Part 7
These are expenses caused by the decision of Jews to remain Jews. We maintain that the sums of money paid by Jews who are determined to have the world think them non-Jews, or to have the world forgive them for being Jews, are at least as large.
When, a few years ago, the Jewish millionaire Efrussi died in Paris, the French press without exception paid high tribute to his French patriotism and omitted all mention of his Jewish origin. Efrussi used to spend 2,000,000 francs on French national sports, races, etc. This was also the case with the French Jew, Osiris, who left his fortune of 60,000,000 francs to the French people and French institutions, and 60,000 francs to the Jewish people in the form of a copy of Michael Angelo's Moses erected in the court of the Jewish Teachers' Seminary of the Alliance Israelite in Paris. An Austrian Jew, Taussig, gave 1,000,000 kronen to the Catholic Eucharist Congress in Vienna, while a relative of the same name left 500,000 kronen to the Catholic church with the request that on his Jahr-Zeit two Franciscan monks visit the synagogue to pray for his soul. The new university in Frankfort-on-Main, which cost many million marks, is a Jewish university in so far as large parts of this sum were contributed by Jews. Most of the contributors were Jews who in no way support Jewish institutions. A Prussian statistician discovered a few years ago that not only do Jews contribute to funds for the building of monuments to national heroes, but also to funds for Catholic cathedrals and other institutions that are anti-Semitic in character.
In England there are hundreds of wealthy Jews who make annual contributions to the Church of England, refusing at the same time to support any Jewish institutions. Lord Rothschild, who is by no means the richest man in England, spends more in New Year's gifts to various non-Jewish classes in London than ten other rich lords combined. Another English Jew, Sir Ernest Cassel, the son of a Hebrew teacher in Germany, has spent in the last decade £1,500,000 in the support of non-Jewish institutions. Their contributions to Jewish institutions have been insignificant in comparison.
The gift of these large sums is always made public, but the sum total of smaller gifts, which are not made public, exceed by far the amounts given by very rich Jews to non-Jewish institutions. If we compare the sums given by so-called Jewish philanthropists to Jewish and non-Jewish institutions we discover that they give at least five times as generously to the non-Jewish as to the Jewish. Mr. Jacob H. Schiff's gift of $500,000 to Barnard College is a striking instance. At a time when his own people experienced the greatest calamity in its history, when millions of Jews were starving, and when Jewish blood was being shed freely, Schiff gave $100,000 for Jewish relief purposes and five times as much to a single institution for the erection of one building in New York. This is the usual proportion that marks the giving of Jews to Jewish and non-Jewish institutions.
We think that the form of bribery which the oppressed Jews practice to mollify their oppressors is sad enough as a commentary on Jewish life. But the more ostentatious form of bribery--a form of gift bestowal which seeks to hide the giver's identity as a Jew or at least to purchase pardon for his Jewishness--is the greater tragedy. These Jews spend millions to make the world forget they are Jews, but the world remembers and laughs up its sleeve.
THE TRUE MEANING OF JEWISH UNIVERSALISM
In the course of the long controversy between Jewish nationalists and opponents of Jewish nationalism many have come to believe that those who oppose nationalism stand for universal Judaism, especially since the anti-nationalists call themselves Jewish universalists. After the publication of the declaration of the British Government with regard to Palestine the main anti-nationalistic spokesman in America, Dr. Philipson of Cincinnati, summed up his negative attitude to Zionism with the short sentence, "I stand by my Jewish universalism." One even hears people from the radical camp of the left proclaiming their Jewish universalism. The impression has thus been created that while the nationalists stand for a petty, provincial conception of Judaism, they, the anti-nationalists, advocate a broad-minded universalism.
We deem it opportune to examine this Jewish universalism, which is played up today against the nationalistic efforts of our people to re-establish a Homeland in Palestine and to see how far it is sincere in its motives and compatible with Jewish tradition, and how far it is intellectual camouflage. We think it rather curious that those who claim to be Jewish universalists--the radical Reform rabbis and assimilationists from other camps--always lay stress on American, German, French or English Judaism, and often speak of the American Jewish Church or the English Jewish Church, and so forth. It is also remarkable that these Jewish universalists have always worked for a "readjustment" of Judaism to local conditions and have tried to Americanize Judaism in America, to Germanize it in Germany, to Anglicize it in England, to Magyarize it in Hungary, and so forth.
On the other hand, those who were considered as standing for a petty, provincial conception of Judaism, the nationalists, have not only never tried to do anything of the sort but have always defended the interritoriality and catholicity of Judaism. One never hears a Jewish nationalist here or abroad speaking of an American Jewish Church or an English Jewish Church, and so forth. It seems to us that in view of these facts the sort of universal Judaism as proclaimed by the assimilationists is of rather doubtful origin and character and that it is everything but universal, for it is territorial and provincial to the core. As a matter of fact, Reform Judaism as established by the Reform rabbis in the middle of the nineteenth century, and developed by American rabbis at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, is the first gigantic attempt to break the catholicism of Judaism and to territorialize it, that is to say, to annihilate its organic unity. Reform Judaism is in fact nothing else but territorialism in religious terms, just as Yiddishism is a territorialism in linguistic terms. Those who divide Judaism geographically and claim that each part has little or nothing to do with the other, and that each part is organically connected only with its surroundings, that there is such a thing as American Judaism, English Judaism, German Judaism, French Judaism, and so on, stand for the same policy as do the Yiddishists, who divide the Jewish people into ten or fifteen separate groups, claiming that every group is a unit by itself and has nothing to do with the others. According to Yiddishists the Ladino-speaking Jew has scarcely anything in common with the Judeo-German-speaking Jew, just as the Arabic or Greek-speaking Jews have little or nothing in common with the Ladino or Yiddish-speaking Jews. Some express their Jewish territorialism and provincialism in terms of religion, the others in terms of language. Both are opponents of Jewish unity and Jewish catholicism, both are opposed to traditional Judaism, both are opposed to Jewish nationalism that is organically connected with Hebrew, and both are, of course, opposed to a Hebrew Palestine.
Why these people, who, as we have seen, stand for territorialistic Judaism instead of universal, should call themselves Jewish universalists, we are at a loss to understand. The fact that their notion of God is as colorless and pale as that of the Unitarians, and the fact that their conception of ethics, especially of Jewish ethics, is as bloodless and vague as that of the rationalists of the eighteenth century, gives them scarcely any right to call themselves Jewish universalists and to assert that they stand for universal Judaism. Our only consolation is that this sort of territorialistic Judaism that goes under the false mark of universal Judaism is not the invention of the Reform rabbis, nor that of the Yiddishists, but is as old as Judaism itself. All who have carefully paged the history of our people know that there always was a Jewish minority from time immemorial that stood for a territorialistic Judaism, and if there is any difference in principle between the Judeans and Israelites this difference consists in that the Judeans always stood for universal Judaism, while the Israelites stood for a territorialistic Judaism. The Judeans were what the nationalists are today--traditional, conservative and nationalistic, while the Israelites were reformers, assimilationists and territorialists. The Judeans advocated a Palestinian and Hebrew Judaism, while the Israelites always opposed it and were satisfied even with the Temple outside of Palestine.
The first radical reformer, assimilationist and territorialist was not Abraham Geiger, but Jeroboam Ben Nebat. The Judeans, advocating a Palestinian and Hebrew Judaism, produced the true, great prophets, the prophets of truth and justice, while the Israelites produced the false prophets, who misled the people and displayed religious and moral camouflage. The notion of a universal God, of a universal morality and of the brotherhood of man, the fundamental teachings of Jewish universalism, have not been created by the prophets of the Israelites, the false universalists, but by the prophets of Judea, the nationalistic prophets. These great nationalistic prophets, who alone made Judaism that tremendous force in history and who, by their genius, secured immortality for our religion and ethics, must turn in their grave when they hear the false prophets of today claiming them as their witnesses. The teachings of our great prophets have been distorted and falsified by many of our enemies and opponents, but none has falsified and distorted them more than the representatives of the so-called universal Judaism of today, because our great prophets, who were at the same time great Jewish statesmen, taught the doctrine of the indestructible Jewish nation and the immortality of our people as a people, and they were so extreme in their nationalism and nationalistic conception of Judaism that they dreamt of the Jewish nation to be the glory of all the peoples of the earth and the center of all that is good and great and beautiful in humanity.
We doubt whether there are many Jewish nationalists today whose nationalistic feelings run as high as did those of our great prophets whom Jewish universalists claim as their chief witnesses for their falsified Judaism. It was the great Hebrew prophets of old who first fought against territorializing Judaism and who fought against the attempt to Yiddishize it in one form or another. They all stood for the pure, traditional, Palestinian and Hebrew Judaism. They were bitter against Ephraim, because Ephraim stood for what the Israelites stand for today: "Ubi bene, ibi patria"--Where I do well there is my fatherland.
That the Judeans and not the Israelites were right in their conception of Judaism can be seen from the fate of both. Israel disappeared, swept away by the storm of history, while Judea remained. It is only a pity that all of the Israelites did not disappear also for, if they did, we would have no Israelites today in our midst, and God knows that the Israelites of today are unnecessary Jews and that those who claim a mission for Israel have no mission at all. The Jewish universalism advocated today by all those who stand for the disintegration and deterioration of Judaism is not universalism, and if its advocates are anything, they are Jewish nihilists, because Judaism is nihil to them--no people, no race, no nation, no religion, no tradition, but----
THE BURDEN OF TRADITION
The phenomenal tempo made by the United States in preparation for the war is a very interesting phenomenon of our time. What England did in many years of struggle America has achieved within a few weeks. It took England more than a year and a half before she saw her way clear to resort to compulsory service, and it required many weary months to organize the administrative branch of the war service and to place the country on a solid war footing. Even countries with long military traditions, such as France, Italy, Austria, and even Germany, had to struggle long before they were in the war with both feet. America, though unmilitaristic, did all that within a very short time. Over night there was a national army in America. The economic life of the country adapted itself to war conditions, and everything to conduct a war on an unheard-of scale was created within a few months. That a non-militaristic country like America could adapt itself to war conditions within such a short time must puzzle every observer, and it will be a puzzle to the historian of the future, also, unless he recognizes the touchstone of American genius as displayed at present. This touchstone is the absence of long historical traditions.
We Jews, who are preparing ourselves to start a new life as a nation, ought to learn in this respect. We have old traditions of our own and we are burdened with a great many non-Jewish traditions in addition, for we have lived in the last two thousand years in the Diaspora and among those people whose life has been shaped by thoughts and the spirit of ancient Rome. The European state that is today undergoing a crisis as never before is the inheritance of old Rome. The entire system of European politics is Roman in origin. International political relations can be traced to ancient Roman origin. A comparison between the history of the international relations of ancient Rome and that of any European state during the last five hundred years will clearly show that the international political movements in Europe for the last centuries have their parallel in international political movements of ancient Rome. All the severe criticisms leveled by Montesquieu against ancient Rome are still timely today. All branches of the activities of the European state, civil administrations, jurisdiction, matters military, foreign affairs, and so on, are more or less remnants of ancient Roman civilization.
In short, we have to be conscious of the fact that the life of the Jewish people in Europe was lived amid a system of Roman civilization. The old Jewish preachers, who characterized our present Diaspora life as Goluth-Rome, knew what they were talking about, though they could not exactly explain why they characterized our present Goluth as Roman in nature. Since we have lived for two thousand years in this system of civilization, it goes without saying that we have been greatly influenced by it and that we ourselves are definitely subject to Roman traditions in addition to our own. Traditions sometimes strengthen a nation, but they also may weaken it. The most traditional people in the world, the Chinese, are practically the weakest, while the most non-traditional people, the Americans, are today the best fitted for modern life.
National traditions, of course, cannot be cast away over night. In the Diaspora old and genuine Jewish traditions were the life-giver of our people. They were the main force that preserved us from annihilation, as long as we were facing the problem, "How can we best preserve our national existence?" Today, however, we are not only facing the problem of preserving our national existence, but also that of rebuilding our nation and reorganizing our people so as to make its future safe. Since the entire Jewish problem has changed so radically, our attitude to the complex Jewish traditions must change. We cannot possibly use the same methods in rebuilding our national existence as in preserving our nation. The two different problems need two different positions. Just as China is a terrifying example of what slavery to tradition can do to a nation, so is America an edifying example of what traditions can do in strengthening a nation. A nation does not live to uphold traditions only; and where, instead of helping a nation, traditions handicap it, they will be superceded by new traditions to be created by national deeds.
We do not want to describe our future life in Palestine, for we are today unable to do so. We are only anxious to lay stress upon the fact that what we have called our traditions in Diaspora life will probably have to be revised in a Jewish Palestine. Life is much stronger than the Book and the principle derived from the Book. In the Diaspora it was the principle of the Book that shaped our life, because it helped to preserve it. In Palestine, where there will be an active Jewish life, Jewish life itself must work out its own principles. This is what we should bear in mind, whether we are orthodox or free-thinkers. We must go to Palestine with the consciousness of freedom and not with the feeling that we are the creatures of traditions. We will have to free ourselves not only from many Roman traditions that was most worthy in the Diaspora, but will be superfluous in Palestine.
The future Jewish State in Palestine will draw its strength from Jewish life and not from principles of the Book; it will be free from all inorganic traditions which we have acquired during our long life in the Diaspora, and from those traditions which were un-Jewish in nature.
WHAT IS THE JEWISH MISSION?
In view of the rise of Jewish nationalism during the last decade, especially during the war, it is understandable why the fancy of the Jewish masses should be directed to the future of the Jewish State in Palestine and that quite premature questions as to the form and character of the Jewish State should be asked.
There are no prophets nowadays. No serious-minded man would even dare to anticipate the development of many generations and attempt to foresee the character of the time which is deeply enshrouded in the bosom of the future. Sociology has not yet discovered laws with the help of which one can predict future material happenings. Nevertheless, serious-minded Jews, especially nationalists, should give a thought to the question of possible future developments and should ask themselves in which direction they have decided to go.
An unequivocal answer to this question will help to clarify matters and will deprive the enemy of many of the weapons which he is always ready to use against us.
When Theodor Herzl appeared before the Zionist Congress in 1906 with his famous Uganda proposition, the Jewish people was amazed. How could a man like Theodor Herzl, whose love for Palestine was beyond doubt, propose to the Jews to settle in East Africa, on a stretch of territory not only outside the pale of Jewish traditions but even outside the pale of civilization? If it had been a question only of enabling the then badly persecuted Russian Jews to emigrate to other countries where they could live in relative freedom and happiness, were there not plenty of civilized countries where the Jews could find a refuge? These and similar questions were raised after Herzl brought forth the Uganda proposal. But those who were on intimate terms with the great leader later explained this apparently strange mood.
It was in 1903 that von Plehve began his policy of pogroms, and from 1903 to 1906 hundreds of pogroms were perpetrated against the Jews in Russia and Poland. Theodor Herzl, who witnessed the development of the tragic Dreyfus affair and who had some experience with western European anti-Semitism, knew perfectly well the prevailing hatred against the Jews everywhere, but he could not imagine that a Christian State, forming a member of the family of nations, should in the twentieth century resort to such barbarities as pogroms, in order to carry out its anti-Semitic policy. Man of delicate and fine feelings as he was, he became so disgusted with the situation and so downhearted on account of these pogroms that, in a moment of despair, he said to himself, "We would rather live among the Hottentots and other savages in Africa than among the civilized Christian nations in Europe." The entire Uganda proposition can be understood as an expression of disgust with European civilization on the part of our great Jewish statesman and artist. In short, Uganda was a loud protest against Christian civilization and Christian political methods.
In a lesser degree Zionism, also, is partly a protest against European Christian civilization, which is an inheritance of ancient Rome. We want to go back to Palestine not only because we want to live a national life of our own there, but also because we are utterly repelled by European civilization and because we do not believe in a civilization that leads to the murder and pillage of entire nations and the reign of horror and brutal might. We are disgusted with this civilization because we do not believe that "might is right," because we do not believe in the political heritage of ancient Rome.
We cannot say whether or not every nationalistic Jew is conscious of this fact, but the conscientious historian who does not believe in the inheritance of Rome will certainly ascribe the revival of Jewish nationalism not only to the national memories of the Jews, but also to the radical difference between Jewish and Roman political ideas and ideals and to the difference in the concept of life of the Jew and those who live on the political inheritance of ancient Rome. We, for one, firmly believe that Zionism, in spite of its purely political aspects, has the ethical consciousness of the Jewish nation as its basis and as its driving power; Zionism is thus to our mind not only a _political_, but also _an ethical movement_--or even a revolutionary movement, in the sense that the Jewish people revolts against a system of civilization from which not only entire humanity has suffered, but from which it has suffered most. Now, since Zionism is also an ethical movement, one can easily see to what its realization should lead.
Though the Jewish people lived in a Europe dominated by Roman ideas for two thousand years, it did not become an adherent of the Roman school of thought. We have remained Jews, still cherishing Jewish ideals of justice and equity, and we mean to go back to Palestine not as "Europeans," but as Jews pure and simple. It cannot possibly be our desire to erect in Palestine such a system of civilization and to establish there such an order of things as have created the present state of affairs in Europe. _We are going to Palestine not only to begin a new national life, but also to create a new system of civilization._ This is the justification of Zionism from a broad ethical point of view. We are going to realize there not the old Roman inheritance but the old Jewish inheritance. We have for the last 2,500 years had a political philosophy of our own, a political philosophy that is just the opposite of the Roman political philosophy. We believe that the political philosophy of the old prophets is just as human and at least as near to reality as the political philosophy of the ancient Romans, and we believe that our national political philosophy, which considers men not only as physical beings but also intellectual and spiritual beings and urges them to live up to their spiritual and intellectual nature, is at least as sound as the one-sided Roman political philosophy, which takes into account only the physical nature of man and hence teaches that "might is right."