Part 5
Besides, the American Government is the only government of the Great Powers that never pursued any hostile policy against the Jews, because its very establishment was based on emancipation from medievalism. Of all the powers which have now come to recognize the Jewish nationality and its right to a homeland, America is, we dare say, the only one that is inspired solely by motives of pure idealism. For America surely has no political interests or ambitions in the Near East and is led only by the unselfish wish that the Jews, after a life of exile of two thousand years, should return to a normal national life and enter the great family of nations on equal terms. In saying this, we by no means wish to imply that the other great powers who have recognized the Jewish nationality have done so from political motives only, and that politics only were instrumental in bringing about their decision to help the Jews establish a homeland in Palestine. We are, moreover, convinced that England and Italy, Russia, and probably France, which, as we have been informed, are now taking a very favorable attitude toward the establishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, have done so because they recognized that the Jews are a people in themselves and that they are entitled to be given the possibility of living a normal national life. These powers, inspired by noble motives, now say to the Jews, "Go and build up a national life of your own and we shall help you. Go and be Jews as much as you like and we shall not interfere with your Jewish affairs and your national happiness."
We are, however, afraid that many Jews themselves misunderstand or misconstrue the meaning of the decision of these powers. If the Jews go to Palestine, they must live there with the object of building up in the country of their forefathers a new Jewish life and establishing a Jewish homeland there; they must do it as Jews only, not as Russians or Germans, not Britons, Austrians or Italians, but as Jews. They must consider themselves an object in themselves. They must, first of all, look after their own affairs and their own happiness. While always having the welfare of humanity in mind, they must not consider themselves the protégé of a certain state or race or nation, and they must not be under the impression that, when given the possibility of living a national life of their own, they are called upon to defend interests other than their own.
No British or American statesman believes that the establishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine is possible without the consent of all the great powers, irrespective of their present mutual relations, and as soon as one power or group of powers finds out that the Jewish Palestine is not primarily looked upon as the homeland of the Jewish nation, but the political stronghold of another power or group of powers, there will be no unanimity in regard to the Jewish Palestine when peace is discussed; and without unanimity of the powers there will be no Jewish Palestine, because no belligerent power will continue the war one day longer, only because it is anxious to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. But as a matter of fact the powers which, led by noble motives, have expressed their willingness to favor the establishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, have only uttered a noble desire. There can be no talk of anxiety on their part, but only of consent to permit us to rebuild our nation. These powers, because they are not led by motives of war politics only, but by political foresight and idealism, do not want us to serve other purposes than our own, because they know that unless we look only after our own affairs we will not succeed.
For the time being, the Jewish people are divided into various groups, each group serving the country in which it lives to the best of its ability. Today there is not, and cannot be, a supreme Jewish leadership, a Jewish national assembly or a general Jewish congress. Each and every Jewish group is entitled to work for the future of the Jewish people under given conditions only. The English Jews can ask their government to do something for the Jewish cause and so can the French, Italian, Russian, German, Austrian and American Jews; every one of the respective governments can extend its sympathy and help, can promise its help in establishing the Jewish homeland in Palestine only to the Jews of their respective lands, but not to the Jewish people at large, for the Jewish people are today divided into hostile camps, just as is civilized humanity.
Our assimilationists in every country, here as well as in Germany, in England as well as in France and Austria, have been telling their respective governments that those Jews who aspire to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine are disloyal citizens and are conspiring against their own country. In England and in America, where the governments follow a broad-minded and liberal policy, no attention is paid to such hypocritical talk. But in Austria, Germany and Turkey, conditions are different. There the influential assimilationists are still _personae gratae_ with their governments, and since they are capable of every crime, if they can only see their way clear to break Jewish nationalism, they will no doubt lose no time in pointing out to their governments that Jewish nationalists, though they displayed heroism on the battle-field, are not loyal to their countries and are crossing the plans of the Central Powers in the Near East. They will tell the governments that the Jewish nationalists are conspiring with the enemies of their governments against the interests of the Central Powers in the Orient; the result may be that the government of the Central Powers, listening to this misleading talk, may embark on a Jewish policy opposing that of the Entente and may start to persecute Zionists and all who sympathize with Jewish nationalism, thus making the life of eastern European Jewry, now greatly under the control of the Teutonic Powers, still more bitter.
Therein lies the danger of our misconstruing the high-minded declaration of the British Cabinet. The statesmen of the Entente Powers certainly do not wish to imperil the existence of European Jewry, nor do they wish to have their policy misconstrued by the Central Powers. These statesmen want the liberation of small nationalities and not their oppression. These statesmen also know that if the Jews in the new Palestine will not be, first of all, pro-Jewish, there will not be the Jewish Palestine which they wish to see established. By misconstruing the declaration of the British Government, we are implicitly acting against the spirit and noble motives of this declaration and, needless to say, we are acting against our own elemental interests. A Jewish Palestine is only possible with the consent of all the powers, and since it is desirable that it should be a product of the consensus of opinion among all the powers, every act on our part must be avoided that may create the impression that in the anxiety to build up a national homeland in Palestine the Jewish people are becoming political tools of any power or group of powers. This will, in the end, spell ruin for us and might, besides, endanger the life of millions of our people in central and in eastern Europe. We have been told on good Zionist authority in this country, that the American Government, appreciating the present complicated international situation, is anxious to remain in the background with regard to the establishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine, though it is a noble and unselfish champion of the cause. We wish that the Jews everywhere would take an example from the wisdom and forbearance displayed by the American Government.
THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
No one has characterized the Jews better than did Mohammed when he called the Jews The People of the Book. In fact, nearly all that the Jews have achieved during their existence as a people they have achieved in the domain of literature. Even at the time when the Jews lived in Palestine and were at the height of their power, their achievements in the field of practical civilization were relatively poor. When the Jews disappeared as a sovereign nation from among the nations of the earth they did not leave behind them a highly developed civilization as did ancient Rome, nor did they leave behind them a highly developed science and art, as did the Greeks, but they did leave a book that subsequently became _the_ book of humanity. The economic structure of ancient Judea was primitive, and only the tribes living on the borderland and communicating with the peoples across the border succeeded in developing trade and commerce. The interior of Judea was an agricultural country and its inhabitants pious and simple-minded people without ambition to create values of civilization and without pretence. Just as the economic structure of ancient Judea was primitive and simple, so was the political fabric.
The ancient Jewish state never succeeded in entirely subduing the individual and making him respect the supreme authority of the State. The prophets repeatedly exhorted the people to abide by the law and to respect the authority of the State. This would go to indicate that, even in the best days ancient Judea has seen, individualism was supreme and the authority of the State thus considerably weakened. We have no record of the ancient Jews ever having built great roads, or ever having been a great seafaring nation, or having done other things that would testify to their creative genius in the field of civilization.
But, on the other hand, they have created great books and have always been active in the field of literature, as have no other people on earth. It may be that their literary genius and activity absorbed all their energies, so that the literary values they created were created at the expense of the creation of values of civilization. From time immemorial to the present day, the Jews, first as a nation and then as individuals, have been busily engaged in writing books, and, besides the Bible--that became _the_ book of humanity and that has influenced the mind of humanity more than any other book in world literature--they have written a number of books at various times and in various languages which had a striking effect on the human mind and were instrumental in shaping and framing it.
The appearance of Philo of Alexandria puzzled and amazed the entire ancient world. The Greeks themselves considered him a wonder and expressed their admiration for him by saying that they did not know whether Plato Philonized or Philo Platonized. How Philo's writings have influenced the course of spiritual development in Europe and how they contributed shape and form to the philosophy of Christianity is known to everyone who is acquainted with the history of the European mind. Christian authors have often asserted that part of the success of St. Paul is to be ascribed to his literary genius, his striking style and to the concise form of his literary expression. And how can we think of Christianity without Philo and St. Paul, though the former did not consciously contribute anything to the makeup of Christianity?
When, during the chaos following the disintegration of the Roman Empire, the Jews disappeared from the arena of European literature, the best Jewish minds were busy creating books and literary styles, which remain unique to the present day. We refer to the Talmud and Midrash or, to be more precise, to Halakhah and Hagadah. The day will come when European scholarship will pay more attention to these two marvelous books. A famous German scholar, Professor Strack, declared a few years ago that "for the last four hundred years the European peoples have studied the Bible and have worked very hard to understand it. Now, since we are better acquainted with the Bible, we will have to take up the study of the Talmud and the Midrash. Only then will we understand Judaism." Whatever place the Talmud may hold in the history of law and no matter how it is valued by great jurists, it is certainly unique in its literary style. The Talmudic style may or may not be a beautiful one, but it is certainly peculiar, striking and original to the core. Literature is first of all style; what is true of the originality of the Talmudic style is also true of the strikingly original style of the Midrash.
At the time when the style of these two books was created the greatest representative of European literature of that period, St. Augustine, appeared and gave to Christian humanity the best book of its time, the _Confessiones_. The _Confessiones_ is a striking book powerfully written. Its style is both soft and forceful; because of that it became one of the best books of the Church. Wherein, however, lies the secret of that book? What made it a success? It is the attempt to imitate the Bible, just as Nietzsche's _Zarathustra_ took up the style of the Bible and became the best-known book of the nineteenth century. But how does St. Augustine's _Confessiones_ compare with the Bible? In certain places it is an artificial imitation of the Bible, pure and simple, or, to be more accurate, a poor imitation of the Psalms; only very rarely does Augustine reach the height of the true Biblical style. Because St. Augustine succeeded in imitating the style of the book which we created he became the literary master-mind of Europe of his time. The entire literature of confessions from Augustine to Rousseau and from Rousseau to Tolstoy has its inspiration in the Bible; as long as humanity will produce poets who think in terms of eternity and who feel at one with the cosmos they will have to fall back on the Bible, as did Dante and Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe and Nietzsche.
Just as our national book, the Bible, became the inexhaustible source of inspiration to the great representatives of world literature, just so have many books written by Jews within the last five hundred years influenced and affected the European mind. The books of Spinoza in the seventeenth, of Mendelssohn in the eighteenth, of Heinrich Heine and Karl Marx in the nineteenth and those of Bergson in the twentieth century were all cornerstones in the realm of the literature of modern times. Only recently has attention been called by the admirers of Spinoza to the exquisite and truly artistic style of the lonely Jew of Amsterdam. Mendelssohn was certainly not a first-rate philosopher, but he is considered by his admirers and opponents alike a first-rate writer and literary master-mind; next to Lessing he was the greatest German stylist of his time.
The deep impression that Karl Marx made on his contemporaries we understand less by reading his minor writings. As an economist of genius he could appeal to a small community of scholars, but as a literary man of rare qualities, as a powerful writer who wrote with blood and venom, he succeeded in greatly infuriating his opponents and enthusing his adherents.
Heine has been called by Nietzsche the wonder of world literature. The conservative Germans, the Prussians especially, hate him thoroughly, but they cannot help singing his "Lorelei" and "Die zwei Grenadiere" when they feel truly German or truly patriotic. This Düsseldorf Jew, who received a convent education and who, according to his own testimony, did not master the German language before he was sixteen, became _the_ lyrical poet of the German nation and discovered the tune of the German soul.
Five decades after Heine's death there appears a Polish Jew in the firmament of French literature who acquires for himself the name of the _maître écrivain_. The French, with their great literary and artistic traditions and with their own exquisite literary taste, are not so hasty in bestowing upon one of their writers the honor of the title of _maître écrivain_. But they lost no time in giving that honor to the Polish Jew, Bergson. Educated Frenchmen agree that even if all the philosophic teachings of Bergson should prove to be false or should be refuted he would nevertheless remain a great figure in the gallery of French literature. He may die as a philosopher, but he will remain immortal as a litterateur.
We have mentioned only the principal great books written within the last three hundred years, which have caused true revolutions in the literary world and for which most other peoples have no match. If an historian of literature were to study the subject of the influence of the Jews on world literature, especially of modern times, he would have to write not one, but five volumes, and even then he would not exhaust the subject, not because of the multitude of the books the Jews have written, but because of the creative values of these books and of the influence exercised on their contemporaries. It is a remarkable fact that the best piece of German literary eloquence was written by a Jew, Ludwig Boerne, and every German schoolboy has to know his piece of eloquence, "Denkrede ueber Jean Paul," by heart. Of Israel Zangwill the English say that he comes nearest to Dickens. Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, the offspring of a Galician Jew and a relative of the late Graf von Aehrenthal, today holds such a unique position in German literature that even the wildest anti-Semites do not dare to attack him. The French Academy has recognized another German Jew, Ludwig Fulda, as the best German metrician of his time. And there are such powerful publicists as Maximilian Harden and Max Nordau, such men as Wasserman and Schnitzler, who have contributed to the literary glory of the Jewish people in recent times.
The Aryan peoples will seldom concede that the Jews are one of the most capable literary peoples that have ever lived, but there are many signs that would go to indicate that they are fully conscious of it. The French never forget to mention the fact that the mothers of Rabelais and Montaigne were Jewesses and there is a German folksong that begins with the verse:
"Er hat wie Börne geschrieben Er hat wie Heine gedichtet."
The humorous papers in Italy, when taking Luigi Luzzatti to task, are always cartooning him as a little Jew buried in books, and it is a current expression in Italy today that "he eats books like Luzzatti."
A Jew and a book are nearly synonymous. We were and we are to the present day a bookish people. The book has been until now our greatest glory. For thousands of years we have been dreamers and writers. The book was our shield and our weapon and the only outlet for our energies. Now it seems that a great and radical change is going to take place in our lives. We may and will probably never abandon the book altogether, but we are on the verge of becoming an active people, instead of being solely a bookish people.
THE FUTURE OF THE JEWISH RELIGION IN THE DIASPORA
Preceding and during the religious crisis in France, which resulted in the Separation Law, a great number of books on the future of religion appeared in Paris. The largest number of writers denied that there was a future for religion, maintaining that modern economic conditions are undermining the spiritual and religious basis of the life of the masses. A minority, upholding Clericalism, foresaw a promising future for religion.
A similar discussion on the future of the Jewish religion arose with the advent of Zionism. In the first decade of our century scores of books appeared in Europe, dealing with the nature and future of the Jewish religion. As in France, during the crisis, so in European Jewry, during the inception of Zionism, two distinct views were held as to the future of the Jewish religion. One view saw that Judaism could hope for no future in the Diaspora and that, if only to avert the destruction of the Jewish religion, a homeland in Palestine was needed. The other view was that Judaism, being non-political in nature, would continue to exist indefinitely and that, as a matter of fact, it was created for a Diaspora existence.
Today, when the Jewish people is once more at the parting of the ways, the same question comes up again. Those who oppose Zionism hastily affirm that the Jewish religion not only does not need a homeland in Palestine, as a source of new inspiration, but that the very idea of this homeland is incompatible with the Jewish religion. The spokesmen of Zionism who, as a rule, do not worry much over questions of theology and religion, have so far failed to take a definite attitude towards the rabbis who oppose Zionism on religious grounds.
We think it high time to approach this question and to try to answer it from a purely objective point of view.
Before we ask whether the Jewish religion has any future in the Diaspora, let us see whether it has had any development in the past.
It is known to every intelligent Jew that since the appearance of Maimonides, with the exception of the pathological phenomenon of "Sabbathai Zevi" and of Hassidism, the Jewish religion has not developed in the least. The rabbinic literature of the last 800 years consists mainly of legal responses to which nobody will attribute religious significance, because religion and legalism are two different things. The rabinnic Jew has the same views on God, on the relations between God and man, and on immortality, as prevailed among Jews 800 years ago. Even the synagogue and the Jewish ritual have undergone few changes in this period. Many attribute this fact of religious stagnation to the predominant legal element in the Jewish religion, while others maintain that, even without this element, the Jewish religion would not have undergone changes because of its existence in the Diaspora. Religion, like any other phase of spiritual life, must draw from life itself and if the source is polluted stagnation must set in.
Many people seek to prove that the Jewish religion is capable of development in the Diaspora, and as proof they point to Hassidism. But even they must agree that Hassidism itself failed to develop and that it resulted finally in a form of Judaism which is objectionable even on æsthetic grounds. Hassidism, which claims to have a greater freedom of movement than Mithnagdism, is today even more stagnant than Mithnagdism. In addition, it is questionable whether the pantheistic element in Hassidism is altogether compatible with the traditional Jewish conception of God. All in all, Hassidism affords no proof that the Jewish religion has developed in the last 800 years. It would be no exaggeration to say that ever since Jewish religious philosophy chose the path of Aristotelianism, it has been favored only with the slightest development.
One must bear in mind that in the past the Jewish religion, though more persecuted than at present, had better chances of development than in our own day. The Gentiles surrounding the Jews lived a more intense spiritual life than is the case today and in addition they thought in terms of religion as the mediaeval philosophers thought _more theologico_. Judaism and Christianity were absolutely separated and regarded each other with hostility. The intense religious feeling of the Middle Ages, the thinking in terms of religion on the part of the Gentile masses, the hostility of the Church to the Synagogue, the isolation of Jewish life and the persecution which must have intensified the religious feeling, were all factors conducive to religious development. However, the fact remains that since Maimonides, the Jewish religion has not undergone notable development.
Is it capable of development in the future?