Title: About Jews
If the statistics are right,
the Jews constitute but one quarter of one per cent of the Human Race.
It suggests a dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way.
Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of;
but he is heard of,
has always been heard of.
He is prominent on the planet as any other people,
and his importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the
smallness of his bulk.
His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science,
art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning
are very out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.
He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all ages;
and has done it with his hands tied behind him.
He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.
The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians rose, filled the planet
with sound and splendor,
then faded to dream stuff and passed away;
the Greeks and Romans followed and made a vast noise,
and they are gone;
other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time,
and they sit in the twilight now, or have vanished.
The Jew saw them all, survived them all,
and is now what he always was,
exhibiting no decadence,
no infirmities of age,
no weakening of his parts,
no slowing of his energies,
no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind.
All things are mortal but the Jew;
all other forces pass,
but he Remains.
What is the Secret of his Immortality ?
Mark Twain,
Harper’s Magazine,
1897