Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative. Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

The question whether Jews gain anything when anti-Semitic questions are aired publicly in court or whether it is better when such issues are ignored is discussed by the “Jewish Daily News” of yesterday, in an editorial commenting on the Sapiro-Ford trial.

“That anti-Semitism cannot be uprooted by proving the falsehood of anti-Semitic accusations is certain,” the paper writes. “Even the proofs produced against the ritual murder charge have not succeeded in uprooting this libel. At ritual murder trials Papal bulls declaring the charge as groundless, and statements by rulers and scientists have been cited, but to no avail. The charge continues and there seems to be no remedy for it.

“No one believes that by disproving Ford’s allegations of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ these lies will cease to be made. Anti-Semites are not converted by facts and anti-Semitism is not subdued by proofs. From the point of view of practical results we cannot expect much from a victory in court for Sapiro.

“But there is nothing convincing in the argument that it is better to ignore such matters. If we cannot gain a great deal by bringing anti-Semitism to court, we surely can lose nothing. Nothing will be lost by proving in court that Ford is an ignorant person who knows not whereof he speaks. Ordinarily Jews are not eager for anti-Semitic trials, but when one does take place the Jews are not worried by it.

“Sapiro has done the right thing by bringing this case to court. It is to the Jewish honor that Sapiro has chosen not to ignore the attacks of Ford and has brought the latter and his foolish charges of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ before the bar of justice. Sapiro is no one’s messenger at the trial, but his effort to vindicate his name is a dignified move which is in harmony with Jewish honor.”

DR. PAUL NATHAN

The death of Dr. Paul Nathan, the noted leader of German Jewry, is the subject of an editorial in the “Jewish Morning Journal” of March 17, wherein we read:

“Dr. Nathan personified the spirit of the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden: it was his fortune to see an entire movement in modern Jewish life, a tendency between the currents of Judaism and Europe, become concentrated about his own personality.”

The paper draws an analogy between the Hilfsverein of Germany and the Alliance Israelite of France, asserting that the Hilfsverein was something of “a middle road between the aristocratic Jewish philanthropy, embodied in the Alliance, and the political activity of the national Jewish movements” but the Hilfsverein, we are told, “came nearer to the people, not in its own organization, but in regard to its program.” Further we read:

“It was learned years later that Dr. Nathan was in the office of Minister Plehve, in St. Petersburg, at the time a bomb was hurled at the latter, and he escaped as if by a miracle. There are some who think he had no right to be there, but he had a different conception about such things, and he called on the anti-Semitic Russian statesman because he hoped thereby to help the Jews. Throughout his life he worked energetically and ceaselessly in the interests of Judaism as he understood it and his death is a distinct loss.”