sue-

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 337
cessful completion of which hung the destiny of the Western
Hemisphere. If the supreme importance of their labors had es
caped their conception, they might well have been forgiven. They
could not in the nature of things know the extent or resources of
the vast domain to be directly affected by the government they
were to upbuild; and even in a much smaller degree were they
acquainted with the great territory to the south wherein the seed of
liberty would quicken into life under the influence of our success
ful revolt against monarchy. But they did comprehend in a vague
way, all that the century has brought to pass. There were minds
there assembled, who looked forward with confidence to the time
when from the Arctic ocean to Cape Horn there would be no gov
ernment that was not based, broad and deep, upon the popular
will. That hour has come to pass. Our neighbors to the north
are free to part company with England, if they chose so to do,
and to the south the last crown took flight to Europe on the
vessel that carried Pedro from a country which, much as it loved
that great and good ruler, loved liberty yet more.
The delegates represented a constituency about one-twentieth
of the present population of the United States. They represented
people whose entire commerce even figured per capita was trifling
compared to that which now exists. No human intellect could
foretell the changes that have occurred, but that changes would
occur, and that they would be momentous was deemed a fore
gone conclusion. These great men dealt with the problems before
them with great earnestness and deliberation. They knew the
responsibilities which rested upon them, and their labors in dis
charge thereof extended over a period of four months and three
days. George Washington of Virginia presided. Among the dele
gates were James Madison of Virginia, afterwards President of
the United States; Edmund Randolph, afterwards Secretary of
State; Benjamin Franklin and the two Morris' from Pennsyl
vania ; Ruf us King and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts ; Roger
Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, the latter after
wards being the chief justice of the United States; Alexander
Hamilton of New York ; Paterson of New Jersey and the Pinck-

33& LEO N.' LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
neys and John Rutledge of South Carolina. In any convention
composed of such material, whatever the business before it, a
variety of views would be looked for, and every opinion would
have able champions. In the constitutional convention, aside
from the marked individuality of the delegates, there were many
causes and grounds of difference. I have already mentioned some
of them. I shall pass by all of those that were finally set a"t
rest without making too marked an impression on our govern
mental chart. There were some contentions, however, that can
not be passed by without losing the lights by which the consti
tution must be studied.
The first wrangle arose over the basis of representation in
Congress. The large states desired only a single legislative body,
which should be chosen with reference only to population, and
be clothed with the power of making laws and appointing all
leading officers. This was called the large State plan, because
it would manifestly give the large states the controlling voice in
national affairs. It is worthy of observation that New York, now
the most populous of the States, was then among the small states,
and at one time her delegates withdrew from the convention in
anger, because they thought the small states were not receiving
fair treatment. The small states also wanted a single house, but
insisted that each state, without reference. to size or population,
should have an equal voice in the national matters. A deadlock
ensued, and the situation had to be relieved by the first great
compromise. Congress was made to consist of two bodies, in
one of which (the House of Representatives) the large state
plan prevailed, and in the other of which (the Senate) the small
state plan was adopted. The manner of electing the president
after repeated efforts was also reached by a similar compromise.
The second great contention arose over the slave trade, and this
was also settled by an agreement that the traffic should not be
interfered with for twenty years.
The third great difference grew out of the representation from
slave-holding states. This was also composed by the famous
compromise which gave to the slave states representation for
three-fifths of the slaves. In passing I may remark that the basis

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 339
of representation required an enumeration of the people, and thus
was inaugurated for the first time in modern governments a sys
tematic census. When we reflect what wise lessons are drawn
from statistics, we wonder why in modern times it was only as
an incidental necessity that a census was provided for. The great
est statesman of any age, Moses, had a census thousands of
years before, but his example was neglected in this respect, as
his precepts in many others have been disregarded.
It will be seen that the constitution was not the creation of
a single mind. Indeed, it was no creation at all. It grew as it
were from the friction of the many intellects engaged in its con
sideration. It was an evolution which proceeded during the
whole summer of 1787, and when the end was reached there
was not perhaps a single delegate who voted for it who was
wholly pleased with it. Each had been overruled upon some
point and all had been constrained to leave, as unsettled, some
questions that were then too critical to be touched. It was
deemed wiser to defer until after times matters which, if then
pressed to solution, would have wrecked the fabric of union. The
Declaration of Independence proceeded from one brain and pen.
It is a document written in enthusiasm and adopted in a like
fever. It displays the want of calm deliberation; but the con
stitution is cold, dignified and indicative of the hard battles which
were fought over nearly every word in it. While it was being
formed the people regarded the convention with mild contempt.
The fishermen of New England, the hunters of the West and the
planters of the Middle and Southern States, as a rule, either ig
nored the action of the men who labored so long and so faith
fully in their behalf, or sneered at their efforts to accomplish
what was deemed almost impossible. At length the work was
done and submitted to the Continental Congress with certain
recommendations in reference to its adoption. The arbitrary
provision for ratification of the constitution by nine of the states
was carefully ignored, and Congress, fearful of its own powers,
refused to do more in the premises than to send the constitution
to the Colonial legislatures for consideration.
Then began the learned and exciting debates in which every

34° LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
phase of the constitution was carefully analyzed. In every legis
lature the battle raged fiercely, and for a while the fate of the
constitution hung in a critical balance. The newspapers teemed
with able discussions, and many of these are still preserved as
literary, political and legal classics. The efforts of Hamilton,
Madison and Jay in the newspapers and pamphlets of the day
have long since been gathered into a volume, in which the con
stitution is thoroughly analyzed, explained and defended. The
work is known as the Federalist, and no higher praise can be
accorded to it than to say that it is everywhere used as a text
book on Constitutional law, and is regarded as authority in all
our courts.
Nine states ratified the Constitution before New York or Vir
ginia voted, and when these did vote the Constitution carried
only by slender majorities. North Carolina refused in the first
instance to ratify at all, and in Rhode Island it was not even
considered. After its ratification by eleven states Congress pro
ceeded to organize the new government, so far as it could. An
election was ordered, and George Washington was chosen presi
dent and John Adams vice president. The inauguration took
place March 4th, 1789, and in due time all of the departments
were organized.
This in brief is an account of how the Constitution was
framed and adopted. It remains but to state that the first ten
amendments grew out of the legislative debates and were adopted
in 1791, so shortly after the Constitution itself as to be consid
ered almost a part of it from the beginning.
Let us now proceed to consider the Constitutional Amend
ments. They are not voluminous. Over four months of steady labor
by the able delegates assembled produced a work not exceeding
4,300 words. Over a century has passed since their deliberations
ceased, and despite the vast changes in all conditions during that
time we have added only about fifteen hundred words, making
the total organic law, as it now exists, comprised within 7,000
words. When it is remembered that the first ten amendments
were adopted almost with the Constitution, and grew out of the

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 34I
discussion of the latter when submitted for ratification, we can
appreciate the great foresight of those who framed our govern
mental system. Let us pause to make a few comparisons. The
convention at Philadelphia represented a population of about
three millions. Their system has endured successfully for a
century, requiring practically only five amendments, and now is
regarded with the highest favor, not only by the sixty millions
who live under it, but by all the liberty loving people of the
earth. The stage coach has given place to vestibuled trains ; the
canal boat to the fast steamboat ; the lugger to the ocean grey
hounds; the slow mails to the telegraph. All the material con
ditions and relations of life have been radically changed ; a new
civilization has replaced the old, but so well conceived was the
Constitution, so well expressed, and its factors so nicely bal
anced that it has never been seriously suggested in all these years
that altered conditions required any material change in the or
ganic law.
In this state, formed with the United States as a model, we
have in a little over fifty years had five constitutions, and to-day
we are heartily dissatisfied with the one we have. The present
Constitution of Texas is several times more voluminous than the
National Constitution, and was designed to meet all the ills that
flesh is heir to— and herein we see how its framers departed from
the model set before them. Congress has only such powers as
are granted by the Constitution; the legislature of the state has
all the powers not denied by the State Constitution and the
National Constitution, laws and treaties. The National Consti
tution is brief, leaving details of legislation to the changing re
quirements that may present themselves ; — the State Constitution
enters into details, as if no other body of men that should follow
its framers would ever possess the patriotism or wisdom which
characterized them. These latter, distrusting the people, ignored
the fundamental principle of our government, while the framers
of the National Constitution, jealous, as they were, of concen
trating power, recognized this truth, that wherever the people so
far forgot their rights and surrendered their liberty as to sub
mit to an abuse of power, no written instrument, howsoever vo-

342 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.
luminous or clear, could stay the rule of tyranny. Accordingly,
they simply framed our system in its broadest outlines, leaving
the details to develop themselves. The government was divided
into three co-ordinate branches, each independent of the others,
viz., the Legislative, Judicial and Executive branches. The first
makes the laws, the second construes them, the third executes
them. The Constitution in which this division is made and the ma
chinery of government provided is divided into a brief preamble
and seven articles.
The first article relates exclusively to the legislative depart
ment; the second to the executive and the third to the judicial.
The fourth deals with the States in their relations to one another
and to the nation. The fifth makes provision for amending the
Constitution. The sixth relates to the existing public debt, the
supremacy of the national law and the oath of fealty. The sev
enth provides for the ratification of the Constitution by not less
than nine states.
The first ten amendments were adopted in 1791 ; the nth, in
1798; the 12th, in 1804; the 13th, in 1865; the I4th, in 1868,
and the 15th, in 1870.