The Jewish People

Northern Advocate, 11 January 1938, Page 8

The Jewish People

All told, there are about 13,000,000 Jews in the world, of whom about 4,000,000 live in Russia, about 2,000,000 in Poland, and about 1,000,000 in the territory of former Hungary. There are also large Jewish colonies in Con-, stantinople, Salonika, Barcelona, and London, as well as in the larger German cities. New York has the largest Jewish population of all cities in. the world, nearly 2,000,000. Added to the world’s Jewish population are ethnic elements from many other lands besides Palestine.

“Wherever he has gone,” says an authority, “the Jew has formed a race apart. This is due to his religion as well as to his social customs and his

personal character, and also to the attitude toward him of the peoples among whom he has lived In Europe (he Jew is found in every great trading centre. Normally, the Jew has been somewhat aloof from the political and social life of the country in which he has lived.”

It is a striking fact that in his own country the Jew was historically not a trader. The Jews of Palestine were a secluded people, devoted to agriculture, who migrated to different countries because their own country was small and poor and because of hardships under Roman rule during the first few centuries of the Christian era. Thus the race has undergone a complete transformation, for the Jew outside of Palestine is pre-eminently a trader.