The Sentinel, v.048 no. 02, 1922

              THE SENTINEL
9 HERE are .several stores where
lyou might possibly purchase hats
shirts and, neckwear, for men; suits un-derwear,
gloves and hosiery for women
where dependable quality
^ absolute up-to-dateness
andfair prices prevail
But this is one store where you
can be sure of it.
Ambrose . Kri er
Wilson Avenue at Kenmore Chicago
Cocoant Gro ve"
63RD AND DREXEL AVENUE
A Spot of Unusual Natural Beauty
DINE
AT COCOANUT GROVE AND EXPERIENCE THE
JOY OF THE BEST OF FOODS, EXPERTLY
PREPARED, COURTEOUSLY AND INTEL-LIGENTLY
SERVED, AT MODEST COST
DANCE
AMID BEAUTIFUL TROPICAL SURROUNDINGS,
TO EXQUISITE MUSIC BY
Al Armer &Morrie Young's Orchestra
FAMED FOR SUPER-RHYTHM
NO COVER CHARGE
CHICAGO ad osier KANSAS CITY
for Witmen and Oiildren
FACING THE FUTURE
By Dr. Martin A. Meyer, Rabbi Temple Emanu-El.
Mankind is nothing other than the
embodiment of the conception under-lying
the old Roman deity, Janus, who,
you will remember, was possessed of
two faces, one looking forward, the
other "backwards. Man is the product
of all the forces of the past. Nothing
in the line of our descent, pre-human
and human, but has left its lasting
impress upon our humanity. Nothing
has been wasted in that process which,
we are told, began with the first bit of
protoplasm in the primordial slime and
has continued through the countless
ages down to the present moment. We
are held in thrall by it all, though at
the same time we have been blessed
with the wondrous power of freedom,
of adapting ourselves to the universe
wherein we live and commanding it for
our human ends. Face to face with
the forces of nature, man set himself
to the task of accommodating them to
him and himself to them, and harnes-sing
them to his will. This is probably
the distinguishing characteristic of
man, truly divine, which has raised
him above all other creatures on earth.
It is this which has made him, man,
divine if you will, and "freed him from
that bondage to nature in which all
other creatures on earth are held."
That past is written indelibly on his
soul and mind.
Every historical experience is not
only left as a guide by which man may
determine his way in the light of such
experience, but leaves its traces deep
upon the minds of each people which
have gone that way. Englishman and
German, Greek and Frenchman, Cath-olic
and Jew have thereby each devel-oped
his own soul, so to speak. Human-ity
in all its variety has not only the
common inheritance of the past, but
each division its own particular aspects.
The greater the people, the greater
that diversity. Such folk can not dif-ferentiate
themselves. We speak of
the accomplishments of the race or of
the races. This is what it is because
of the efforts of the unknown myriads
who have been the creators of the
future. It is the result of the unsel
fishness of those who worked not only
for themselves but for their progeny
immediate and distant. This may not
have always been conscious on their
part, so to have given themselves to
the larger good; it seems to be every
part of the plan of the universe that
man instinctively-to use that much
abused word-gave himself, even in
moments of selfishness, to this larger
end. But man, and least of all the
Jew, can not afford to lose himself in
the mere contemplation of the past.
But too well do we remember the tale
of Lot's wife in Scripture record, who
turned to look again at the burning
cities of the plain and was changed
into a pillar of salt. We can well
understand that her woman's heart
yearned for the old home, forgetful
in the parting of its vileness and its
wickedness. But even as she obeyed
her Woman's heart, she lost her greater
human possibility. We need not worry
about the past. It will take care of
itself in our life. We can not forget
it eves if we would, for it has the
impish habit of asserting itself at the
most unexpected times and occasions.
It is well that we should know its story,
feel its inspiration and value its ex-perience
to light us on our way down
the corridors of time as we make our
way into the future.
But better than the contemplation
of the past, more human in its pos-sibilities-
for the animal, too, must
feel the same urge of its past we hu-mans
do of ours-is the contemplation
of the future and the molding of the
present in the light of the yet un-known.
We may laugh at the dreamer,
despise the visionary and underesti-mate
the prophet. But the prophets
and dreamers make us whatever more
we may be and whatever difference
we may be than the beast of the field.
Its along these two lines of adapting
ourselves to nature and nature to our-selves
and the pre-visioning of life that
mankind most has asserted its human-ity.
Everything may be said to depend
upon these two things for the develop-menrit
of the race. Everything depends
upon our attitude towards that future.
Our individual old age will be deter-mined
by our own attitude towards
age. If we share the ebullient optim-ism
of Browning's "Ibn Ezra," the
chances are all in favor of our finding
in our old age that broadness of view-point
and depth of understanding and-ripeness
of spirit that makes the poet
and his hero so engaging. If we
anticipate decay, physical and mental,
crabbedness of spirit and jejuneness
of mind, it will come to us.
The pessimists of the race, the cala-mity
howlers of America, the cowardly
in Israel are all doing their best to
bring the calamities which they fore-see,
and which they would avoid, down
upon their respective groups. If ever
in the history of the world there was
need for optimism, for active con-structive
optimism, it exists at the
present time. We are not thinking of
that stupid spirit which sees this as the
best of all possible worlds, which, bury-ing
its head in the sands of its own
conceit, proclaims that all is well for-ever
and ever. -But we think in terms
of that optimism which recognizes the
weaknesses of the present and insists
upon the possibilities for better things
in the days that are to come. We are
thinking in terms of that type of
optimism which finds in the shortcom-ings
of today a challenge to the highest
striving and the noblest living, which
sees in each rebuff an invitation to
betterment and in each human disap-pointment
an opportunity for mortal
improvement. It is an' optimism which
is based upon an undying faith in the
world, in man and in God, an optimism
which faces facts and despite- them
reaches out for the higher and the
better.
Maybe a series of facts of Jewish
history might be well contemplated and
accepted as the basis for such optim-ism.
After all the Jew is the undying
optimist of time. Not a decade of his
history but has made demands upon
him so to live and to think. From the
cowardly and indifferent from within
and from the enemy from without he
has been beset at every stage of his-tory
by serious foemen. We have lost
both by persecution and defection
many whose wisdom and power should
have brought us to ever' greater,
heights. Yet the spirit and the mind
of the masses of the people have never
failed. Despite losses and defections
we have contributed at each stage of
our development to the higher values
of the world and of ourselves a wise as to continue in such our faith in our-selves
and our destiny and our God.
From the day of the ancient patri-arch
down to the present moment the
thought that God will provide has
justified itself in our experience. 'It
has been the basis of our optimism,
the very fundament of our life. We
face the future, even when the clouds
are blackest and the storm most threat-ening,
with courage and with hope.
And that hope is yet undimmed in the
heart of the faithful, that the day will
come, that it is coming on which there
will be peace within and without.
I know that a great many Jews are
in despair at the present 'moment.
They are looking at the future with
little of hope and much of fear. They
hear the reports of active Jew-mania
from many quarters of the world.
They do not like it, inasmuch as it
affects their physical comfort and their
material well being. They are ready
to give up what they think is an un-equal
and an unfair struggle. But the
Bellocs and the Fords and the Chester-tons
are after all worth while if only
that the facts shall confound them and
(Concluded on page 46)
There' is a
distinctive
Foster shoe
for every
occasion
AFoster Collegiate Oxford
Produced in black Norwegian grain leather
with panels of grey elkskin and in tan with
beige panels.
Appropriate FOSTER wool hosiery
F. E. FOSTER & COMPANY.
115 NORTH WABASH AVENUE
and The Foster Drake Hotel Shop