Page:You Gentiles (1924) by Maurice Samuel 1895-1972.djvu/139



us have done with recollections and recriminations," you say. "You have spoken hitherto of conditions which are vanishing: of orthodox Jews mostly, of old customs and emotions which are dying out. You yourself are not an orthodox Jew; nor are we medieval Christians. We see the Jew gradually modernizing. He becomes more like us—more difficult to recognize as a Jew. Granting there are occasional relapses, we are still moving toward real tolerance. The present age is not like any age before it, and the modern Jew is not like any Jew before him. You have lasted two thousand years in exile—you will not last for ever. All those ceremonials of yours are breaking down: your discipline, your defensive mechanisms. At least in America, England, France, Germany, 135