Speaking before a meeting of the West Side Division of Ivriah at the Rutgers Club yesterday afternoon, Herman Bernstein, editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin, outlined the views of celebrities on the Jewish question.
Mr. Bernstein described his interviews with Tolstoy, Witte, George Bernard Shaw, Metchnikoff, Henri Bergson, and Pope Benedict XV. He quoted Professor Bergson as having said:
“There are racial differences between the white, yellow and black races, but there is no difference among white races. People can adopt the qualities, the defects and the habits of the people among whom they live. In Europe we see that the difference in races is nothing but habit, education and the degree of living together. It is a mistake in psychology that much is ascribed to nature which should be ascribed to habit.
“I doubt whether the Jews have any special hereditary defects or virtues, considering that their blood has been so mixed–very much more than is believed. Whole tribes in Russia were converted to Judaism. I believe the Jewish question will be solved when the Jewish people will have attained equal rights in the countries where they are being persecuted. And the sooner that is attained the better for the Jews, of course, and also for the countries where they live.”
Leo Schwartz also spoke at the meeting, discussing “Judaism in the Machine Age.”
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