To one who is familiar with the technique of the anti-Semite it is clear that even if all Jews were angels he would not be at a loss to find some reason for condemning them. Prejudice is not a logical attitude based on reason and inquiry. The very word implies a “prejudging”, a conclusion reached without waiting for evidence or even in the face of contradictory evidence.
Nevertheless it would not be in keeping with our racial candor and sense of realism to maintain that we do not ourselves frequently provide our enemies with powerful weapons with which they exaltingly belabor us. All too frequently we expose ourselves through the lamentable conduct of some members of our own group to their vicious onslaughts.
We have always been frank to acknowledge our shortcomings. Rabbi Solomon Alami, following the bloody massacres which swept over Spain in 1391 and which ushered in the century of persecutions and disabilities culminating in the complete expulsion of the Jews from Spain, had the prophetic courage not to wish to place the whole burden of guilt upon the enemies of his people, but to point the finger of accusation directly against his own people: “And if you ask why all these things have come upon us, know truthfully that from our own hands have these things come.” In an amazing document of bitter self-reproach he enumerates the national “alchet”, the corruptions, the immoralities, the arrogant display, the jealousies, the oppression of the poor, the suborning of justice—in a word, the whole tragic tale of the spiritual decay of the Jews of his days.
Such relentless self-analysis has been the salvation of our people. The genius to exploit adversity for correction and improvement has stood us in good stead in all our crises. We dared to treat our national ills surgically, not cosmetically, and so to regain our national health.
A dominant majority may not feel itself in need of constant self-examination. It can even afford to ignore the moral judgments of others. But a minority group is denied such culpable insouciance. Our status as a minority group forces upon us a sterner discipline. We must not only be as good as the average but our average must be better. Not only does the world demand this of us as the price of its toleration, but our own moral tradition demands it as the price of our survival. A definite moral deferential is involved in our destiny.
Unfortunately we are not always mindful either of the practical considerations which our inescapable status of a minority group enjoins upon us or of the mandates which our own moral tradition imposes upon us.
No one who is at all acquainted with Jewish life in America can fail to be impressed with the urgent need which exists for a real housecleaning. We know, of course, and it has been demonstrated over and over again statistically, that our people have a smaller percentage of criminals in relation to the rest of the population. This is a gratifying fact. Unfortunately this percentage is growing from year to year. A reading of the daily press is sufficient to show us that we are not being spared our full quota of Jewish gangsters, racketeers and gunmen. They are a shockingly new phenomenon in Jewish life. We know that the post-War madness and prohibition created them. This explanation unfortunately does not close the matter as far as we are concerned. We are producing our full share of underworld folk as well as of such as offend against both good manners and morals by purveying vulgar plays and entertainments, by writing and publishing obscene books and magazines, and by producing shoddy and revolting moving pictures.
In the higher brackets candor compels us to acknowledge that many Jews in business, finance and industry can be tarred with the same brush of profiteering, gambling, speculation and exploitation as many non-Jews. Our prophetic tradition does not seem to have given them a keener appreciation of the stewardship of wealth and trusteeship of power. Our professional groups likewise are not distinguished by standards of ethics higher than those which prevail generally about them. We are largely represented in some of these professions but we have not raised their standards. There are altogether too many Jewish lawyers who are a credit neither to their profession nor to their people. Similarly Jewish politicians cannot be credited with more public spirit than the average run of politicians and they are just as amenable to graft and corruption.
Moral sobriety is just as little a characteristic of our young people as of others and the Jewish home is fast being invaded by those same forces which have proved to be such disruptive influences in the American home.
These are terrific liabilities for a minority group to carry. They weigh heavily upon our shoulders when we set out to fight our enemies.
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.
