It is possible that the chief aim of Rabbi Schulman in attacking Dr. Charles Eliot’s speech warming against inter-marriage and assimilation was to secure publicity for himself, is the belief of Mr. Efraim Kaplan, who writes on this subject in the "Jewish Morning Journal" of Dec. 26.
"Quite a couple of years since this Reformpriest has been mentioned in the press. Gone are his ‘maiden powers’. Once when he was younger and his assimilationist ideas were fresher he had the strength to keep on the surface of public life, and he did cut something of a figure. Every now and then he would insert a piquant little cross in his preaching, thus attracting the curiosity of Gentiles and the anger of the Jews. But today he can no longer create his piquant little crosses. He has to content himself with rehashing ancient, outworn, meaningless phrases. In short, the assimilationist trappings in his temple are extremely soiled, musty and mouldy. The Gentiles are no longer interested in it and the Jews see no cause to be excited over it. Who cares about old rags?.
"That is why the rabbi flung himself upon the President Emeritus of Harvard and tried to scratch his face. He knew perhaps that he could not even reach up to the face of the great American, being too small for that. But he was sure that the very attempt would cause a stir and bring him at least a little bit of publicity. . . . . A dead star trying to twinkle, at least once more-truly a tragedy. The rabbi should be pitied."
NO HOPE FROM GRABSKI
M. Frostig, the Polish Jewish journalist, discussing, in a recent issue of "Dos Neue Leben" of Byalistok, the composition of the recently elected Grabski cabinet in Poland comes to the conclusion that the Polish Jews can expect no changes for the better from the new government, every member of the cabinet being known for his anti-Jewish sentiments.
"We will have a continuation of the same economic policy which has existed hitherto, the policy which destroys and ruins the economic existence of the Jews by the method of overtaxing them. Evidently we will have a continuation of the government policy which refuses even for a moment to stop and consider the rights of the Jews and their most modest demands."
THE NEW JEWISH TYPE
In his second article on the subject of the future Jew in America, H. Lang, who writes in the "Forward", brings forth further proof to substantiate his previous assertion that Yiddish and Yiddishism, which stands for the immigrant mode of life and psychology, the psychology that still has the old-world environment for its background, are disappearing from the life of American Jewry, which is taking on the spirit and the psychology of America. Mr. Lang then proceeds to say:
"The tendency to day among Americanized Jewish families is a nationalistic one, and it grows more intense with the strengthening of the process of Americanization. The Americanized Jews are beginning to develop a sort of ‘ato bochartonu’ spirit, the feeling that the Jews are ‘the chosen people’. But whereas this same spirit among the Jews of Eastern Europe was a result of persecution, in this country it is a consequence of the success which the Jews are achieving in every field of activity and the important position they have attained in the life of America. The new generation of American Jews is proud of the Jewish judges, Jewish bankers, Jewish manufacturers,
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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.
