Page Six
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, October 31, 1947
Dr. Weizmann Voices Jewry's Eternal Idealism
Monotheism, Goal of Spiritual Perfection
Have Been Jews' Bulwark, He Tells Forum
Perfectibility here, on this tiny and unhappy world of
ours—not in some haven of the future. While not deny-
ing a future existence, the Jewish philosophy concen-
trated itself on our particular planet. To be that which
is right was its all-in-all.
This perfectibility as an ideal did not mean that
the Jftwish people considered itself perfect. On the
contrary, there is no people with such a literature of
self-criticism as the Jews. The higher the aim, the
lower, necessarily, the comparative achievement. But
perfectibility here, and now, among ourselves has been
the Jewish dream.
The persistent and obstinate monotheism of the
Jews in face of all persecution has always been an
accompaniment of this belief in human perfectibility.
One stern God demanding the perfection of one
humanity: this is almost a summary of the Jewish
credo.
Indeed,it was so summarized by Hillel, the greatest
of the post-biblical Jewish sages of the pre-Christian
era. Confronted by a pagan who wanted Judaism in a
nutshell, as it were, Hillel replied: "Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself.' This is the law; all the rest
is commentary."
* * *
By DR. CHAIM WEIZMANN
Complete text of address delivered before N. Y.
Herald Tribune Forum on Oct. 21 on the topic
"Judaism's Spiritual Contribution to the Strength
of Man." The Jewish News is privileged to publish
this address by special arrangement with the N. Y.
Herald Tribune.
I am embarrassed by a double difficulty in address-
ing this distinguished assembly on the subject assigned
to me. I am a scientist, not a philosopher. Moreover,
I must express my views in a very few minutes, and
though I were to speak with the tongues of men and
angels, I could hardly hope to contribute anything of
significance to the subject.
Yet, I am deeply grateful for the invitation. The
greatest part of my life outside of my scientific work
has been devoted to the practical problems of the
Jewish people. But I should like to believe that in
pursuing the path I have chosen, I have been moved
by something more than simple philanthropic motives.
I should like to think that I have contributed some-
thing, however humbly, to the role of the Jewish
people in the general human advance, such as it is.
* • •
The question before us is whether man is a slave or a
sovereign; is he the victim of circumstances, some of
which he has been instrumental in creating; or is he-
at least, can he become—the maker of his own destiny?
What has the long history of the Jewish people to offer
on this question?
On the surface it certainly looks as though the
history of the Jewish people is a tragic illustration of
man's helplessness. For what people has been so
exposed to the play of external forces of the world
as the Jews in these last two thousand years? Yet this,
I believe, is only on the surface. If we look deeper,
the lesson is quite another one.
Nations, like individuals, impress themselves u..-- on
the world in two ways: by what they do, and what
they are. The two are of course interdependent; char-
acter expresses itself in action, and action reveals
character. But the ultimate influence of a nation, or
an individual, is measured more by the amount of
character revealed than by the stir produced in
human events.
Action is, of course, more spectacular than character.
It makes the more obvious appeal. That is true for
individuals and for nations. The drama of Napoleon's
near conquest of Europe is superficially more im-
pressive than the quiet moral picture of the soul of
Abraham Lincoln. But in the last analysis, Lincoln's
character, working on the New World, has produced
more lasting, as well as more beneficient effects, than
Napoleon's achievements.
* •
We are confronted by the strange paradox that
character creates more lasting values than achieve-
ment. What a man is, means more than what a man
does. The same is true of nations.
Let us take a familiar example. Which of the two
most famous western nations of antiquity, Rome and
Greece, has exerted the deeper influence on western
civilization? Rome did certain things, and Greece was
certain things. Rome conquered the world, and admin-
istered it, Greece did little conquering by comparison,
but it was certain things: it was the thinking, feeling,
aesthetic spirit of the ancient world. In a certain
sense—in a certain sense only—the contradistinction
between Rome and Greece also marks the difference
between prophet and priest in Jewish history.
To which of these is the modern world More
indebted? To the conquerors and proconsuls of Rome—
to the thinkers and scientists and poets of Greece—to
the prophets of Israel or to its priests? I believe the
question answers itself.
*
*
If Jewish history is studied for its specific' content,
what constant or leit-motif do we discover? It is, I
believe, the history of a people Obsessed by an idea; and
that idea was the perfectibility of the human being.
Now I venture to submit that if a man pursues an
idea, he thereby asserts his freedom and his
sovereignty. For if he is only the creature of external
circumstances, he cannot pursue an idea, or anything
else. He is not a pursuer, he is pursued; what he is and
what he thinks is dictated by external circumstance. To
defy external forces, to rise above circumstance, is to
proclaim the sovereignty of the human spirit.
There has never been any relationship between the
physical force of the Jewish people, and the influence
which it haS exerted on the human spirit. For the
physical or political power of the Jewish people has
never been of much importanCe. Its influence never
depended on strength of any kind, political, social or
financial. It depended on the strength of the idea.
Therefore it was, in a double sense, a proclamation of
the sovereignty of man over circumstances.
Monotheisni, the supreme importance of perfect-
ability in this sad, sublunar world, the refusal to be
bullied by superior force, the right to persist as a
minority—these are the leading elements in the Jew-
ish contribution to human progress.
It would be childish to assert that all Jews, or all
groups of Jews, have been consistent contributors to
this idea. From earliest times the lapses of Jews from
the idea have been sternly pointed out and castigated
by the teachers of the Jewish people. But fundament-
ally, the .Jewish people has fulfilled this function: the
assertion of the sovereignty of the human spirit over
the brutality of circumstance.
•
• •
The Jewish contribution to the advance of mankind
has frequently been confused with the contributions of
Jews to specific phases of Western civilization. There
is undoubtedly a deep connection between the large
proportion of Jewish thinkers and scientists and the
Jewish concentration on intellectual and moral values.
There is, perhaps a deeper connection between the
character of their best work and the Jewish spirit that
I am speaking of. We can hardly Conceive of a Spinoza
without reference to a Jewish tradition, affecting him
profoundly in spite of himself. The abstract structure
of Einstein's great system presents a fascinating con-
trast with the brilliant empiricism and physical ex-
periments of Rutherford. It is not too fanciful to re-
late Einstein to the Jewish world outlook and the
Jewish search for the absolute.
Much more definitely we may say that the dispro-
portionate numbers of Jews who have achieved distinc-
tion in all fields of thought may be accounted for by the
high standards of education which the Jews have main-
tained for centuries.
.
When I spoke of the Jews as the protagonists of the
sovereignty of the idea, and therefore as the teachers
of freedom, I was not thinking of theories and philoso-
phies or, rather, I was thinking of these only as they
are incorporated in human form, in the lives of men
and women, and in social instruments. The Jewish con-
tribution of human values, wherever the Jew has been
true to his character, has issued from "being."
Among Jews the notion of a philosopher who
taught one system and lived according to another,
who divorced himself from his theories, has always
been unthinkable. A man was not considered a
teacher merely because he was clever; if that which
he said was not in keeping with the way he lived,
and if the two together did not constitute an ex-
ample, he could not be a teacher. For, it was argued,
if he cannot teach himself, how can he teach others?
If that which he is displeases God and man, how can
that which he says be of any value?
The desire to seek perfection, to overcome the
physical, and find harmony of being, has been the
affirmative note in Jewish history. Of course, it has
not been a consistent note. It has been frustrated from
without, it has faltered within.
But the miracle is, that it has not been stifled. It is
still active. still capable of much good. It is to be found
wherever Jewish communities live in the tradition.
* • •
Whether the affirmations of mankind will triumph
over its negations, whether the creative will triumph
over the destructive, one dare not, at this point in
human history, prophesy too freely. But this much
one can say: among those affirmations the one that
issues from the long history of the Jews is of high
value. As of old, the physical quantities involved
are small in comparison with the vast problems of
mankind; but as of old it may be that the influences
so released by Jewish life may be out of all proportion
to the physical quantities.'
Excerpts from Weizmann's
Statement Before the UN
I can testify here that the establishment of the Jews
as a nation amongst the nations of the world was the
real primary purpose and motive of that international
covenant endorsed by the League of Nations. In the
light of this knowledge, I, cannot fail to be amused by
such frivolous assertions as that made by an Arab
delegate here to the effect that the motive of the
mandate was to reward me for alleged discoveries of
poison gas. I cannot avoid the conclusion that those
who made such rash statements must have been
equally unversed in the political and chemical litera-
ture of the time. I have never had anything to do with
poison gas. It is fantastic.
*
* *
Here is a community of 700,000 with its language,
its religion, its cultural traditions and movements, its
distinctive social outlook, its industrial and agricultural
projects, its scientific spirit, its art and its music, its
universities and schools.
Here, likewise, is a community with a great demo-
cratic spirit and a thoroughgoing democratic struc-
ture, confronting another group which is in a dif-
ferent stage of development, but is numerically
superior.
The institutions of the Jewish homeland are in some
way distinctive to itself and to the Jewish people of
which it is the core. The strangest solidarity of this
community is With its kindred in Europe, the battered
remnants of ancient communities.
Not one of these characteristics which makes this
community is shared by its Arab neighbors. The
question before the Assembly is how and by whom
shall this Jewish community be governed? By whom
shall its development and growth be determined?
Shall it be governed by a trustee? By the Arabs?
By itself? These three alternatives cover all the
variations of Palestinian solutions and the simplest
analysis of them must lead this committee inevitably
to the conclusions of the majority report.
My own sentiments about the British mandate are
probably no secret to any student of the Palestine
question. I hope that when the Jewish people *is
secure in its independence the traditional British-
Jewish friendship will once again become evident and
the present tension will vanish as a passing nightmare.
*
*
*
Subjection of the Jews as 'a minority under Arab
rule is a solution which all impartial commissions and
tribunals have rejected and must reject. On moral
grounds it is impossible to take the only community.
in the world which expresses the national identity
of the Jewish people and to place it under the domin-
ation of the Arab Higher Committee. It is not . only
that the chairman and members of the Arab Higher
Committee—and I do not wish to indulge - in person-
alities—cannot be -regarded as having anything but a
hostile attitude to Jewish national ideals.
I will not discuss whether it is a good or bad
fortune to be a minority in an Arab state. I would
leave the Jews of Iraq to pronounce upon that.
In the thoughtful declaration which the United
States delegate made before this committee, attention
is drawn to the achievement. by many Arab peoples of
their independence- in wide areas. It is appropriate
that the question should be viewed in this context of
relative equity.
The area of Arab independence stretches from the
desert to the Indian Ocean. Independence is not the.
exclusive right of the Arabs. We Jews have an equal
claim to it. This Assembly cannot possibly decree that
the desire of the Arabs to possess an eighth state
Must obliterate the right of the Jews to possess a
single corner where they can lead an independent na-
tional existence and provide the basis of human
civilization.
•
•
•
*
The smallness of the state will be no bar to its full
intellectual achievement. Athens was only one small.
city and the whole world is still its debtor.
• *
*
*
Our remnants in Europe, who have before their eyes
their 6,000,000 slaughtered kinsmen, cannot stand the
thought of another dispersion. They do not throw
themselves on the mercy of the world. They are not
suppliant, they are not beggars. They wish to be
citizens of a Jewish society in which their capacities
and ideals will be fully- a t home: All they wish is
opportunity and they. will do the job themselves. Your
special committee had a good opportunity of testing
these assertions.
I have nothing to say to those Who represent our
aims—which I have tried to give in simple words—as
a sort of dark conspiracy fomented from outside, as
a kind of exploitation of misery. The only hand of wel-
come extended to these Jewish survivors is the one
which reaches out from our people in Palestine.
*
*
*
I have been interested and not a little repelled
to hear this great enterprise described by the represen-
tatives of Iraq and Syria as Nazism. Making due allow-
ance for the legitimate joys of debate, I consider that
this carries distortion and libel very far indeed.
Of course, I do not dispute the right of those two
gentlement to speak with authority and intimacy on
the nature of Nazism. I cannot rival their contacts in
that field. But on the nature of Zionism I hold myself
a better exponent than they.
*
*
*
A world which does not hear us in this moment of
our agony would be deaf to the voice of justice and
human feeling which must be raised loud and clear
if the moral foundations of our society are to survive.
If you follow the impartial judgment of your own
qualified committee and admit us to your table, we
shall enter your company with a sense of the spiritual
and intellectual challenge which the idea of the United
Nations makes to the conscience of man. In giving- us
this opportunity you will be faithful to the noblest
ideals which have been. conceived by our ancestors
and transmitted by them to the common heritage of
the world.
"The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to
recover the remants of his people. And He shall set up
an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the out-
cast of Israel and gather together the depressed of
Judah from the four corners of the earth."
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