64 Friday, May 23, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Genius of 'Communist Rabbi Moses'
Moses Hess' Creative Zionism Is Defined
in Isaiah Berlin Essay 'Against the Current'
Scholars and thinkers
who have left their marks
on the world at large are
under scrutiny in "Against
the Current" (Viking
Press), the third in the
series of volumes by Isaiah
Berlin.
In the current volume, Sir
Isaiah Berlin — he was
knighted by the Queen of
Great Britain — deals,
among others, with Moses
Hess, Benjamin Disraeli,
Karl Marx, Machiavelli,
Montesquieu and Hume.
The essay on Moses Hess
is an impressive work that
is especially revealing.
Here the author goes into
detail about Hess' begin-
nings as a Communist and
his subsequent advocacy of
Zionism which records him
in history as one of the out-
standing precursors of
Theodor Herzl.
Berlin offers a definitive
comment on Hess in which
he describes him as: "Moses
Hess was both a Communist
and a Zionist. He played a
decisive role in the history
of the first movement; he
virtually invented the sec-
ond."
Hess' "Rome and
Jerusalem" is thoroughly
analyzed for an understand-
ing of the Hess philosophy
and the place he earned in
modern Jewish history.
It was a return to Jewish
loyalties. Berlin quotes
Hess: "Here I am again,
after years of estrangement,
in the midst of my people. I
take part in its days of joy
and sorrow, in its memories
and hopes, its spiritual
struggles within its own
house, and among the
civilized peoples in whose
midst it lives, but with
which, despite 2,000 years
of common life and effort, it
cannot achieve complete
unity.
"One thought which I be-
lieve I had extinguished
forever within my breast is
again visibly present to me:
the thought of my national-
ity, inseparable from heri-
tage of my fathers and from
the Holy Land — the Eter-
nal City, the birthplace of
the belief on the Divine
unity of life and in the fu-
ture brotherhood of all
men."
Moses Hess (1812-1975)
wrote "Rome and
Jerusalem" in 1862. It is ac-
knowledged that Hess had
influenced Karl Marx, but
his nationalism was re-
jected and his critics called
him the Communist Rabbi
Moses.
It is in his evaluation of
Hess' Jewish nationalism
DR. BERLIN
that the Berlin essay as-
sumes great significance.
He states in that resume of
the author of "Rome and
Jerusalem":
"Hess goes on to assert
that nationality is real.
Nations are a natural his-
torical growth, like
families, like physical
types. To deny this is
merely to falsify the facts,
and springs from un-
worthy motives of fear
and cowardice.
"In the case of the Jews
the ringing phrases that
some among them use
against nationalism and
medieval prejudice are
only an attempt to con-
ceal their desire to dis-
sociate themselves from
their 'unhappy, perse-
cuted, ridiculed people
. . . The modern liberal
Jew is to be despised with
his fine words about hu-
manity and enlighten-
ment, intended only to
disguise his disloyalty to
his brothers.'
"This creates a false
situation that becomes
increasingly unbearable
to everyone. Europeans
have always regarded
the existence of Jews as
an anomaly. It may well
be that progress of justice
and humanity will one
day lead to justice for
Jews: they will perhaps
be emancipated, but they
will never be respected so
long as they act on the
principle of 'Ubi bene, ibi
patria.' (Where I do well,
there is my country.)
"Denial of nationality
forfeits everyone's re-
spect. Assimilation is no
solution: 'It is not the
pious old Jew, who
would rather have his
tongue cut out than mis-
use it by denying his na-
tionality: it is the modern
Jew who is despicable for
disowning his race be-
cause the heavy hand of
fate oppresses it.' The
banner of enlightenment
will not save him from the
stern verdict of public
opinion. 'It is no use
pleading various geo-
graphical or philosophi-
cal alibis.'
"The modern Jew is
merely despised for try- race, and the modern must finally obtain its Hess affirms that Jews
are made Palestinian
ing to leave what he Jew who denies this is solution too.
"He declares that this patriots by their very
thinks to be a sinking not only an apostate, a
ship. 'You may don a religious renegade, but a final question has too long religion. When his
thousand masks, change traitor to his people, his been concealed behind the grandfather wept as he
fantastic illusions of read to him Jeremiah's
your name and your reli- tribe, his family.'
"Racial chauvinism — rationalists and philan- vision of Rachel, in her
gion and your mode of
life, creep through the nationalism in any form thropists who deny the na- tomb in Ramah, lament-
world incognito so that — is condemned by Hess tional character of the ing over her children as
nobody notices that you in the most passionate Jewish religion. The reli- they were carried off be-
are a Jew. Yet every in- terms, then and later. But gious reform movement fore her eyes to the
suit to the Jewish name to deny one's nation or among the German Jews Babylonish captivity;
will wound you more race is at least as repul- has done nothing but bring and when he showed him
than a man of honor who sive as to proclaim its emptiness into Jewish life, olives and dates, saying
remains loyal to his fam- superior rights or pow- and break off boughs from with shining eyes, 'The:-
come from Eretz Israt
the Jewish tree.
ily and defends his good ers.
"With a shameful lack of he was many miles fro;_
"The German Jews
name.'
"Some Jews in Ger- cannot understand this. pride its leaders tell the his native Rhineland.
"Jews buy Palestine
many think that they can They are genuinely puz- Jews to conceal themselves
save themselves by mod- zled by German anti- among the other nations. earth, he goes on to say,
ernizing their religion, Semitism. They feel that With what result? They on which to rest their
or, finally, by conversion. they are true patriots, change their names, and head when they are
But this will not help soldiers who have fought fling them in their faces; so buried; they carry sprigs
Germany, that poor Meyerbeer, the of palm bound in myrtle
them. 'Neither reform, for
as composer, is now always during the Feast of the
nor baptism, neither 'Teutomaniacs'
education nor emancipa- fiercely hostile to the called by them Jacob Meyer Tabernacles; and, he
tion, will completely open French as other Ger- Lippmann Beer; and Lud- might have added, they
wig Boerne is always called pray for rain or dew at
before the Jewi of Ger- mans."
the seasons at which
many the doors of social
Berlin describes Hess as Baruch, which is, indeed, their forefathers did so in
his
real
name.
life.' –
foreseeing an awakening.
"Socialists in Germany the Holy Land.
He says again and Hess is depicted as having
"This is more than a
again that the Germans lived his life in a dream. At indulge in this pastime no
less than others. This superstition or a dogma.
are anti-Jewish racially.
situation is deeply Everything that comes
The tall, blond Germans
humiliating. Jews have from Palestine, every-
are much too conscious
been persecuted and thing that reminds them
of the small, dark Jews as
massacred, but in the of it, moves them and is
being something intrinsi-
Middle Ages, by remain- dear to them as nothing
cally different from
ing steadfast and faithful else. If the Germans are
themselves. What the
to their ancestral values, prepared to accept them
Germans hate is not so
they at least avoided de- only at the price of deny-
much the Jewish religion
gradation. Modern Jews, ing their race, their reli-
or Jewish names as the
especially those who gion, their temperament,
Jewish noses; change of
have changed their their historical
faith or name evidently
names, deserve the con- memories, their essential
does not help: con-
tumely which openly or character — then the
sequently what the Jews
secretly is heaped upon price is not only morally
are tempted to deny is not
them. too high, but not capable
so much their religion as
"Hess proceeded to be as of being paid at all: the
their race. But their noses
good as his word. He de- proposal is both disgust-
will not vanish, their hair
dared that his first name ing and impracticable.
will remain curly, their
was henceforth not Moritz "Nor is the solution to
type has, after all, re-
but his Hebrew name, be found among those
mained unaltered since
Moses. He said that he re- fanatical fundamen-
MOSES HESS
the ancient Egyptian
bas-reliefs in which the this point there is a refer- gretted that he was not talists who, with their
Semitic type, as we know ence to an experience of a called Itzig; nothing was heads buried in the sand, -
it, is quite unmistakable. tragic nature that Hess be- worse than flying under denounce all science, all
aspects of modern secu-
"They are 'a race, a came an activist in his false colors.
"In a moving passage, lar life. How, he asks, are
brotherhood, a nation, Zionism. Berlin defines that
t Jews to build a bridge
whose own existence is role:
early in the book, he says the
that Moses was not between the nihilism of
unfortunately denied by
"In 1840, when the
its own children, and one charge of ritual murder buried in the Holy Land, the Reform rabbis who
which every street urchin was made against the whereas the bones of have learned nothing and
Joseph were carried the conservatism of the
considers it his duty to Jews in Damascus, he
Orthodox who have for-
despise, so long as it is himself
'suddenly there, because, accord-
homeless.'
nothing? There is
realized where the truth ing to the rabbis, when gotten
only, one solution, and it
"Homelessness is the lay. it dawned on me for
Moses presented himself awaits
the Jews upon the
heart of this problem: for the first time, in the midst before his future father- banks of the Jordan.
without soil 'a man sinks of my socialist activities, in-law, Jethro the priest
The French nation
to the status of a parasite, that I belonged to my un-
of Midian, to sue for his will aid them. France the
feeding on others.' All fortunate, slandered, de-
daughter's hand, he did great liberator, the first
betrayal is base as such. spised and dispersed
not reveal his true origin: to break the ancient
If it is true that Jewish people,' and he goes on to he allowed it to be as-
emancipation is not com- say that he stifled his cry sumed that he was an shackles and herald the
civil liberties of the Jews
patible with adherence to of pain, because of the Egyptian;
whereas like
those of other
the Jewish nation, a Jew greater sufferings of the Joseph revealed himself
peoples
— France must,
ought to sacrifice the European proletariat to
to his brethren, and once she has built -
former for the latter.' which he thought that he never disavowed anyone Suez Canal, make
"And, still more vio- ought to devote his life.
or anything.
lently: 'Jews are not a
"One moment of weak- possible for the Jews to
"Polish nationalism
religious group, but a had evidently made little ness deprived Moses of establish colonies o"..
separate nation, a special impression on Hess, since his right to burial in the shores, for without' .
land of the ancestors (Hess repeats this over
it was bound up with
and over again) there is
Roman Catholicism, and whom he had by his si- no national life.
Rome had been an in- lence denied; so that, ac-
But who will go to this
to the Scriptures,
exhaustible well of anti- cording
no man knows the place barren eastern country?
Semitic poison. But the
Not, it is certain, the Jews
his grave.
awakening of Italy — of "What
then, are the of the west. They will stay
secular and humanist —
in the various European
had made him realize Jews to do if they are not lands in which they have
to
remain
sorry
hypoc-
that the last of all the
gained education, cul-
great national questions, rites or worthless nonen-
the Jewish question, tities among the nations? (Continued on ,Page 5)
"