se of separation is hell. If continued it becomes insanity. The
sense of separation is a thing that seldom presses upon the Jew, and
this is why insanity passes him by and seeks a Christian as a victim.
The Jew has an animating purpose that is a saving salt, even if this
purpose is not always an ideal one. His family, friends, clan, tribe,
are close about him.

Zangwill, himself a child of the Ghetto, comes to the rescue of the
despised and misunderstood Christian, and expresses a doubt as to
whether the Ghetto was not devised by Jews in order to keep Christians
at a safe and discreet distance.

For certain it is that the wall which shut the Jews in, shut the
Christians out. The contempt of the Christian for the Jew is fully
reciprocated. One-sided hate does not endure any more than does a
one-sided love.

The first Ghetto was at Venice. It came into being during the Italian
Renaissance, say about Fourteen Hundred Fifty. The Jews had settled in
one corner of the city, as they always have done, and are still prone to
do. They had their own shops, stores, bazaars, booths, schools and
synagogues. There they were packed, busied with their own affairs,
jostling, quibbling, arguing, praying, taking no interest in the social
life outside. Jehovah led them out of captivity in order that He might
make them slaves to Himself. He surely was a jealous God!

Of course, they traded with Christians, bought, sold, ran, walked with
them, but did not dine with Christians nor pray with them. There were
Jewish architects, painters, printers, lawyers, doctors, bankers, and
many of the richest and most practical men in Venice were Jews.

They made money out of the Christians, and no doubt helped the
Christians to make money, for, as I have said, things not founded on
reciprocity do not last long.

One fact that looks like corroborating proof of Zangwill's pleasantry is
that upon one of the Ghetto gates was a marble slab, warning all Jews
that if any of them turned Christian he would never be allowed again to
live in the Ghetto, nor would he be saluted or spoken to if he returned,
nor so much as be given a cup of water, but that the cord, scourge,
gallows, prison and pillory should be his portion.

It was a curse almost like that cheerful one visited upon Spinoza, the
lens-maker, when he forsook the synagogue and took up his home with the
Mennonites.

Children born and brought up in the Ghetto always felt a certain pity
for those wh