Book Reviews
DOCTOR KOHN.
A Question or Honor: A Tragedy of the Present Day, in Four Acts. By MAx NorpaAu, translated by Mary J. Stafford. (Luce & Com- nanv. Baston. 1907.)
n MasBBL EEE FE 4 This translation of Dr. Nordau’s play of “Dr. Kohn,” ıs fairly well done. It will serve to bring before American ‚readers a drama of unusual theatrical power, and of great significance as a revelation of German life. German emancipation has not brought the Jew nearer to the German in spite of a willingness to merge with the general culture. It has simply transferred the problem to German circles, and brought out the irreconcilable differences that separate the races. The willingness of the Jew to assimilate is not questioned, but the willingness to let them assimilate is in doubt, Dr. Nordau has brought out, with deep insight, the reaction of the Jew when the facts are brought home to him. The Moser who hides under the skirts of an impecunious, but proud Quincke family, soon discovers that in order to remain assimilated he must give up everything his personal dignity bids him retain. The drama might well be called the Tragedy ot Councillor Moser, for in reality, it is his life which comes to a tragic ending.
This play will serve a good purpose if Zionists will’ see to its being read by our friends, the enemy.
ZANGWILL'S COMEDIES.
GHETTO COMEDIES. By Israel Zangwill. Macmillan's.
Zangwill has written these sketches for Jews, and the Jews are not at all thankful
to him for showing up their faults and foibles in a satirical manner. That is, these Jews whose skins are as thin as their heads are thick will find objection in these remarkably true pictures of present conditions among our pcople. Like the Jewish spirit, the tone of these sketches is far from restful; one feels as if the writer had been on a jaunt through the world, and that his pen shook as he wrote; but what Zangwill sacrifices of art, he makes up for in intellectual interest. Though the sketches are in a few instances incomplete and serve the one purpose of giving the writer an opportunity to scintillate, in none of them is there a lack of interest, either dramatic or intellectual. People have been praising Zangwill for his “Children of the Ghetto,” ın which he attempted to give a picture of Jewish life for the edification of the goyim, but in these “Ghetto Comedies” he has been writing for the Jews, for their own instruction and inspiration, but few of the Jewish reviews of the book are as laudatory as those which greeted his first effort. “Let the goy applaud you, then our praise shall not be lacking,” seems to be the motto of the complacent elements of our people.
We regret to announce the death by drowning, in Germany, of the wife and daughter of Dr. Alexander Wolf, a member of the Greater Actions Committee, and a prominent Zionist of St. Louis. Mrs. Wolf went to the rescue of her daughter, and herself met with death in the water. Dr. Wolf has been spending the summer in Germany, where he went to pursue his medical studies, and he is prostrated by the catastrophe. He has the sympathy of every Zionist in his breavement.