s so little. The second
individual is generally of more recent arrival to this country than
the first; he considers his Jewishness a misfortune which must be
gotten rid of. Both are, indeed, self-centred, unmindful of their
people, but the first is more boyish--and a boy should be
self-centred. Both put the raiment above the body, and in this there
is weakness; but in the first there is not much of body, the roots of
Jewish growth have found no depth or proper sap in him, and if in him
there is not strength of body, there is at least grace of raiment; in
the second there is neither grace nor strength,--he may acquire the
superstructure of American character, but where the foundation to
build it on? Where is there strength when it is ever a getting and
never a giving?

Judaism weighs most heavily upon this latter individual. He will often
deny his race, we regret to say, and play for the affection of members
of other races. But they somehow will discover his "misfortune" and
despise him all the more for hiding it. All this prejudice, he
explains, is due to "those other Jews." If they would only learn
modesty from the gentile,--not talk so, not walk so, and not keep
hanging around the professor's desk after the lecture with all sorts
of fool questions,--why then, there would be no more of "this
prejudice thing" and he could devote his time to more important
problems. (We half suspect those problems would be superficial ones.
We would also perhaps give more heed to his urging us to modesty, if
only the urging were more modest.) He may even become eloquent and
tell us that the Jews do not appreciate the generosities and liberties
of American life, that they ought to forget their old religious
superstitions and realize that in free America we don't need any
religions, for all men are brothers. (Here again we would perhaps give
more heed to his sentiment for its boundless idealism, were we not
afraid it was but a cover for boundless egotism.)

And which brotherly organization, which fraternity do you belong to up
here? We ask, not to criticize those boyish aristocracies but rather
to embarrass him, we confess, for we know he must name a Jewish
fraternity or none at all. The other fraternities are indeed
fraternal--but not to Jews, not even to those who would get away from
Judaism. We speak without malice of this individual; we regret only
that he gets so little out of the great American tradition. The
raiment becomes him b