A Warsaw dispatch to the Courier says that Rabbi Perlmutter, one of the prominent Orthodox rabbis in Warsaw, and one of the most discussed Jews in Poland, has deemed it advisable and right to deny officially his Jewish nationality, by registering as a Pole, pure and simple. Rabbi Perlmutter, a man of patriarchal appearance, who looks not only not like a Pole of the twentieth century, but who looks like a rabbi of the sixteenth century, and who is one of the most dubious politicians, has registered as a Pole, and not as a Jew. It is hard to say whether this is too funny or too tragic for words, but anyhow it is very queer. Rabbi Perlmutter's action causes us to ask the question whether an Orthodox Jew can be an assimilationist, and we beg to answer this question in the positive.

Assimilationist tendencies are by no means a monopoly of the Reform Jews, 2as many of us imagine. The fact of the matter is that there are among Orthodox Jews, assimilationists, and there are even very pious rabbis who are assimilationists, as there are nationalistic Jews among Reform [Jewry]. Of course, the average assimilationist, whether he be Orthodox or Reform, would not go as far as Rabbi Perlmutter and declare himself as a Pole instead of a Jew. Rabbi Perlmutter's act is plain felony and provocation. For an Orthodox Jew, especially for an Orthodox rabbi, to declare himself a Pole, is the meanest thing a Jew can do. It testifies either [to] a distorted mind or to criminal malice.

But as a rule, the Orthodox Jewish assimilationist is inspired by the same motives, and carried away by the same thoughts as the Reform assimilationist; and if there is a difference between both types of assimilationists, the difference consists in the fact that while the Reform assimilationist is a worldly man and a secular man, the Orthodox assimilationist is a priestly man, whether a rabbi or not, and tends toward clericalism of the meanest and blackest form. Such an Orthodox 3assimilationist thinks that Judaism is religious only, and it is [a] certain type of religion. It is the medieval rabbinic religion as understood by old-fashioned rabbis.

It is the religion of the fanatic or the narrow-minded, and of the inquisitor. We need not tell our readers that this is not real Jewish Orthodoxy, for Jewish Orthodoxy is based on learning and intelligence, and is tolerant and good-natured. The assimilationist Orthodox rabbi or Orthodox layman as a whole, is super-Orthodox, is bigoted, narrow-minded, and he has all the bad and rotten qualities of the priest. To his mind, the Jewish people as a people does not exist at all. There is only a Jewish religion in this world, and this Jewish religion is the only thing that counts and that makes one a Jew. If a Negro, a Chinaman, or an Indian adopts Judaism and observes the Jewish laws, they are in the eyes of such a fanatic, as good and real Jews as are the Jews by race. These bigoted men would not raise a finger to help to preserve the Jewish people from annihilation because it is of no difference to them, who observes the Jewish law, the Jewish religion--Jews 4or Negroes.

As long as there are men and women who live up to the Jewish religion as conceived by them, Judaism is in good shape and they are satisfied. But [this] is not Jewish religion, nor is it Jewish Orthodoxy; it is clericalism plain and simple, and the clericalism that makes up quickly with all the forces of chaos as long as the purpose of clericalism is served, as long as the priest can retain his power.

Rabbi Perlmutter is a Jew of this type--the most unsympathetic type of a Jew living. As a rule, the Orthodox assimilationist, as represented by men like Perlmutter, is, in addition to all his other "edifying" qualities, a politician of a very dubious order. He would sell out his friends as quickly as he sells out his people, to attain his own political ends. These types of rabbis--and we have one of them in Chicago too--are thoroughly immoral, unprincipled, ambitious, glory seekers, and they are only rabbis because it is the easiest way to make a living. Wherever they are they have a demoralizing 5effect on their surroundings, and produce a poisoning atmosphere.

This Rabbi Perlmutter has done more to demoralize Polish Jewry than all the Jewish troublemakers in Poland [put] together, thus proving to be a typical representative of the so-called Orthodox assimilationist, who is a much lower type of humanity, a much lower type of Jew than the Reform assimilationists. But we hope that his official registration as a Pole by nationality, will have a wholesome effect on Polish Jewry, for that will lead to eliminate him and his like from Polish-Jewish life. As long as he could make the Jews believe that he is a Jew, he could exercise an influence to the detriment of the interest of our people; but now that he is a national meshumed [apostate] plain and simple, he will be recognized as an outcast, and his dangerous activities will come to an end.