(The editors reserve the right to excerpt all letters exceeding 250 words in length. All letters must bear the name and address of the writer although not necessarily for publication.)
To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:
I wish to take exception to Ludwig Lewisohn’s remarks in his article of December 23 that “living Jews are better than dead Jews.”
A thousand times: No! Dead Jews, who by their deaths reveal to us and the world that honor and nobility haven’t left our race completely, do more good and are infinitely more better than living Jews whose existences are due to cravingness.
But where are such dead Jews? Alas, hard to find. The prevalence of the rationalization Mr. Lewisohn voices has stamped us indelibly, to our lasting grief.
Had a few thousand or even hundred Jews in Germany preferred courageous death to dishonorable living, we in America and elsewhere would hold our heads higher. Then anti-Semitism would never have spread so openly or virulently. It would have been shamed into hiding by the honest indignation of the civilized world.
If only we Jewish parents, instead of whining over our helpless lot and worrying about our children, would instill them with the ideal that material success is not the end of life, and that to die worthily is better than to live unworthily, we would become a healthier and manlier race, and inspire the respect of non-Jews. And insofar as we attain both self-respect and the respect of others, do we solve the problem of anti-Semitism.
Let us make a realistic beginning, then, by condemning all cowardly rationalization, of which the one quoted by Mr. Lewisohn is the most poisonous.
Ben Frommer.
Dec. 23, 1934,
Fort Hamilton, N. Y.
ENTRY TO SYRIA
To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:
The facts and figures of the Polish-Jewish member of the Sejm, Dr. Rottenstreich, published in the December 21 issue of your paper, reveal all the more the plight of Polish Jewry. That they are not exaggerated is certain.
A friend of mine, visiting Poland during the Summer, brought back a heart-rending report. Lwow, center of Galician Jewry, was worse off than its previous miserable history showed, the trip revealed. The American dollar, it was reported, is a veritable godsend to the unfortunates there. The indescribable misery of the city’s many Jews, with some of the population actually existing in hovels, as was witnessed by my friend, should hasten relief efforts to succor as many as possible of our unfortunate co-religionists.
This is not a cheerful message, but it is a true one.
Joseph Kappleman.
December 23, 1934,
Bronx, N. Y.
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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.
