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CHAPTER III THE MODERN ECONOMIC ORDER Interest in Judaism displaced by the industrial revolution-Traditional values undermined by the new economic order-The high cost of living a Jewtsh life-Interest in the Jewish people eclipsed by class struggle-The middle class also hampered in living a Jewish life. THE economic realities of our day are even more of a challenge to Judaism than the political.' The whole spiritual life of mankind has been upset by t.he machine and the technological economy. Contemporary literature in any country of western civilization is one long witness to the possession of men's minds b} the problem of what to do with spiritual values shattered by the impact -of the machine. If the industrialization of society has had this effect upon peoples and cultures that have remained rooted in their native soils, it is not hard to imagine the effect of that process upon a people and culture that have had no soil since ancient times, and have of late even been compelled to migrate from lands where they had found a temporary asylum. Historians have generally overlooked the case of the Jews as an item in what is commonly designated the "industrial revolution." Yet the Jews might well have served as a classic example of how the economic reorganization that goes by that name has revolutionized human life. The industrial revolution, being a phenomenon of urban life, has affected the Jews more completely and more suddenly than any other people, for the Jews have been almost exclusively city-dwellers. Over seventy percent of the Jews in the United States live in the ten largest cities: No stratum of the Jewish population has at any time escaped the effects of the process. A medieval economy might survive the industrial revolution in outof -the-way places in the Old World, but it could never survive in those centers where Jewish communities were established, not, at least, after the ghetto walls were broken down. The Jew had no 28 THE MODERN ECONOMIC ORDER 29 chance to adapt his Judaism to the new order. As soon as he emerged from the ghetto, he was forced to live on the plane of development established by the modern economic system. As artisan and petty trader, the Jew needed little capital and knew no economic problem other than that of getting enough work. The change from this status to that of manufacturer, merchant, white-collar slave and worker, took place almost overnight. As manufacturer and merchant, the Jew now had to adapt himself to the intricacies and treacheries of the credit system. He had to learn to defend himself against competition, and to adjust himself to a vast complex of commercial relationships whose very vocabulary was until then unknown to him. As a white-collar employee he was caught in precisely the same system, with the added disadvantage that his freedom of economic movement was seriously curtailed, and his independence as a human being much lessened. As a worker he was faced with the constant threat of extortion and exploitation, and had to wage a long battle for the right to forge his only weapon of defence; namely, cooperation with his fellow-workers." The most obvious hindrances to living a Jewish life under the present economic order are those which are due to preoccupation and strain. There is no time for Judaism, and there are no energies left for it. The worker's preoccupation does not only attack it in the physical sense of taking up the time that he might devote to Judaism, but also involves the active substitution of nonJewish or un-Jewish interests for Jewish interests. Thus the economic life requires Jews to cooperate with non-Jews to an immeasurably larger extent than was formerly the case, and in the course of this cooperation the Jews inevitably assimilate the customs and manners of non-Jews. The holidays are striking examples of this. Christmas and Easter have acquired an important industrial significance in recent times, and the industries affected are largely those-the personal-articles industries-in which Jews are heavily involved. The Christmas and Easter holidays have, accordingly , come to be far more important occasions in the lives of many Jews than their own holidays. Although the observance of the Jewish Sabbath and festivals has been rendered difficult or impossible by economic necessity, under normal conditions one would not expect to find them actually supplanted by non-Jewish festivals. Yet [18.223.32.230] Project...

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