540                   A. M. E. REVIEW.

called upon to play in the solution of this tragic problem. To
preserve the Jews, whether as a race or as a religious commun-
ity, is no part of the world's duty, nor would artificial preserva-
tion preserve anything of value.  Their salvation must come
from themselves, though they may well expect at least such
sympathyand help as Italy or Greece found in their struggles
for regeneration.  The world's duty is only to preserve the
ethical ideals it has so slowly and laboriously evolved, largely
under Jewish inspiration.  Civilization is not called upon to
save the Jews, but it is called upon to save itself.  And by its
treatment of the Jews it is destroying itself. If there is no
justice in Venice for Shylock, then alas for Venice.
               "If you deny me, fie upon your law!
               There is no force in the decrees of Venice."
   Even from the economic standpoint Russia with her vast
population of half-starved peasants is wasting one of her most
valuable assets by crippling Jewish activity, both industrially
and geographically. In insisting that Russia abolish the
Jewish Pale I am pleading for the regeneration of Russia, not
of the Russian Jew. A first-class Ballet is not sufficient to
constitute a first-class people. Very truly said Roditchev, one
of the Cadet leaders, "Russia cannot enter the temple of free-
dom as long as there exists a Pale of Settlement for the Jews."
But abolition of the Pale and the introduction of Jewish equal-
ity will be the deadliest blow ever aimed at Jewish nationality.
Very soon a fervid Russian patriotism will reign in every Ghetto
and the melting-up of the race will begin. But this absorption
of the five million Jews into the other hundred and fifty mil-
lions of Russia constitutes the Jewish half of the problem. It
is the affair of the Jews.
   That the preservation of the Jewish race or religion is no
concern of the world's is a conclusion which saves the honest
Jew from the indignity of appealing to it. For with what face
can the Jew appeal ad misericordiam  before he has made the
effort to solve his own problem? There is no reason why a race
any more than a man should be safe-guarded against its own
unwisdom, and its own sefishness.  No race can persist as
an entity that is not ready to pay the price of persistence.




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 2

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  02
Date:  10/1911