Page:The International Jew - Volume 2.djvu/164

 Russia, Poland, Syria, Arabia or Morocco—they are to be let in no matter who may be kept out.

Note: As one pursues the study of “Jewish rights,” the quality of “exemption” seems to appear in most of them. Nowhere do the Jews proclaim their separateness as a people more than in their unceasing demands that they be treated differently than any other people and given privileges that no other people would dream of asking.

2. The official recognition by City, State and Federal governments of the Jewish Religion.

The Kehillah in its reports describes its efforts to obtain special recognition of Jewish holidays, in some cases going so far as to demand the continuance of pay to public employees who absent themselves at Yom Kippur, at the same time, opposing the continuance of pay to Catholic public employees who desired to observe the chief Lenten days. This is a peculiarly inconsistent form of the demand for “exemption” which has led to some interesting situations, to be dealt with later.

3. The suppression of all references to Christ by City, State and Federal authorities, in public documents or at public gatherings.

Kehillah records show that the Jews of Oklahoma addressed a petition to the convention which formulated the first state constitution, protesting that the acknowledgement of Christ in the instrument would be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. The record also shows that a Jewish rabbi protested against a governor of Arkansas using “a Christological expression” in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation.

4. Official recognition of the Jewish Sabbath.

The educational, cultural, business and industrial life of the United States is regulated with reference to Sunday as the legal day of rest. For over ten years the Kehillah has sought legislative recognition for Saturday. In the absence of official recognition, however, much public business is held up on account of jurors and others refusing to serve on Saturday. Jewish lawyers in the trial of cases are frequently “ill” on Saturdays. There is, of course, no objections to Jews recognizing their own Sabbath. This is their