A merica lewish Periodical &ter

CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, 01110

Purely Commentary •

Herzl and the Kaiser

The death of the former Kaiser revives inter-
est in significant historical occurrences in which
the head of the House of Hohenzollern Played
a part. Affecting Jews, one of the most inter-
esting episodes rotates around the interview the
Kaiser granted Dr. Herzl, founder of the mod-
ern Zionist movement. The interview is recorded
by Dr. Herzl in his diaries, excerpts of which
appear in a volume published by Scopus Publish-
ing Co. The episode is described also at great
length in the stirring biography of Herzl by Alex
Bein, recently published by the Jewish Publica-
tion Society. Herzl met the Kaiser in Constan-
tinople on Oct. 18, 1898. The Kaiser came to-
ward Herzl in the dark uniform of a Hussar.
Herz], describing the interview, states: " I stood
still and made a deep bow. He came up to me,
almost to the door, and offered me his hand.
I believe he said that he was glad to see me,
or something like that." Herzl states that "I
had forgotten to remove the glove of my right
hand, according to the rules of etiquette."
The conversation began with reference by
Ilerzl to a letter he had written to the Kaiser
earlier regarding the need for the establishment
of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine. "My
fear was only in my voice," Herzl wrote. Then,
writes Herzl in his diaries:

"He (the Kaiser) soon took over the lead
and explained why he considered the Zionist
movement of worth. Unfortunately I was an
embarrassed listener, and I had to exert all
my strength in preparing the replies, so that
I have not been able to retain all the details.
He never mentioned the Jews except as my
'Landsleute'—and not in an exactly friendly
tone. He had no doubt that we had sufficient
money and man-power at our disposal to
carry out the colonization of Palestine. Here
my attention failed a little, for I could not
help noting that my three years of work
have made of the word 'Zionism' a familiar
term which the Kaiser used freely in speak-
ing with me.
"'There are,' he said 'among your Lands-
leute certain elements which it would be
well to have immigrate into Palestine. I am
thinking, for instance, of those cases where
there are a number of usurers among the
country people. If these were to take their
wealth and settle in the colonies, they would
make themselves more useful.' These were
his words, more or less.
"I was angered that he should identify the
Jews with a few usurers, and in my indig-
nation I suddenly found myself cool and con-
trolled again, and I made a short speech
against anti-Semitism, which had stabbed us
to the heart. We had been deeply pained

5

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle

June 13, 1941

Sobel Wins U. of M.
By Philip Slomovitz Hopwood Award for
Year's Best Play

bound up with Great Britain. Today, Jewish and
Stanford L. Sobel, a graduating .
British forces are fighting against the Kaiser's
successors. The faith inherited by Jews from student of the University of Mich-
Herzl is certain to conquer, since it is bound up igan, has received the Avery Hop-
with a people's existence in a struggle against wood Award of $400 for writing
tyranny. the best play of the year. Stan-
The Kaiser was right in one respect about ford is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Palestine: "It is a land of the future." But it James
Sobel
of Boston
Blvd.,
and The Most
several
weeks
ago won
a gradu-
dellelous
must be a future free from Nazi domination.
ate scholarship in philosophy to
cracker
•
Brown University of Providence,
You've
over
R.
I.
The
name
of
the
play
is
Work for Palestine Goes On
tasted!
"The Green House" and is a story
On the day on which Jewish troops, together of Jewish home life.
with other British forces, left Palestine for Syria,
last Sunday, youth volunteers made their plans
Dr. James G. Heller, about to
for observance of annual Flower Days of the become president of the Central
Jewish National Fund, to continue land redemp- Conference of American Rabbis,
tion work in the cradleland of their people. This writes a new symphony in his
is the spirit that must triumph. It is the kind
spare time.
of spirit that must win for France. DeGaulle
does not say "we are doomed," simply because
Petain and Laval and Darlan deal with the Nazi.
Free men do not give up the battle at the sight
ONLY 2 WEEKS TILL THE OPENING OF
of a bomber. Free Jews do not abandon the
homeland simply because the war is diverging
upon the Suez. Don't let anyone tell you that
we are doomed, that all is lost, that there is no
hope left. To say such things is to repeat the
nonsense the enemy loves to hear. The better
part of valor is to reaffirm faith, to adhere to
principle, to fight for an ideal. That is what
Jews are continuing to do.• And that is what the
enemy will always dislike but will have to accept
as reality. The only concern at the moment is
to get Jews to stop repeating the battlecry of
the enemy and to refuse to think in terms of
defeat.

•

Fiasco of Budgeting Referendum

Under normal conditions, the abuse of demo-
cratic principles in its handling of the so-called
referendum on budgeting might have spelled
suicide for the Council of Federations and Wel-
fare Funds. But these are not normal times, and
allowances will he made for the shortcomings of
the Council's leaders, for their manipulations
which gave the impression that a majority has
cast ballots in favor of the proposed budgeting
plan, for the shortsightedness of the committee
of tellers who failed to record the votes of some
of the communities which stand in opposition
to the budgeting proposal.
But especially in a time like the present, when
democratic ideals are at stake, the travesty on
popular opinion enacted by the Council of Fed-
erations and Welfare Funds must be condemned
severely. ,If we are to have a semblance of
democratic action in Jewish life, recurrence of
such abuse of important sentiment in Jewish
ranks must be avoided.
An evaluation of the manner in which the
Council's committee counted the ballots reveals
an unfortunate attitude towards the views of an
opposition by the leadership that is now directing
the affairs of the Council. This leadership has
proven ungracious in recognizing a defeat. To at-
tempt to force its views upon the Jewish com-
munities of America, in a time when there is
need for eliminating hard feelings, is deplorable.
The incident bears watching. It calls for vigi-
lance against destruction of democratic ideals at
a time when we plead for democracy in the
world at large. Either Jewish life is democratized,
or we shall be accused of shouting hypocritically
for democracy outside Jewish ranks and suppress-
ing it in our internal activities. The rank and
file of American Jews must let it be known
that a handful of men who abuse the democratic
ideal do not speak for all of us and that they
are not representtative of true popular feeling
in favor of the democratization of Jewish life.

It is remarkable that the myths about the
Jews have been believed, as many of them are
today, by people among all classes, and that ex-
perience with one usurer should cause non-Jews
to believe that all Jews or most Jews are usurers.
The Kaiser was a victim of anti-Semitism, no
less than members of his official family some of
whom later helped create the present Nazi state.
He spoke of Jews to Herzl "not in an exactly
friendly tone."
In his diaries, Herzl records that the Kaiser
told him of the rich Jews' opposition to Zionism,
of the unfriendly attitude of the press. "You
ought to think of getting one or the other of
the big papers on your side," the Kaiser said,
and Herz, replied: "Your excellency, that is
purely a matter of money. As a writer I regret
to have to say it."
Herzl spoke to the Kaiser of the status of
the Jews in Russia, and "the Kaiser than said
with a touch of humor which had more joviality
than heartlessness in it: 'Yes, your Landsleute
haven't had such a good time of it in Russia
these last couple of hundred years.' "
The first interview with the Kaiser ended with
Herzl saying, with reference to a loan to Tur-
key that should be negotiated by Jews in ex-
change for an understanding that a Jewish home-
land is to be built in Palestine: "I don't know
whether it is because I am so gripped by the
subject—but the whole thing appears quite nat-
ural to me." And the Kaiser replied "To me, too."
They met again on Oct. 27, 1898, in Palestine,
at the Mikveh Israel colony. The Kaiser recog-
nized him from a distance. "He started slightly,
reined in his horse toward me—and stopped op-
posite me. I stepped forward two paces; and as
he bent over his horse's neck and stretched out
his hand to me, I came quite close to him and
stretched out mine, and remained standing with
bared head." They greeted each other. fhe Kaiser
remarked that the land has a future, and Herzl
replied, "At present it is still sick." Herzl spoke
of "colonization on a grand scale," and the Kaiser
repeated, "It is a land of the future." Little
did he realize that 43 years later his successor,
Adolf Hitler, would meet Jewish troops in battle
as allies of the British in an effort to prevent
a German invasion of the Holy Land.
Herzl records that the spectators of Mikveh
Israel "were utterly dazed" by what was trans-
piring when the Kaiser stopped to converse with
him, and that "the Rothschild administrators (of
the Jewish colonies) looked timid and irritated."
These are historic occurrences which shed light
not only on the Kaiser's attitudes but also on
the llerzlian zeal which brought him face to face
with the world's most powerful rulers. We learn
from the Herzlian experiences that if leaders are
determined, if they are zealous and believe
strongly in their mission, they can approach their
objective. The Kaiser made a strong bid for
Jewish friendship during the World War I, but
it came too late. Herzl had in the meantime
learned to believe that the fate of the Jew is

•
Palestine at War

Without immediate danger of attack,
Palestine is nevertheless actively at war.
More than 10,000 Jews are enlisted
among the British and Free French
troops that have invaded Syria in order
to forestall an attack by the Nazis. The
step taken by Britain to assume control
of the situation in Syria acts as a check
on Nazism in the Holy Land, and it may
prove to be one of the most decisive fac-
tors in the present war.
In the meantime, Jewish leadership is
challenged to be on guard against be-
trayal of Jewish rights at the end of the
war. Promises are being made to Syria,
to the Pan-Arabic world, to all oppressed
peoples, but not to the Jews of the world.
It is important that our just claims be
defended. Jews must not wait to become
objects of mercy. The leaders in the Zion-
ist movement must exercise vision and
wisdom in dealing with the present situa-
tion ; and Jews in all walks of life must
unite on a common program of action in
behalf of a re-established national Jewish
commonwealth.
•
"What Do You Mean by Jewish?"

A tried pioneer Zionist solicitor was on the
battlefront again last Sunday with the traditional
Blue and White Jewish National Fund box. "It is
Jewish National Fund Day," she told a pros-
pective contributor. He must have been a "kib-
bitzer", for he asked, "What do you mean by
Jewish?" To which the staunch J. N. F.-ite re-
plied: "Perhaps you will understand it better
when I say 'non-Aryan.' "

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