Sejarah Zionisme, 1600-1918/Volume 1/Bab 34
CHAPTER XXXIV.
ZIONISM VERSUS ASSIMILATION
The first difficulties—The traditions of Anglo-Jewry—The influence of the English people on the Jews—Assimilation and the Jewish National idea—The Zionist conception of the Jewish problem—The tragedy of a minority.
In order that Zionism might be prevented from becoming a metaphysical theory instead of a practical principle, and might achieve concreteness and real life, it was most advisable that its development should proceed by steady and slow degrees, that it should meet with opposition at every step and be challenged to produce logical proof of its soundness. For it is only after antagonism has been overcome that truth reigns triumphant in the human mind. There is consequently no cause to regret that Zionism met with opposition among the Jews themselves.
At the time with which we are dealing—the sixties of last century—a number of Jews in some countries of Western Europe already showed a desire to assimilate with their fellow-countrymen in every possible way. This desire arises merely from a confusion of aspirations and ideas. It is of course natural for a Jew born in England to be proud of being an English citizen, for a Jew born in France, Italy or elsewhere to be proud of the greatness and progress of his native land. Everybody thoroughly understands and appreciates this sentiment. There are few feelings more noble than patriotism, and few have been responsible for greater deeds and more heroic achievements. It is a good thing when the “amour sacre de la patrie” fills one’s breast. But a Jew may be a good and loyal citizen and yet a thoroughly national Jew. The two things are in no way incompatible, and have been made to appear so only by inaccuracy in definition, and failure to understand the difference between ethnological and religious nationality on the one hand, and political nationality on the other.
The Jews are a nation, although they have not retained their full national status. Most non-Jews, whether they are anti- or pro-Jews, regard Judaism as a national tie, and if well-wishers hesitate to express this opinion it is only for fear of hurting the feelings of those Jews who wish to be thought merely a religious community. Delicate natures shrink from incurring the suspicion of anti-Semitism, and comply from conscious or unconscious kindliness with this singular wish of a few Jews. So this minority has contrived to suggest to many Christians a view which, in reality, they do not share at all, and which will not stand careful scrutiny. The best proof of the national quality of a given community is the conviction of the outside world that it is a nation. Whether the Jews are an absolutely pure race or not (absolute purity does not exist, but relatively the Jews are doubtless the purest race among civilized nations), they have a specific past, a peculiar temperament, a special mentality, which persist even when the Jewish religion has long ceased to be a living force, and make the most assimilated Jews a nation. And so it will remain, for, on the whole, the Jews are a tenacious people, and withstand extreme tendencies to assimilation. When some assimilated Jews, who really believe in nothing, call themselves genuine Teutons, Latins, etc., of the Jewish faith, it may be psychologically interesting to close observers, but it is in reality only an unconscious impulse on the part of self-despairing Judaism to survive in any shape whatsoever. And these assimilationists have never been—though the Jews have gone through greater and more extensive periods of assimilation than the present—more than a handful.
Of course the national force of present-day Judaism is in a latent state, and it can only become manifest when Judaism resumes its history. The Jewish nation has the cultural power to attain that goal, to form a national community, to maintain it and to make it prosper. Its intellectual and ethical aptitudes are denied by none but the malevolent and the envious. One cannot glance into the history of civilized nations, and of civilization itself, without meeting at every point with men of Jewish race who have achieved great things in poetry and science, in economics and politics.
“Yours is a mighty genius,” the French statesman Ernest Laharanne wrote in 1860, “and we bow before you. You were strong in the days of antiquity, and strong in the Middle Ages. You have preserved your existence throughout the dispersion, of course not without paying the heavy tax of eighteen centuries of persecution. But the remainder is still strong enough to erect anew the gates of Jerusalem. This is your task.”¹
Orientals through their inherited aptitudes of intellect and mind, Occidentals through eighteen centuries of education, the Jews are the only qualified intermediaries for the great work which is to begin with the civilizing of the peoples of Asia and to end with the conciliation of the races.
What is nationally Jewish? The word national implies racial unity not merely in the sense of a common origin, but as a present fact and an abiding influence, with a particular fervour and strength of its own. This racial unity has its psychological counterpart in a certain intense racial spirit, by virtue of which the whole nation is animated by a definite aspiration towards a common ideal, and becomes merged with it into a living unit. This characteristic spirit permeates the whole people “like a salve, and causes it to glow as with one flame.” Or in the words of the Zohar:—
“Israel and its Torah are one.” This Torah is precisely the ethos of the fundamental racial unity of the Jews.
To the singular and exceptional nature of the Jewish nationality is due the fact that it is frequently difficult to determine with any degree of exactitude in how far certain terms and assertions which are applied to other nations may properly be applied to the Jews. Hence, while it is a matter of the greatest importance for the preservation of the full and precise significance of Judaism to use the most definite and unequivocal expressions in speaking of Jewish nationality, it inevitably happens that certain terms as used by the upholders of assimilation have to be characterized as inaccurate because their ordinary connotation is misleading, though they may in themselves be legitimate. An examination of the whole series of phrases which occur in the polemics of nationalism and assimilation would take us too far; but it will be worth while to draw attention to certain fundamental principles in the discussion of which misunderstandings frequently arise.
In any attempt to define Jewish nationality, it is necessary first of all to bear in mind that the only elements of nationality that enter into consideration are the historical and the ethnographical. The predicates of the conception of nationality as applied to all other nations fall under the headings:
(1) Origin, historical solidarity, racial characteristics.
(2) State organization, political functions and civic interests.
The predicates of the first category alone are germane to our subject. Those of the second category are partly inapplicable (political union, political functions), and partly limited in their application, for example, to the sphere of local interests. In this connection attention may be drawn to the fact that the local organization of the Jews is strong and well-marked wherever the state or society drives the Jews, by means of exceptional laws, ostracism or prejudice, to an instinctive or organized self-defence, and is absent only where the Jews enjoy complete emancipation not only in the eyes of the law, but also in the view of public opinion as a whole, and not merely in that of certain of the upper classes which are everywhere more or less privileged.
Exceptional laws tend to isolate the Jews; the attacks and accusations directed against them collectively, the differential treatment meted out to them, the anti-Semitic policy, all necessarily contribute to strengthen the walls of the Ghetto. Every discrimination made against the Jews, be it only the merest chicane, is a stone added to the walls of the Ghetto. It is not to the Jews that the erection of a “State within a State” is to be credited; it is the anti-Semitic movement which is responsible for this anomaly. As soon as the Jews are subjected to differential treatment, they must likewise alter their attitude. Whether they will or no, there arises out of these conditions a complex of problems in consequence of the instinct for self-preservation, which acts with the force of an iron law. These problems, which in their origin have nothing to do with the national life and character of the Jews, invest them with the character of a politico-economic nationality, artificially isolated within the State. That is a kind of nationality to which the Jews do not aspire; it is forced on them from without. And it is in such conditions that the majority of the Jews live. It is a superficial method of computation which estimates the condition of the Jews according to the majority of the countries in which they live; the right method is to consider the condition of the majority of the people. That is the decisive factor. A well-known Jewish author has taken the trouble to collect in a book all the laws promulgated against the Jews in Russia under the old régime. These laws numbered more than a thousand, and subsequently they were increased by many hundreds. This code of laws—a kind of anti-Bible—affects half of the Jewish race. The originators of these special laws have consciously or unconsciously bestowed upon the Jews the predicates of a nationality within the domain of the State, but in a negative sense and with (as it were) inverted political rights. A group of men may thus be converted into a nation isolated within the State, not only by granting them special privileges, but also, and perhaps more thoroughly, by subjecting them to special restrictions.
As an inevitable result of this treatment, the thoughts, feelings and aspirations, the daily interests, the public opinion, the collective will of the Jewish masses have been driven to assume a tendency necessarily peculiar to themselves even in economic and general questions, in which they would otherwise have no special concern as Jews. In spite of the exceptional conditions artificially created for them they yet contrive on the whole to maintain their loyalty to the State, and make supreme sacrifices for it.
It stands to reason that when, in the course of one generation, a certain class of men has been called upon to suffer the martyrdom of violent persecutions and is constantly threatened by this gruesome spectre, the consequence is that whether they will or no, the members of the group become welded and cemented together into one body. It is also self-evident that given a certain class of men confined within a Ghetto or debarred from many professions—only a few in fact remaining open to them—the members of the community are bound to become a people of entirely exceptional character, with cares and problems of their own. In our day, as on innumerable previous occasions in Jewish history, malice makes use of this fact to bring forward fresh accusations against the Jew. The Jews are driven into certain positions, and are then held responsible for them. It is of no avail to give serious consideration to these charges. They are so numerous and so obstinate that it would be impossible to dispose of them all in an apology. Impartial observers will understand that the exceptional status of the Jews within the States, and the separate interests resulting therefrom, were not a consummation desired by the Jews, but a necessity imposed upon them against their will and of which they are compelled to bear the consequences. They are obliged to combine in many countries, just as any people taken collectively usually combine, when their interests as a collective body are at stake. This is a necessity even in the most ordinary matters of daily life, and it results in a national combination for economic interests, as, for instance, in the case of boycott or of social ostracism. But for these aggravations, it would not occur to the most zealous of Jewish nationalists to make attempts at organization in this direction. The distinctive Jewish national concept is not embodied in these organizations, nor dependent upon them. But the demand that these special organizations shall cease, is first of all a chimera: and secondly an injustice: a chimera because it transgresses the law of the instinct of self-preservation, and an injustice because one must not forbid a man who has been attacked to defend himself. One can only demand that the grievances shall be removed. Whether they will ever vanish, and when, is another question. The Russian revolution, with its boon of freedom to oppressed nationalities, will mark, we hope, an epoch in the struggle of the Jewish masses for the right to live freely in the political and economic sense. But history and experience warn us against believing too readily that salvation has come.
However that may be, Jewish nationality, as we said above, in no way depends on the political status and the position of the Jews in various countries. This question may be left entirely out of consideration. In dealing with Jewish nationality, we are concerned only with those predicates which are based upon the natio, that is the origin and the spirit or type of the race in question.
The Jewish national idea is not merely an historical tradition, it is a programme for outward as well as inward use. Outwardly it manifests itself in an energetic struggle for its own existence, in the development of its self-consciousness, in an active regard for its own interests; inwardly as a union of the Jews of all countries, rites, grades of culture and political parties on all questions which affect Jews and Judaism (though it is and must be set on one side in all non-Jewish questions relating to the State). As in the natio the fact of being at one with the race is the really characteristic feature, it is necessary to regard all Jews as members of the Jewish nationality without reference to their religious opinions or points of view. This is the meaning of the Talmudic dictum:—
אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא
סנהדרין דף מד ע'א
Although he sinned he is an Israelite.—Sanhedrin 44ᵃ.
Nationality has nothing to do with the differences of theological opinion between the various sections of Jewry; it is based simply upon oneness with the race. The endeavour to form this union is the foundation of the national idea.
By those who do not understand it the Jewish national idea is reproached with constituting an antithesis to the idea of the State and of citizenship on the one hand, and to the spiritual and the Torah on the other. This reproach has no foundation: Jewish nationality cannot find expression in political citizenship in the Diaspora, simply because it lies outside that sphere. On the other hand, from the point of view of the inner, spiritual strength of Jewry, the sense of nationality is a source of vitality, and produces a fusion which transcends all parties. It is folly to regard it as a degradation of the spiritual character of Judaism.
Those who were unable to comprehend this distinction, and could not or would not recognize the true nobility of their Jewish nationality, were impelled by a desire to destroy the distinctive characteristics which recalled their origin. They wished to submerge their nationality, glorious in tradition and history, illustrious in its record of heroism, venerable in its antiquity, holy by the inspiration of religion. They failed to see that their people’s history abounded in events and incidents sufficient not only to stamp a nation as glorious, but to confer upon themselves, as men and as citizens in the countries of their birth, greater dignity, more native worth and integrity of purpose. They forgot that assimilation involved the sacrifice of a glorious historical tradition, of a living national sentiment, and, worst of all, of their national genius. However, the pursuit of assimilation did not always extend to a desire for total absorption; its effect was to weaken rather than to destroy.
The attitude of assimilation was not adopted in its fulness by the Jews in England. This was due to the influence of the English nation. Jews in England could not fail to see the attachment of Englishmen to time-honoured political observances, sometimes meaningless in themselves, yet full of significance through their symbolism or associations; that strong under-current of traditional feeling which, though held in check by the swifter stream of progress, manifests its presence and power in a dignified reverence for the past. With such fellow-countrymen as the British people, in a land whose greatness is built on the past, on tradition, on the Bible, the Jews had no need to be ashamed of pointing to their own traditions, of dwelling upon their own history and the glory of their own past. The Jews, whose history is an epic, had no need to slur over that chapter of the poem whose scenes are laid in the Holy Land. They knew that the ancient glory of their annals shone brightly on those sacred shores. They knew that that holy soil had been trodden by the prophets, the poets, and the warriors of their race, and that there they had first impressed themselves on their age and on the ages which were to follow. They knew that amid the most splendid states of antiquity or of the modern world no land had produced such brilliant examples of valour, wisdom and virtue; that no land had ever rendered more wonderful services to the world than this Holy Land of theirs; that no land had ever had so great a past. And though the future is wrapped in darkness, national hope sees a glimmer of promise even through the veil of mist.
English Jews understood, then, that the relationship of the Jewish people to the Holy Land was a tie of a peculiar character. They understood that in ordinary circumstances the connection between an exiled people and its land would probably have been severed long ago. It could hardly have resisted the influences that had been at work to bring about its dissolution. Everybody knows of numerous instances of such dissolution recorded in history. When a people, or a section of a people, leaves the country which was the cradle of its nationality to live in a distant clime, under the ægis of new institutions, the link that bound it to the ancient soil loosens and gives way in course of time and by force of events. At first old associations assert themselves. Familiar names are resumed on the unfamiliar shore. The followers of Cadmus (fl. 1493 b.c.e.) planted a new Thebes in the land to which they migrated. The Pilgrim Fathers raised a new Plymouth on the shore which the Mayflower touched at the end of its outward voyage from the Plymouth of the motherland. For long years the American exile called the old country his home. But even this feeling scarcely survives the changes of which we are witnesses. Generations pass by. New institutions take root: new feelings prevail, they ripen and burst into fruit. There is no revolution more complete and more enduring than that caused by the transplanting of a nation. But with the Jews and the land of their lost glory the case is wholly different. Elements of a higher character than those of an ordinary historical nature enter into consideration. The Holy Land is the country of their past greatness, present longings and future hopes. It is a bridge which links the past with the future through the span of the present. It is still a land of dreams, but it is to become a land of wakeful activity, it is to be stirred to new life and progress. To carry out such objects combined, sustained and intelligent action is required. How could English Jews, living amongst the greatest colonizing nation in the world, overlook this great necessity?
No other country under the sun can unite all the advantages which the restored home of the Hebrews will present, can attract the Jewish people, with the knowledge which it has gained of the ways of the world and its pre-eminence in commerce, can become the home of a Commonwealth which will restore its national greatness.
From a purely practical point of view, again, there is no reason why property in the land of Israel should not offer as safe an investment as any other. Surely it is within the realm of probability that those who regard the idea as the ridiculous notion of a mad enthusiast, or at least their children after them, may find it to their interest to labour for the restoration of Palestine as the surest method of placing their worldly possessions in safety, even without taking into consideration the benefits which would accrue to the Jews as a religious community, through their obtaining once more a home for the practice of their laws, a spot where the ark of the covenant may rest without being exposed to malevolence and prejudice.
These ideas, in fact, were prevalent among English Jews. There were some adherents of Assimilation, but they were insignificant both in numbers and in influence. It is note-worthy that the idea preached by modern Zionism in the first years of the movement, namely, that the Jewish tragedy is due to the fact that the Jews are everywhere in a minority, and that therefore the only solution of the problem is to make them a majority in their own country, was expressed in England by a Jewish publicist in 1863 (Appendix lxvi).