<|endoftext|> resolved that
such marriages "are contrary to the tradition of the Jewish religion
and should therefore be discouraged by the American Rabbinate."
Certainly every mixed marriage is, as one rabbi puts it, "a nail in
the coffin of Judaism," and free mixing would in time end the Jews
as a distinct ethnic strain.
The "hard shell" leaders are urging the Jews in America to cherish
their distinctive traditions and to refrain from mingling their
blood with Gentiles. But the liberal and radical leaders insist that
in this new, ultra-modern environment nothing is gained by holding
the Jews within the wall of Orthodox Judaism. As a prominent Hebrew
labor leader said to me: "By blending with the American the Jew
will gain in physique, and this with its attendant participation in
normal labor, sports, athletics, outdoor life, and the like, will
lessen the hyper-sensibility and the sensuality of the Jew and make
him less vain, unscrupulous and pleasure-loving."
It is too soon yet to foretell whether or not this vast and growing
body of Jews from eastern Europe is to melt and disappear in the
American population just as numbers of Portuguese, Dutch, English,
and French Jews in our early days became blent with the rest of
the people. In any case the immigrant Jews are being assimilated
outwardly. The long coat, side curls, beard and fringes, the
"Wandering Jew" figure, the furtive manner, the stoop, the hunted
look, and the martyr air disappear as if by magic after a brief
taste of American life. It would seem as if the experience of Russia
and America in assimilating the Jews is happily illustrated by the
old story of the rivalry of the wind and the sun in trying to strip
the traveler of his cloak.
CHAPTER VIII
THE LESSER IMMIGRANT GROUPS
The immigration question is a live wire and whoever handles it may
look for tingling surprises. One is a bit startled on realizing that
through the "Bravas" from the Cape Verde Islands we are getting a
new dash of black from the Senegambian tar-brush. How few are aware
that a third of Sicily, from which so many immigrants come, is
chiefly Saracen in stock, so that the heredity of the Bedouin tribes
of Mohamet's time is to be blent with the heredity of our pioneering
breed! Who reflects that, with Chinese and Japanese, Finns and
Magyars, Bulgars and Turks, about a half a million more or less
Mongolian in blood have cast in their lot with us and will leave
their race stamp upon the American people of the future?
THE FINNS
Our 130,000 immigrants from Finland should be counted to the
Finno-Tartar branch of the Mongolian race, although since the dawn
of history the western Finns have intermingled with the Swedes until
their blondness and cast of countenance bespeak the North European.
Nevertheless, here and there among the Finns one notices that
inward and downward slant of the eyes which proclaims the Asiatic.
Ever since the heavy paw of the Russian bear descended on Finland,
these people have been seeping into the United States. They come for
liberty's sake, bring their families and expect to remain. Lovers
of wood and water, they keep to the North and the Northwest and are
willing to tackle the roughest land in order to become independent.
As farmers they are thrifty but, if left to themselves, not
particularly skillful or progressive. Among them survive Old-World
ways, such as reaping by handfuls with a sickle and hauling hay
from the field on a sleigh. With a sharp ax in his hand the Finn
turns artist and will hew out a log house so beautiful as to put an
American pioneer to the blush. One of the first things he builds is
an air-tight bath-house in which he may steam himself by dashing
water on hot stones.
Practically all these immigrants are literate and they are eager
patrons of night schools. In acquiring English they are rather
slow. Their native ability is good, but is not considered to be
equal to that of the Swedes. They are quiet and law-abiding, but
litigious. With his grim intensity of character the Finn cannot bear
to compromise his wrongs, but insists on all he thinks is due him.
It is needless to add that a man with so much iron in his blood is
honest.
Like the drunken Mag