THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan
Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people
Vol. II. No. 17
DETROIT, MICH., JUNE 22, 1917
$1.50 per Year
Single Copies10 Cents
Palestine Not a Solution of Jewish Problem
By HENRY MOSKOWITZ
following article, written by the well-known Jewish
publicist, Mr. Henry Moskowitz, recently appeared in the New York Times. it
presents an important and timely Jewish Problem from a point of view not fre-
(Merit!), presented, and UT republish it inasmuch as it should be of great interest
to all readers of The Jewish Chronicle regardless of their personal views on the
subject.)
IONISM, in the last twenty-five years, has become one of the most
articulate Jewish weapons directed against anti-Semitism. As - such, it
has been a barometer of the progress anti-Semitism has made in various
lands. Whenever a pogrom takes place the adherents of Zionism increase in
number. If there is a lull in the anti-Semitic movement, Zionism registers
that lull by a loss in aggressive strength. After the pogrom in 1881 the Zionist
movement as a political force received great impetus. Even in America the
tragedy of Kishineff brought many unsynagogued Jews into the racial fold.
The sufferings of Israel gave even the agnostic and radical Jew a conscious-
ness of kind from which the Zionist and Nationalist movement gained. This
movement became the refuge of many Jews to whom Judaism as a religious
message had ceased to appeal. Zionism as a political weapon against anti-
Semitism has always represented a minority in Israel.
For the purpose of clear thinking we must consider Zionism, first, as a
solution to the general Jewish problem; second, as a movement which can
satisfy the soul of the Jew; third, as a limited experiment for the purpose of
establishing Jewish colonies and a Jewish cultural center; and fourth, the
message of Zionism, if it has any, to the Jews of America.
The general Jewish problem is created by the civil, political, economic,
and other disabilities from which the Jews have suffered. These are removed
whenever progress is made along the lines of general emancipation. By a
successful Russian revolution and the establishment of a free government,
whether a republic or a constitutional monarchy, Jewish disabilities in Russia
will be automatically removed by granting to them equal rights. Roumania,
as is probable, will follow the Russian precedent and will make the Roumanian
Jews the beneficiaries of this advance of general emancipation. The vast
majority of the Jews located in Russia, Roumania, Galicia, and Poland will
thus be liberated. This is the major and most important phase of the Jewish
question - affecting the welfare of the majority of the Jews in the world.
(EDITOR' S
NOTE—The
Z
Problem of Prejudice.
Deeper and more complicated is the subjective phase of the Jewish ques-
tion, for even if the Jews obtain equal rights in the various lands of their
birth or adoption, is the Jewish question solved? Social and anti-Semitism
will still persist, for the removal of social prejudice cannot be effected through
the granting of civil, political, and economic rights. Social prejudice exists
even in democratic countries. It depends, in the final analysis, upon the devel-
opment of the Jew and the non-Jew alike.
The establishment of a Jewish State will not necessarily remove it. Such
prejudice has existed against races which have had a concrete historic state.
Therefore it cannot be claimed that nationalism or Zionism will directly solve
the problem of prejudice. That must be fought out, wherever races do not
understand each other, by contact and by an effort on the part of the Jew
and the non-Jew alike to establish relations which arc based upon mutual
respect merited by both sides, and especially by the removal of ignorance,
which is often the chief basis of prejudice. • •
The advocates of Zionism as a solution of the subjective phase of the
Jewish question assume, first, that Judaism, in its broader sense, is worth pre-
serving, and, consequently, that its preservation is made possible only by the
establishment of a Jewish State, acting as a cultural center which will exist
primarily for the purpose of perpetuating it. The Zionists say, vaguely, that
Jewish culture is worthy of preservation. Whatever is of distinctive worth in
a nationality should be cultivated and contributed for the enrichment of
humanity.
• But what constitutes the distinctive worth in Jewish culture? Surely it
cannot be claimed that Jewish science, art, or even phlosophy or scholarship
is distinctive. The realm of science and scholarship has always been properly
international, and where the Jews have produced great scientists they have
not made their contribution to science, scholarship, or philosophy as Jews.
The Jews have produced great scientists, a few great artists, and many schol-
ars of distinction, but in all this realm of human activity it cannot be said
that they have been superior to the achievements of other races: In fact, if
we were frank with ourselves. we would say that they have not shown . first-
rate ori g inality in many of these 'fields. The distinctive contribution of the
Jew has been in the realm of religion and ethics.
Believing that the Hebraic clement in life is worth preserving, is a . Jewish
State essential for the preservation of this attitude 'toward life? Has the
hope of Zion as a political movement been the cause of the jews''gurvival,
despite centuries of persecution? Is it not a fact that the survival of Judaism
and the Jews as a people can be attributed more to the loyalty of tlhe Jew to
his religion than to his nationalism? And even where the hope of Zion's re-
demption has persisted in the life of the Jew, that hope was the product of a
spiritual rather than a political concept.
The Zionists cannot point to ancient Jewish liturgy as any confirmation
of secular political Zionism—a recent phenomenon in Jewish life. The Jewish
religion has always attempted to make a spiritual appeal, and even reform
Judaism, which Zionists are prone to condemn by characterizing its normal
evolution as an unsuccessful effort of the Jews to assimilate non-Jewish
religious elements, attempted at least to strike a spiritual note and to awaken
a religious emotion as distinguished from a romantic, a social, or a national-
istic one:
It is important to make this distinction between a spiritual and a romantic
emotion. In the great fervor which the Zionist movement has developed
during the last twenty years, not a little of their emotion is romantic. How
flinch of this nostalgia of the centuries is a racial yearning to obtain what has
at th.e expense
once been its precious possession and to idealize the distant
is
deeply sincere
of the present? How much of this Heimweh for Palestine
among many of those who now sing the Jewish Nationalists/ Hymn, Atte
"Hatikvah," with revivalistic fervor? How much of it would actually persist
as a spiritually motivating power if Palestine were obtained?
In other words, will the existence of Palestine as a Jewish State actually
result in developing in the Jew that Hebraism, that spiritual view of life, which
has been his distinctive contribution, and will it help to solve the problem of
the vast majority of the Jews who have cast their lot with America, with
Russia, with Germany, with France, and with other countries of their birth or
adoption? This is, after all, the largest part of the Jewish question.
The Zionists say that if the Jewish State existed the rebound upon the
Jews of the world would be regenerative. They would draw'their inspiration
from this center and would contribute their distinctive idealism to the peoples
with whom they are living. How much of this is a hope and a prophecy?
And what are the serious moral dangers of this nationalistic point of view from
the standpoint of the Jewish soul? Here are some of them:
Nationalism and Racial Egotism.
First, it is apt to breed a racial egotism. What we want to preserve is the
best in the Jew—which is the Hebrew. By that I mean his idealism. I some-
times believe that a conscious emphasis of nationalism leads t'o an acceptance
of racial qualities just because the race happens to possess them. The Jews,
like other people, have good and bad qualities and to improve as a type they
must eliminate and minimize the bad and cultivate the good. Sometimes a
racial self-assertion leads to a subtle acceptance of limitations and prevents a
frank facing of them. It is good for the Jew to get in touch with other
suffering. A conscious
races, to grow by struggle, and even at times by
emphasis of nationalism leads almoSt imperceptibly to •a form of spiritual.
domination—tO a lack of humility which religion has frequently counteracted,—
but not nationalism.
The world today is suffering from the tragedies of , a false nationalism; off-a
nationalism in which the idea of domination has given certain nations a forM
.of megalomania, and, if any emphasis is needed, it is rather along the lines of
internationalism and human fellowship. If the Zionists reply, "We desire to
realize the national self of the Jewish people, without 4ny thought of domina-
tion," the answer is that any conscious effort at national self-realization results
not infrequently in a form of spiritual domination which is unwholesome and
which tends to develop race limitations quite as much as virtues.
After all, there is less need of emphasis and develdping of social individu-
If
ality than there is for laying stress upon international interdependence.
conscious
without
such an individuality really exists, it should express itself
effort. The world is passing through a revolution in which the principle of
international federation is being stressed as never before. From a spiritual
point of view. Jewish nationalism is reactionary ;
But there• are some Jews who find themselves inwardly isolated and who
feel at home only in a Jewish atmosphere. They say, with a well-knoWn
Jewish philosopher, that even in the midst of emancipation they arc in slavery.
They feel with him the need of a Jewish ideal source which will satisfy their
inner complex.
•
If these Jews are so con ituted that they can obtain' their deepest soul
Cause of Survival of Judaism.
satisfaction only by the exist nce of a Jewish spiritual source, they should
have it. The vast majority of he Jews do not feel the need of it. Their soul
The most precious gift of the Jew to the world has been t'ie Hebrew in
can he satisfied and is satisfied not only with the message of the Hebrew
him. It has been his sensitive sniritual idealism. Remove the Scriptures and
Prophets—and the rabbis—but with the spiritual movements of the present
the rich literature and lore which represent the reaction of the Jewish soul
day. They are inwardly at home when they come in contact with great Jewish
upon the fundamental spiritual problems of life, and there is very little left
and non-Jewish personalities who arc attempting to solve the social: and re=
which would be considered -distinctive or superior to the achievements of
ligious problems of the present , day. • • • -
other races.
(Continued on page 18)