‘united Presbyterian’ Makes Unfriendly Comment on the Jewish Population Figures

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The “United Presbyterian,” religious weekly published here under the editorship of William J. Reid, D.D., makes the following comment on the Department of Commerce figures with regard to the Jewish population of the United States, based on the census of religious bodies.

“The Department of Commerce, which is conducting a nation-wide census of religious bodies, has issued data regarding nine denominations. According to the returns for 1926 there were 2,948 congregations and 4,087,357 persons of the Jewish faith living in the cities and the villages in which the congregations were located. Of the Jews living in the places with congregations, 4,071,889 were in urban territory and 15,468 in rural areas. In 1926 there were in New York State 1,126 Jewish congregations with a total membership of 1,896,593.

The Jewish race is one of the religious minorities in this land which has made a deep dent in the public consciousness. The Jew is intensely race conscious. He cannot be assimilated. He is life’s supreme egoist. His mentality is high. His prejudices are almost ineradicable. Religiously he is a formalist. His trend is toward rationalism. His tendency in the mass is socialistic and revolutionary. He is invincible in achieving his ends. Where he predominates in a community he is said to be as a rule intolerable as a neighbor. He is offensive in his almost total lack of thoughtfulness and consideration of the rights of others. His children are as a rule utterly lawless. A considerable number of his race escape from racial and traditional constricting influences and go out to bless all mankind with a surprising compassion, and they utter words worthy of a place in the writings of the prophets of old.

“As a race they are dead to Christ, but there are indications here and there of the light which fell on the Damascus road,” the writer. H. H. Marlin, D.D. asserts. “They are in the mass dead to Christ, but the day will come when the Jew will be alive in Him. When that day comes the regenerated Jew, mighty in supernal power and glory, will storm all hell’s citadels and will make this world God’s world.”