JEWISH STUDIES

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21133, 7 April 1934, Page 15

JEWISH STUDIES

ESSAYS IN UNDERSTANDING The .Tow To-day. By Sidney Dark. Ivor Nicholson and Watson. 211 pp. (8/G net.) I Twelve Jews. Edited by Hector j Bolitbo. Rich snd Cowan L.td. 253 ' pp. 112/6 net.) 11:.-\ inu't) i.v 1,-. <;. c. Mc.\'.\n.i ! It is more difficult tu attribute general characteristics to the Jcw-

ish race than to almost any other. Racial and religious pride and stubbornness are incontestably Jewish qualities, and so is a certain romantic idealism, even sentimentality, that overlays intellectual endowments, however strong and versatile. Wilh few exceptions the Jew is averse from public life: Despite the force of legend, prejudice, and tradition, it is impossible without qualification to go farther in general definition. It seems probable that Jews have less capacity

or united action than other nationis; and it may be hazarded that the Jew rarely enjoys calm contentment. Freud, who during the most jrueial years of his work experienced contempt, opposition, and ■jbstrnctive envy, who worked on fearlessly in unhappy .loneliness, aljscrved : "It is pcrnaps no mere jhar.ee that the first psycho-analyst i.vas a Jew." He first knew himself in solitary dejection. Jews are as varied and individual as the men j( other races. Like his Christian neighbours, as he becomes richer, the Jew becomes more assimilated (i his surroundings and less religious. He is, naturally, most amiable and .least conspicuous in countries like Italy, where he is least nolcstcd. Luigi Lu/.'/.atti, a tolerant and genial economist and statesman, is an example of this. The Jew takes the complexion of the country lie lives in, and, if distinguished, is distinguished in branches where the genius of his adopted country is naturally eminent. In England Jews are famous in commerce, in Germany in creative: music, in Russia in political science, in France in intellectual analysis, in America (it has been suggested) in crime. The ghetto seems to have been the sole cause which transformed the race >[ explorers, farmers, and warriors represented in the books of the Old Teslanient into a race of moneylenders, pedlars, and dealers. The Palestine experiment, exhibits the Jew once more as a farmer, and every decade sees the widening of the fields in which the Jew gains occupation and distinction, so that the qualities which made the warrior and explorer may again be expected to flower and the race to throw up a leader who will lead his own people and not, like Disraeli and Lnz/alti, a section of their temporary fellow-countrymen.

in both books reviewed there is j a great deal about anti-Semitism. In English-speaking countries this goes no farther than expecting of ilu: .leu- a little more than of other■ men and forgiving him rather less. Mr Dark proves that during the Jast century this feeling has been political and social, not racial. In Germany the present excesses emphasise a bitter attitude of very Jong standing. There is some justification, considering the early Bolshevik leaders, in maintaining that antiSemitism is one phase of anti-Bol-shevism. German Jews arc blamed unjustly for the post-war disasters. German jealousy of the Jew, according to Mr Dark, is easily comprehensible, as German stupidity enables Jews to win, more readily than in other countries, positions to be gained by competition. He attributes the Russian tolerance of pogroms to the desire of governors to allow democratic energy to dissipate itself in this (for government) harmless exuberance. If anti-Jew-ish prejudice could suddenly be deflected against armament makers the world would to-morrow be a safer place. Although Mr Dark's mind is not very receptive to new and original notions, his information is precise I and accurate. It is regrettable that neither he nor anyone else can supply statistics about the occupations, political adherence, and standard of I living of the bulk of Jewish people. ! On the other hand he lias made ■available many hitherto scattered recoids. The Jewish population increased by 400 per cent, during the nineteenth century: Jewish banking ! power has declined since the war; ' the Jew, rather than the Greek. may be considered the founder of 1 (Continued at foot of next column, i