THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

The only Jewish publication in the State of Michigan
Devoted to the interests of the Jewish people

Vol. II.

No. 30

DETROIT; MICH., SEPT. 9,1, 1917

$1.50 per Year

Single Copies10 Cents

The Jew and the Promised Polish Freedom

By Harold Berman

The Jewish press of the United
States has responded rather shabbily
to the promised Polish independence
or autonomy. A tone of caviling de-
precation, envy and spite was heard all
around—a mighty roar of disapproval,
dissent and, so to speak, hatred of the
prospective beneficiaries of Germany's
bounty. The thinking man was as-
tonished, while he who is a lover of
freedom and wishes to see its cause
triumph in a world so full of oppres-
sion and tyranny was obliged to hang
his head in shame.
Such a display of misanthropy is
nothing short of downright brutality
and the lack of sympathy with a
people struggling so valiantly for
freedom and against such terrible
odds. What did we sec? While one
of the newspapers in the Yiddish
idiom would declaim — and almost
plead — loudly against the promised
autonomy, a veritable chorus of oth-
ers would chortle forth, "How about
the Jews?" "How about our own na-
tionality?" "Why doesn't Germany
give us freedom, too?" and similar
captious and undignified remarks cal-
culated only to increase the tension
between the races that will have to
live alongside of each other in the fu-
ture Kingdom of Poland. The for-
mer argument can be easily dismissed
as the expression of misanthropic
spleen, the jealousy of a man at his
neighbor's good fortune, in which, by
the way, he also is bound to share.
But the latter series of questions or
arguments •need a little closer atten-
tion and analysis.
It is quite true that the Jewish
people of Russian Poland have suf-
fered some terrible persecutions at
the hands of the Poles of late years.
But of late years only. The Pole,
while not now a master of his own
destinies, yet felt himself quite enough
a master for the persecution of his
erstwhile Jewish vassal and present-
day equal of suffering. A commercial
boycott, bloody outbreaks, murders
and information to the police and
military were of daily occurrence
since the outbreak of the present war.
Thousands of innocent Jews suffered
death as spies on the mendacious in-
formation furnished by the Poles,
who bore false witness against their
hated Jewish neighbors. But that,
deplorable' as it is and arousing, as it
must, our anger, is yet quite beside
the question — the question, namely,
whether Poland, if freed, can or can-
not afford to have another Poland
within her borders. How preposter-
ous it is to talk of freeing the Jewish
nation, as a n' tion, in Poland! The
nations of Emope can surely not be
expected to consider the existence of
the Jewish nation when there is none
to all intents and purposes, and,
though the Jew shout himself hoarse
about his nation to the nations about
him, it is simply non-existent, a mere
chimera and fiction. The Jewish na-
tional cry is nothing if not a Chinese
nuzzle to everyone excepting the Jew
himself, and is not even quite clear to
a great tnany members of the race it-
self. They—the nations—behold none
of the attributes of nationality, no
homeland, no organized government,
no common language, nor even a ma-

jority of the population in any one • a German who is not a German, an
land or important province., and they American who is but half an Ameri-
simply cannot see the justice of the can!
claim. In the case before us, that of
And yet that was the very cry of
Poland, it does seem to be - no more
than reasonable to them When the anti-Semite these many a year
Poland is spoken of all the nationali- gone, and we were so ardent in fight-
ing him, his views and accusations!
ties or races of that country are meant
and included, all the people born and Can't these agitators see that the
formula which they advance is not
reared and now living within its bor-
unlike
the boomerang which recoils
ders, quite irrespective of the relig-
upon
the
user? As to the assertion
ion professed by sonic or all of them.
If it were not so understood it would and fear of the persecuting proclivity
not be freedom, but merely a . continu- of the Pole, especially in these later
days, it shall be• said that those who
once, with some slight modification,
of the conditions obtaining tinder the so consistently harp upon it are defi-
cient in psychology and the insight
Romanoffs. You may, perhaps, point
to Austria-Hungary, where every race into human nature, are judging things
by their mere surface appearances.
or so-called nationality enjoys a more
The
milieu, the environment should
or less perfect autonomy in matters
religious and political. But, then, . be the sole basis, the only guide-post
Austria' is a mere patch-quilt of na- in such and similar cases. Persecu-
tion begets persecution and tyranny
tionalities and races and so is obliged
to resort to such an archaic system begets tyranny. A nation which is not
enjoying the blessings of freedom is
and compromise if she would rule
these diverse elements at all, and even but seldom found to be in a state
then and in spite of it all they are all worthy of it-7-such was the case with
the Greeks when Lord Byron so nobly
far from being autonomous, but it is
went
forth to Nell) them, and whom
usually the leading race in any given
territory that receives recognition, they so dismally disappointed!—but
while the lesser ones remain quite it usually becomes worthy of it as
subsidiary to it. And were Austria at soon as it receives the boon! The few
exceptions only prove and confirm
the present time to grant autonomy
to Galcia or Bohemia or any other this rule. Persecution begets perse-
cution, while bigotry begets bigotry,
province, she would grant the boon
and he whose rights are consistently
to the province as a unit, on the basis
of a unified nation, one and indivis- denied and trampled upon is the very
one who is readiest to trample upon
ible. It were suicidal to do other-
the rights of others. There is a psy-
wise. And shall she say to the Pole:
You are free and independent; to the chology of persecution as there is a
psychology of freedoin. An atmos-
Ukrainian, ditto; the same to the Slo-
phere,
a quite unconscious theorem, is
vak, Slovene; the same to the Jew,
Serb, Croat and the Mohammedan developed within the man and quite
within the province, each one of them spontaneously. The Pole is no ex-
to be separate, distinct and quite in- ception to this rule, since he is human.
It were miraculous if it were other-
dependent of the other, so that in-
wise. • The Pole has undergone so
stead of one free province there shall
much suffering and persecution on be-
be four or five independent prov-
half of his country, had hoped, prayed,
inces? What nonsense! Aside from
the impracticability of the plan, the striven and bled so much for the re-
gaining of his lost nationality that it
Jewish people, by advancing this and
similar pleas and plans, are simply has become with him an obsession, a
flying in the face of all accepted tradi- veritable religion, the Holy Grail of
tions and sentiments. It has been the his quest, second to none other im-
pulse in his life of travail. This is
Proudest boast of the nineteenth cen-
the one and main reason. Then there
tury—and its protidest accomplish-
ment—that it had finally and firmly is also the other, the reaction of per-
secution upon the victim. When one
established the oririciple of national-
sees all about him races, nationalities,
ity on a scientific basis; that it fought
religions or tribes that are being con-,
and bled to establish the principle that
sistently
persecuted for no thinkable
all who were born within the boundar-
ies of a certain land were its citizens. reason but that of being different,
This is one of the most Precious herit- while apologists of the persecutors
are hard put to it each day to discover
ages of that century, of which it mu
a reasonable basis for that which has
be justly proud, for previous to that
day the idea of nationality was more its foundation in mere prejudice, then
that individual quite unconsciously
or less nebulous, quite uncertain and
tmestablished. It consisted of a con- absorbs the persecution idea, and then
-- (Ties of tribes; a medley of peoples the persecution of his weaker brother
distinct and quite unassimilated, liv- becomes quite a regularly established
ing on the same territory, yet strange and legitimate norm, a necessary com-
plement to his life and being. And
and quite often antagonistic to one
another. It took a great many cen- the one most persistently persecuted
turies after the migrations of the and least mentally developed—because
of this very persecution—becomes in
neoples had ceased to clarify the
idea, to sift and strain the Medley turn the most flagrant and heartless
persecutor when the opportunity is
into one comprehensive whole. And
what do these people want to do now? but afforded to him. To multiply in-
What arc they asking of us? No • stances would be but needless. Suf-
more or less than the subversion of fice it to quote but one from our own
all this, to undo it all and to hark life and experience, that of the negro
slave when temporarily placed in
back once more to the fallacy of a
charge of a gang of workers of his
nation within a nation, of, for in- own race, who then notoriously would
stance, a Pole who is yet not a Pole, become the hardest taskmaster, yet no

instance of that cruelty is to be found
in his midst at the present day. Let
this fetish, this survival, be but eradi-:
cated from our life and pretty soon it
survives only as a memory to blush
for for a brief space of time ere the
wounds are healed forever. Just as
the remedy for the ills of democracy
is now found by all good diagnosti-
cians in more democracy, so is the
remedy for the lack of freedom and
tolerance to be found in the extension
of these principles, which alone are
capable of healing the wounds and
binding up the breaks and bruises. An
outcry such as the one raised by the
enemies of Polish freedom is reminis-
cent only of narrow-mindedness and
bigotry, and what further and more
convincing proof need we have of the,
harm done by oppression and the de-
nial of opportunity than this persistent
.outcry against the proposed breaking
of the shackles of a nation?—Jewish
Comment.

ITALY PLEDGES INTERNA-

TIONAL PALESTINE.

In the course of his address on Aug.
21, Premier Sonnino made the follow-
ing declaration to the Italian Chamber
of Deputies:
"England has undertaken against Tur.
key, in Palestine, a new and vigorous
military action in which the bravery O'
the English army has already been
shown. The Italian flag will be repre-
sented together with the Allies and will
participate in this expedition, which will
elicit international, political and moral
interest."
The Giornale d'Italic, commenting on
the speech and the arrival of the Italian
troops at Port Said, says:
"Great is the joy of the Italian people
in Egypt, greater still that of their Jew-
ish compatriots. They have reason . to
see in this Italian contingent the first
embryo of the future, international
police, destined to guard as before the
Isle. of Crete, a free
free_ Palestine, recon-
stituted, neutral and

75% IN CAMP UPTON ARE JEWS.

The best evidence of Jewish willing-
ness to serve the Stars and Stripes and
to fight America's battle is revealed in
the fact that fully • 75 per cent of the -
first quota of selected men who have
gone out of New York City to Camp
Upton, to train for service in France.
are Jewish boys.
The significance of this fact was
borne in upon both Deputy Attorney
General Conkling and Provost Marshal
General Crowder, who accompanied
New York's first 5 per cent to camp
and-they .agreed that it would be a good
thing to grant the Jewish boys fur-
loughs for the holidays.
A deputation of orthodox rabbis wait-
ed upon General J. Franklin Bell and
arranged with him for religious. services
to be held at the camp on Rosh Hashono'
and Yom Kippur.

