“JUDEN HERAUS”
Dr. Fishberg Pronounces the Doom of the Jew
A contributor to the “Jewish Chronicle” of London, who signs himself “Mentor” is the author of the following criticism of Dr. Fishberg's latest work, which, in addition to its scientific material, also offers a pessimistic criticism of every positive movement among the Jewish people. Dr. Fishberg's book has not met with the unqualified approval of scientific reviewers.
ORIGIN and Destiny—the power and the desire to contemplate these it is which places man above the beasts that perish. “Whence came I?” “Whither do I speed?” are the two questions which in the asking mark off the human from the animal. Indeed, if narrowly examined these two auto-queries form the keystone of religion: they are at the base of most that mankind has produced in literature, of much he has evolved in philosophy, and a great deal of what he has mastered in natural science. Hence it is not to be wondered at that origin and destiny ever prove to be fascinating problems for the human mind. Witness the intense interest educed by some scrap torn from the maw of time by, say, a Flinders Petrie, or the immense value recognized in the semi-mouldered strips rescued by a Schechter from the Cairo Genizah. For, origin and destiny. or the application of them, are as entrancing when applied to peoples as to individuals. A study of the probable origin and possible destiny of Jews in bound to rivet the attention of the thoughtful, and when Dr. Maurice Fishberg, of New York, lays before us a volume on “The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment,” which, he tells us, “is an attempt to present the results of anthropological, demographic, pathological, and sociological investigations” of our people, it is no wonder that he at once secures our profound interest for what he has to say.
In many respects Dr. Fishberg's book is notable. It shows, as I find abounding evidence in its pages that it is intended to show, immense industry, consummate pains, vast literary and statistical resources.
It contains, to be sure, much information of great value, and it sets forth many facts absorbing in their interest for any who desire to study the Jewish people. But, as a whole, the volume is profoundly unsatisfying, unconvincing and disappointing. The material the author has brought together with such assiduousness, excellent as much of it is in itself, he serves up without care, hke the foolish housewife who imagines that the success of a dinner is secured by the profuseness with which the supply of the fare is ordered. Dr. Fishberg forgets there is everything in the ‘deft serving-up of literature and statistics; his book is badly cooked, poorly served, indigestible. He relies so much upon statistics that he ignores obvious facts —and there is often but a distant cousinship substituting between the two. He strains his eves to such an extent in ordet to discover the minute that he has become hitnded to what is as plain to the ordinary nan with the proverbial half-an-eye as the nose upon his face.
The conclusions Dr. Fishberg has, in this fashion, led himself to, concerning the origin of what we know as the Jewish people, are remarkable. He declares that he can find no evidence of a Jewish “race” amongst us, no evidence of a possession of common “somatic habits” and “anatomical peculiarities,” and hence, so he argues, he finds convincing proof that the Jews are not a separate race, that they are a series of amalgams of many races—that, indeed, to put it shortly, it is absurd to call the Jew a Semite. He is, according to Dr. Fishberg, a human mongrel, a nondescript. A study of the Jewish people throughout