I
⭘ Jacobs: ‘The Typical Character of Anglo-Jewry,’ J. Q. R., 1898.
⭘ Aguilar: The Spirit of Judaism, chap. viii. A. S. Isaacs’ The Young Champion is a biography of Grace Aguilar for young readers. J. P. S., 1916.
⭘ For Eleazar of Worms, see M. Joseph in Jews’ College Jubilee Volume, 1905.
⭘ Montefiore: From a Sermon preached before the Jewish students of Cambridge University.
‘Individual offences bring shame not only upon the persons who commit them, but upon the entire race, which, says an old writer, like a harp-string, has but to be struck at one end and it vibrates throughout. This has been the fate of Israel in every age; and the world’s habit of identifying the race with the shortcomings of the individual seems to be ineradicable. Public transgression—transgression which involves the whole House of Israel—is in a special sense branded as a Chillul Hashem, as “a profanation of the Name” just as good deeds, done publicly, which reflect lustre on all Israel, are praised as a Kiddush Hashem, “a sanctification of the Name”.’ (Morris Joseph, Judaism as Life and Creed. 3rd Edition. Routledge—an excellent book that should be in every English-speaking Jewish home.)
⭘ For other specimens of Jewish Moralists see Hebrew Characteristics, published by the old American Jewish Publication Society, 1872; and I. Abrahams, ‘Jewish Ethical Wills,’ in J. Q. R., 1891.
⭘ Philipson: Old European Jewries, J. P. S.
⭘ Lazarus: Quoted in Nahida Remy, The Jewish Woman. (Bloch Publishing Co., New York.)
⭘ The Jewish Home—Cf. Morris Joseph on the question of intermarriage.
‘Every Jew should feel himself bound, even though the duty involves the sacrifice of precious affections, to avoid acts calculated, however remotely, to weaken the stability of the ancestral religion. It is true that occasional unions between Jew and Gentile do no appreciable harm to the Jewish cause, however much mischief they may lay up, in the shape of jealousy and dissension, for those who contract them, and of religious confusion, for the children. But a general practice begins as a rule by being occasional. Every Jew who contemplates marriage outside the pale must regard himself as paving the way to a disruption which will be the final, as it will be the culminating, disaster in the history of his people.’
⭘ Szold: ‘What has Judaism done for Woman?’ in Judaism at the [Chicago] World’s Parliament of Religions, Cincinnati, 1894.
⭘ Cradle Song: quoted in Schechter, Studies in Judaism, i, 1896. ‘The Child in Jewish Literature.’ Another version in I. Zangwill’s They that Walk in Darkness is as follows:—
Sleep, my birdie, shut your eyes,
Oh, sleep, my little one;
Too soon from cradle you’ll arise
To work that must be done.
Almonds and raisins you shall sell,
And Holy Scrolls shall write;
So sleep, dear child, sleep sound and well,
Your future beckons bright.
Brum shall learn of ancient days,
And love good folk of this;
So sleep, dear babe, your mother prays,
And God will send you bliss.
⭘ For the Yiddish folk-song see Wiener, History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century, New York and London, 1899; and Kurt Schindler, ‘The Russian-Jewish Folk Song’, in The Menorah Journal, New York, 1917.
⭘ ‘The Russian Jewish folk-song has grown and was reared under the greatest oppression, and the grimmest tyranny that a race ever went through. By this very oppression it has become tense, quivering, abounding with emotion; in its melodies the Jewish heart is laid open, and it speaks in a language understandable to all. Its songs have an elemental appeal—they represent the collective outcry of a suffering, unbendable race.’ (Schindler.)
⭘ Cohen: Preface, Children’s Psalm Book. (Routledge.)
⭘ The following words recently written by America’s leading educationist are of deep significance—‘Education the world over was at first for a long time almost solely religious, and, while it was once a master-stroke of toleration to eliminate it from the school, in doing so we nearly lost from our educational system the greatest of all the motives that makes for virtue, reverence, self-knowledge and self-control. Now we are beginning to realize the wrong we have committed against child-nature and are seeking in various ways to atone for it.’ (G. Stanley Hall, in Introduction to L. Grossmann’s The Aims of Teaching in Jewish Schools, Cincinnati, 1919.)
⭘ Cf. the chapter on Religious Education with Bibliography in M. Friedländer, The Jewish Religion, second edition (P. Vallentine).
⭘ Morais: in Abarbanel’s School and Family Reader for Israelites, New York, 1883, a book well worth reprinting.
⭘ Joseph, The Message of Judaism (G. Routledge), ‘Hebrew and the Synagogue.’
⭘ Schechter: Seminary Addresses, Ark Publishing Co., Cincinnati, 1915. These addresses of eloquent wisdom contain the ripest thoughts of that great scholar.
⭘ In 1870 Peretz Smolenskin, then the foremost neo-Hebrew writer, proclaimed: ‘The wilfully blind bid us be like all the other nations. Yea, let us be like all the other nations, unashamed of the rock whence we have been hewn; like the rest, holding dear our language and the honour of our people. We need not blush for clinging to the ancient language with which we wandered from land to land, in which our poets sang, and our seers prophesied, and in which our fathers poured out their hearts unto God. They who thrust us away from the Hebrew language meditate evil against our people and against its glory.’
⭘ Maimonides: Some scholars question the Maimonidean authorship of this Admonition.
⭘ In Year Book of Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1904.
⭘ Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 76.
⭘ Adler: Anglo-Jewish Memories, p. 272.
⭘ Gabirol: Probably the very earliest enunciation of Tolerance in Western Europe.
⭘ Against Apion, concluding paragraphs.
Ecclesiasticus: Written originally in Hebrew by Simon ben Jeshua ben Sira, who flourished in Jerusalem in the second century, B.C.E. Translated into Greek by the author’s grandson, who resided in Egypt between 132–116. The Hebrew original was lost for over 1,000 years, and was re-discovered in the Cairo Geniza by Dr. Schechter in 1896.
⭘ The change from the Revised Version in the second line is according to the newly-discovered Hebrew original.
⭘ Their name liveth for evermore; the phrasing of the Authorized Version has been restored. These five words have been chosen by the Imperial War Graves Commission as the inscription for the central monuments on the cemeteries in France and Flanders.
⭘ Dubnow: Jewish History, J. P. S., chap. 12. Dubnow’s sketch is a brief, philosophical survey of Jewish History.
⭘ Hertz: From Presidential Address, Union of Jewish Literary Societies, ‘On “Renaissance” and “Culture” and their Jewish Applications’.
⭘ Geiger: Judaism and its History, I, 2.
⭘ Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 112.
⭘ Jews in Many Lands. J. P. S.
⭘ Singer: Sermons, i. ‘Judaism and Citizenship.’ (Routledge.)
⭘ Achad Ha’am: Selected Essays, J. P. S., 1912. ‘Some Consolation.’ A number of those original and thought-compelling essays have been republished in the series Zionist Pamphlets, 1916 & 1917.
⭘ The words ‘The Duty of Self-Respect’ are the title of a paper by the late F. D. Mocatta.
⭘ Nordau: Address at First Zionist Congress, Basle.
⭘ Schechter: Seminary Addresses. ‘Higher Criticism—Higher Anti-Semitism.’
⭘ Disraeli: From Preface to Collected Works of Isaac D’Israeli.
⭘ Hertz: From Reply to ‘Verax’, The Times, November 29, 1919.
⭘ Recent anti-Semitic attacks in the Press recall Steinschneider’s comment: ‘When dealing with Jewish questions it is not necessary to be either logical or fair. It seems one may say anything of Jews so long as it brings them into contempt.’
⭘ An Epistle to the Hebrews. Letter 4. Republished by the Federation of American Zionists, 1900.
⭘ These stirring lines were written during the Boer War.
⭘ Dr. Adler continues: ‘Here we are spared the most distressful sight, the revival of odious religious prejudices and pernicious racial antipathies.’ These words would require some qualification to-day.
⭘ Songs of a Wanderer, J. P. S.
⭘ ‘Why am I a Jew?’ North American Review.
⭘ A similar thought is expressed by the same writer in his Address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions: ‘There is a legend that when Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden, an angel shattered the gates, and the fragments flying all over the earth are the precious stones. We can carry the legend further. The precious stones were picked up by the various religions and philosophies of the world. Each claimed and claims that its own fragment alone reflects the light of heaven. In God’s own time we shall, all of us, fit our fragments together and reconstruct the Gates of Paradise. Through the gates shall all peoples pass to the foot of God’s throne. The throne is called by us the mercy-seat. Name of happy augury, for God’s Mercy shall wipe out all record of mankind’s errors and strayings, the sad story of our unbrotherly actions.’
⭘ Judaism as Creed and Life. Book III, chap. x. Book III is the best modern presentation of the ethical life under the aspect of Judaism.