Sejarah Zionisme, 1600-1918/Volume 1/Bab 50

CHAPTER L.

ZIONISM IN FRANCE

David Wolffsohn—France—M. Léon Bourgeois—Michel Erlanger—Zadoc Kahn—Baron Edmond de Rothschild—Professor Joseph Halévy—Dr. Emil Meyersohn—Dr. Waldemar Haffkine—The brothers Marmorek—Bernard Lazare.

In its early years the new Zionist movement showed perhaps insufficient appreciation of the importance of Palestinian colonizing work. Its attention was turned mainly in another direction, that of paving the way for a great resettlement of the Jewish people by the creation of favourable political conditions; and the plodding and often blundering work of the Chovevé Zion seemed to some of its leaders and many of their followers to be poor, petty and uninspiring by comparison with the wide sweep and the brilliance of their own ideal. But as time went on, and it became obvious that in the main the new movement must look for support to those who had worked for the same end as “Lovers of Zion,” the necessary adjustment between the new and the older methods had to be made; and the internal history of Zionism since 1897 is one of the penetration of Chovevé Zion ideas into the large framework created by the master-mind of Herzl under the stress of ideas somewhat different. It is not our intention to trace this history here (Appendix lxxxi): we are concerned less with the inner history of the movement than with its repercussions in the literature and the politics of England and France. It may suffice to say that the Congresses, held first annually and afterwards biennially, attracted an ever-growing number of delegates and an ever-increasing amount of attention; that in its early years the movement established a Jewish National Fund for the purpose of buying land in Palestine on a great scale, and a financial instrument, the Jewish Colonial Trust, which in turn founded the Anglo-Palestine Company for the conduct of actual banking business in Palestine (Appendix lxxxii); that after the death of Herzl in 1904, and the rejection of the offer by the British Government of a piece of territory in East Africa, there developed a somewhat serious fissure between the two tendencies in the movement, the one looking to political activity and the other to Palestinian colonization as the right line of progress; that Herzl’s friend and follower, David Wolffsohn (1856‒1914) (Appendix lxxxiii), who succeeded him as President, was able by a rare combination of gifts to hold the movement together during the period of crisis; that after the Turkish Revolution in 1908, which seemed to make political activity impossible or useless, there was a marked concentration of effort on Palestinian development; that meanwhile the Zionist organization spread to the four corners of the globe, and societies and federations were formed not only in every country in Europe, but also in all parts of the British Dominions, and particularly in the United States of America; and that the outbreak of war found the movement in a position to point both to a large membership—about a quarter of a million—and to substantial achievements in Palestine in support of its claim for the definite reconstitution of the Jews as a nation in their ancient land.

We turn from this brief summary to the impression made by the new movement in France and in England.

In France, where there had always been statesmen and writers who had a proper understanding of the Zionist idea, the most notable pronouncement from a non-Jewish source came from M. Léon Bourgeois, one of the greatest French statesmen of the present generation. His views, as imparted to Baroness Bertha von Suttner (1843‒1914), were published by her in 1899:—

“Bourgeois held forth to me enthusiastically and explained the various reasons why according to his view the movement should be supported. Complete assimilation—not altogether impossible after a long time—looms still in the far distance; until then very many individuals—if they do not break away—must suffer. The individual is still everywhere the highest consideration, collectivism is only an abstract conception. Until now the Jews have been too strongly differentiated from their surroundings to assimilate without being noticed. They are recognizable for their shortcomings as well as for their most outstanding virtues. Difference does not mean inferiority; no one will allow himself to be insulted because he belongs to this or that ethnical group. To be a Zionist means to make a stand against anti-Semitism. The people among whom they live are even more injured by Jew-hatred than the Jews; it is opposed to culture, and prevents the realization of the ideal of peace. Culture happily unites all its objects more closely and aims at an unattainable ideal, but all good works are directed towards paving the way to future success. Therefore every fresh sign of energy is welcome. From a nation newly reconstituted, full of energy, and composed of such intelligent, capable and talented elements, an increase in the general work of culture may be expected. Therefore Zionism is to be encouraged. It is self-understood that the first necessity is to bring relief to a persecuted and unfortunate people. But I wish to clear up this side of the question, which belongs to the future; to bring forward such arguments as are debated. In our Chauvinistic circles, the following argument will be brought forward: Let us be glad that in the Jews we possess a cosmopolitan element; that the scholar, the artist and the thinker amongst them work and create without reference to national ideas. But that kind of argument is false, because to be cosmopolitan, to recognize that the interests of humanity outweigh those of one’s fatherland, or still more to understand this, one must, before all things, have a fatherland.”

What is remarkable about these views is their similarity in some respects to those expressed in 1866 by Moses Hess in his Rom und Jerusalem. Hess, though himself a German Jew writing in German, connected Zionism with the political rôle of France. He regarded the French Revolution as one of the great events that were to prepare the restoration of Israel, and therefore he looked to France for help. France had extended her protection to the Roman Catholics of Syria, and was the beau idéal and the avant courier of human progress. The renationalization of humanity was his aim. He realized the distinctiveness of the Jew. He said that Jews and Germans were as the poles asunder in thought and conceptions of life, and the logic of history and the necessities of humanity made him plead for Zion to be restored. Nature’s economy, he said, demands that the Jew should lead his own life, in his own fashion, and in his own country. He pleaded in the first place for a reaction against Hellenistic theories of life: to him family life was sacred; the mother’s love was the real sacred source of Jewish persistence, because it was spiritual yet not unreal. From the family to the nation was but a step; the family should possess in the individual what the nation should uphold in the mass. He attacked most scornfully the German-Jewish Reform movement, not because he was of the ultra-orthodox school, but because there had been no real Reformation in Judaism. He believed in the upholding of traditional observances not because of their religious utility, but because they were expressive of the Jewish nation, because many of them link us to the remote past. Seeing the gradual disappearance of the little groups of emancipated Jews, and the great misery of the bulk of the Jewish people, he watched most jealously and anxiously over their destiny, desiring to preserve their original purity and ancestral dignity. “The Jew should live his own life,” said Hess: “Welcome to all fresh and sound symptoms of energy,” said Bourgeois. It is the same idea, bespeaking the same sense of humanity and real equality.

As regards the Jews of France, we have already shown how real were the Zionist sympathies of the leaders of the “Alliance” in the sixties. Their successors did not fall below them in this respect. Thus Michel Erlanger (1828‒1892), an active member of the Central Committee of the “Alliance” and Vice-President of the “Consistoire” de Paris, promoted most energetically the colonization of Palestine. It was to a great extent through his invitation that Baron Edmond de Rothschild came to assist the colonies. The success of the Baron’s undertakings was largely due to Erlanger’s knowledge of the localities and their conditions, to his practical understanding and to the energy which he brought to bear upon the work, inspired by a love for the sacred cause which triumphed over difficulties. His practical mind saw that the Holy Land was far better suited than any other country to be a real home for the Jew. We have already mentioned the Grand Rabbin of France, M. Zadoc Kahn, in connection with the first Zionist Congress. No man played a more important part in the early colonization of Palestine than this admirable spiritual leader, with his great strength of character, personal influence and immense popularity. A man of great dignity and wisdom, a fine personality in the noblest sense of the term, he helped all undertakings in favour of Palestine. All the Palestinian deputations, and those from other countries with schemes for the benefit of Palestine, addressed themselves to him; all their cares and troubles fell upon his shoulders. He was engaged in this herculean task for some years, and rendered invaluable service to the work of colonization. And there was always at Paris a group of influential supporters of the Palestinian idea. Besides Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the great benefactor of Palestine, there were the famous scholar, Professor Joseph Halévy (1827‒1918), who was already half a century ago one of the pioneers of a Hebrew Revival in the East; Dr. Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, C.I.E., member of the Institut Pasteur, who afterwards made a great name for himself by his important medical work in India; and Dr. Emil Meyersohn (at present one of the directors of the Jewish Colonization Association), an eminent scholar who, thanks to his exceptional experience, was able to reorganize the old system of colonization in Palestine.

Thus French Jewry has never been the impregnable citadel of assimilation which it is sometimes represented as being. Herzl’s movement evoked a response in quarters which hitherto had been strangers to the Palestinian idea; and though a fusion between the old and the new Zionists was not effected for some time, yet essentially the two sections stood for one and the same thing. The new Zionist organization gained its footing in France through the formation, soon after the first Congress, of the “Fédération Sioniste,” the chief pillar of which was, of course, Max Nordau.

Dr. Alexander Marmorek, a well-known physician, and one of the most prominent Zionists since the very beginning of the movement, was for several years President of the Federation. Alexander and his two brothers Oscar and Isidore were the principal advocates of the national idea in academic circles. The youthful career of Isidore was unhappily cut short by death. Oscar (1863‒1910) worked for a number of years with Herzl, but an untimely death robbed the movement of him also. The most gifted and most enthusiastic of the three brothers is still active in the movement. These leaders of French Zionism were assisted by the late M. Berr, Mdlle. Marie Schach, Dr. Jacobsohn, Dr. Nahum Slousch, and others.

Special notice is due to one of the first followers of Herzl—Bernard Lazare (1856‒1904).

Born at Nîmes, Bernard Lazare left his native place at an early age and came to Paris. He studied paleography and history at the Sorbonne, and was engaged for a time on archæological work, but soon entered upon a literary and journalistic career. He contributed to the Figaro, the Echo de Paris and other dailies, founded L’Action Sociale, issued a pamphlet about the Panama affair and was the author of a few novels. The publication of his L’Antisémitisme, son histoire et ses causes led to a duel with Edouard Drumout.

Lazare was the pioneer of the agitation which led to the release of Captain Alfred Dreyfus; his pamphlets on the affaire were undoubtedly the primary causes of the revision. Another subject in which he was deeply interested was the condition of the Jews in Roumania. He repeatedly raised his voice on their behalf in the leading reviews, in that clear, incisive style which was his own. He was also an enthusiastic adherent of Herzl and an ardent Zionist. He came back to national Judaism after all his achievements for humanity in the Socialist movement and in the literature and politics of his great country, and became an eloquent champion of the new Jew. A clear thinker and a gifted writer, he contributed brilliant Zionist articles to the Flambeau and the Echo Sioniste. It was surprising how this real French patriot and intellectual came to lay bare his Jewish soul and Jewish individuality, and with what power of conviction he defended the immutable rights of this individuality.

“Le Sionisme,” he wrote in 1900, “c’est l’affirmation de notre personalité. Nous avons confiance en nous mêmes, en notre génie, en notre destin pour être dignes de notre passé.... Nous ne serions pas dignes de notre passé, si notre histoire ne nous inspirait des pensées pour l’avenir et si nous ne comprendrions pas qu’il faut que nous ayons un foyer, un centre pour former notre univers, si grand ou petit qu’il soit, à l’image de notre idéal, de notre civilization, de notre pensée et de notre sensibilité. C’est la véritable solution du problème. Nous ne voulons pas l’absorption et l’anéantissement, la disparition, la paix du cimetière, la mort sans phrase. Pour hurter avec les loups—est-ce-que c’est notre mission? Non. Nous réclamons notre titre à nous d’être un ouvrier utile dans le grand atelier de l’humanité. Notre rôle déjà grand, grandira encore. Ce sera la triomphe du droit sur la force brutale, du droit de l’individuelle personne humaine et des collectives personnes qui sont les nations. On a beau dire que puisqu’il y a certaines groups des israélites denationalisés, la nation n’existe plus. Mais ces petits groupes ne comptent pour rien. Il y a un peuple juif qui compte, c’est la grande majorité, ceux qui ont un passé et des traditions dont ils sont fiers et dont ils ont la garde.”

M. Lazare displayed a warm interest in the various questions of Zionism, and always took a national and democratic view. Though shortly before his death he retired from Zionist activity on account of a difference of opinion between himself and Herzl on a point of tactics with regard to Turkey (Lazare proposed an alliance with the Young Turks), he remained a convinced Zionist. He will live in Jewish memory much more as a Zionist than as a “Dreyfusard.” His death in 1904 was an irreparable loss to Zionism in France.