THE JEWISH CHRONICLE The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people Vol. I. No. 5" DETROIT, MICH., MARCH 31, 1916 $1.50 per Year Single Copies 5 Cents Jewish Aspect of Preparedness by Maurice M. Lewinsohn It is a matter of common obser- vation and remark that the Jews as a unit have shown but small capacity for organized effort. This deficiency in collective ac- tion is due partly to dispersion, which renders co-operation diffi- cult and often ineffective ; partly because of overconfidence in the proverbial racial adhesion of the Jewish individual to the bulk. The Jewish doctrine of "collec- tive responsibility," by which all the obligations of the members of the Jewish community are con- ceived of as being reciprocal and their dependence mutual, has re- vealed itself as fatuous dogmat- ism which never takes alarm. Applied to a people scattered over the face of the earth, it has be- trayed a vast insufficiency of prac- tical suggestions. As a mere elo- quent gesture it is inspiring, en : souraging, but beyond that not very helpful toward thp great problem of material and spiritual readjustment before our people. It is on trial now. Not in all the history of our people has there been an hour more fraught with grave posSi- bilities than this. The tenor of it, the immense sorrow of it, is in all our hearts, in all our thoughts. We believe that utter destruc- tion will be averted. There were other times in our history when it was averted. By the measure of our hope is this hour less por- tentous, and by that alone; for the possibilities arc more hideous and on a scale so gigantic as to palsy the imagination. But there is one thing which already we know : Though the worst should come we must meet it as a united people and the threatening difL ficulties of the near future will have their weighty hearing upon the American Jewry. Is our sense of mutual responsibility, is our consciousness of our collec- tive duties and tasks strong enough to induce us to prepara- tory action, has it the power to make us think in terms of the year after next? In short, is Israel capable of one great, up- lifting effort? Can it or has it the strength to will it so as to render its potential energy actual and gather its forces for hastening solidarity? What will be the tendency of immigration after the European war? Opinions radically differ. I do not follow those philosophers who see in the European conflict a gigantic expression of that kind of suffering from which newer and purer forces of humanity are to be wrought. I am quite un-. able to read these hopeful sym- bols in that terrible battlefield. In Europe the Jew is being shot at on all sides and at some fronts without even the strengthening, moral satisfaction of fighting for a good cause. He is placed be- tween the two millstones. Here, in Ameica, the war has also pro- duced suffering among the Jews— an upheaval of our social solidar- ity—which we find, as I have said before, a much frailer, much more tenuous substance than we had supposed. But the question agitating all minds at present is —are the Jews of America to reap the good out of this upheaval of the standards of social and broth- erly sympathy? Are we to arrive at a true understanding of our national values, a chastened real- ization that a people composed of many ethnic units, though of the same, or nearly the same, tradi- tions, will not of itself fall to- gether into a unified people, and finally a solidarity and an agree- ment that will really conserve and translate from age to age the spirit and the fundamental prin- ciples of Judaism, as they have been formulated by the prophets and standing now engraven on the tablets of the law? Let us not, according to well-established custom, leave it to the future to answer our present and pressing problems. Now is the time to take stock of our achievements in the past, of our realizations in the present and of our ability of ap- plication in the future. It is the considered opinion of experts on matters of immigra- tion that after the war the strain on Ellis island will he such as it has never known. Every Euro- pean war during the past 100 years has been followed by an in- creased immigration to the United States. The internal troubles of Russia and the political oppres- near a contact with , European sion of the newly conquered ter- poverty can hardly be over-esti- ritories will drive out many Jews mated." Dr. Weyl is not the type to America. 'The Jewish soldiers of student who would indulge in and their families, who were a eulogium of the dead immigrant driven from their homes for mil- at the expense of the living. But itary and other inhuman reasons, sympathy goes out through the will take a short rest after their window when economics enters bloody wandering on strange or at the door. unfamiliar soil and will flee to our The political aspect to the out- shores to escape the heavy bur- look of the post-bellum immigra- den of maladjustment after the tion is not very hopeful. The ma- w ar, ar, such as governmental op- jority of the restrictions, which pression, racial animosities, bur- consist at present of those who .densome taxes, etc. The return fear unfair competition in the la- to normal life will be a long time bor market and of the overcultur- in coming, though, it must be , ed few, will be augmented to such conceded, it may be more rapid an extent so as to be able to ad- than now seems to be possible. vance restriction to the stage of humanity umanity adjusts itself more practical realization. On the ob- quickly than it used to. How- vious meaning of such a catas- ever, it is worthy of note that trophe I do not care to dwell. while nations have a way of America is not the last stage of adapting themselves very rapid- civilization, but for our brethren ly to circumstances, the Jewish who are wandering now on the people have always taken their devastated fields of the Polish recourse to emigration as the sur- plains it is the first chance and est and fastest .means of readjust- the only chance to live at that. ment, so that we confidently can On the other hand, our present say that Jewish emigration and organizations directly interested prosperity are varying in the in- in the care of the immigrant are verse ratio. few and have neither the financial Of course, religious and polit- strength nor do they possess the ical oppression will play a sig- skilled competence necessary to nificant part in the human make- cope with a situation almost un- up of the new immigration. For precedented in the history of re- a great number of the newcomers cent immigration. They lack in America will mean not only a the most important feature of a bread ticket, but a spiritual enter- popular institution — intelligent prise as well. For one thing, peo- and authoritative leadership. In- ple must exist before they can he deed, we have given very little made to enjoy the benefits of the contemplation and discussion— DeClaration of Independence, and not to speak of well-directed ef- ideals of economic necessity al- fort—to this all-impotant phase most inevitably precede ideals of of Jewish life. If we neglect to higher human conduct. Even take anticipating steps to meet an such a broadminded and truly unusual situation, and in our false sympathetic social reformer as sense of security rely on elAenth Dr. Walter E. Weyl is sounding hour measures, chaos and disor- the note of alarm as to the future' ganization will be raised to the attitude of America towards im- tenth degree. migration. He says: "Today • The problem required all the the ideal (that America was to be wisdom, all the experience, all the the haven of the world's oppres- material means, all the generosity sed) is in conflict with our eco- American _Jewry is capable of. nomic and political conditions. Slipshod assistance, half-hearted The policy of the democracy to- work will avail little and do much wards immigration is coming to harm. A half-result, unlike the be one of a checking of the ra- popular half-loaf, reveals lack of pidity of the flow, a selection of moral balance, appeasing, as it the best \ candidates of admission. were, the uncomfortable sense of The danger to the American social guilt. The magnitude of-the experiment in democracy of too immigrant problem, even in ordin-