The old Jewish way of centering all life about the idea of the family is set forward as the scientific ideal of the best social solution for the sex problem by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, founder of the Institute of Sexual Science of Berlin, who is in America to lecture before various medical societies.
“The Jewish idea of the family has been a tremendous influence for the good in modern life,” said Dr. Hirschfeld. “It emphasizes the creation of normal relations. Father, mother, and child — that is the most important entity in the world. It brings human satisfaction, ethically, biologically, and physically.”
The grizzled scientist, vastly sympathetic and serious in aspect, discussed some of the things he has found to be true through thousands of case studies in his institute. “The sex feeling is often stronger than any other. It is stronger than the feeling of race. This you see when you witness successful cases of inter-marriage. I believe inter-marriage, when it follows so strong an urge, is a good thing. Inter-marriage between Jews and Gentiles has increased since the war, with the general increase in personal liberty everywhere.”
Dr. Hirschfield spiked the popular idea that Jewish men and women are more passionate, as a rule, than people of other races. “Such generalities are generally unfounded,” he said. “Though as a rule Jewish women have a deeper conception of love, and are deeper in love than most women.” He attacked the anti-Semitic charges against Jewish morality. “Charges that the Jew is morally lax are utterly unfounded,” he said. “I do not understand how the anti-Semites of Germany can make such charges. Many of the Jews who they say have no right to be in their country belong to families that have been there for a thousand years. They were there before the people who attack them were there. My family has been in Germany for many generations. My father is a doctor, my grandfather was a doctor, on so on back for a long time.”
Dr. Hirschfield receives many letters from orthodox Jews in relation to the question of birth-control. “This is a matter in which religion must make some compromise,” he says.
Dr. Magnus is president, with Havelock Ellis and August Forel, of the World League for Sexual Reform on a Scientific Basis.
He has been invited to lecture before the Universities of Tokio and Shanghai, and is now on his way to the East.
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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.
