Making Jewish History*A Strenuous Life is the Jewish Recorder's
By Bernard G. Richards, Author of "The Discourses of Keidansky —"
"WELL," said Keidansky, opening the first discussion since the Rosh Hashanah, "the old year is gone, it has already been reviewed and is as dead as a door-nail, and now we can get to work again."
"What doing?" asked Mr. Zweifel.
“Why, picking ourselves together,” came the answer from the speaker of this and every other occasion. “Picking up the little things, which make up the summaries of our years, which make our history. We must begin to gather up and collect from all the ends of the earth those little incidents and accidents, which make up a record of that which is called Jewish life We must seek out and pick ourselves together again, so that there be some tangible and visible proof of our existence, so that there be, at least, some material which could be put into the review of another year. As far as the making of the history itself ıs concerned, we need not trouble about that. That has long since been taken out of our hands. There are others who are taking care of that. Jewish history is no longer made by Jews—in the old-fashioned way of other peoples. We sometimes write our history and that is about all. Jewish history is a matter of foreign manufacture, it is always made by other than our own people.
“It is made by the Russian Government, the Black Hundreds and its other auxiliaries, it is made by the Government of Roumania and the noble children of the soil and the natives of the cities in that country; it is made in Germany and in Austria by our friends, the anti-Semites, and the French also take a hand in the work. It is made in Persia and Morocco without any conscious anti-Semitism or any of the other benefits of civilization. It is made by all kinds of peoples in all kinds of lands, all of whom are strongly alike and yet strongly unattached
to the Jews. In England and America there are the restrictionists of immigration and in other lands there are other patriots and lovers of humanity. Anyway, our history is ready-made and prepared for us by people who know their business. We ourselves need not trouble about it. All we have to do is to supply a few details here and there, gather ourselves together and then review the situation.
“It all comes in little bits and scraps and our life is spun out of infinitesimal odds and ends, but we have become good gatherers and we pick up everything that is of ourself and much that isn't. We are the historic rag- pickers of the world. From land to land and from clime to clime do we travel in quest of those things which we might call our own. Like Estherka, in the strange legend of the Jewish Queen of Poland, like Estherka in Moshiach’s Zeiten, who wanders about in quest of her eyes, who cannot come before God’s judgment until she has found her eyes, which had been taken out by her Christian lover—like her we wander from place to place in search of that which belongs to our existence. The only difference being that in Estherka a poet touches the tragic, and in our general search for the odds and ends of our Jewishness there is much that is ridiculous.. But then the puzzle of our existence is as to where the farce ends and the tragedy begins. We are good clowns, and like all clowns, good travelers. What excellent travelers we have become! Necessity is the mother of immigration. We have to keep on going. We can have everything in sight provided we ourselves are out of sight. The world is ours providing we keep on moving and step lively.
“It is written that God presents every Zaddick, every saintly Jew with 310 worlds. ‘Three hundred and ten worlds!’ says a batlan, discussing the matter with another Yeshibah