In this Issue:
We read the words of critics of the early Zionist settlers in Palestine–from Pope Benedict XV and Winston Churchill–and learn of the violence a group of settlers was met with in Jaffa. Antisemitic incidents increase in small towns and large cities. Two of these are orchestrated by German National Youth groups. In both cases, the public takes the side of the Jews as you’ll see in both the Arnstadt cemetery story and in the Munich Theater Scandal. Meanwhile, Jewish organizations and thinkers are trying to work through questions of national identity and race theory.
Guidelines for Revising Our Religious Services, Part 2, by Rabbi Dr. H. Fuchs (Part 1 is translated here)
Jewish-Liberal Youth Organization Outings.
Archaeological Finds in Palestine.
Aid for Eastern [European] Jews: Dr. Paul Nathan on the Eastern Jewry Problem.
Religious persecution in Bavaria.
Arnstadt. Racial Hatred beyond the Grave.
Robert Hirschfeld’s Fiftieth Birthday.
Review of Karl Kautsky’s Race and Judaism by Dr. Eduard Erkes.
Advertisements and Announcements.
Guidelines for Revising Our Religious Services
By Rabbi Dr. H. Fuchs = Chemnitz.
[This is the second part of the article by Rabbi Fuchs. The first part, published June 17, 1921, is translated here.]
It’s different with music! It has already played a role in the old temple of sacrifice and has never been completely absent, at least as background music. It is also undeniable that it can bring hearts into the right mood, and that it is indispensable for that. A Jewish worship service is unimaginable without a cantor, and it is also inevitable that the cantor does not speak, but sings, and as beautifully as possible!
Similarly, there is nothing inherently wrong with the choir and organ accompanying the individual voice of the cantor and leading the congregation, or with them occasionally acting independently. The religious objections to the organ do not concern the reformed Jews; and I do not understand the aesthetic objections against it, such as it being contrary to the character of Jewish melodies or the spirit of Jewish religious sentiment, or the like.
It appears difficult to me that a non-Jew as an organist or conductor should have a significant role in the Jewish worship service. I can only see this as an inconsistency and weak reprehensible concession against the often-principled disregard for religious law, as a ridiculous compromise with the so-called “Schinkenorthodoxy” [Schinken=ham]. I am convinced that a Jewish music leader would give our worship services a unified character and Jewish organists would have long created a truly inwardly Jewish organ literature! However, the participation of non-Jews as singers is of course even worse; it is absolutely reprehensible! Better no singing than non-Jewish singing! – This is just a side note, but everything good has its limits! Already in the Middle Ages, for example, Maimonides complained about the excessive prominence of the musical element, which was at that time the cantor. Likewise, today all truly pious people are displeased, lamenting with satirical bitterness, that synagogues resemble concert halls. Aesthetic pleasure overcomes the religious mindset, the feeling of awe, faithful trust, submitting to the divine, or experiencing repentant remorse and the will to reform one’s ways, especially when one starts critiquing and analyzing the art—even when we admit that the musical art in synagogues can only rarely compete with concert halls!
This bad state of affairs cries out for a remedy! !t testifies to an alienation from the service, a lack of serious piety in the hearts of those responsible for the situation which can only be found in such materialistic, irreligious people[ES1] . One must say here that severely limiting music in worship services is the only way that the religiosity of us Jews and coming generations will deepen! Whoever doubts this only has to look back at the confession of sins during the day of Atonement. How can even the smallest feeling of regret come out while some folk melody (I use this phrase to avoid using a harsher label) setting for the Ashamnu fills the synagogue! Or imagine the Kaddish of Olenti – no one hears what the despairing cantor continuously repeats in pianissimo; one only hears the choir and organ mimicking the sound of the whip five times in one minute. for the A-ah-men, no matter how painful the sound is for the ears as for the soul. At the beginning of Sabbath services one has to suffer through four or five large sung pieces before prayers start so that one is totally exhausted whether from exertion or from boredom. The bringing out and putting back of the Torah is accompanied by a concert that no emperor has ever ceremoniously processed to. At the blessing of the bridal couple, when mourners are received, and even when we kneel reverently before God—music, music, music! Why? Why the man songs, why chorus and organ accompany each Baruch and Amen? Every interior feeling is distracted, “musicked-down” [niedermusiziert], drowned in beauty! Clearly, this has been devised by the spiritually lazy for the spiritually lazy so that they can make others believe that it’s not religion that draws them into the house of God. At the end, they can say, “That was a lovely service!” They don’t notice that the soul was entranced by the sweet poison of beauty so that they were cheated out being blessed and uplifted by their Father in Heaven. “They don’t realize how much they mock themselves!
When a worship service is the way it should be, they would return home in quiet joyfulness! The laughing, chatting groups standing in front of the synagogue watched by astounded followers of other faiths would be inconceivable.
The blame for this problematic situation lies not only with the irreligiosity of the congregations but also with the misplaced ambitions of bureaucrats who seek only to do the will of the public. Improvement of this situation must therefore come from the congregations’ administration. They should limit the organ and chorus so that they come in at the least significant moments and add to these some artistic meaning—at the beginning and end of the service, during pauses in spiritual feeling like in the crescendo in a hymn. The verse from Psalms, “For You silence is a song of praise,” applies to all intimate spiritual experiences. How much time and money could be saved in preparations; how much true piety could be gained for our worship services! Cantors should be reminded that they are there to lead prayers—not to sing. They should not be heard—we hear enough singing! They should express their own piety in humble vocalization [Sprechgesang] thereby arousing our own piety. Their motto should be “Mood, not voice; so much the better when the latter carries the former.” The handsome Rabbi Johanan bar Nappaha’s saying applies here, “If I were less handsome, I would also be more pious.” An art song sung by the cantor should be a rare highlight. It should not be the rule as it is now when it kills the effect of the former. When the cantor leads the congregation into the most intimate holiness of religion the cantor will have a very different role in the community than now.
4.
Now let’s turn to the Word, the very essence of the worship service. We need not, we may not, deviate from the triad—Confession OR PROFESSION, Teaching, and Prayer—on which the Jewish service has been based since the times of the Babylonian exile. But I would like to note a few details.
The question of language has long been decided. In religious law there is nothing stated against not using the Hebrew mother tongue, except for reading the Torah. While congregations do not want to change that, a few are more or less willing to deal with the Hebrew. We who lead and want to lead these congregations should ask what is best for the propagation of religion, especially the Jewish religion? Don’t ask what is the right tactic for today. Rather ask what is the ideal situation. I have answered this question before and didn’t hear any objections: Wherever the whole of religion is the subject, then the language of the whole, Hebrew, should remain. But when we speak of an individual’s religion, then the individual’s language holds–German.
I certainly believe that the lack of heartfelt piousness among us about which many have complained is caused by language because it hinders our prayers from coming directly from the heart. Even those who hardly understand a language have to first translate it into the language of the heart. This takes an effort that accounts for the unconscious babbling. Not from a sense of comfort, just going along, laziness to learn, or liberal arrogance—simply from urging the German to piousness. In services, one should pray for health and well-being, for parents and children, for enlightenment and strength to do good—How can one do this from the heart in a language that one doesn’t regularly speak? The purpose of the service is indubitably to speak with God, not with a second language, as though He were some foreign dignitary. Is he ”my God,” my “friend and Father”? Then I must speak with Him in my native language.
It’s different in the common prayers and the parts which set the mood or fill breaks, that is, when I personally am not speaking but the congregation or an individual representing the congregation is. Of course, that must happen in their language. The latter is mostly what happens in a Jewish service. So those that prefer Hebrew, but not for religious reasons, are satisfied.
The same goes for the teaching. Of course, the reading of the Torah in Hebrew must remain the centerpiece. But how ridiculous it is to teach in a language that 95% of the listeners don’t understand! Besides, it’s quite unreasonable to interpret some passages—those that are hard for even the most learned to understand or that have no religious meaning for us, or any aesthetic or ethical significance. How irresponsible it is to read at such a speed that makes any deepening or effect on our souls impossible! Here we need a thorough reshaping that is grounded in the purpose of the service. The old view that the word of the Bible is holy in itself, without regard to the content and the effect, has to be forcefully replaced by the view that the Spirit of the divine is in the Torah as it is in everything. Try out a translation that a modern society can handle. Then we’ll be able to take the measure of what can be read in Hebrew. There are enough passages in the Torah that for religious, ethical, aesthetic, or historical reasons have value in our times. The modern, relevant character of the Torah will have more effect, than when it remains buried under the passages that have importance only for the historian or religious scholar. More here is also less! – The actual value should be determined by how much the listener comprehends. This comprehension is not always gained from thorough interpretation and preaching.
A short aside on translation is needed here. It seems to me that if a rough overview were given before the Hebrew reading, the monumental majesty of the text can be so much better appreciated. At the same time, some of the ritualistic, almost fetishized, holiness of the Torah can be overcome and it will become for us the living and ethical holiness as is it should.
Things are somewhat different when it comes to the Haftarah. In the “liberal” congregations, it’s already mostly read in German, and some beautiful sections of the books of the Prophets are shared. But just as beautiful sections will never be heard, e.g. Jer. 26, how many other sections are just included like some kind of ballast? Think of some of the messianic prophecies, e.g. Zec 38! Unfortunately, many Haftarah are only loosely related to the Siddur and the Siddur sections apparently make it hard to follow the guidelines described above. Finally, we can’t ignore that the prophets are greater figures with more historical significance than all of the other “biblical” writers. And the content of hagiographies can have even more religious effect than the writings of the prophets. In light of this, let us consider whether we should offer all congregations reasonable selections from the Prophets and hagiographies as some congregations are already doing. However, not as part of the liturgical year.
In principle we should ensure that every listener has the text of the Torah itself and the Haftarah in front of them. The Association of Liberal Rabbis would have the task of creating a more or less authoritative translation of the bible for this purpose. And not only for this purpose, but also because the current translations are unsatisfactory, scientifically or aesthetically. Then this bad state of affairs will soon disappear, that is, that the reading of the Torah is not used as a break for holding conversations. Then the bible would once again serve as a source of much-needed religious instruction.
Jewish-Liberal Youth Organization, Breslau.
Sunday, the 26th of June, early morning at 8:15 a.m.
Day trip to the so-called Silesian Spree Forest (near Breslau)
Meet in front of the Grüneiche bicycle racing track.
We will be cooking our own midday meal.
Tuesday, June 28th at 8 p.m.
Social get-together at the main restaurant in Scheitnig.
Preannouncement, for Sunday, July 3rd, 1921
Day trip to the Schlesiertal damn.
Meet with members of the Liegnitz and Schweidnitz Jewish youth groups.
All members and supporters of our movement are welcome guests.
p.2
A Speech by Pope Benedict XV.
The Kölnische Volkszeitung,” the Rhineland’s leading newspaper, published news from its own Roman reporter, that the Pope in a speech given for the recently held secret consistorium, reminded us that he had already expressed his concern over the events in Palestine in a previous address. His worries have not decreased, but increased as a result of the growing activity of the Israelite element in the Holy Land. He decried the misery into which the population had fallen during the war which is being exploited by disreputable people. The Pope will do everything he can to support those who dwell in the Holy Land, but his means are limited because he must answer to the many cries for help reaching the Apostolic See.
Mostly, the Pope regrets that the privileged position of the Jews disadvantages the Christians, that a central meeting place for Israelites from around the world is being created that will impact Christianity’s noble religious memory.
The Pope therefore calls on all governments of Christian nations to talk steps through the League of Nations to carefully examine the administration of the English Mandate in Palestine.
Churchill on Palestine.
In a speech to the lower house of Parliament, Churchill explained, among other things the following: that the danger for unrest was greater in Palestine than in Mesopotamia. The reason for this was the Zionist movement that has disturbed the Arabic population because those native to the land fear that they will be pushed out of their country. The Jewish immigration is being carefully watched and controlled, and no more Jews will be allowed in than the country’s aid resources can support.
Tumult in Jaffa.
The “Vossiche Zeitung” reported from Jerusalem that the Muslim population in Jaffa caused a large disturbance when the arrival of a ship with 500 Zionist immigrants on the 14th of June was announced. On June 13th, tumult broke out when an Israelite who had been wounded in an attack was brought to a government building. 3 Israelites were killed, 8 Israelites and 1 Muslim were wounded. The harbor workers must have decided not to provide any kind of assistance when the Zionists arrived.
Archaeological Finds in Palestine.
In 1921, Slouschz excavated an ancient synagogue at Hamat Tiberias under the sponsorship of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society. It was the first dig under Jewish auspices in the history of Israeli archaeology.
Excavations near Tiberias, sponsored by the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society under the direction of Dr. Slouschz, found various marble objects, inscriptions, tablets, and mosaics. There was even found a Menorah (seven-armed lamp) that matches descriptions in the Bible which Dr. Slouschz dates to the period before the destruction of the Temple. It is believed to be an authentic menorah that would have been used in the Temple.
Aus dem Reich.
Aid for Eastern [European] Jews
Dr. Paul Nathan on the Eastern Jewry Problem. [Nathan founded the Aid Society of German Jews in 1901.]
On the 6th of June, a meeting between the leaders of the Workers Welfare Bureau and representatives of all of the large Jewish organizations in Germany took place in the Berlin lodge. The Workers Welfare Bureau called the meeting to clarify the question of aid to Eastern Jews. The following organizations sent their representatives: Agudas Jisroel, Central Organization of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, Central Committee for Impoverished Jewish Emigrants, Central Aid Committee of German Jews, Union of German-Israelite Communities, Grand Lodge of Germany, the Montefiore Lodge, the Berthold Auerbach Lodge, Spinoza Lodge, Timendorf Jubilee Lodge, Imperial Lodge, German Jews’ Aid Society, directors and representatives from Berlin’s Jewish congregations, the Union of Eastern Jews, and the Zionist Union for Germany.
Dr. Paul Nathan (Aid Society of German Jews) described the political problems that are related to the immigration of Eastern Jews into Germany and their subsequent emigration overseas. He emphasized that the German military government proclaimed freedom and friendship to the Eastern Jews in Poland. When the army withdrew from Poland and Russia an anti-Jewish attitude arose in the east. Dr. Nathan touched on the painful chapter of deportations of Eastern Jewish workers to Germany to labor in the military industry, which was unknown to many. The speaker then described the treatment of these Eastern Jews by the government of the Republic. When the government has recognizes the Jewish problem by assigning a brief to a certain representative in the Foreign Ministry, when the government has decided to solve the resulting question in agreement with the Jewish public, when it has the support of and applies the advice of the leading Jewish organizations in Germany and the Workers Welfare Bureau, then the German Jewry must also take on the tasks required by the solution with all its energy. The importance of the work that German Jews have been called to do because of the problem with Eastern Jews has been recognized by all sectors of German Jewry. It has also recognized the political benefits of treating the Eastern Jews who find themselves in Germany humanely. Dr. Nathan referred to the necessity, sooner or later, for the German worker or businessman to emigrate. He pointed out how immensely stupid it would be to adopt a policy that would give foreign powers an opportunity to deny German immigration the same way Germany is now considering for its Eastern Jewish workers. From the Jewish perspective, driving the Eastern Jews back over the border in order to fight against antisemitism is short-sighted, because only a reasonable social policy that the Workers Welfare Bureau in alignment with the government is already implementing can take the weapons from the hands of antisemites. Dr. Nathan sharply criticized the foolish stance of Germans and Jews who gravitated toward Dr. Naumann, acting on what they think is their own best interest. At the end of his speech, he exhorted those present to commit themselves to ensuring the work of the Workers Welfare Bureau continues, the work that serves its own interests, the interests of the Eastern European refugees, and Germany’s interests. He noted that the Americans who had contributed millions to German Jews to aid the Eastern Jews, had made further monies dependent on stronger financial participation of the German Jews. The Secretary of the Workers Welfare Bureau, Dr. Senator, and Mr. Berger then presented facts about the scope and type of aid Eastern Jews were receiving in Germany, the development of Imi- and Emigration, and in general about the whole situation in recent years.
When these presentations had ended, Dr. Berthold Haase (Central Organization of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith) described how German Jews have a pressing interest to continue the work of the Workers Welfare Bureau which has already achieved positive, practical work and is an effective weapon in the battle against antisemitism. The Workers Welfare Bureau has truly helped thousands of our fellow Jews. The Jewish congregations of Germany must above all contribute to continuing the work that is coordinated by all organizations. The Jewish community of Berlin, which has generously supported the aid for Eastern Jews, has earned the role of leading the other communities in Germany to work together to ensure the Workers Welfare Bureau’s efforts continue through moral and financial support. The actual work should continue to be done by the aid organizations, especially the Central Committee for Impoverished Jewish Emigrants, the Central Aid Committee of German Jews.
Religious persecution in Bavaria
The “Berliner Tageblatt” printed an article by the businessman Sigmund Fraenkel, the Vice President of the Munich Chamber of Commerce. This essay sheds significant light on the very tense situation in Bavaria. We cite the following description:
“….as a Jewish exploitative dynasty of Abraham-Josef-Walter Rathenau and a gang of …. And criminals and the majority in the Reichstag a band of parliamentary pimps of the Buttenenhausener Jew is stigmatized three times a week in the German People’s Movement’s papers. Such misrepresentations and lies will certainly lead to massive paroxysms in the people’s psyche and the systematic undermining of the government’s authority. On Palm Sunday, 2019, when the Munich Soviet Republic was founded, the author of these words had prophesied to Mühsam, Wadler, Neurath and Toller in an open letter that their path would without fail end in a sea of blood and tears. Events unfortunately proved him right. So now he continues to openly slander the leading men of the Bavarian government and his extremism appears to have the silent approval of the Munich police administration. This false path of German populism will unmistakably bring us into new chaos of destruction and destruction.
Apropos the incitement that the previous words would cause is an article in the Miesbacher Anzeiger that tries to satisfy the intellectual needs of its readers from the kennels. This “elite” paper published an article against the “Berlin Pig Sty” (which is what people like to call the Reichs government) titled “First, a hole” from which we take this excerpt:
[Translator’s note: What follows is a vitriolic and crude antisemitic diatribe from “we Bavarians” accusing the Berlin pig stye, namely Geßler, Rathenau, Schiffer, Gradnauer, and Wirth and other Jewish members and their hangers-on of endangering the unity of the Reich.]
…We limit ourselves to these examples of the mentality of certain Bavarian circles. That is the state from which assassination attempts like the recent one against Representative Greis are being made.
Berlin. From the Parliament.
The democratic Representative Hamm, who is simultaneously the Minister of Commerce for Bavaria, asked the German Nationalists this question during a speech:
„What have you done to get rid of the scurrilous antisemitism that has become a stupid and hateful agitation against the Reich and the government? It gives the dumbest good-for-nothing the final answer to one of the deepest questions of humanity. Who has the right to despise an entire group of people, without differentiation, who has shared with us centuries of sorrowful and joyful fate? Together with whom we have made the ultimate sacrifice of our life? Without any understanding of what the German economy and German science owe thanks to the men among them.”
Bernburg a. Saale.
One of the local chapters of the Central Organization [of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith] held a meeting on the Jewish question. About 60 respected townspeople attended representing all parties. The main speaker was Dr. [Alfred] Wiener of Berlin. A German Folks Party member, who was attending unlawfully, participated in the discussion using antisemitic language which offended everyone present. Also participating were a German Nationalist teacher who wanted to see the exaggerated influence of Jews lessened, a secretary of the German Folk Party who wanted to see the Jewish questions solved from the perspective of race. These three antisemitic speakers were pointedly and effectively rebuffed by the Democratic and Social-Democratic side.
Arnstadt. Racial Hatred beyond the Grave.
The antisemitic harassment perpetrated by youth from organizations of the type represented by the German Nationalist Protection and Defiance Federation is leading to a return to a primitive state that is becoming increasingly painful for our people. A youth who wasn’t even dry behind the ears yet showed up at a meeting of the city council of Arnstadt claiming to be the group leader of one of these organizations. He was there to protest against apportioning part of the cemetery’s land to the Jewish community. His protest, dripping with antisemitic nonsense concludes: “We expect the German members of the city council behave as representatives of the German inhabitants of Arnstadt, that they act as their German blood and their conscience would have them act against an enemy so that the German population does not feel in any way injured by the Jewish minority.
We don’t doubt that the German members of the council will use any means to prevent that the members of this race, which has sworn to annihilate our German people, will not lie so near our dead.
Besides, there are enough more appropriate places in Arnstadt for a Jewish cemetery.
We are unequivocally against taking a part of the new cemetery that is the resting place of our German dead for a Jewish cemetery.
The city council gave the right response this outrageous protest by unanimously accepting the synagogue community’s request. In both the political and humane senses, the council was fully aware of the political and humane that providing a burial site for the Jew, just as the for Christian, was simply a humanitarian obligation whether the dead be a pagan, Jew, pious Catholic or pious Protestant.
Munich. Theater Scandal.
Perhaps to prove that the administration of the Karl Boehmer regime has become a model of order and civic authority, German National youths staged a new antisemitic scandal in an outdoor theater. The victim of the assassination was the dead Heinrich Heine who sang about his youthful sorrows to Mendelssohn melodies in the style of an operetta. While the poet of “the Lorelei” lay under a linden tree and sang a German song the stage was bombarded by stink bombs accompanies by deafening howls. A life-threatening panic among the spectators ensued. The perpetrators were beaten by the angered spectators and theater workers. The local watchmen were summoned to clean up the mess. After a thirty-minute delay the performance could continue on a stage that had been quickly built by people who had been drawn by the commotion.
Robert Hirschfeld’s Fiftieth Birthday.
On the 21st of June one of the best from the ranks of the early fighters for liberal Judaism, the teacher Robert Hirschfeld from Berlin celebrated his fiftieth birthday. Until now he has worked tirelessly with a youthful energy and enthusiasm for our idea, so may he continue to be granted physical health and intellectual freshness so that he can continue is work as a blessing for all.
Aus der Presse.
In the “Die Freiheit” newspaper [published by the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany] “Race and Judaism” Dr. Eduard Erkes [noted Sinologist) writes the following: The economic ruin of Europe which the world war brought about, the starvation and disability of many of the peoples of Europe, shows itself, as it seems to occur quite often in such times, to have inspired many pseudo-scientific intellectual problems to which brains that are no longer capable of serious thought, namely the bourgeoisie, are drawn. The issue of race is one such pseudo-scientific question, that is, the assumption that races have certain unalterable characteristics that cannot be explained by nature which divide them into the noble and ignoble, the worthier and less-worthy where the noble race assumes the right to oppress and exploit the ignoble. The most very real expression of this we find today in antisemitism, in the claim that Jews are an ignoble race damaging the European people and must therefore be cast out, oppressed or made non-threatening by some other means.
The complete inanity of all race theories is obvious to those who are used to thinking scientifically—starting with the assumption of these inexplicable differences among races. This assumption is mystical, hence unscientific and invalid. All who take nature seriously, such as social scientists, have once and for all rejected them long ago. But in popular literature that has so-called historical and political traits we find this obsolete theory repeated again and again and spread to support economic and political interests, especially now. Karl Kautsky’s “Race and Judaism” which first appeared at the beginning of the war, has an especially timely new edition published by Dietz in Stuttgart. Kautsky’s unique clarity, that he so well communicates to the reader takes race theory in general and antisemitism specifically to its absurd conclusions. First he shows how race theories lack every kind of scientific foundation, which seems to not be clear even to their critics who are constantly drawing parallels with the animal kingdom that confuse concepts that might have similar names but have different meanings. For example, house pets have been developed artificially according to certain principles unlike wild animals whose geographical variations are connected to their environment. Only when it comes to pets, and only very subjectively and only to traits can we speak of noble and ignoble races. Thinking of wild animals that way is complete nonsense.When it comes to humans, only the parallel with wild animals is valid and thus the concept of noble and ignoble races becomes dubious, especially when one considers the effect of technical or social influences. Just as the species of wild animals undergo changes when they move beyond certain geographical boundaries so does the human race. The mobility of humans provides a greater likelihood for dissemination, which leads to more encounters with other races and intermingling.
The more historical fates a race experiences, the more developed, more cultured it is and more mixed. There are no pure human races anymore and even fewer strict boundaries, only fluid passages. The higher culture climbs, the more intensive human exchange becomes and humanity becomes that much ore unified. It’s not races that create differences, it’s the economic conditions that create these between foreign peoples and among the classes bring forth economic exploitation. Wherever there is talk of a “race war” this phrase is used only to veil the economic interests at work. Because of its usefulness to societal interests the phrase of race conflict or race war has not yet succumbed to its ridiculousness.
This general knowledge that every expert capable of judgment subscribes to is then applied by Kautsky to the Jewish question. He shows that all anthropological studies of physical Jewish characteristics that distinguish them from the people around them, cannot be considered without taking into account the complex historical development of the Jewish people which gave rise to these physical traits. He also points out that the so-called Jewish character is nothing more than an exaggerated stereotype of a city dweller, which can be explained by the way Jews have lived for thousands of years. He shows how this uniqueness of the Jewish character is disappearing as the emancipation and assimilation process begun in the 19th century has allowed Jews to make huge strides in economic and intellectual areas which have an enormou significance, but which have also eroded the traditional Jewish identity. Jewish customs are only artificially preserved by antisemitism which stems from an envy of Jews for their economic and intellectual accomplishments. Antisemitism used to sail under a religious flag but now lays claim to science, a science that was strenuously perpetrated as “socialism for dummies” by the non-Jewish capitalists against Jewish capital and the leading role that Jewish intellectuals and proletariat play in the workers movement. They have turned this into a cowardly abomination of socialism—as the progroms in Poland, Hungary and Romania can be seen primarily as a persecution of socialists. As much as antisemitism is embraced by the idiots and brutes it will remain an unsuccessful reactionary movement as evidenced by the constant rise of Jews.
The true Jewish problem is the liberation of the suffering Jewish masses in Eastern Europe, in their own countries. This problem is inseparable from the complete liberation of Eastern Europe and its entry into the into the general cultural and economic life. The emancipation of the Eastern Jews will lead to their assimilation with the rest of the people—not in the form of Jewish conversions to Christianity, but by means of both sides losing their religious and nationalist prejudices so that they meld into a higher order of humanity.
The conquest of all racial prejudice, the rejection of all conclusions stemming from them through scientific knowledge—that is what Kautsky’s book is trying to achieve. Everyone should read this book—it should have a prominent place in every workers’ library where antisemitism exists among the working classes.
Advertisements and Announcements.
These are the Confirmation announcements for June 25th:
Old Synagogue:
Hans Lublinski (Father: Samuel, Schertstrasse 8a)
Henry Studzinski (Father: Hermann, Augustastrasse 64)
Hermann Goldstein (Mother: Ida, Ohlauerstrasse 59)
New Synagogue:
Günter Hauptmann (Father: Ludwig, Neudorfstrasse 2)
Industrial School for Israelite Girls will meet on July 4th to discuss closing the school.
A reminder that it is the honorable duty of all Jewish citizens to join the Society for the care and burial of Israelites (Chevra kadesha). The Israelite Hospital needs your support in this time of need resulting from the war and the ensuing economic hardship.
Non-members must pay double the costs of burial for themselves and members of their household.
An advertisement for the Jewish Country Home Wolfratshausen (Isar Valley)
1 hour by train from Munich. Idyllic respite for school-aged children. Lovely, protected location in the Bavarian alpine vorland. Magnificent parl. Swimming. Strict kosher, tasty and plentiful meals. Airy rooms. Pedagogical direction. The home is under the care of a pediatrician. Open all year. Brochures and applications available from the directorship. Munich, Richard Wagnerstr. 16
This building housed the Jewish children’s sanitorium in Wolfrratshausen
until it was converted to a vocqtional school for Jewish women in 1926. Source: https://www.alemannia-judaica.de/images/Image 300/Wolfratshausen Frauenschule Dok 410.jpg.
Seeking a first soprano and a first tenor for a service during the high holidays. Preferably with knowledge of the songs. Call for an interview at 4904 or 2139.
[See the remaining advertisements, job postings and seeking romance/marriage notices here.]
Juedisch-liberale Zeitung 
Pingback: A Letter from Palestine. | Juedisch-liberale Zeitung
Pingback: Jewish Liberal Newspaper, July 1, 1921 | Juedisch-liberale Zeitung
Pingback: Jewish Liberal Newspaper, July 8, 1921 | Juedisch-liberale Zeitung
Pingback: Jewish Liberal Newspaper, July 15, 1921 | Juedisch-liberale Zeitung