The presence of more artisans and farmers in the ranks of the Jews would please Prof. Edward Sapir of the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University, he informed 250 persons attending a luncheon symposium of the Conference on Jewish Relations at the Hotel Commodore Saturday afternoon.
This would be a welcome occurrence, the professor said, because it would enable him to feel that “we Jews” are distributed in the various occupations in the same proportions as the non-Jewish population.
COHEN DISAGREES
Prof. Morris Cohen of City College, chairman of the Conference, and a noted contemporary philosopher, expressed dissent, however, declaring:
“We shall be voluntarily impoverishing our life if we deliberately decide not to have too many learned men.”
He said he could not conceive of any feasible program of “adjustment of numbers” as suggested by Prof. Sapir. If the Jews have a special aptitude for the professions, the local savant maintained, it is against the best interests of the community as a whole to erect obstacles before these persons and to give preference to less capable non-Jews.
DIFFERENCES NOT INNATE
Prof. Sapir took the view that seeming Jewish differences are not essential in nature but, rather, due to historical factors.
Claims of Jewish superiorities did not impress him, he insisted, explaining that, where demonstrable, they were merely by-products of abnormal conditions under which the Jews live.
“The Jews are like anybody else if they are not subject to extraordinary strains and stresses,” he declared.
Prof. Cohen, asserting he was presenting the unpopular viewpoint of rationalistic philosophy, emphasized the importance of research to produce the facts before Jewish problems could be solved.
“How in the world can we hope to achieve any goal,” he asked, “if the facts are not known?’
Prof. Jerome Michael of Columbia Law School, another participant in the symposium, predicted that there will be Jewish problems just as long as the non-Jewish world takes the stand that there is a definite thing in existence which is called “Jew.” Solution must devolve upon the Jews themselves, he said, and wise solution will require learning, sagacity and goodness as well as knowledge.
Touching briefly on the anti-German boycott, he declared that in coping with such issues “the ultimate ends should be considered.”
VIEWS OF PROF. BARON
Prof. Salo Baron of Columbia University, another participant in the symposium asserted:
“So long as the identity of the Jews is not extinguished, the Jewish problem will not be extinguished.”
He said assimilation en masse could not be effected “even if the Jews wanted it” and cited the drives against the Maranos of Spain as proof. The disappearance of individual Jews is possible, however, he added.
“The assimilation idea, popular in the nineteenth century in the wake of emancipation,” he continued, “has been abandoned today.”
Prof. Baron, declaring that anti-Semitism in one form or another has bedeviled the Jews ever since the Dispersion, said the type currently differs from the sorts practiced in antiquity in that today the economic issue plays one of the most vital roles.
Dr. Solomon Loewenstein, executive vice-president of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, presided at the symposium.
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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.
