The Ghetto

Now what did I tell you, you silly old man!

Silly old man! Not at all. An affectionate father, deeply troubled about his only child—sorely vexed because too many things have gone wrong at once! Would you have him sit still and not open his mouth? Oh no, Sachel is not the man to let things take care of themselves!

It is true! What does she know about the feelings of a parent? Ah, I would mould things now, Rabbi, but times have changed. Once, as it is written in the Books of Moses, a son must obey his father, or he would be stoned to the gates of the city! That was right!

It was right then; but, as you so very rightly observe, Sachel, times have changed; and when one throws stones now, one must pay for the windows. So, instead of stoning Rafael, we shall marry him to Rebecca; and in time you shall be the grandfather of a boy; a boy, I say! Ha, ha, ha! You don’t laugh enough, Sachel!

I cannot laugh! I tell you there is a serpent in my house. This girl—this Rosa, I could swear that she — —

Shame! shame! I won’t hear about it! It was for you that I was preaching, but you do not listen when you come to synagogue. Of course, you were thinking about Rafael. You leave him to me. He shall marry Rebecca, do you hear? In such matters as this you are a child!

He shall do my bidding, or he shall go in rags! ’Sh!

Why, it’s Rafael! What an unexpected pleasure!

It is a long time since I have seen you.

Daniel and Samson are liars! But if it were true, I would — —

Tut, tut! What’s the matter? Mumbling about business matters on the Sabbath! Well, well, how you’ve shot up since— since — —

Since last I came to the synagogue I have had time to grow.

I pass that over. I don’t look upon you as gone astray. You are seeking for the light, and when you find it, whether you think so now or not, you will find it there! [Indicating the synagogue.] Just as when you find happiness you will find it here.

In the house of Aaron?

With your father, and at home, under the roof where your mother lived. Ah! what a fine career is open to you in following out your father’s business! It isn’t every boy who has such opportunities!

Business! You in your synagogue—you ought to be the enemy of business. You ought to preach it to our people without end that their life of morning, noon, and night, and not a breath drawn but for sake of gain, is a sickly mockery of life, and that it is against the law of Moses!

Another prophet! Business, gain, contrary to the laws of Moses! Go on, my boy! Let us have the sermon you would preach! Ha, ha! Go on! Now I shall learn something.

Have I not read in the Book of Moses how the people divided the soil, and there was no one who had more than another; and there was no grinding of the poor, and there was never any selling of lands: “For mine is the soil, and you are but strangers unto Me!” And among them was not business despised? How did Jacob speak of Issachar?

Bravo! “A strong ass,” eh? Ha, ha, ha! You’ve been deep in the Pentateuch. Where will you find such inspirations in any other Sacred Book? But you should read them under guidance, you foolish boy!

Under guidance! There is a guidance born in me that takes me where I am, and I do not fear! It is a guidance that lives to-day; it is not a guidance dug from the bones of a dead people of the dim past! I know. You are going to say that Solomon did business, that David did business. I don’t care if they did! And you tell me that I skim the surface, that I miss the spirit of the Jewish faith; and I tell you that it is this spirit that my soul revolts against—the spirit that holds our people in chains—the chains of the Ghetto!

Ghetto! There is no Ghetto! We do not live in Ghettos now, my boy! Preposterous!

And now you are skimming the surface, and you will not see the truth that underlies! You say there is no Ghetto! Could I ever play with any but another Jew when I was a child? Could I ever eat with a Christian? Was I ever taught by any but a Jew? No, you have taught me to despise the Christians!

They persecuted us for ages; they have not taught us to admire them.

They have ceased to persecute us, they have taken down the stones of the Ghetto walls, but still we are taught to despise them; still we try to think ourselves the chosen people. We set ourselves as a race against them and the universal brotherhood of man. This is the proof of it: our women we marry, theirs we pay!

That is not true; it’s a shameful calumny!

I can pick you ten young men to prove it—out of those that heard you preach to-day!

How dare you say such a thing! Are you a Jew no longer? Am I speaking to a Christian?

You are speaking to a Jew who claims to-day and tomorrow as his own—not yesterday! A Jew who believes that it shall not be asked if a man worship in a synagogue or in a cathedral, in a chapel or in a mosque, or in silence and solitude under God’s own dome! And the falsehood you have brought me up by; our hatred and our bigotry which keeps us away from them, our cursed earthiness which keeps them away from us—I loathe it all—I hate it—I will fight it as long as I live! I am a Jew—a Jew of today and to-morrow; and every man whom God created in his image is my brother!

The boy’s gone daft! Daft!

No, not that; he’s been poisoned—poisoned by this damned creature in my house! She’s his — —

Be still! I lost my self-control—set me a better example. I — I—it is many years—indeed, I may say I have never listened to such a tirade! Let me tell you, you will live to regret what you have said here in the very shadow of the synagogue. I will not treat it seriously; I cannot! That you—a mere boy who has gobbled a bit here and a bit there from the Book of Law, should have the monstrous effrontery to—to — —

Father, are you ready to walk home now?

I—I am not rested yet.

From the sermon?

Ha, ha! [Pokes The Rabbi.] You don’t laugh enough!

As I was about to say, when I was interrupted, you have said that Rafael wants to go away. Then let him go! When he comes back he’ll have a different view of his people. Do you fear he won’t come back; not come back to his home—to his blind old father? You are foolish, Sachel! Drive him away, and he’ll find that there is no home in the world like a Jewish home—that a clock ticks nowhere in the world as it does by one’s own hearth. Ah, the Christians don’t know what family life is; they have nothing to compare with ours. It is because we stay by one another, because we are sober and temperate and industrious and respectful of our elders!

He ought to marry; then he would appreciate that.

Marry? Who spoke of marrying? He doesn’t want to marry yet; I wouldn’t have him marry yet. Don’t try to hurry Rafael; he’s not the fellow to stand it. My dear friends, when the time comes, and a strong, fine-looking young fellow makes up his mind that — —

It is a good idea. I have been thinking of marriage all day.

Eh, you have? Now what sort of thoughts did you have? I suppose you thought I would object, eh?

But he doesn’t know any girls. He never looks at them!

I know one.

Indeed! And whom, pray?

Aaron’s daughter—Rebecca. Do you know her?

This is where she lives; and she came to see us yesterday, with her father.

Indeed! What did he come for?

To sell some wool! She’s a fine girl, I should say.

A delicate person—a retiring person—a shrinking person!

Oh, not too much so.

Rafael [As if disappointed.]:

Then you think she is not so sensitive a creature?