Civic emancipation granted the Jews early in the nineteenth century was a “Shylock’s bargain” and has been a failure, Ludwig Lewisohn told an audience of about 1,000 persons here at a meeting sponsored by groups affiliated with the city’s general Zionist organization.
Today’s anti-Semitism he described as more cruel and barbarous than that of the Middle Ages. A revival of Zionism—an escape from “dragging Jewishness through the world like a secret shame”— is Jewry’s only hope, he declared.
“From the dishonor of our own aspirations has fallen our sins,” he said. “We have grown so immune to the loss of our rights that our whole being is tinged with servility.” Too many Jews are living essentially sterile lives, the author said, with the result that servility, inner falseness and existence without “tolerance and equality” are devitalizing the race.
Isaac Myers of New York organized a company for battle in the French and Indian War in 1754.
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.
