[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does indicate approval-Editor.]
That the Declaration of Independence is, in a sense, a Jewish-American creation, is the opinion expressed in the "Jewish Daily News" (July 5 issue) by Gedaliah Bublick, who writes on The Birth of America-and the Jews.
Analyzing the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence, to wit, that all men are created equal and that governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, Mr. Bublick says:
"Long before the Declaration was written, there was pronounced in another land the law of equality for all and the foundation was laid for a democracy in which all citizens were equal, and not only citizens but even strangers, nay, even those who were formerly enemies. Long before Jefferson and his comrades the Jewish nation issued the concept of freedom for all the inhabitants of the land.
"And through reading the old Hebrew books, there was born in America the great creation of Jefferson and his comrades. It is a Jewish American creation. We have our connection here, we are closely related to the present celebration. That which America presented to the world, is a part of our soul, a part of our spirit. In Philadelphia in 1776 reechoed the voice of Jerusalem."
The "Jewish Morning Journal," in an editorial on the Sesqui-Centennial celebration, remarks, inter alia:
"It is doubtful if there were three hundred Jews in the Colonies at the time of the American Revolution, if one Jew out of ten knew at that time of the existence of America. Today, there are over ten thousand Jews in this country to every one in those days, an increase which has no parallel in history. And every Jew over there, in the old country, has America in mind, is spiritually united with her through some aspiration or hope. Nor is the Jew an exception. The entire old world depends today on the new, and is as deeply concerned as the helpless Jew in the small town of the old country, that the source of help for mankind should remain unexhausted."
The "Day" takes occasion to point out that there are tendencies in America today that are opposed to the spirit and letter of the Declaration of Independence. Referring to the share of the Jews in the development of America, the paper observes: "We can not shut our eyes to the fact that lately-since the world war dangerous signs of anti-Semitism have made their appearance here. The anti-immigration policy is, in a large measure, anti-Semitic.
"We record this with painful feelings, but we continue firm in our faith in America," the paper says, concluding: "We cannot regard the present race intolerance in America and the anti-Semitic tendencies as anything but a temporary passing phenomenon. We believe firmly in the underlying principles of America which were established on July 4, one hundred and fifty years ago."
THE FUTURE OF THE JEWISH GHETTO IN THE UNITED STATES
The assertion that the Jews in the United States have created a voluntary Ghetto and that four-fifths of the Jews in this country have practically no social contact with the Gentiles, is made in the "Forward" of July 4 by Nathaniel Zalowitz.
"Although the Ghetto was never instituted in this country a voluntary Ghetto has practically existed since the first large influx of East European immigration beginning in 1882," writes Mr. Zalowitz. "The voluntary Ghetto I am speaking of is in full sway today, and I am not sure but that it will remain a permanent feature of Jewish life in the United States. It is a belief of mine that this voluntary Ghetto will exert a tremondous influence on the course which Jewish history will take in America, that it will serve as one of our greatest bulwarks in our struggle against absorption in the maelstrom of Anglo-Saxon civilization, but that at the same time it will be one of the potent causes of anti-Semitic feeling and will produce perhaps as much harm as good.
"That the Ghetto is a fact will hardly be denied by anyone. What else would you call the districts in the various large American cities in which two-thirds or more of the Jews live and have their being? The majority of the Jews have settled in several large cities, and, what is even more significant, in each of these cities they inhabit certain sections only. That, I urge, is the true earmark of Ghetto life.
"Consider the Jewish population in the United States," Mr. Zalowitz further explains. "There were three and a half million of us in 1920, according to the conservative estimate of the American Jewish Year Book, and three-fourths of us were living in voluntary Ghettos. Of the three and a half millions Jews, more than. 1,500,000 were living in New York city. Of this number 700,000 were residents of Manhattan, 278,000 lived in the Bronx, 600,000 in Brooklyn, 86,000 in Queens, and 17,000 in Richmond. In each of these boroughs there are Ghettos large and small, new Ghettos springing up almost overnight. There are Ghettos for foreign born Jews and Ghettos for native-born Jews; Ghettos for poor Jews and Ghettos for middle class and for rich Jews, for Russian Jews and for German Jews. The East Side is one kind of a Ghetto, Washington Heights another kind, West Bronx a third, Riverside Drive a fourth, Broad-way between Seventy-second and Ninety-sixth Streets a fifth, upper Fifth Avenue a sixth, and Brooklyn has a dozen different kinds and styles of Ghettos of its own. Once there was only one kind of Jewish neighborhood, of which the old East Side was the shining’ example. But today you have a Ghetto for the Jew to owns a Rolls Royce and half a dozen other cars besides. The rich Jew no less than the poor one prefers to live among ‘unsere leute’ -and the Gentile thinks so, too. People used to imagine years ago that as soon as the Jews will shed their ‘greenness’ they will mix with the Gentiles, be accepted in Gentile society, move into Gentile neighborhoods, and be absorbed in a decade or less. Nothing of the sort has happened. The Jews, in their northward march from the dingy and sordid East Side did move into Gentile sections- and the Gentiles immediately began to get out. This is the story of the Bronx, of Flatbush, of upper Fifth Avenue, of Washington Heights, of Brooklyn Heights, even of Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.
"New York Jews are not alone in their preferences. A similar condition prevails in most other large cities. Chicago with its 225,000 Jews, Philadelphia with its 200,000 Jews, the 100,000 Jews of Cleveland, the 50,000 Jews of Detroit, Newark with its Jewish population of 55,000, the 60,000 Jews of Pittsburgh, add to these the Jewish populations of St. Louis, San Francisco, Providence, Rochester, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and half a dozen others, and you have four-fifths of all the Jews in America. Now in each one of the cities enumerated you have several Jewish Ghettos, each varying slightly from the Ghettos ‘de luxe’ of New York.
"That is to say, four-fifths of all the Jews in the United States practically have no social contact with the Gentiles who constitute 99% of the population of the country. This is a fact of the greatest significance. It means that for the overwhelming majority of the Jews in America assimilation in any true sense of the term is absolutely out of the question. It signifies that we are no nearer understanding our Gentile neighbors in this country than we were in the Old World. It means that despite the fact that we have attended American public schools and universities, read American papers and books, patronize the same theatres and subways and busses, we are kept and keep ourselves at arm’s length from the bulk of the American population."
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
