,transcriber's ,notes3      ,italic text
 is denoted by underscores and bold text
 by    equal signs4      ,small         
uppercase have been replaced with       
regular uppercase4      ,blank pages    
have been eliminated4      ,variations  
in spelling and hyphenation have been   
left as in the    original4      ,a few 
typographical errors have been          
corrected4                              
,on the ,eve                            
of ,redemption                          
,s4 ,m4 ,melamed1 ,ph4 ,d4              
,alpha ,omega ,publishing ,company1     
,new ,york                              
,,copyright1 #aiah                      
,,alpha ,,omega ,,publishing ,,co41     
,,inc4                 ,the following   
pages comprise a number of editorial    
leaders         discussing questions and
 problems pertaining to ,jewish         
nationalism and ,zionism which were     
published in the ,american              
,jewish ,chronicle in the years         
#aiaf-ag-ah4          ,,foreword        

,the war has caused an upheaval of the  
whole world2 vast changes have  been    
wrought in many peoples4 ,destruction of
 life and treasure has  brought about a 
revolution of national assets and       
resources1 and there  has been stock    
taking of the spiritual no less than of 
the material  possessions4 ,we have     
confident hope that the material losses 
will be  balanced by the moral progress 
of the peoples of the world1 great and  
small4    ,no people has felt the       
upheaval more than have the ,jews4 ,none
 has had  a greater share in its        
sorrows4 ,none has had more reason to   
examine  carefully its past and its     
present and to define its future plans2 
and  none can look with clearer purpose 
or with firmer courage into the  future4
 ,for none has better ground than have  
the ,jews for confident  hope in the    
moral progress of the world1--that      
people which has been  the constant     
witness of the course of civilization   
throughout the ages  and has never lost 

its faith in the ultimate victory of    
,justice and  ,right4    ,we need not   
speak in generalities4 ,the smaller     
nations are assured  that their rights  
will be safeguarded in the future1 and  
that these  rights will embrace not only
 protection from attack and aggression1 
but  equally the right of development   
along the lines of their own national   
bent1 the right of self-government1 the 
right to cultivate their own  spiritual 
possessions4 ,there is no other people  
to whom this is so  full of deep meaning
 as to the ,jews4 ,during the many      
centuries of the  ,dispersion our people
 has ever looked forward to its         
,restoration in  its ancestral home4    
,during these many centuries there has  
never been a  day that the prayers for  
the ,return have not ascended in every  
country  of the world in which the      
,children of ,israel have been          
dispersed4  ,this undying hope has been 
the factor in the unique1 the miraculous
  preservation of a small people        

scattered among all the peoples of the  
globe4    ,the national movement of the 
past generation1 which has led to the   
rejuvenation of the ,hebrew language1 to
 the founding of prosperous  ,jewish    
colonies in ,palestine1 to the          
establishment of the ,zionist           
,organization with its branches         
throughout the world1 this national     
movement has trained us to think        
politically and to act with             
statesmanlike grasp of present          
conditions and of plans for the future4 
,a part of our people has been prepared 
to deal with the great national         
problems which obtrude themselves upon  
us today4 ,large numbers are  still     
confused by the new outlook and must    
find guides to direct them  in the new  
paths4    ,the ,essays which ,dr4       
,melamed presents to us in this volume  
are  therefore most welcome at this     
time4 ,he has applied his vast knowledge
  of history1 philosophy and literature1
 and his intimate acquaintance  with    

,jewish life in many parts of the world1
 to answer many of the  questions about 
which there has been confusion1 and to  
point out  the direction of progress and
 development in the future4 ,in clear   
and forceful language he has analyzed   
,jewish conditions in the past  and     
studied the needs of the future1 so as  
to point out what the  present demands  
of us4 ,we may not agree fully with all 
the views and  conclusions expressed1   
but we shall find them original1        
suggestive and  illuminating4 ,the      
publication of these ,essays is         
therefore opportune  and timely1 and the
 ,jewish public is deeply indebted to   
,dr4 ,melamed for  their presentation4  
,,harry ,,friedenwald4      ,baltimore1 
,december #bc1 #aiag4          ,,judea  
,,and ,,rome      ,even history has its 
reasons that reason often fails to      
understand4  ,when news reached ,rome in
 ,august #gj ,c4,e4 that ,judea was     
conquered1 the  temple burned and the   
,jewish people subjugated1 the ,roman   

populace  greeted it with the infamous  
cry1 ,hierosolyma est perdita2 there    
was rejoicing at the downfall and       
humiliation of the ,jewish state4       
,eighteen hundred and forty-seven years 
later1 after the deafening  cries       
,hierosolyma est perdita were shouted in
 the streets of the  eternal city1 an   
,italian army leaves ,rome with         
,palestine again as  its objective2 but 
this time it marches not with the object
 of  annihilating ,judea1 but1 as an    
official message puts it--to enable the 
allied powers to wrest the ,holy ,land  
from the ,turks1 to turn it over        
eventually to the ,jews1 and thus to    
rebuild ,judea4 ,even if there should   
be little to the ,roman announcement1 it
 is not lacking a pathetic  touch2 it   
testifies to the grim irony of history4 
,the same ,rome that  once destroyed    
,judea is making public its intention   
today to help  rebuild it4 ,our         
ancestors1 who were the tragic witnesses
 of the cruel  destruction of ,judea1   

would surely not think of the           
possibility that  after a lapse of      
nearly two thousand years1 an army      
should leave ,rome  for ,palestine with 
the object of helping to reinstate the  
,jewish people  in the land of its      
forefathers2 nor could anyone have      
foreseen that  the ,rome of old1 that   
aimed at the subjugation of small       
nationalities1  would be succeeded by a 
new ,rome that pronounces its stand for 
the rights and political                
re-establishment of small and oppressed 
nationalities4    ,of course1 people    
will say that modern ,rome can in no way
 be compared  to ancient ,rome and that 
the two have nothing in common4         
,however1 those  who have read          
,montesquieu and ,hegel on the deeds of 
ancient ,rome and  those who have       
followed the development of modern      
,rome1 will recognize  the close        
similarity between the two4 ,as far as  
power and political and  strategic      
genius go1 modern ,rome1 it is true1    

cannot be compared to its  predecessor  
of two thousand years ago2 but if       
traditions1 surroundings  and other     
sociological factors that give a people 
shape and form count  for anything1 the 
,roman of today is bound to have a good 
deal in  common with the ,roman of two  
thousand years ago1 even if the one is  
not  racially the offspring of the      
other4    ,present-day ,rome has much in
 common with ancient ,rome4 ,the main   
difference between them is1 of course1  
this3 ,while ancient ,rome1  dominating 
the entire world then known to humanity1
 and forming the  centre of the         
,mediterranean civilization1 was the    
world power of the  time1 modern ,rome  
holds neither the political position of 
ancient  ,rome nor is it the            
representative and bearer of the        
,mediterranean  civilization4 ,the      
predominance of ,mediterranean          
civilization has gone  with the last    
great ,doges of ,venice1 and modern     
,rome is no longer the  centre of       

gravitation of civilized humanity that  
ancient ,rome was two  thousand years   
ago4 ,in the course of the last         
millenium1 the centre of  civilization  
has shifted from the ,mediterranean to  
the ,atlantic4 ,it is  the ,atlantic    
civilization that is supreme today4 ,the
 whole terrible  fight that is going on 
today in all parts of the world is not a
 fight  about the ,mediterranean and its
 supremacy1 but it is a struggle for the
  ,atlantic and its predominance--and1  
in this struggle1 ,rome is no longer    
playing a leading part4    ,in the      
course of the fight about the           
,mediterranean1 ,judea was destroyed    
and the whole ,semitic race nearly      
annihilated4 ,the wars of ,rome against 
,carthage1 the people of which spoke    
,hebrew and formed a branch of  the     
,aramaic family of nations1 were fought 
with the only object of  preserving     
,roman supremacy in the ,mediterranean4 
,the fight for the  ,atlantic1 however1 
has already resulted in the             

re-establishment of  one ,semitic       
nation--the ,arab--and will probably    
also result in the  re-establishment of 
old ,judea4 ,that is where the          
difference between the  fight for the   
,mediterranean1 fought by ancient ,rome1
 and the fight for  the ,atlantic1 in   
which modern ,rome participates1 comes  
in4    ,the ancient ,mediterranean ,rome
 was not only imperialistic to the core1
  but universalistic as well4 ,the chief
 aim and plan of ancient ,rome was  to  
subjugate the whole world1 then known to
 humanity1 with a view to  dominating   
it4 ,the idea of a universal monarchy at
 the expense of the  independence and   
freedom of other nations first          
originated in ancient  ,rome4 ,rome of  
today1 which takes part in the fight for
 the ,atlantic1 is  imperialistic1      
although no longer striving for         
political universalism  and world       
domination2 it announces that it stands 
today for the  preservation of the      
individuality of the small nations4     

,the prospective re-establishment of    
,judea1 as one of the consequences  of  
the present war1 cannot be a blind      
chance of fate4 ,there is  historical   
logic in this development4 ,palestine1  
as a ,mediterranean  country could not  
maintain its independence in the face of
 a rising  ,mediterranean world power   
that strove to master not only the      
,mediterranean but all the other parts  
of the globe then known to  mankind4    
,our sages of old found a thousand and  
one moral and political  reasons for the
 downfall of ancient ,judea and for its 
destruction  by ,rome4 ,they ascribed   
the downfall of ancient ,judea not only 
to  political1 but even to moral causes 
and to the growth of individual  hatred 
and dissensions among the ,jews         
themselves4 ,the internal  political and
 moral reasons advanced by our sages for
 the downfall of  ,judea may have       
contributed to the destruction1 but the 
main reason was  the determination of   
,rome to master all the shores of the   

,mediterranean  and to dominate the     
entire ancient world4 ,in the face of   
this fact1  even an internally solid and
 strong ,judea would have finally       
succumbed  as did ,carthage1 which      
produced greater generals and gave a    
better  military account of itself than 
did ,judea4 ,the destruction of ,judea  
was  a tragic historical necessity and  
could only have been avoided if ,rome   
had1 by a miracle1 suddenly disappeared 
from the face of the earth4  ,were      
present ,rome what ancient ,rome was1   
the centre of civilization  that strove 
for the mastery not only of the         
,mediterranean countries but  also of   
the entire world1 the prospective       
re-establishment of ,judea  today would 
have as little chance as ancient ,judea 
of surviving or  resisting ,roman       
aggression4 ,the prospective            
re-establishment of ,judea  is only     
possible because the centre of          
civilization has been shifted  from the 
,mediterranean to the ,atlantic4    ,why

 did the ,jewish people suffer two      
thousand years under the  dispersion and
 why did they not try during this long  
period to  re-establish their political 
sovereignty in the land of their        
ancestors8 ,even the best of our        
thinkers ascribe this national default  
and political apathy to a sort of       
lethargy of which the ,jews were        
apparently the victims4 ,to many a      
,jewish thinker1 ,ahad ,ha'am not       
excepted1 the past two thousand years of
 ,jewish existence appears  to be       
planless and one great historic         
confusion2 but on looking  closely at   
developments1 one will come to recognize
 that not because  of lethargy1 but     
because of given historical conditions1 
the ,jewish  people could not up to our 
times have attempted to re-establish    
their  national sovereignty in the land 
of their forefathers4 ,more than a      
thousand years after the downfall of    
western ,rome1 ,mediterranean           
civilization1 though degenerated1       

remained supreme and was identical  with
 civilization at large4 ,the chief move 
of its centre from the  ,mediterranean  
to the ,atlantic and the consolidation  
of a new center was  accomplished only  
after a struggle of nearly five hundred 
years4 ,so  long as ,atlantic           
civilization was not supreme and so long
 as the fight  for its supremacy was not
 finished1 the political                
re-establishment  of ,judea1 closely    
connected with the settlement of the    
solution of  questions arising out of   
the fight for the ,atlantic and all that
  there is to it--the individualization 
of international politics1 the          
preservation of the small nationalities1
 their political restoration1           
etc4--could not be taken up and no      
serious attempt to re-establish the     
,jewish nationality in ,palestine could 
be made by the ,jews or other  nations  
interested in the settlement of the     
,jewish question4    ,for these reasons1
 the re-establishment of ,judea1 as one 

of the  post-bellum problems1 is as     
historically logical now as was the     
downfall of ,judea a historical         
necessity two thousand years ago4       
,there are no blind chances in history1 
nor are there stagnant moments  in      
history4 ,history has its reasons1      
which1 however1 reason often fails  to  
understand4          ,,land ,,and       
,,people      ,ever since the ,jewish   
people lost its national independence   
and  sovereignty and began to live in   
dispersion among the nations of the     
earth1 it has lost the opportunity and  
possibility of continuing the  work of  
its national civilization and has had to
 be satisfied with  producing cultural  
values only4 ,everything that individual
 ,jews have  achieved in the past two   
thousand years in the domain of         
civilization  has been an enrichment of 
the civilization of the peoples among   
whom  they have lived4 ,jews have always
 been prominent in commerce and         
industry1 but there was no national     

,jewish commerce and no national        
,jewish industry1 even when those who   
created and developed certain  branches 
of commerce were all ,jews4 ,their      
commercial and industrial  activities   
and accomplishments strengthened the    
other nations among  whom the ,jews     
lived1 but not themselves4 ,in many     
cases they have  endangered and         
imperiled the ,jewish people1 because   
they became the  arsenal of             
anti-,semitic weapons4 ,the individual  
has profited by ,jewish  industrial and 
commercial achievements1 but not the    
,jewish collective  body4 ,in short1 all
 our work and energy in the domain of   
practical  civilization has reached not 
the ,jewish people1 but other nations1  
and  only a few have given us credit for
 these achievements4    ,often enough   
have we been blamed for them4 ,the      
,dutchman is full of  envy of the ,jew  
to the present day for having           
monopolized the diamond  cutting        
industry2 the ,turks are still angry    

when they remember that  ,baron de      
,hirsch built their railroads4 ,in      
,switzerland people are  blaming the    
,jews for having monopolized the silk   
and watch industries2  the ,russians    
antagonize them because of their big    
share in the  development of the petrol 
wells in the ,caucasus and in the lumber
  business in western ,russia4 ,a famous
 ,german professor1 ,werner ,sombart1   
has written a voluminous book of five   
hundred pages in which he indicts  us   
for having developed capitalism1 while  
others are accusing the ,jews  of having
 produced anti-capitalistic forces4 ,in 
short1 not only have  the activities of 
individual ,jews in the domain of       
civilization not  been of profit to them
 as a people1 but they have in too many 
cases  served as a basis of attack4     
,the cause of these peculiar phenomena  
was our diaspora life4 ,we had  no      
homeland of our own4 ,we had no national
 soil beneath us and no  national sky   
above us4 ,we were a wandering people   

and as such could  not produce a        
national civilization1 which involves   
and presupposes a  static and not a     
dynamic order of things4 ,but as soon as
 the ,jews can  lead a normal national  
life1 all this1 unhappy and tragic1 will
 change  radically and an entirely new  
order of things will arise4 ,not the    
,jewish individual1 as heretofore1 but  
the ,jewish people at large1 will  be   
the agency of the ,jewish genius and    
whatever the ,jewish individual  has to 
contribute to civilization he will      
contribute through the ,jewish  people4 
,while his achievements in this domain  
will serve humanity1  as heretofore1    
they will at the same time enrich the   
life of his own  people and become a    
source of strength instead of weakness2 
when the  ,jews have an opportunity to  
be active for civilization as ,jews1    
,jewish  individualism1 the curse of our
 racial life1 will gradually disappear4 
,only a few of us realize the fact that 
this individualism1 which finds  its    

unpleasant expression in petty          
factionalism1 communal strife1 party    
quarrels and lack of discipline among   
the rank and file1 is in the main  to be
 ascribed to the fact that the ,jews    
have no national civilization4  ,if we  
had one1 many an unpleasant phenomenon  
in our public life would  be impossible4
 ,if the ,jews had common political     
responsibilities1 if  they had all to   
look to the safety of their country1 if 
they had all to  look after their       
national economic interests1 the        
national intellect  would be more       
uniform and two ,jews would not have    
three different  opinions4 ,it is the   
lack of a national ,jewish civilization 
that makes  the ,jewish intellect queer 
and misshapen4 ,the mind of a people can
  only be trained by its national       
civilization1 and is orientated by  it4 
,but since the ,jews have lacked        
national civilization for the  last two 
thousand years1 the intellect of the    
nation has lost its  uniformity1 has    

become atomized and has in many cases   
gone astray4  ,this has added to our    
inner misery and has driven many an     
idealistic  ,jew to despair4 ,at the    
moment when the ,jews begin to lead a   
national  life on national soil and     
under their own sky1 which give out line
  and color to the soul of a nation1    
many negative energies which are  active
 in our life because of the effects of  
diaspora existence must  necessarily    
disappear4 ,the intellectual discipline 
of the nation will  be re-established   
and the life of its soul will again     
assume normal  proportions4 ,there will 
be a ,jewish public opinion in the best 
meaning  of the term1 not merely the    
opinion of individual ,jews4    ,it is  
generally asserted that1 though the     
,jews as such have not  produced a      
civilization during their life in       
diaspora1 they have  produced a culture4
 ,this is sincerely believed by all     
,jews1 by  believers and disbelievers1  
orthodox and reform1 nationalists and   

assimilationists4 ,though one lays more 
stress on the spiritual and the  other  
more on the secular aspect of the       
so-called ,jewish culture1 the          
outstanding fact is1 however1 that the  
belief in the ,jewish culture  produced 
in the diaspora is general4 ,but if it  
is true that culture is  a              
superstructure of civilization and has  
civilization as its basis1 it  is hard  
to see how it is possible to assume for 
one moment that the  ,jews have produced
 anything like a culture during their   
diaspora life4    ,it is true that ,jews
 have written books among which some are
 famous  in world-literature4 ,it is    
true that the ,jews have painted good   
pictures4 ,it is also true that the     
,jews have composed good music4 ,but    
the question is often more than         
justified whether or not the ,jewish    
genius has drawn the material from      
,jewish sources and ,jewish life4 ,are  
all the good books ,jews have written   
,jewish books8 ,are all the good        

pictures ,jews have painted ,jewish art8
 ,and is the good music ,jews have      
composed ,jewish music8 ,in some cases  
they are partly ,jewish4 ,in the        
overwhelming majority of cases they are 
not ,jewish at all4 ,neither  ,spinoza  
nor ,bergson1 neither ,heine nor        
,hoffmannsthal1 are ,jews in the  sense 
that they have been inspired exclusively
 by ,jewish motives and  that they have 
drawn their inspiration from ,jewish    
sources alone4 ,but  we can go even     
further and maintain that even those    
great ,jews from  ,philo of ,alexandria 
to ,maimonides and from ,maimonides to  
,herman ,cohen1  who were always        
conscious of their ,judaism and who     
thought that they  were working as ,jews
 and that their creations were ,jewish1 
stood much  more under the spell of     
alien than ,jewish influence1 and in    
their work  were less ,jews than is     
generally supposed4 ,in spite of their  
racial  enthusiasm1 their intellect was 
hyphenated4 ,philo was at least as much 

,greek as he was ,jew1 ,maimonides at   
least as much ,greek and ,arab1 and     
,cohen is at least as much ,german as he
 is ,jew1 if not more4    ,we are quick 
in our condemnation of those who wrote  
on the tombstone of  ,maimonides1       
,heretic and ,disbeliever4 ,we are angry
 at the fanatics  of ,amsterdam who     
excommunicated ,spinoza1 and we are     
often angry at  those who utter severe  
criticism of ,herman ,cohen as a ,jew4  
,but these  fanatics1 wrong as they may 
be in their methods1 are not entirely   
wrong in their motives and ideas4 ,they 
are ,jews in whom strong ,jewish        
instincts are alive and these ,jews1    
gifted with more original instincts     
than the average ,jew1 see more quickly 
what is ,jewish and what is not  in the 
work of a great ,jew2 it is the         
un-,jewish motive in these works  by    
which they are repulsed4    ,even the   
,jewish religion has been largely       
influenced1 not only by  non-,jewish    
surroundings1 but also by non-,jewish   

religious motives4 ,the  truth of the   
matter is that national ,jewish culture 
ceased to be with  the destruction of   
the ,jewish state4 ,from that time on1  
individual  ,jews have cultivated       
,jewish thoughts and ,jewish feelings1  
but they  could not prevent their       
thoughts and feelings from being so     
mingled  with and darkened by           
non-,jewish thoughts and feelings as to 
lose  their original strength4 ,much of 
our so-called national literature is    
not organic1 but consists of a number of
 books written by individual  ,jews who 
were only too often inspired by motives 
more non-,jewish than  ,jewish4 ,the    
same is true of ,jewish art1 ,jewish    
music1 etc4 ,only when  our culture     
touches upon our classical past or upon 
our national  future1 that is to say1   
when it is not influenced by the chaos  
of the  present1 is it truly ,jewish4   
,when the ,jews return to ,palestine and
 begin to develop a national            
civilization1 their culture will be     

built up not only on the past or  the   
future1 but also on the present4 ,it    
will grow with the growth  of           
civilization and it will not be a       
culture of individuals who are  inspired
 by one thought appearing in different  
colors as the result  of various        
influences2 it will be the culture of a 
nation1 an organic  essence produced and
 developed with the help of the entire  
nation4    ,this will be the consequence
 of a national ,jewish homeland in      
,palestine4          ,,palestine',s     
,,role ,,in ,,the ,,world',s ,,history  
,even territories are subject to the    
incalculable caprice of ,fate4          
,palestine1 a small territory in        
,western ,asia1 forming the southern    
third of the province of ,syria1        
excelled in natural beauty by           
,switzerland or the ,tyrol1 has         
nevertheless been touched by the ,spirit
  of ,humanity and has exerted a greater
 influence upon the development  of the 
human mind than any other country in the

 world1 not excepting  ancient ,hellas  
and ,rome4 ,there is hardly another land
 that has  witnessed as great historic  
events as has ,palestine2 there is      
surely  no other land that has seen so  
many invading conquerors on its soil4   
,no other spot on the globe has so      
kindled the magnetism of the great      
nations throughout the ages as          
,palestine4 ,today1 when an army of the 
mighty ,british ,empire is fighting hard
 to conquer ,palestine1 the land  of    
eternal mystery and miracles1 it is well
 to remember that throughout  the ages  
every great power has fought for the    
possession of the ,holy  ,land4 ,in the 
early days of our civilization          
,babylonians1 ,egyptians1  ,assyrians   
and ,persians in turn tried to conquer  
the country4 ,at a  later time1 the     
,greeks and the ,romans made the        
attempt2 in the middle  ages the great  
nations of ,europe were organized by the
 ,church to wrest  ,palestine from the  
,mohammedans4 ,all the great conquerors 

in history1  from ,nebuzaradan and      
,titus to ,napoleon1 have commanded     
invading armies  on ,palestine soil4    
,this small land of ,palestine1 drenched
 with human blood since time            
immemorial1 has become the holy centre  
of three great religions1 and  witnessed
 the birth of two great religions1      
,judaism and ,christianity4  ,from the  
purely religious point of view the land 
is as holy to ,islam  as it is to       
,christendom or ,jewry4 ,politically1 it
 has always been and  still remains the 
goal of many a great power4 ,the ,turk  
holds it1 the  ,british are anxious to  
conquer it1 the ,french have            
politico-historical  claims on ,syria1  
which includes ,palestine1 the ,roman   
,church considers  it its special domain
 and aspires to possess it2 the ,emperor
 of ,austria  still bears the title     
,king of ,jerusalem1 and the ,king of   
the ,belgians1  on the assumption that  
he is an offspring of the ,crusader     
,prince who  ruled over ,jerusalem for a

 while1 asserts historic claims on the  
,holy  ,land which1 however1 he does not
 press4 ,palestine has seen many a      
change of masters and has been inhabited
 in turn by many peoples4 ,but  among   
all the peoples that have lived in      
,palestine there is only one1  the      
nationhood and culture of which has     
grown and developed there--the  ,jewish 
people4    ,the ,judaism originating in 
,palestine has become one of the driving
  powers in history2 it continues to    
fructify the human mind of the  present 
day4 ,mankind bears in mind that just as
 in modern philosophy  there is scarcely
 a single thought that was not already  
known  either to the ,greeks or to the  
,romans1 so in modern social ethics1    
humanitarianism and countless branches  
of modern political life  there is      
scarcely an idea or thought that was not
 propounded by the  representatives of  
the ancient ,jewish mind4 ,many a       
radical idea  commonly supposed to be a 
product of the civilization of the #aith

  century is found on close examination 
to be the embodiment of an  ancient     
,jewish idea born on ,palestinian soil4 
,the kernel and sum total  of ,marxism  
is of ancient ,jewish origin2 ,karl     
,marx added a modern garb  to an ancient
 ,jewish thought4    ,but ,palestine has
 witnessed not only the birth and       
development of  ,judaism but also of    
,christianity4 ,christianity is1 reduced
 to its  original components1 a         
synthesis of ,eastern and ,western      
,aryan thought1  consisting of the      
universalism and pessimism of ancient   
,india and the  individualism and       
optimism of the ,greeks and ,romans4    
,christianity  is therefore not only not
 a continuation of ,judaism1 but its    
very  antithesis1 despite the fact that 
there is nothing in ,eastern ,aryan and 
,western ,aryan thought1 when looked at 
separately1 that cannot also be  found  
in ,judaism4    ,the fight for          
,palestine by the great nations of      
ancient times1 the  origin and growth of

 two historic religions on ,palestinian 
soil1 the  subsequent struggle for      
,palestine by united ,christendom       
against the  ,islam and the constant    
attention that humanity pays to         
,palestine does  not explain why        
,palestine is held sacred4 ,another     
explanation must be  found why          
,palestine1 a strip of coast land on the
 ,mediterranean1 has  become the land of
 wonders1 the cradle of ,european       
spiritualism4    ,palestine has become  
the very well and centre of the         
spiritual life  of humanity because she 
was so placed geographically as to be in
 a  position to mediate between the     
,eastern and the ,western ,aryans and   
because ,jewish thought1 born in        
,palestine1 the mediating centre1 was   
later to act as the spiritual mediator  
between both wings of the ,aryan  race  
without giving up its own position and  
independence4    ,the geographical      
position of the region where ,judaism   
arose is located  just between the      

settlements of the ,west and ,east      
,aryans4 ,just as  ,palestine is the    
geographical centre between ,east and   
,west ,aryans1 so  also does the ,jewish
 mind born in ,palestine mediate between
 ,tibet and  ,greece4    ,the ,east     
,aryans believed in the universal1 the  
infinite--the ,west  ,aryans in the     
individual1 as expressed in classic     
mythology4 ,the  ,jewish ,god-concept   
comprises both of these extremes4 ,the  
,jewish ,god  is the highest            
individuality1 but he is also ,god who  
has created  the universe1 the ,god of  
all mankind4 ,the ,biblical cosmogony   
shows  combination of this individuality
 with universality4 ,as the ,biblical   
metaphysic mediates between the extremes
 of ,aryan thought1 so does  the ,jewish
 mind born in ,palestine hold the middle
 between ,greek and  ,indian thought4   
,the ,jewish mind lacks both the cold1  
analytical  intellectuality of the      
,greek and the mystic1 fantastical      
tendency of  the ,indian mind4 ,with the

 ,jew1 however1 reason is praised and   
knowledge  highly valued1 while feeling 
is given its due and is not mortified4  
,the prophet is not an individualist nor
 is he a hazy universalist1  but a      
self-sacrificing patriot who for the    
love of his people suffers  martyrdom1  
and yet a cosmopolitan who in his heart 
full of love  embraces all mankind4     
,when the two ,aryan culture thoughts   
met in ,alexandria and ,rome1 the       
,jewish thought intervened and acted as 
mediator between the two  extremes4 ,of 
course it was not done by conscious     
design1 but we cannot  disregard the    
influence men like ,philo exercised on  
the course of  events4 ,while many      
momenta and causes co-operated in making
 the ,jew the  mediator between these   
two extremes1 the main cause no doubt   
was the  middle position occupied by    
,judaism4 ,it was related to both sides 
and  could therefore effect a           
reconciliation4    ,this1 to our mind1  
explains in the main the place of       

,palestine and  ,judaism in the world's 
history4 ,the ,jews1 a small ,asiatic   
people1  owing to a remarkable          
concatenation of events and chances1    
have set  in motion a circulation of    
ideas1 which later on cemented other    
great  cultures4 ,christianity is not1  
as ,christian theologians would have the
  world believe1 a continuation of      
,judaism4 ,what ,judaism in the main did
  contribute to ,christianity was the   
form1 the architecture1 and the         
cohesive power of its various elements4 
,if there be any truth in the  assertion
 that the ,jews are the everlasting     
middlemen1 it is not  because they have 
been for the last two thousand years the
 economic  or political middlemen among 
the nations who forced them into a      
parasitical life1 but because they1 a   
,palestinian people1 have brought  about
 a union between worlds of thought which
 were arrayed against each  other4 ,by  
reason of this mediation1 they have     
impregnated other peoples  with their   

own mind4          ,,judaizing          
,,palestine      ,in spite of the       
political and diplomatic events of the  
two months  preceding the ,baltimore    
,zionist ,convention1 not one of the    
responsible  ,zionist leaders uttered a 
word with regard to the political       
situation  pertaining to ,palestine4    
,the various rumors concerning a ,jewish
  republic in ,palestine have been      
answered by the representatives of      
,american ,zionism with--silence4 ,this 
attitude on the part of the  responsible
 ,zionist leaders testifies to their    
political ability  and tact1 for nothing
 would be more dangerous today than to  
discuss  ,palestine at a ,zionist       
assembly in as careless a manner as     
persons  have done for the last few     
months4 ,the situation is still fraught 
with difficulties1 dangers and          
uncertainty2 and the less it is spoken  
of the better for all parties concerned4
 ,the question on the lips of  every    
delegate to the convention3 ,what have  

we to expect8 has been  well answered by
 the representative of the ,provisional 
,committee for  ,general ,zionist       
,affairs--,we expect to be able to      
create after the war  such conditions in
 ,palestine as to enable us to carry out
 our program4  ,to those delegates who  
are not able to think in terms of       
statesmanship  the answer of the        
official representatives of the         
,provisional ,committee  must have      
appeared to be unsatisfactory1 but the  
better politically  trained ,zionists   
appreciated the answer as the only one  
possible under  the present             
circumstances and it convinced them that
 the leaders in  this country are       
politically on the right track4    ,all 
the talk about a speedy establishment of
 a ,jewish republic in  ,palestine in   
which even a part of the general press  
indulged is pure  fancy if we consider  
things in the light of reality4 ,a      
republic or  any form of state cannot be
 made--it must grow naturally from      

certain  given conditions1 it must      
develop organically4 ,so long as the    
people  and the people's land are       
separated physically from one another1  
how  can the synthesis of the state be  
won8 ,it is1 therefore1 clear that  the 
very first condition for the realization
 of the ,zionist program is  a          
settlement of ,jews in ,palestine en    
masse1 which settlement is not  possible
 unless certain economic conditions are 
created to enable the  settlers to      
organize their life speedily and        
acclimatize themselves  as quickly as   
possible4 ,but this creating of         
conditions is not as  easy a task as    
many persons imagine4 ,it not only      
presumes a favorable  political         
situation1 but also a display of        
organizing genius1 important  financial 
transactions and almost heroic deeds4   
,if ,palestine were an  industrial      
country where new industries could be   
created or the old  ones so developed as
 to give sustenance to masses of new    

settlers1 the  task would not be        
difficult4 ,palestine1 however1 is at   
present not an  industrial country1     
there are no mines and consequently no  
factories  of importance2 it is         
altogether an agricultural country1 the 
soil of  which1 though potentially very 
productive1 has been neglected for      
centuries and must be regenerated before
 it can produce enough to feed  a large 
population4 ,but even if ,palestine were
 an industrial country  it would be an  
unwise policy to make industry the      
economic basis of  the future           
population4 ,if the ,jewish people are  
going to be reborn not  only politically
 but also physically1 mentally and      
morally1 the masses  of the ,jewish     
people must return to agriculture and to
 country life4  ,for the last two       
thousand years we have been a           
city-population and  we have acquired   
all the habits and qualities of one4    
,city life has  wrought havoc among us4 
,if ,zionism has a philosophy then the  

return  of large numbers of the ,jews to
 country-life is part and parcel of     
that philosophy by which we must abide  
if we do not mean to deceive  ourselves4
 ,besides1 agriculture is a much sounder
 basis for a state  than industry4 ,the 
agricultural country is peaceful1       
conservative1  moderate1 while the      
industrial country is always restless1  
upset1  radical and bellicose4 ,if an   
individualistic--and because of a long  
life in the dispersion--nervous people  
like the ,jews should build its  entire 
future on industry1 it would be built on
 sand4 ,for this and  many other good   
reasons1 we must make agriculture the   
main economic  basis of ,jewish life in 
,palestine4 ,but to create favorable    
agricultural  conditions to enable an   
immigration en masse to ,palestine is   
much more  difficult than to create     
favorable industrial conditions1        
especially in  view of the fact that the
 ,palestinian soil has been neglected4  
,the economic future of ,palestine rests

 to our present knowledge on            
agriculture and trade4 ,for the past ten
 years ,palestinian trade has  been     
increasing from year to year1 especially
 that of commerce in  fruit and wine4   
,palestine can1 if its soil is properly 
tilled and  modern agricultural methods 
used1 produce such quantities of fruits 
and grain as not only to feed the native
 population but also to supply  other   
countries4 ,the same holds true of wine 
and tobacco and probably  cotton4       
,industries can be established which    
have the home products  as a main basis1
 such as canning and packing industries1
 manufacture  of soap1 perfumes1 etc4   
,the possibilities of pastoral industry 
in  ,palestine are enormous1 and        
industrious ,jewish ranchers may turn   
,eastern ,palestine into a second       
,texas4    ,there are altogether vast   
possibilities and should a favorable    
political situation enable us to revive 
and to create the necessary  economic   
conditions for a ,jewish settlement en  

masse in the land1  ,jewish industry and
 ,jewish financial strength combined    
with ,jewish  idealism would within a   
few years of hard work prepare the      
ground for  a realization of the        
,zionist program4 ,this is what the     
,zionist leaders  have in mind when they
 speak of creating such conditions in   
,palestine4  ,it is further understood  
that next to the preparing of economic  
conditions1 something must be done in   
the field of social and cultural        
preparation4 ,when a group of ,jews is  
sent to ,palestine1 it must find  there 
such social and cultural preparations as
 to make civilized life  possible4 ,one 
cannot1 of course1 build communities1   
schools1 social and  charitable         
institutions in ,palestine before large 
masses of our people  have settled in   
the country4 ,the ground for the        
establishment of such  institutions must
 be prepared before the actual          
immigration takes place  for we will not
 send our people to a wilderness4 ,the  

,jewish groups  that will emigrate to   
,palestine may not find actually erected
 all the  schools and hospitals they    
need1 but they must find everything that
 is  necessary for re-establishment of  
such institutions and the men needed  to
 conduct them4 ,this is not an easy task
 but it can be accomplished  if we      
centre our organizing genius on it4 ,in 
this way we can ,judaize  ,palestine in 
a relatively short time and when this is
 done the  geographic and economic      
position will be used for a             
strengthening of  all the sociological  
factors which are necessary for the     
creation of  a ,jewish homeland4        
,palestine1 on account of its geographic
 condition  can again be developed to a 
mighty trade centre and it can become   
the  great commercial roadway between   
,europe1 ,africa and ,western ,asia4    
,this1  together with its solid economic
 and social organization1 will give     
,palestine political strength and       
position among the civilized countries  

in the world4    ,it can thus be seen   
that it is futile at present to talk of 
the  immediate establishment of a       
,jewish republic in ,palestine4 ,the    
very  best that can be done and will be 
done is to prepare the ground           
economically1 socially and culturally   
for the settlement of great  masses of  
our people in the ,holy ,land4 ,and it  
will be for the settlers  to shape the  
future and to strive to realize the     
,zionist ,ideal3 ,a  permanently secured
 homeland for the ,jewish people in the 
land of its  ancestors4 ,unless this big
 work is done1 no power on earth can    
help us  carry out our national         
political program1 because states cannot
 be made  but must develop organically4 
,,national ,,existence ,,and ,,national 
,,historic ,,life      ,what is the     
essence of the historic life of a       
people8 ,this question  has been on the 
program of the sociologist ever since   
society began to  free itself from the  
hold of the state4 ,prior to the ,french

 ,revolution1  when society and the     
state were interlinked by thousands of  
strands1  the belief was current that   
the national state--particularly1 the   
well  organized1 centralized state--is  
the essence of the historic life of  a  
people4 ,it was thought that as soon as 
a special form of government  was       
overturned the people would turn loose  
like a herd of wild men4  ,then came the
 ,french ,revolution and laid the       
prestige of the state low4  ,a national 
society began to organize1 outside the  
state1 and became a  historic factor of 
its own account4 ,it then became evident
 that the  state was not the only       
essence of the historic life of a       
people1 that  there were other factors  
equally1 or even more important1 and    
that  no national historic life could   
exist without them4 ,only a short  time 
before the ,french ,revolution1 a       
,french historian said that the         
,chinese nation1 despite its living a   
national life1 is only existing  in a   

historic sense1 because it has no       
influence upon the historic  process1   
and plays no part in the production of  
cultural values for  the human race4 ,in
 short1 the ,chinese nation lives       
outside the pale of  history4 ,now then1
 if a people like that of ,china1       
numbering hundreds  of millions of souls
 and living on its own soil under the   
auspices of  its own government1 is     
placed in the category of nations that  
merely  exist1 other nationalities of   
smaller numbers and having no national  
government are certainly not to be      
classed as historically living  nations4
    ,liberal-minded thinkers1 whose     
thought was influenced directly by the  
events of the ,french ,revolution       
endeavored to minimize the historic     
glory of the state and reduce it to only
 one of the factors in the  historic    
life of a people4 ,the conservatives on 
the other hand  endeavored to restore to
 the state its old glory4 ,the          
controversy  was especially intense in  

,germany4 ,hegel1 the father of         
conservative  philosophy in ,germany1   
raised the state to the pedestal of a   
deity1  characterizing it as the aim and
 substance of historic development1  in 
general1 and as the most significant    
phenomenon in history4 ,johann  ,fichte1
 ,hegel's contemporary and opponent1 the
 father of the national  doctrine in    
,germany gave society the first place1  
and looked upon the  state as a         
necessary evil4 ,he regarded culture1   
with the exception of  art1 as opposed  
to the state4 ,the essence of historic  
life was to him  not the political life 
of the people but its ethics1 science1  
religion  and art4 ,the state can have a
 positive attitude towards art          
alone--all  the other elements1 such as 
science1 religion and ethics1 must enjoy
  the freedom and independence which the
 state can not always grant to  them4   
,according to him1 therefore1 not       
political acts but scientific  cognition
 and intellectual development are the   

driving forces in the  historic life of 
a people4    ,even ,kant himself--who   
gave preference to the state--recognized
 a  certain antagonism between ethics   
and the state4 ,the state is the  realm 
of law1 while ethics has its origin in  
conscience4 ,the romantic  philosophy1  
which attempted to solve this problem   
from the standpoint  of esthetics       
culminated in the extreme individualism 
which found its  highest expression in  
the doctrines of ,nietzsche4 ,the       
superman1 the  great personality which a
 people produces is according to this   
doctrine  the aim and end of history1   
and1 naturally1 that of the historic    
life  of a people4 ,herder hinted at    
this conclusion1 ,schelling developed   
the doctrine and ,nietzsche--the        
extremist of romanticists--perfected    
it4 ,but this historic personality of   
the romantic philosophers is not  only1 
as many are inclined to believe1 an     
intellectual being4 ,the great          
philosopher or the great artist is not  

the historic personality1 but  the man  
of great deeds2 for history is first and
 foremost the realm of  action and not  
that of thought4 ,nietzsche's blond     
beast1 that is1 the  man of great       
passions and great deeds1 is the        
historic personality1  that motive power
 in historic life1 in general1 and the  
life of the  nation in particular4      
99       99       99       99       99  
,if we look upon ,jewish history in the 
,diaspora in the light of classic1  or  
romantic1 or even modern philosophy1 we 
are bound to come to the  conclusion    
that the ,jewish people ceased to live a
 historic national  life when it was    
exiled from its land4 ,we have not lived
 a political  life during the past two  
thousand years2 hence we could not      
contribute  to the civilization of      
mankind1 for a national civilization is 
possible only in a national state4      
,true1 we have produced many great      
personalities1 but the ,jewish great    
personality in the ,goluth is not  a    

great ,jewish personality--in the       
majority of cases it is merely  an      
intellectual personality3 a poet1 an    
artist1 a philosopher1 etc4  ,lord      
,beaconsfield certainly was a great     
historic personality2 but who  would    
dare claim this statesman as a ,jewish  
historic personality--the  product of   
,jewish culture8 ,his deeds are         
chronicled in the history  of the       
,english people2 his historic           
accomplishments are the historic        
accomplishments of the ,english people4 
,it was not the ,jew ,disraeli  who     
procured the ,suez ,canal for the       
,jewish people1 but the ,english        
statesman1 the ,lord ,beaconsfield who  
acquired it for the ,english people4    
,the ,jewish great personality displayed
 its talent in various  intellectual    
fields1 but did nothing in the political
 field1 for which  it lacked the        
necessary conditions4 ,for two thousand 
years1 we have  lived an unhistoric     
life--the life of ,chinese1 with the    

exception that  the ,chinese live on    
their own soil and were spared the      
persecutions  that fell to our lot4 ,we 
eked out an existence2 but we did not   
live4  ,hence the entire history of the 
,jewish people for the past two thousand
  years is a history of ,jewish         
literature4 ,since the deterioration  of
 the ,jewish state1 ,judaism has been a 
mere literary tendency in  general      
history2 an interesting tendency1 to be 
sure1 occasionally  even original1 but  
not more than a literary tendency4 ,not 
our historic  deeds but the abstract    
thought alone aided us in continuing our
  existence--our philosophy1 poetry1    
ethics1 and religious cravings kept  us 
alive4 ,we the bearers of that literary 
aspiration have been going  a-begging   
for thousands of years4 ,we wandered    
from land to land and  from sea to sea  
without an end in view4 ,all our        
political achievements  have been       
concentrated in our memory for the past 
two thousand years4  ,we remembered that

 we once were a people like every other 
people1  and by the mere force of these 
memories we went wherever we were       
directed4 ,thus in our long travels we  
have become spiritualized1 we  have     
converted a system of national culture  
with laws and regulations  about the    
state and its rulers to a system of     
theology4 ,the ancient  ,hebrew culture 
which is essentially a secular culture  
became to us a  sacred thing4 ,the      
,hebrew prophets1 who were historic     
personalities in  the full sense of the 
word1 because they were men of action1  
statesmen  and warriors of political    
battles1 were raised by us to the       
category of  saints in the theological  
sense4 ,thus the ,hebrew culture was    
reduced to  a mere theological system4  
,we lived in a ,roman environment1 that 
is1 in an environment which draws  its  
strength from ancient ,rome1 whose      
program was the state1 practical        
civilization1 wars1 conquests1 revolts1 
political reorganization1 etc4  ,in such

 an environment with its peculiar       
culture1 there was no room for  the     
ancient ,jewish culture based on ethical
 teachings1 which1 in order  to be able 
to maintain its existence1 was compelled
 to confine itself  within the walls of 
the synagogue4 ,in short1 it is not only
 impossible  to create new cultural     
values in the ,diaspora but even to     
continue the  thread of the ancient     
,hebrew idea1 in essence an idea of     
civilization4  ,in exile1 more so in    
,roman exile1 there was no past and no  
future for  ,judaism4 ,ancient ,judaism 
was a historic and not a literary       
phenomenon2  hence1 since it has been   
the destiny of the ,jewish people for   
the past  two thousand years to exist1  
and not to live a normal national life1 
it is even unable to preserve the       
memories of a historic past4    ,then   
came ,zionism4 ,the nationalistic trend 
in history has influenced  the ,jewish  
people too4 ,zionism came not from the  
,east1 but from the  ,west--from the    

centre of modern nationalism4 ,modern   
nationalism1  unlike that of ancient    
peoples1 is not a cultural nationalism2 
modern  nationalism is nationalism in   
the sense of civilization and can be    
understood only in connection with the  
industrial revolution and  the colonial 
expansion of the great nations4 ,zionism
 could not have  come from the ,east2   
for the ,east is politically and        
industrially not  sufficiently developed
 to produce a movement which is both    
national and  civilizing4    ,the       
,zionist platform is known to all3 ,a   
publicly recognized and legally  secured
 home in ,palestine for the ,jews4 ,what
 is the historic meaning of  this       
program8 ,it is to convert an unhistoric
 people1 that is1 a people  that does   
not live a historic life1 to a normal   
historic people and to  create for it   
all the factors necessary for a national
 civilization3  a ,hebrew               
administration1 a national ,hebrew      
economic life1 a ,hebrew  education1 a  

,hebrew social organization4 ,the       
,zionist genius realized  that there    
cannot be even national ,hebrew culture 
without a national  ,hebrew             
civilization1 for the culture of a      
people is only the roof on  the edifice 
of a national civilization1 and woe to  
the culture which  lays its foundation  
upon personalities and does not draw    
from the wells  of the nation's         
civilization4 ,at present there are only
 atoms connected  to one another by the 
ties of national remembrances1 spirit1  
tradition1  and poetry4 ,zionism        
purports the building out of these      
atoms1 which  are scattered throughout  
the world1 of a national organism in the
  land of the ,hebrews4 ,and since every
 national polity and civilization  is   
secular1 with the exception of papal    
,rome and theocratic ,tibet1  the       
function of ,zionism is to create those 
conditions which will  again secularize 
,judaism1 and raise it to the pedestal  
of its ancient  glory--to make it a     

historic force4    ,goluth means3 a     
scattered existence1 and one of misery  
and affliction4  ,zionism means3 a      
national historic life4 ,and he who     
prefers a national  life to a miserable 
existence has no other choice than to   
join the  ,zionist ranks4               
,,driving ,,forces3 ,,national ,,or     
,,spiritual8      ,the days of religious
 wars have gone4 ,the ,inquisition is   
dead and  theocracy is dying even at    
,tibet4 ,the modern man1 be he ,gentile 
or  ,jew1 no longer thinks more         
theologico as in the ,middle ,ages1 but 
rather more sociologico4 ,the time when 
a given religious dogma1 a  categorical 
philosophic principle1 or some definite 
spiritual force  was the driving power  
in history is far gone4 ,law and order  
in our  political and social life are   
not derived from books and principles1  
but from life itself4 ,any attempt to   
return to the status quo ante  #aghi1 is
 an assault on modern civilization1 an  
attempt to re-establish  theocracy in   

its various forms4    ,in the life of   
our own people the process of           
secularization is going  on with the    
same rapidity as in the life of any     
other nation4 ,within  five decades we  
have created a secular literature in    
,hebrew as well as  in the other        
languages spoken by ,jews1 and all the  
forms of our modes  of life1 public as  
well as private1 have gone through the  
process of  secularization4 ,even the   
modern orthodox ,jew1 who observes all  
laws and  rituals1 differs quite in his 
disposition of mind from the orthodox   
,jew  of the seventeenth or eighteenth  
century4 ,in worldly affairs he is a    
man of his time and thinks in the terms 
of his time4 ,to the credit of  our     
people be it said that they have        
understood how to adapt themselves  to  
the conditions of the time4    ,it often
 happened that during the process of    
adaptation1 ,jews lost  their way and   
became separated from their people1 but 
the bulk of  the nation has passed      

through the crisis caused by the process
 of  transition and made itself at home 
in the new conditions without           
disintegration4    ,though fanatics have
 profaned the tombstone of ,maimonides  
by writing  on it3 ,infidel and         
,heretic1 ,judaism ratified the peace   
which  ,maimonides concluded in its     
behalf with ,aristotelianism4 ,all the  
hue  and cry against ,maimonides was in 
the end of no avail1 because at that    
time the deed of ,maimonides was a step 
forward towards progress4 ,at  a time   
when the ,roman ,catholic ,church fought
 ,copernicus and ,galileo  no           
representatives of ,judaism participated
 in this fight1 though the  ,synagogue  
had an older historic reason to oppose  
,copernicus than had  the ,roman        
,catholic ,church4    ,in short1        
,judaism has never resisted real        
progress and has always  known how to   
make peace with the tendencies and      
currents of the time  without weakening 
its own position4 ,as it has reconciled 

itself to new  conditions in the past so
 today it is making peace with the      
tendencies  of our own time4 ,separation
 of state from church and the overthrow 
of theocracy and secularization of life 
are strong currents in our              
contemporaneous history4 ,in the life of
 our people1 these tendencies of  the   
time have taken the form of nationalism 
and ,zionism4 ,neither mean  alienation 
from the religion of our ancestors1 as  
many misled rabbis  argue1 but only     
imply that the ,jewish religion has a   
definite place in  ,jewish life1 but    
cannot and should not rule our lives    
altogether4    ,this is a general human 
tendency which we should not and ought  
not  oppose2 unfortunately1 there are   
leading ,jews who deem it their duty  to
 resist the forces of progress and to   
display medievalism at the  expense of  
our people and its prestige1 and to the 
exclusion of all  modern and            
intellectual forces4 ,this resistance we
 find represented in  two schools of    

thought1 in the school of old-fashioned 
,reform and in  that of the             
semi-nationalistic spiritualism4 ,the   
representatives of  the one school argue
 that we are only a spiritual people and
 that we  are violating the spirit of   
,judaism if we strive to become a       
secular  people4 ,the others do not go  
so far1 but they also maintain that     
,jewish  nationalism is above all       
spiritual in nature and that1 if ,jewish
  nationalism has a duty to perform1    
this duty consists in establishing  a   
,jewish spiritual centre in ,palestine4 
,both schools of thought may  be        
characterized as utterly reactionary1   
because they imply that we  should stand
 still1 where humanity stood two or     
three hundred years  ago2 that we should
 continue to submit to the law of the   
book instead  of submitting to the law  
of life1 and that we should continue to 
live  as a spiritual people and give    
spiritualism the first place1 while the 
basis of present day civilization is    

secular in nature4    ,with regard to   
the philosophy of ,judaism as           
represented by  old-fashioned ,reform1  
it suffices to remember that every      
people on  earth had a period in its    
history when it considered itself a     
spiritual  people4 ,and to the present  
day every civilized people firmly and   
sincerely believes that it has a special
 mission to perform4 ,the author  of    
,oraisons ,funbres formulated such a    
spiritual mission for the  ,french1     
,fichte did it for the ,germans1 and    
,katkov for the ,russians4  ,but neither
 the ,french nor the ,germans nor the   
,russian people clung  to their         
mission-theory4 ,while appreciating     
these spiritual values1  they have      
outgrown spiritualism as the all        
embracing guide of the  nation's life   
and have settled down to work out their 
salvation in a  very prosaic and profane
 way4 ,either the ,jewish people are    
subject to  the laws of historic        
progress1 and then we have to keep pace 

with that  historical progress1 or else 
we miraculously form an exception to the
  rule and laws of history--we are an   
island in the ocean of life--and  then  
we ought to be today what we were two1  
three1 five or twelve  hundred years    
ago4    ,reform ,judaism of today is    
surely not the ,judaism of the year     
#agjj or  #aejj4 ,it is a modern        
,judaism adapted to modern life4 ,the   
same ,jews1  who are arguing that we    
cannot give up spiritualism as the prime
  factor of ,jewish life and that we    
cannot stick to the old conception  of  
,judaism1 have deemed it advisable to   
introduce reforms into a field  of      
,judaism that was considered the very   
stronghold of spiritualism in  the      
,jewish religion4 ,that is where the    
contradiction and confusion come  in4   
,so far as religion is concerned1 these 
reformers conform to the  requirements  
of the time1 but on the other hand they 
still cling to  the spiritualistic      
supremacy in ,jewish life1 to the theory

 of ,israel's  mission1 as if they were 
,jews of the seventeenth century4       
,either ,judaism cannot undergo a change
 and must remain what it always         
was--and then reform is                 
unjustifiable--or ,judaism can adapt    
itself to  modern life and make peace   
with the tendencies of the time--and    
then  why stick to the fictitious       
supremacy of the spiritual side of      
,judaism8    ,no less contradictory and 
confusing is the philosophy of the other
  school of thought that preaches       
spiritual nationalism as the only       
solution of the ,jewish question4 ,if   
spiritualism is no longer the prime     
factor in life1 and if it is no longer  
in a position to maintain its  hold on  
the peoples of the earth as it did in   
the days gone by when  men thought more 
theologico1 how can it hold its grip on 
the ,jewish  people8 ,and how can a     
purely spiritual centre even in         
,palestine answer  the ,jewish question8
    ,did ,mecca1 the centre of          

,mohamedan spiritualism1 prevent the    
conquest  of ,egypt1 ,morocco1 ,tunis   
and ,tripoli by the ,christian nations8 
7,and  ,mecca is the spiritual centre   
not of a people of fourteen but of a    
religious community of two hundred      
millions47    ,despite ,mecca and       
despite the pan-,islamic movement1 the  
holy war  proclaimed by the ,caliph two 
years ago was a failure4 ,instead of a  
united ,islam we have today an          
independent ,mecca1 an ,egypt that is   
loyal  to ,england1 and an ,algeria and 
a ,morocco that are loyal to ,france4   
,if ,mecca could not contain ,islam     
politically and could not save the      
,islamitic nations from being conquered1
 how could a much smaller ,jewish       
spiritual centre in ,palestine save the 
,jewish people politically and          
nationally8 ,this is the question which 
we would like to submit to these        
spiritual nationalists4    ,these       
,neo-,ahad-,ha'amists are by no means   
better than the adherents  of           

old-fashioned ,reform2 both cling to the
 spiritualistic supremacy  in ,jewish   
life1 and both oppose the necessary     
gradual secularization  of ,judaism4    
,both would have us stand still1 or1 if 
possible1 draw us  back to a medievalism
 that has no room in modern life1 and   
both are  reactionaries in the full     
meaning of the term4 ,they are our dark 
forces and the time seems very near when
 we will have to rise against  both and 
overcome them4 ,there is reason to fear 
that in the hour of  fate they will put 
obstacles in the way of our redemption4 
,,the ,,eternal ,,cycle      ,every     
revolutionary phenomenon in life1 every 
political catastrophe1  upsets men's    
minds and shakes old rooted opinions to 
their very  foundations4 ,the sudden    
break with tradition affects both the   
mind  of the individual as well as that 
of the collective body4 ,it brings      
about a radical change in views and     
sentiments and often in the whole       
world-concept4 ,the gloomy pessimist may

 suddenly become a joyous  optimist and 
vice versa4 ,the earthquake of ,lisbon  
of #agee not only  shook the belief in  
,providence of the young ,goethe1 but   
turned numerous  orthodox circles into  
agnostics4 ,the ,french ,revolution     
broke the  conservative spirit that was 
prevailing in ,western ,europe and put  
an  end to the mediaeval conception of  
the state1 just as the appearance  of   
,bonaparte brought about the revival of 
the longing for ,caesaric  splendor and 
the cult of the superman4    ,the       
,russian ,revolution1 successful till   
now1 has naturally greatly  affected the
 minds of our contemporaries1 and       
compelled them to revise  their attitude
 on many historical forces and to       
consider the course of  recent history  
in an entirely new light4 ,men who never
 believed in the  political ability of  
the ,slavonic race and1 therefore1      
thought that  ,russia was doomed as a   
political power1 are now admiring the   
political  genius of the ,russian people

 and the tactfulness of its leaders4    
,many  ,jewish contemporaries1 who      
considered the ,jewish case hopeless    
because  of the terrible oppressions    
directed against our brethren in ,russia
 by  the representatives of the old     
regime1 are now joyous optimists and    
think that since millions of ,russian   
,jews have been freed the ,jewish       
question is completely solved4 ,to the  
minds of these men the ,jewish  question
 will sink into forgetfulness within a  
short time because  the ,jews will enjoy
 everywhere freedom and liberty and will
 live in  complete happiness4    ,this  
is the attitude of just those people who
 but the other day were  convinced of   
the hopelessness of the ,jewish cause   
and were worried  over the sufferings   
that the future had in store for the    
,jews4 ,this  radical outburst of       
optimism1 understandable at the present 
juncture1  nevertheless betrays a naive 
intellect and a lack of historical      
intelligence4 ,we all hope that the     

successful ,russian ,revolution1  next  
to the world war the most important     
event in the history of the  twentieth  
century1 will open a new era for our    
people1 an era of  happiness and        
peaceful development but1 at the same   
time1 we should  never lose sight of the
 fact that there is so far nothing new  
under the  sun4 ,there is only a        
definite number of forces and energies  
prevailing  in history and each and     
every one of these forces has in turn   
its term  of domination4 ,history is    
only a continuation of biological nature
 plus  human intelligence4 ,there is    
only a certain definite amount of matter
  and energy in the realm of nature as  
well as in history1 and energy  in      
history can be destroyed as little as   
energy in nature4 ,and just  as there is
 always a substitution and constant     
change of forms in the  realm of nature1
 so there is in history4 ,progress never
 assumes the  shape of a straight line  
but that of a curve4 ,the most glorious 

period  in human history may be followed
 by a period of decay and misery4 ,the  
golden era may be followed by an era of 
iron1 to use a parable of ,ovid4        
,there is in the realm of history as    
well as in the realm of nature  an      
eternal cycle4 ,the old ,graeco-,roman  
historian1 ,polybius1 already           
recognized the eternal cycle in the     
development of the state when he        
graphically described this development  
from despotism1 monarchism and          
feudalism1 and from republicanism1      
democracy and ochlocracy back again  to 
despotism4    ,we1 as ,jews1 have too   
often experienced ups and downs to      
believe  that a happy era will last     
forever4 ,the ,jews in ,spain not only  
saw  golden days of complete happiness  
and freedom1 but formed for a time  the 
vanguard of human civilization4 ,yet    
within one hundred years the  ,spanish  
,inquisition annihilated #bjj1jjj ,jews 
while the other #djj1jjj  were compelled
 to leave the country4 ,today1 ,spain is

 again inviting the  ,jews to settle in 
the land1 promising them complete       
liberty and freedom  where ,torquamada's
 rule was supreme4    ,there was a time 
when the ,jews of ,poland lived in      
happiness4 ,today1 the  ,poles are      
harassing the ,jews in every possible   
way and are scheming and  devising plans
 to break up ,judaism in ,poland4 ,in   
,rome1 where the ,jews  only one hundred
 years ago were humiliated and          
depressed1 a ,jewish  mayor dared to    
criticize the ,pope openly and to       
challenge all the  forces of            
mediaevalism in the ,eternal ,city4     
,england1 that invented the  ritual     
murder accusation1 has today a ,jew as  
its ,lord ,chief ,justice4 ,on  the     
other hand1 the ,jews of ,north ,africa1
 who were politically supreme  in the   
,atlas countries1 are today the most    
oppressed human beings on  ,god's earth4
    ,all these ups and downs which we   
have experienced ever since we have     
lived dispersed warrant a certain       

reserve in our judgment on phenomena  in
 life1 even when these phenomena be of  
the most revolutionary nature4  ,too    
much optimism and too much overstating  
of matters must subsequently  lead to   
disappointment1 to despair1 even to     
ruin4 ,our age as a people1  our        
historical and general intellectual     
experience1 do not warrant too  much    
optimism even at present4    ,the ,jews 
are a force in history4 ,the other      
historical forces must take  an attitude
 to and judgment from ,judaism4 ,this   
attitude and judgment  are likely to    
change4 ,the change that is necessary to
 take place from  time to time is not   
always a product of malice1 but a       
product of  certain factors which the   
individual1 be he even the most         
powerful1 is  often unable to control4  
,if an oppressed people is set free1 all
 the  suppressed energies in it begin to
 pour out suddenly2 this may lead to    
the reaction against the ,jews4 ,the    
people sheltering us may often need  a  

scapegoat and it will without fail take 
the ,jews for that purpose4  ,national  
as well as international crises may     
often affect the attitude  of a people  
to the ,jews or the attitude of the     
dominating class to  the ,jews4 ,in this
 case we will always be the sufferers4  
,because of  the hostile encounter      
between clericalism and liberalism in   
,france  the ,jews had to suffer4 ,the  
,dreyfus affair is still in the memory  
of  every contemporary4 ,when the       
liberal forces in ,france finally       
emerged  victors from the struggle1     
another ,jewish group--the              
,hungarian--felt  the effects of this   
struggle in a very unpleasant way4 ,the 
,clericals  not being in a position to  
do any more harm to the ,french ,jews   
began  to awaken the anti-,semitic      
instincts of the ,hungarians1 and set   
about  to create an anti-,semitic       
movement in ,hungary4 ,even the ,polish 
,jews  had to suffer because of the     
victory of liberalism in ,france1 for   

the ,clericals in ,poland took revenge  
on the ,jews for their defeat in        
,france4    ,as to the future of the    
,jews in ,russia1 it is hard to predict 
whether  or not it will be a happy one4 
,the mind of the ,russian people is     
still  a blank4 ,the ,russian people    
have been kept in ignorance2 their will 
is  not domesticated and their mind not 
trained4 ,the ,russians themselves1  or1
 to be correct1 the ,great ,russians do 
not know the ,jews4 ,they have  never   
lived together4 ,on account of the      
emancipation the ,jews of the  ,pale    
will emigrate to the interior of ,russia
 and will settle in the  midst of the   
,great ,russians1 and they will become  
active in various  spheres and fields4  
,how will the presence and the activity 
of this new neighbor react on  the      
,russian mind8 ,will the presence of the
 ,jews in the midst of the  ,great      
,russians result in the development of  
friendship or will the  reverse be the  
case8 ,and if a new crisis should break 

out in ,russia1  and a ,russian         
,government should need a scapegoat to  
save its neck1 will  it or will it not  
pick out the ,jews to serve as the      
scapegoat8 ,russia  is a land of        
unlimited possibilities for good and for
 bad2 there are no  prophets nowadays to
 predict future happenings1 especially  
since the  mind of the ,russian people  
is still a question mark4    ,thus1     
besides the eternal cycle and besides   
the necessary ups and downs  in history1
 we have now a special reason to be     
careful in our judgment  and to moderate
 our optimism4 ,but even taking for     
granted that the  ,jewish development in
 ,russia will be unhampered1 does it    
already mean  that the ,jewish question 
is solved8 ,does the ,jewish question   
consist of  bread and butter and human  
rights8 ,can the ideal of a people as   
old as  the ,jews be satisfied with just
 being permitted to live as individuals8
  ,can it be the meaning and aim of     
#djjj years of ,jewish history that the 

zenith of our development as a people   
should consist in being permitted  to   
live among the people with mere civic   
equality8 ,is that what we have         
struggled for during the centuries8     
,greater and more civilized people than 
the ,russians have not succeeded  in    
solving the ,jewish question4 ,why then 
should we expect that from  ,russia will
 come the salvation1 especially as only 
one-quarter of our  people is today     
living in ,russia8    ,the ,jewish      
question can become simplified when we  
are liberated by  the one people or the 
other1 but it can be solved entirely    
only by  the ,jewish people itself4 ,the
 ,russian ,revolution means for the     
,jews  freedom to breathe and to move1  
freedom from prison and captivity1 but  
even the free man has his own problem to
 solve4 ,life only begins when  the     
prison-doors open4          ,,jews ,,and
 ,,race ,,consciousness      ,at the    
beginning of the war there were many who
 ascribed the world  conflagration to a 

conflict of races4 ,at present there are
 many who  would either belittle the rle
 of race as a factor in history or      
eliminate it altogether4 ,these people  
describe the theories of race as  race  
mythology and consider them the         
invention of scholars rather  than facts
 of objective reality4    ,among a      
certain section of the ,jewish people   
this negation of race  theories is very 
popular4 ,if there are not races in this
 world1 then  assimilation is the       
easiest and best way to solve the       
,jewish question4    ,it may or may not 
be true that race is a biological       
category1 but  it is true beyond a doubt
 that the consciousness of race among   
all  peoples always was and will be an  
historic factor of prime importance4    
,therefore1 it matters little whether or
 not race is a biological fact4         
,history and its interpretation are     
concerned only with consciousness of    
race4    ,if consciousness of race were 
to be recognized only because it exists 

and has always existed1 people might    
say3 ,so other superstitions have       
likewise existed4 ,the fact1 however1 is
 that the consciousness of race  has a  
definite psychological basis1 although  
we know next to nothing  about its      
biological foundation4 ,we see that the 
co-existence of like  individuals in a  
definite place and during a long period 
of time1  who are held together by a    
common ancestry1 by a common destiny and
  interest1 and the interaction         
resulting from such co-existence        
produces  new phenomena and radiates    
creative energies which cannot be simply
  reduced to the qualities and forces of
 the individual minds4 ,these  energies 
radiating from the co-existence of a    
group of individuals  are new1 original 
and creative4 ,they are more than       
actualized  potentialities1 and are to  
the individuals sharing in the          
co-existence  as are sounds which the   
great artist draws from the violin to   
the  violin itself4 ,the energies       

emanating from this co-existence often  
assume shape and form which differ from 
the energies of the separate            
individuals4 ,they appear rather        
one-sided and unbalanced4 ,for instance1
  the separate individuals have about an
 equally large or small amount  of      
religious or sthetic desire1 an equally 
large or small sense of  justice or     
morality4    ,if the energies radiating 
from the co-existence would comprise and
  express the will of the individuals   
only1 the culture of the ethnic  group  
would necessarily consist of equal      
portions and exhibit a  proportionate   
amount of logic1 aesthetics and ethics4 
,but we see that  every great culture   
gravitates in a certain direction4      
,hellenism  tends towards the           
artistic-philosophical1 ,judaism towards
 the  religious-ethical1 and ,romanism  
towards the political-legal4 ,we thus   
see that the manifestation of the mind  
of the race being one-sided is  more    
than the sum total of the expression of 

all the individual members  of the race1
 and as soon as we recognize a certain  
psychological or  psychical unity1 of a 
certain group of people1 we must also   
recognize  that this unity is modeled   
and shaped by time4 ,in course of time  
this  psychological or psychical unit   
becomes enveloped in traditions and     
experiences which make it stronger from 
day to day4 ,as in biology many  think  
that the function in time creates an    
organ1 so the new energies  radiating   
from the co-existence of a group of     
people become in course  of time        
something organic in the mind of those  
people4 ,this is the  psychological     
basis of race consciousness and since   
earliest time the  various peoples1 all 
of whom had an outspoken race           
consciousness except  those savages who 
cannot count1 have recognized or felt   
that their  consciousness of race was   
more than belief--that it was a         
psychological  reality4    ,of all the  
ancient peoples none had more marked    

race consciousness and  racial feeling  
than the ,jews and ,greeks4 ,it is very 
characteristic  of ,greek race          
consciousness that ,greek philosophers1 
when discussing  ethical or political   
subjects1 have only the ,hellenic people
 in mind4  ,their notions of justice and
 peace were applied only to the         
,hellenic  people4 ,the ancient ,jews   
were not so one-sided4 ,yet they1 too1  
had  a well developed race consciousness
 which showed not merely in the         
religious idea that they were the chosen
 people1 but in a very general          
acceptance of the belief that they were 
a distinct unit4 ,even the  call to     
righteousness uttered by the prophet is 
colored by racial  motives3 ,hearken to 
me1 ye that follow after righteousness2 
ye that  seek the ,lord4 ,look unto the 
rock whence ye are hewn and to the hole 
of the pit whence ye are digged4        
,another of the prophets1 ,ezekiel1     
even speculated as to the origin of the 
,jewish race4 ,all the terms1  ger1     

nakhri1 akum and others used by ancient 
,jews to describe  non-believers        
characterized non-,jews with reference  
to race also4 ,the  feeling of racial   
consciousness among ,jews to the present
 day and the  consciousness of the      
isolation of that race are best         
expressed in  the popular ,hebrew term1 
,umoth ha-,olam1 the people of the      
world4  ,the ,umoth ha-,olam are the    
non-,jews1 as the barbaroi were the     
non-,greeks4 ,this throws light on the  
mental disposition of the ,jews4        
,while1 in the eyes of the ,greek1 the  
non-,greek is an inferior1 being a      
barbaros1 in the eyes of the ,jews the  
non-,jew is simply different and  not   
necessarily inferior4 ,even the term    
goy1 which is so much abused  by        
anti-,semites1 means only non-,jew4 ,but
 while the ,jew never held the  non-,jew
 in contempt merely for differences of  
race1 he had always and  still has      
intense feeling for his own race4    ,in
 theological periods of history the     

fight against ,judaism was perhaps  a   
conflict of theologies only4 ,today1    
however1 a fight against ,judaism  is   
inevitably a fight against the ,jewish  
race4 ,in times of old the  religious   
motives of ,judaism seem to have been   
the prime factors in  ,jewish life4     
,today the driving powers in ,jewish    
history are not so  much religious as   
race and national consciousness4 ,it is1
 therefore1  characteristic of those    
,jews whose ,jewish backbone is broken  
to deny  the existence of the race and  
to scoff at race consciousness in       
general4    ,race consciousness is not a
 myth invented by the professors1 but a 
fact  of life4          ,,ahad ,,ha',,am
      ,the sixtieth anniversary of ,ahad
 ,ha'am1 the foremost ,hebrew thinker of
  his time1 is a notable event in       
,hebrew literature1 and will no doubt   
be celebrated by ,hebraists all over the
 world in a manner worthy of  the man   
and of the thinker4 ,next to ,bialik1   
the great ,hebrew poet1  ,ahad ,ha'am is

 today the most popular ,jew among the  
,jewries of the  ,east and the best     
known representative of ,hebrew thought 
among ,jewish  intellectuals in the     
,west4 ,his name is identified with the 
formulation  of the program of ,hebrew  
nationalism and the creation of a       
,hebrew  cultural centre in ,palestine4 
,unlike other thinkers who consider     
their  convictions their own private    
affair1 ,ahad ,ha'am had the courage of 
his  convictions and defended them      
against great odds4 ,he had the courage 
to  take his stand against the giant1   
,herzl1 and the powerful dialectician   
and publicist1 ,max ,nordau4 ,he knew   
that the fight against ,herzl1 when  the
 great leader of ,zionism was at his    
height1 would not win him  friends1 but 
he had the daring to take up the fight4 
,for ,ahad ,ha'am the question of       
political ,zionism and that of cultural 
,zionism as represented by himself1 were
 matters of principle and had to  be    
fought out sooner or later4 ,while ,ahad

 ,ha'am fought against ,herzl  and      
,nordau and against the other powerful  
representatives of political  ,zionism1 
he had no personalities in mind and     
fought for principles  only4 ,the whole 
position of things was such that ,ahad  
,ha'am could  at that time have had no  
hope to win the struggle because        
political  ,zionism was at its height   
and because ,theodor ,herzl was the     
shining  star in the firmament of       
,jewish political life4 ,but            
disregarding  the disadvantageous       
position in which he found himself1 he  
fought  courageously until he believed  
the danger was passed4    ,we mention   
this fight against ,herzl and ,nordau   
because it best  characterizes the man1 
,ahad ,ha'am4 ,though his philosophy of 
life is a  philosophy of abstract ideas1
 he is at the same time a man full of   
life  and temperament1 a hard public    
worker and a political ,jew in the best 
sense of the term4 ,a great deal of his 
popularity must be ascribed not  only to

 his philosophy and his system of       
,jewish politics1 but also to  his      
manliness and wonderful qualities of    
character4    ,as a ,hebrew thinker1    
,ahad ,ha'am represents the last point  
in the line  of ,jewish thought which   
can be characterized as ,hebrew         
intellectualism  as distinguished from  
,hebrew irrationalism and mysticism1    
which found  its expression in the      
teachings of the ,hassidic sect4        
,since the rise of the theoretical      
,kabbalah in ,spain in the thirteenth   
century1 which must be considered a     
reaction against the system of          
intellectualism as laid down by         
,maimonides1 we can observe in ,jewish  
history two spiritual tendencies        
striving for dominance3 ,irrationalism  
in all its forms and ,intellectualism in
 all its aberrations4 ,ahad  ,ha'am     
represents the line of development1 of  
,maimonides1 the ,gaon of  ,wilna1      
,krochmal4 ,the parallel line to the    
theoretical ,kabbalah is the  practical 

,kabbalah which began in ,palestine in  
the sixteenth century  and ,hassidism   
which originated in ,poland in the      
eighteenth century4  ,the               
intellectualists maintain that the prime
 essential of the soul is  intellect and
 that ,judaism is based not on          
metaphysical will but on  intellectual  
cognition4 ,for our mediaeval           
intellectualists and those  of the      
eighteenth century1 this premise        
resulted in the conception  of a        
,judaism which lays more stress on      
knowledge 7,torah7 than on the  practice
 of the religious ceremonies 7,avodah74 
,it is1 of course1  understood that the 
older representatives of ,jewish        
,intellectualism  were as ,god-fearing  
and observing as their mystical         
opponents4 ,but  basing ,judaism on     
knowledge and cognition1 they maintained
 that the  first thing a ,jew should do 
is to study and accept the advice of    
old3  ,thou shalt recognize the ,god of 
thy fathers4    ,in opposition to these 

teachings is the conception of ,judaism 
as  represented by ,kabbalists and      
,hassidim4 ,these lay more stress on the
  practice of ,judaism1 claiming that   
,judaism is primarily a matter of  will 
and not of knowledge4 ,it is not a      
coincidence that while among  ,jewish   
intellectualists in the ,east           
7,mithnagdim7 the knowledge of the      
,talmud and of ,rabbinic ,judaism is    
widely spread because they consider     
this the first duty of the ,jew1 there  
prevails among the ,hassidim  ignorance 
of the ,talmud and of ,rabbinic         
,judaism4    ,ahad ,ha'am is today the  
representative of ,intellectual ,judaism
 as  conceived by his time1 as the ,gaon
 of ,wilna was in his day the           
representative of intellectual ,judaism4
 ,it is very characteristic of  this    
,jewish school of thought that a man    
like the ,gaon of ,wilna has  written a 
system of geometry and was interested in
 mathematics and  logic4 ,with his      
logical mind he created a new method of 

studying the  ,talmud which is marked by
 simplicity and clearness4 ,ahad ,ha'am 
achieved  in the domain of ,hebrew      
thought and literature what the ,gaon of
 ,wilna  had achieved in ,talmudic      
methodology4 ,as the ,gaon of ,wilna did
 away  with ,pilpul sophistry1 so ,ahad 
,ha'am did away with the confusing and  
unproductive ,hakira1 unsystematic      
discussion of abstract thought1 and     
introduced economy of thought and of    
expression--a clear terminology  and a  
systematic formulation of principles and
 ideas4 ,that is what has  given him the
 leading position in modern ,hebrew     
literature4    ,ahad ,ha'am's greatness 
does not consist of these formal        
innovations  only4 ,he has enriched     
,hebrew literature with a philosophic   
ideology  of his own which has greatly  
influenced modern ,hebrew thought4 ,ahad
  ,ha'amism1 as this system is called1  
was not less productive at the          
beginning of the twentieth century than 
the ,yeshibah of ,volozhin1 the  work of

 the ,wilna ,gaon1 at the start of the  
nineteenth century4 ,as a  matter of    
fact ,ahad ,ha'amism is the modern      
development of the ideas  which came    
from ,volozhin4 ,without ,volozhin there
 would be no modern  ,hebrew literature1
 no modern ,hebrew thought and no ,ahad 
,ha'am4    ,while the ,jewish teachings 
of ,ahad ,ha'am can easily be explained 
as  the continuation of a certain       
historical tendency in ,judaism1 the    
philosophy of ,ahad ,ha'am consists of  
many different systems and cannot  be so
 readily surveyed4 ,his own disciples   
claim that he is following  in the      
footsteps of ,krochmal and that he is   
thus a disciple of ,hegel4  ,this1      
however1 is only partly true4 ,one      
finds1 moreover1 in the  philosophy of  
,ahad ,ha'am elements of ,kant1         
,spencer1 of modern ,french  sociology  
and even of ,nietzsche4 ,the unifying   
and productive mind of  ,ahad ,ha'am has
 absorbed these various philosophic     
elements and turned  them into an       

organic unit4 ,for this reason ,ahad    
,ha'am cannot be called  an eclectic4   
,even ,kant had his predecessors1 was   
influenced by various  philosophers and 
took up their suggestions4    ,ahad     
,ha'am is one of the few modern ,hebrew 
leaders who is as much  ,european as    
,jew1 and who is not on less intimate   
terms with ,european  thought than with 
,jewish4 ,owing to these facts he       
succeeded in  ,europeanizing ,hebrew    
literature and in raising it to the high
 level it  now holds4    ,in the last   
few years ,ahad ,ha'am has made peace   
with ,zionism because  he thinks that   
,zionism has accepted his views on      
,palestine4 ,his  appearance at the     
#aath ,zionist ,congress at ,vienna was 
thought by friend  and opponent alike to
 mean that he had made peace with the   
,zionist  organization4 ,he has in any  
case supported the ,zionist organization
  in its efforts in ,palestine and has  
approved the plan to establish a  system
 of ,hebrew educational institutions in 

the ,holy ,land4 ,but whether  ,ahad    
,ha'am became more political or whether 
the ,zionist organization  has come     
nearer to ,ahad ,ha'amism remains a     
question4 ,the many pupils  of ,ahad    
,ha'am1 however1 and the ,zionists in   
all lands1 are happy that  the          
uncontested leader of modern ,hebrew    
thought and literature is to be  found  
today with the rank and file of         
,zionism4          ,,the                
,,transvaluation ,,of ,,values          
,even a language is subject to the force
 of fate4 ,its value in life and  its   
meaning for the life of a people change 
constantly with the great  changes of   
life4 ,only one hundred and twenty years
 ago there were those  who believed in  
the possibility of the realization of   
the medieval  idea that a day would come
 when all the peoples of the earth would
  speak one language and all linguistic 
barriers would soon disappear4  ,today  
language stands next to the state as the
 most important factor  in the life of a

 nation2 in many cases it is as strong a
 factor as  the economical and political
 forces4 ,this is especially true of the
  so-called nationality states where the
 various peoples can show their  line of
 national demarcation chiefly by the    
language they use4 ,today  language is  
not only one of the strongest factors in
 the national  life of a people1 but is 
also of great weight in universal       
politics4  ,the future historians1 in   
describing the ups and downs of the     
present  war1 will not fail to observe  
that one of the causes that threatened1 
for a time1 the existence of the        
,hapsburg ,empire was the apparently    
unimportant fact that the people in     
,germany and ,bohemia could not come  to
 terms about the linguistic barrier4    
,the language quarrels in ,bohemia  were
 the cause of so many political         
upheavals that they shook the very      
foundations of ,austria2 they have      
influenced1 to a large extent1 the      
international crisis during the last    

three years4    ,since language has     
developed into such a tremendous force1 
all the  meditations and calculations of
 the philosophers of the eighteenth     
century about the possibility of one    
language for the entire human  race have
 proven to be empty visions--soap       
bubbles of philosophic and  humanitarian
 dreamers4 ,if the living provincial    
languages of small  peoples1 the        
,bohemians1 ,lithuanians1 ,armenians1   
and so forth1 have  become important    
political factors in the lives of the   
nations1 and1  in consequence thereof1  
an important momentum in international  
life1  the so-called dead languages1    
such as ,hebrew1 ,gaelic1 ,welsh and    
many  others1 have become driving forces
 in the lives of their peoples  and may 
even decide their fate and future4 ,the 
development of these  dead languages    
during the nineteenth century is as     
interesting and  fascinating as the     
growth in political importance of such  
living1  provincial languages as        

,bohemian1 ,lithuanian1 and so forth4   
,most  remarkable of all is the         
development of the importance of ,hebrew
 during  the nineteenth century4    ,one
 hundred years ago1 ,hebrew was a purely
 philological and theological           
proposition4 ,the knowledge of ,hebrew  
had quite a different value from  what  
it has today4 ,to the ,eastern ,jew1    
,hebrew had the meaning of a holy       
tongue only2 to the ,western ,jew1      
,hebrew was a sort of a cultural luxury 
which was very much appreciated as such1
 but had no national value4 ,the  love  
for ,hebrew in the ,west1 which1 by the 
way1 was stronger than we  today        
imagine1 smelled faintly of a museum4   
,these conditions prevailed  in the     
,west for several centuries4 ,in the    
,east1 however1 conditions  changed with
 kaleidoscopic rapidity4 ,with the      
spread of the ,haskalah  eastward1      
,hebrew achieved another value          
altogether2 it had a different  function
 to perform4 ,the adherents of the      

,haskalah used ,hebrew not as a  holy   
tongue1 as did the orthodox1 nor as a   
theological proposition1 as  did many of
 the ,western ,jews1 but as a medium to 
spread culture among  the ,jews and to  
introduce ,european ideas in the ghetto4
 ,the ,hebrew  writer of the middle of  
the nineteenth century considered       
himself a  sort of cultural missionary4 
,the best means to enlighten the people 
and to counteract superstition was1 at  
that time1 ,hebrew literature4  ,by the 
end of the ,seventies and the beginning 
of the ,eighties1 ,hebrew  experienced  
another transvaluation1 chiefly because 
of the failure of  the ,haskalah and the
 awakening of the national spirit among 
the ,jews4  ,the writers of that time   
considered ,hebrew no longer a means to 
an  end--that is to say1 an agency to   
spread culture among the ,jews--but  an 
object in itself4 ,people began to      
realize that ,hebrew is not only a      
linguistic theological proposition1 as  
was thought at the beginning of  the    

nineteenth century1 but that it is the  
woof and warp of national  culture4 ,the
 ,hebrew writers of the last third of   
the nineteenth  century1 consequently1  
began to speak of the ,hebrew tongue as 
a certain  culture and ,hebrew ideas as 
the ideas of the ,jewish people4 ,in    
short1  ,hebrew became the national     
cultural force in contradistinction to  
the  humanitarian cultural force that it
 was thought to be in the middle of  the
 nineteenth century4    ,the ,hebrew    
writers of the ,eighties and ,nineties  
no longer considered  themselves        
cultural missionaries of the ,jews1 as  
did the writers of  the preceding       
generation1 but rather as the           
representatives of ,hebrew  thought and 
,hebrew culture4 ,the most conspicuous  
representative of this  school of       
thought is ,ahad ,ha'am1 the father and 
systematizer of ,hebrew  cultural       
nationalism4 ,ahad ,ha'am himself       
witnessed the transition from  cultural 
,hebrew to political ,hebrew4 ,although 

about twenty years ago  he was the      
embodiment of ,hebrew thought1 his      
school had to make room  for another    
conception of ,hebrew1 a conception to  
which1 we think1 the  future belongs4   
,it is the national political conception
 of ,hebrew in  opposition to its purely
 cultural conception4    ,to the modern 
,hebraist1 ,hebrew is neither a holy    
tongue nor a medium  to spread culture  
among the ,jews1 nor yet a national     
cultural idea1 as  it is to the         
disciples of ,ahad ,ha'am1 but a        
national political force2  accordingly1 
he strives to secularize ,hebrew and to 
introduce into it  all the elements of  
secular civilization and to make it the 
expression  of the movement of life of  
his people4 ,the modern ,hebrew writer  
would think in ,hebrew not only on      
subjects ,jewish1 would not only        
philosophize in ,hebrew on ,jewish      
cultural and theological problems1  but 
would write in ,hebrew on all secular   
subjects and try to find  the ,hebrew   

expression for all the movements of     
life1 especially the  life of our       
people4 ,this striving to secularize    
,hebrew has enriched  our national      
tongue enormously4 ,we now know more    
,hebrew than did  our forefathers one   
hundred years ago4 ,because of our      
striving to  secularize ,hebrew we were 
compelled to go to all the ,hebrew      
sources of  antiquity and to find       
,hebrew terms for things which1 for the 
last two  thousand years1 have not been 
described in ,hebrew1 because the       
writing  of ,hebrew was concentrated on 
theological and philosophical subjects4 
,a  few years ago a ,russian ,jew wrote 
an agricultural text book in ,hebrew1   
which created a sensation among ,hebrew 
circles because the author  re-created  
,hebrew agricultural terminology4 ,since
 the ancient ,jews  were agriculturists1
 they had of course an agricultural     
terminology  of their own which had1    
however1 been forgotten during our      
,diaspora  life4 ,the author of the     

above mentioned book re-established that
  ,hebrew agricultural terminology4     
,other ,hebrew writers have produced    
similar results in other literary and   
scientific endeavors4 ,a small  booklet 
by the late ,dr4 ,schereschevsky1 for   
instance1 surprised the  ,hebrew public 
by the abundance of ,hebrew scientific  
terms and by his  re-establishment of a 
,hebrew scientific terminology4 ,the    
modern ,hebrew  writer is conscious of  
the fact that ,hebrew is bound some day 
to become  a concrete political force   
and that1 to gain that end1 it must     
admit  all the elements of life and     
establish the life of our people as the 
only agency of our general and ,jewish  
education4 ,this necessitates the       
secularization and1 one might say1 the  
humanization of ,hebrew4 ,the  real     
modern ,hebrew writers are1 therefore1  
not those who can write a  treatise in  
,hebrew on medieval ,jewish philosophy  
but those who can  write a ,hebrew essay
 or ,hebrew book on scientific or       

sociological  topics4    ,the tendency  
to secularize ,hebrew is spreading all  
over the world2 it  is to be hoped that 
the day is near when a considerable     
section of our  people will use ,hebrew 
with the same ease as any other people  
uses its  national tongue4 ,the         
secularization of ,hebrew is a clear    
sign of our  approaching national       
liberation4          ,a ,,turning       
,,point ,,in ,,jewish ,,history      ,in
 ancient times1 nationality and state   
were identical4 ,the destruction  of the
 state always involved the destruction  
of the nationality4 ,this  was1 in fact1
 the case with many peoples whose states
 were destroyed  by conquerors4 ,only   
the ,jews are an exception to the rule4 
,the  ,jewish state was destroyed1 the  
,jewish nationality was not4 ,even the  
dispersion of the ,jews all over the    
globe could not destroy and did  not    
destroy the ,jewish nationality4 ,on the
 contrary1 the diaspora life  of the    
,jews1 with all its evils and troubles1 

woes and tribulations1  sorrows and     
pains1 only served to intensify the     
national consciousness  of the ,jews and
 to strengthen their hopes of national  
redemption4 ,but  the chancellors of the
 governments1 always in the habit of    
dealing  with concrete facts1 did not   
take the sentiments of ,jewish          
individuals  into consideration4 ,seeing
 that the ,jews have no homeland1 no    
national  sovereignty and not even an   
intellectual and spiritual centre1 they 
pronounced the ,jewish nationality dead 
forever4 ,from the point of  view of    
this now antiquated conception of       
nationality1 the ,european  governments 
could not be blamed for their attitude  
toward the ,jews as a  people1 for the  
orthodox notion of nationality always   
implies an ethnic  unit that enjoys     
national sovereignty1 or1 at least1 is  
living on its  own land1 even though it 
may be dominated by others4 ,the        
governments1  in their attitude toward  
the ,jews as a people1 followed a       

certain  principle that had to be       
maintained as long as no substitute     
could be  found for it4 ,today it seems 
that the old principle of nationality   
has  been replaced by another and that  
the present notion of nationality  does 
not necessarily imply that an ethnic    
group must either enjoy  national       
sovereignty or live on its own soil4    
,the ,jews1 who have now  been          
recognized as a nationality not only by 
,great ,britain but1 as we  have been   
informed1 by several other great powers1
 are still living in  dispersion and    
have none of the characteristics of the 
concrete makeup  of other nationalities4
    ,this change was brought about both 
by the ,jews themselves1 who for the    
past thirty or forty years have begun to
 assert their nationality and  to claim 
the right to which every nationality is 
entitled1 namely1 a  national homeland1 
and by the peculiar discrepancy between 
principle  and life4 ,the ,european     
governments1 following a certain        

principle1  refused to consider the     
,jews a nationality1 but in practical   
life the  ,jews were always considered a
 nationality of their own4 ,while the   
modern state emancipated the ,jew on the
 condition that he emancipate  himself  
from ,judaism1 modern society1 on the   
other hand1 refused to  admit him just  
because he was a ,jew1 and thus         
counteracted and opposed  the           
emancipation policy of the government4  
,modern society is intensely            
nationalistic and will only recognize   
those as its true members who  belong to
 it1 not only socially and economically1
 but also nationally  and racially4     
,since the ,jews are not ,slavs or      
,teutons or ,anglo-,saxons  but ,jews1  
they simply were not admitted as        
full-fledged members in the  society of 
these races and nations1 and whenever   
they made an attempt  to penetrate into 
society by force and en masse1 they were
 only too  quickly ejected by a wave of 
anti-,semitism4 ,so that while the      

states  emancipated the ,jews1 on the   
condition that they become full-fledged 
,frenchmen1 ,germans1 ,italians1        
,austrians1 etc41 because it considered 
the ,jewish nationality dead and done   
for1 the nations themselves1 being      
nearer to life and its movements than   
the bureaucrats of the government       
chancelleries1 felt that the ,jews do   
form a national society of their  own   
and are by no means nationally dead4    
,the official recognition of  the ,jews 
as a nationality on the part of a modern
 state will1 we are  convinced1 put an  
end to this difference in attitude and  
policy towards  the ,jews on the part of
 the government and of the nation4      
,besides the national self-assertion of 
the ,jews during the past thirty  years1
 we find that their rle as intellectual 
and spiritual factors in  history led to
 the present change of mind of the      
,european governments  in regard to     
,jewish nationality4 ,it is by no means 
pure accident that  two mighty          

,anglo-,saxon nations and governments1  
,great ,britain and the  ,united ,states
 of ,america1 should be the first among 
the great powers to  recognize the right
 of the ,jews to a national homeland of 
their own and  thus to recognize        
publicly the nationality of the ,jews4  
,if the ancient  ,jewish mind1 as it    
expressed itself in the ,bible1 ever    
influenced  a great race and helped to  
shape its destinies and policies1 it was
  the ,anglo-,saxon race that it        
influenced4 ,for the past four hundred  
years the greatest production of ,jewish
 genius1 the ,bible1 has been a         
powerful factor in the life of the      
,anglo-,saxon race1 and as soon as the  
,anglo-,saxons freed themselves from    
medievalism1 they began to treat the    
,jews living among them with            
consideration and fairness1 even before 
they were officially emancipated4       
,besides1 the ,american ,government is  
the only government of the ,great       
,powers that never pursued any hostile  

policy against the ,jews1 because  its  
very establishment was based on         
emancipation from medievalism4 ,of  all 
the powers which have now come to       
recognize the ,jewish nationality  and  
its right to a homeland1 ,america is1 we
 dare say1 the only one that  is        
inspired solely by motives of pure      
idealism4 ,for ,america surely has  no  
political interests or ambitions in the 
,near ,east and is led only by  the     
unselfish wish that the ,jews1 after a  
life of exile of two thousand  years1   
should return to a normal national life 
and enter the great  family of nations  
on equal terms4 ,in saying this1 we by  
no means wish  to imply that the other  
great powers who have recognized the    
,jewish  nationality have done so from  
political motives only1 and that        
politics  only were instrumental in     
bringing about their decision to help   
the  ,jews establish a homeland in      
,palestine4 ,we are1 moreover1 convinced
  that ,england and ,italy1 ,russia1 and

 probably ,france1 which1 as we have    
been informed1 are now taking a very    
favorable attitude toward the           
establishment of the ,jewish homeland in
 ,palestine1 have done so because  they 
recognized that the ,jews are a people  
in themselves and that they  are        
entitled to be given the possibility of 
living a normal national  life4 ,these  
powers1 inspired by noble motives1 now  
say to the ,jews1 ,go  and build up a   
national life of your own and we shall  
help you4 ,go and  be ,jews as much as  
you like and we shall not interfere with
 your ,jewish  affairs and your national
 happiness4    ,we are1 however1 afraid 
that many ,jews themselves misunderstand
 or  misconstrue the meaning of the     
decision of these powers4 ,if the ,jews 
go to ,palestine1 they must live there  
with the object of building up  in the  
country of their forefathers a new      
,jewish life and establishing  a ,jewish
 homeland there2 they must do it as     
,jews only1 not as ,russians  or        

,germans1 not ,britons1 ,austrians or   
,italians1 but as ,jews4 ,they  must    
consider themselves an object in        
themselves4 ,they must1 first  of all1  
look after their own affairs and their  
own happiness4 ,while  always having the
 welfare of humanity in mind1 they must 
not consider  themselves the protg of a 
certain state or race or nation1 and    
they  must not be under the impression  
that1 when given the possibility of     
living a national life of their own1    
they are called upon to defend          
interests other than their own4    ,no  
,british or ,american statesman believes
 that the establishment of  the ,jewish 
homeland in ,palestine is possible      
without the consent of  all the great   
powers1 irrespective of their present   
mutual relations1  and as soon as one   
power or group of powers finds out that 
the ,jewish  ,palestine is not primarily
 looked upon as the homeland of the     
,jewish  nation1 but the political      
stronghold of another power or group of 

powers1 there will be no unanimity in   
regard to the ,jewish ,palestine  when  
peace is discussed2 and without         
unanimity of the powers there will  be  
no ,jewish ,palestine1 because no       
belligerent power will continue  the war
 one day longer1 only because it is     
anxious to establish a  ,jewish state in
 ,palestine4 ,but as a matter of fact   
the powers which1  led by noble motives1
 have expressed their willingness to    
favor the  establishment of the ,jewish 
homeland in ,palestine1 have only       
uttered a  noble desire4 ,there can be  
no talk of anxiety on their part1 but   
only  of consent to permit us to rebuild
 our nation4 ,these powers1 because     
they are not led by motives of war      
politics only1 but by political         
foresight and idealism1 do not want us  
to serve other purposes than our  own1  
because they know that unless we look   
only after our own affairs  we will not 
succeed4    ,for the time being1 the    
,jewish people are divided into various 

groups1 each group serving the country  
in which it lives to the best  of its   
ability4 ,today there is not1 and cannot
 be1 a supreme ,jewish  leadership1 a   
,jewish national assembly or a general  
,jewish congress4  ,each and every      
,jewish group is entitled to work for   
the future of the  ,jewish people under 
given conditions only4 ,the ,english    
,jews can ask  their government to do   
something for the ,jewish cause and so  
can the  ,french1 ,italian1 ,russian1   
,german1 ,austrian and ,american ,jews2 
every one  of the respective governments
 can extend its sympathy and help1 can  
promise its help in establishing the    
,jewish homeland in ,palestine only  to 
the ,jews of their respective lands1 but
 not to the ,jewish people at  large1   
for the ,jewish people are today divided
 into hostile camps1 just  as is        
civilized humanity4    ,our             
assimilationists in every country1 here 
as well as in ,germany1  in ,england as 
well as in ,france and ,austria1 have   

been telling their  respective          
governments that those ,jews who aspire 
to establish a  ,jewish homeland in     
,palestine are disloyal citizens and are
 conspiring  against their own country4 
,in ,england and in ,america1 where the 
governments follow a broad-minded and   
liberal policy1 no attention is  paid to
 such hypocritical talk4 ,but in        
,austria1 ,germany and ,turkey1         
conditions are different4 ,there the    
influential assimilationists are  still 
personae gratae with their governments1 
and since they are  capable of every    
crime1 if they can only see their way   
clear to break  ,jewish nationalism1    
they will no doubt lose no time in      
pointing out  to their governments that 
,jewish nationalists1 though they       
displayed  heroism on the battle-field1 
are not loyal to their countries and are
  crossing the plans of the ,central    
,powers in the ,near ,east4 ,they will  
tell the governments that the ,jewish   
nationalists are conspiring with  the   

enemies of their governments against the
 interests of the ,central  ,powers in  
the ,orient2 the result may be that the 
government of the  ,central ,powers1    
listening to this misleading talk1 may  
embark on a  ,jewish policy opposing    
that of the ,entente and may start to   
persecute  ,zionists and all who        
sympathize with ,jewish nationalism1    
thus making  the life of eastern        
,european ,jewry1 now greatly under the 
control of  the ,teutonic ,powers1 still
 more bitter4    ,therein lies the      
danger of our misconstruing the         
high-minded  declaration of the ,british
 ,cabinet4 ,the statesmen of the        
,entente ,powers  certainly do not wish 
to imperil the existence of ,european   
,jewry1 nor  do they wish to have their 
policy misconstrued by the ,central     
,powers4  ,these statesmen want the     
liberation of small nationalities and   
not  their oppression4 ,these statesmen 
also know that if the ,jews in the new  
,palestine will not be1 first of all1   

pro-,jewish1 there will not be the      
,jewish ,palestine which they wish to   
see established4 ,by misconstruing  the 
declaration of the ,british ,government1
 we are implicitly acting  against the  
spirit and noble motives of this        
declaration and1 needless  to say1 we   
are acting against our own elemental    
interests4 ,a ,jewish  ,palestine is    
only possible with the consent of all   
the powers1 and  since it is desirable  
that it should be a product of the      
consensus of  opinion among all the     
powers1 every act on our part must be   
avoided  that may create the impression 
that in the anxiety to build up a       
national homeland in ,palestine the     
,jewish people are becoming political   
tools of any power or group of powers4  
,this will1 in the end1 spell  ruin for 
us and might1 besides1 endanger the life
 of millions of our  people in central  
and in eastern ,europe4 ,we have been   
told on good  ,zionist authority in this
 country1 that the ,american            

,government1  appreciating the present  
complicated international situation1 is 
anxious to remain in the background with
 regard to the establishment of  the    
,jewish homeland in ,palestine1 though  
it is a noble and unselfish  champion of
 the cause4 ,we wish that the ,jews     
everywhere would take  an example from  
the wisdom and forbearance displayed by 
the ,american  ,government4             
,,the ,,people ,,of ,,the ,,book        
,no one has characterized the ,jews     
better than did ,mohammed when he       
called the ,jews ,the ,people of the    
,book4 ,in fact1 nearly all that  the   
,jews have achieved during their        
existence as a people they have         
achieved in the domain of literature4   
,even at the time when the ,jews  lived 
in ,palestine and were at the height of 
their power1 their  achievements in the 
field of practical civilization were    
relatively  poor4 ,when the ,jews       
disappeared as a sovereign nation from  
among the  nations of the earth they did

 not leave behind them a highly         
developed  civilization as did ancient  
,rome1 nor did they leave behind them a 
highly developed science and art1 as did
 the ,greeks1 but they did leave  a book
 that subsequently became the book of   
humanity4 ,the economic  structure of   
ancient ,judea was primitive1 and only  
the tribes living  on the borderland and
 communicating with the peoples across  
the border  succeeded in developing     
trade and commerce4 ,the interior of    
,judea was  an agricultural country and 
its inhabitants pious and simple-minded 
people without ambition to create values
 of civilization and without  pretence4 
,just as the economic structure of      
ancient ,judea was primitive  and       
simple1 so was the political fabric4    
,the ancient ,jewish state never        
succeeded in entirely subduing the      
individual and making him respect the   
supreme authority of the ,state4  ,the  
prophets repeatedly exhorted the people 
to abide by the law and to  respect the 

authority of the ,state4 ,this would go 
to indicate that1  even in the best days
 ancient ,judea has seen1 individualism 
was supreme  and the authority of the   
,state thus considerably weakened4 ,we  
have  no record of the ancient ,jews    
ever having built great roads1 or ever  
having been a great seafaring nation1 or
 having done other things that  would   
testify to their creative genius in the 
field of civilization4    ,but1 on the  
other hand1 they have created great     
books and have always  been active in   
the field of literature1 as have no     
other people on  earth4 ,it may be that 
their literary genius and activity      
absorbed  all their energies1 so that   
the literary values they created were   
created at the expense of the creation  
of values of civilization4  ,from time  
immemorial to the present day1 the      
,jews1 first as a nation  and then as   
individuals1 have been busily engaged in
 writing books1  and1 besides the       
,bible--that became the book of humanity

 and that  has influenced the mind of   
humanity more than any other book in    
world  literature--they have written a  
number of books at various times and  in
 various languages which had a striking 
effect on the human mind and  were      
instrumental in shaping and framing it4 
,the appearance of ,philo of ,alexandria
 puzzled and amazed the entire  ancient 
world4 ,the ,greeks themselves          
considered him a wonder and  expressed  
their admiration for him by saying that 
they did not know  whether ,plato       
,philonized or ,philo ,platonized4 ,how 
,philo's writings have  influenced the  
course of spiritual development in      
,europe and how they  contributed shape 
and form to the philosophy of           
,christianity is known  to everyone who 
is acquainted with the history of the   
,european mind4  ,christian authors have
 often asserted that part of the success
 of ,st4  ,paul is to be ascribed to his
 literary genius1 his striking style and
  to the concise form of his literary   

expression4 ,and how can we think  of   
,christianity without ,philo and ,st4   
,paul1 though the former did not        
consciously contribute anything to the  
makeup of ,christianity8    ,when1      
during the chaos following the          
disintegration of the ,roman  ,empire1  
the ,jews disappeared from the arena of 
,european literature1 the  best ,jewish 
minds were busy creating books and      
literary styles1 which  remain unique to
 the present day4 ,we refer to the      
,talmud and ,midrash  or1 to be more    
precise1 to ,halakhah and ,hagadah4 ,the
 day will come when  ,european          
scholarship will pay more attention to  
these two marvelous  books4 ,a famous   
,german scholar1 ,professor ,strack1    
declared a few years  ago that for the  
last four hundred years the ,european   
peoples have  studied the ,bible and    
have worked very hard to understand it4 
,now1  since we are better acquainted   
with the ,bible1 we will have to take up
  the study of the ,talmud and the      

,midrash4 ,only then will we understand 
,judaism4 ,whatever place the ,talmud   
may hold in the history of law and  no  
matter how it is valued by great        
jurists1 it is certainly unique in  its 
literary style4 ,the ,talmudic style may
 or may not be a beautiful  one1 but it 
is certainly peculiar1 striking and     
original to the core4  ,literature is   
first of all style2 what is true of the 
originality of  the ,talmudic style is  
also true of the strikingly original    
style of the  ,midrash4    ,at the time 
when the style of these two books was   
created the greatest  representative of 
,european literature of that period1    
,st4 ,augustine1  appeared and gave to  
,christian humanity the best book of its
 time1  the ,confessiones4 ,the         
,confessiones is a striking book        
powerfully  written4 ,its style is both 
soft and forceful2 because of that it   
became  one of the best books of the    
,church4 ,wherein1 however1 lies the    
secret  of that book8 ,what made it a   

success8 ,it is the attempt to imitate  
the ,bible1 just as ,nietzsche's        
,zarathustra took up the style of the   
,bible and became the best-known book of
 the nineteenth century4 ,but how  does 
,st4 ,augustine's ,confessiones compare 
with the ,bible8 ,in certain  places it 
is an artificial imitation of the       
,bible1 pure and simple1 or1  to be more
 accurate1 a poor imitation of the      
,psalms2 only very rarely  does         
,augustine reach the height of the true 
,biblical style4 ,because  ,st4         
,augustine succeeded in imitating the   
style of the book which we  created he  
became the literary master-mind of      
,europe of his time4  ,the entire       
literature of confessions from          
,augustine to ,rousseau and  from       
,rousseau to ,tolstoy has its           
inspiration in the ,bible2 as long as   
humanity will produce poets who think in
 terms of eternity and who feel  at one 
with the cosmos they will have to fall  
back on the ,bible1 as did  ,dante and  

,shakespeare1 ,milton1 ,goethe and      
,nietzsche4    ,just as our national    
book1 the ,bible1 became the            
inexhaustible source  of inspiration to 
the great representatives of world      
literature1 just  so have many books    
written by ,jews within the last five   
hundred years  influenced and affected  
the ,european mind4 ,the books of       
,spinoza in  the seventeenth1 of        
,mendelssohn in the eighteenth1 of      
,heinrich ,heine  and ,karl ,marx in the
 nineteenth and those of ,bergson in the
 twentieth  century were all            
cornerstones in the realm of the        
literature of modern  times4 ,only      
recently has attention been called by   
the admirers of  ,spinoza to the        
exquisite and truly artistic style of   
the lonely ,jew  of ,amsterdam4         
,mendelssohn was certainly not a        
first-rate philosopher1  but he is      
considered by his admirers and opponents
 alike a first-rate  writer and literary
 master-mind2 next to ,lessing he was   

the greatest  ,german stylist of his    
time4    ,the deep impression that ,karl
 ,marx made on his contemporaries we    
understand less by reading his minor    
writings4 ,as an economist of  genius he
 could appeal to a small community of   
scholars1 but as a  literary man of rare
 qualities1 as a powerful writer who    
wrote with  blood and venom1 he         
succeeded in greatly infuriating his    
opponents and  enthusing his adherents4 
,heine has been called by ,nietzsche the
 wonder of world literature4 ,the       
conservative ,germans1 the ,prussians   
especially1 hate him thoroughly1  but   
they cannot help singing his ,lorelei   
and ,die zwei ,grenadiere  when they    
feel truly ,german or truly patriotic4  
,this ,dsseldorf  ,jew1 who received a  
convent education and who1 according to 
his own  testimony1 did not master the  
,german language before he was sixteen1 
became the lyrical poet of the ,german  
nation and discovered the tune  of the  
,german soul4    ,five decades after    

,heine's death there appears a ,polish  
,jew in the  firmament of ,french       
literature who acquires for himself the 
name  of the matre crivain4 ,the        
,french1 with their great literary and  
artistic traditions and with their own  
exquisite literary taste1 are  not so   
hasty in bestowing upon one of their    
writers the honor of the  title of matre
 crivain4 ,but they lost no time in     
giving that honor  to the ,polish ,jew1 
,bergson4 ,educated ,frenchmen agree    
that even if all  the philosophic       
teachings of ,bergson should prove to be
 false or should  be refuted he would   
nevertheless remain a great figure in   
the gallery  of ,french literature4 ,he 
may die as a philosopher1 but he will   
remain  immortal as a litterateur4      
,we have mentioned only the principal   
great books written within the  last    
three hundred years1 which have caused  
true revolutions in the  literary world 
and for which most other peoples have no
 match4 ,if an  historian of literature 

were to study the subject of the        
influence of  the ,jews on world        
literature1 especially of modern times1 
he would have  to write not one1 but    
five volumes1 and even then he would not
 exhaust  the subject1 not because of   
the multitude of the books the ,jews    
have  written1 but because of the       
creative values of these books and of   
the  influence exercised on their       
contemporaries4 ,it is a remarkable fact
  that the best piece of ,german        
literary eloquence was written by a     
,jew1  ,ludwig ,boerne1 and every       
,german schoolboy has to know his piece 
of  eloquence1 ,denkrede ueber ,jean    
,paul1 by heart4 ,of ,israel ,zangwill  
the  ,english say that he comes nearest 
to ,dickens4 ,hugo von ,hoffmannsthal1  
the offspring of a ,galician ,jew and a 
relative of the late ,graf von          
,aehrenthal1 today holds such a unique  
position in ,german literature  that    
even the wildest anti-,semites do not   
dare to attack him4 ,the  ,french       

,academy has recognized another ,german 
,jew1 ,ludwig ,fulda1 as  the best      
,german metrician of his time4 ,and     
there are such powerful  publicists as  
,maximilian ,harden and ,max ,nordau1   
such men as ,wasserman  and ,schnitzler1
 who have contributed to the literary   
glory of the  ,jewish people in recent  
times4    ,the ,aryan peoples will      
seldom concede that the ,jews are one of
 the most  capable literary peoples that
 have ever lived1 but there are many    
signs  that would go to indicate that   
they are fully conscious of it4 ,the    
,french never forget to mention the fact
 that the mothers of ,rabelais  and     
,montaigne were ,jewesses and there is a
 ,german folksong that begins  with the 
verse3        ,er hat wie ,brne         
geschrieben      ,er hat wie ,heine     
gedichtet4    ,the humorous papers in   
,italy1 when taking ,luigi ,luzzatti to 
task1 are  always cartooning him as a   
little ,jew buried in books1 and it is a
  current expression in ,italy today    

that he eats books like ,luzzatti4    ,a
 ,jew and a book are nearly synonymous4 
,we were and we are to the  present day 
a bookish people4 ,the book has been    
until now our greatest  glory4 ,for     
thousands of years we have been dreamers
 and writers4  ,the book was our shield 
and our weapon and the only outlet for  
our  energies4 ,now it seems that a     
great and radical change is going to    
take place in our lives4 ,we may and    
will probably never abandon the  book   
altogether1 but we are on the verge of  
becoming an active people1  instead of  
being solely a bookish people4          
,,the ,,future ,,of ,,the ,,jewish      
,,religion ,,in ,,the ,,diaspora        
,preceding and during the religious     
crisis in ,france1 which resulted in    
the ,separation ,law1 a great number of 
books on the future of religion         
appeared in ,paris4 ,the largest number 
of writers denied that there was  a     
future for religion1 maintaining that   
modern economic conditions  are         

undermining the spiritual and religious 
basis of the life of the  masses4 ,a    
minority1 upholding ,clericalism1       
foresaw a promising future  for         
religion4    ,a similar discussion on   
the future of the ,jewish religion arose
 with  the advent of ,zionism4 ,in the  
first decade of our century scores of   
books appeared in ,europe1 dealing with 
the nature and future of the  ,jewish   
religion4 ,as in ,france1 during the    
crisis1 so in ,european ,jewry1  during 
the inception of ,zionism1 two distinct 
views were held as to the  future of the
 ,jewish religion4 ,one view saw that   
,judaism could hope for  no future in   
the ,diaspora and that1 if only to avert
 the destruction  of the ,jewish        
religion1 a homeland in ,palestine was  
needed4 ,the other  view was that       
,judaism1 being non-political in nature1
 would continue to  exist indefinitely  
and that1 as a matter of fact1 it was   
created for a  ,diaspora existence4     
,today1 when the ,jewish people is once 

more at the parting of the ways1  the   
same question comes up again4 ,those who
 oppose ,zionism hastily  affirm that   
the ,jewish religion not only does not  
need a homeland in  ,palestine1 as a    
source of new inspiration1 but that the 
very idea of  this homeland is          
incompatible with the ,jewish religion4 
,the spokesmen  of ,zionism who1 as a   
rule1 do not worry much over questions  
of theology  and religion1 have so far  
failed to take a definite attitude      
towards  the rabbis who oppose ,zionism 
on religious grounds4    ,we think it   
high time to approach this question and 
to try to answer it  from a purely      
objective point of view4    ,before we  
ask whether the ,jewish religion has any
 future in the  ,diaspora1 let us see   
whether it has had any development in   
the past4    ,it is known to every      
intelligent ,jew that since the         
appearance of  ,maimonides1 with the    
exception of the pathological phenomenon
 of  ,sabbathai ,zevi and of ,hassidism1

 the ,jewish religion has not  developed
 in the least4 ,the rabbinic literature 
of the last #hjj years  consists mainly 
of legal responses to which nobody will 
attribute  religious significance1      
because religion and legalism are two   
different  things4 ,the rabinnic ,jew   
has the same views on ,god1 on the      
relations  between ,god and man1 and on 
immortality1 as prevailed among ,jews   
#hjj  years ago4 ,even the synagogue and
 the ,jewish ritual have undergone  few 
changes in this period4 ,many attribute 
this fact of religious  stagnation to   
the predominant legal element in the    
,jewish religion1  while others maintain
 that1 even without this element1 the   
,jewish  religion would not have        
undergone changes because of its        
existence in  the ,diaspora4 ,religion1 
like any other phase of spiritual life1 
must  draw from life itself and if the  
source is polluted stagnation must set  
in4    ,many people seek to prove that  
the ,jewish religion is capable of      

development in the ,diaspora1 and as    
proof they point to ,hassidism4  ,but   
even they must agree that ,hassidism    
itself failed to develop and  that it   
resulted finally in a form of ,judaism  
which is objectionable  even on sthetic 
grounds4 ,hassidism1 which claims to    
have a greater  freedom of movement than
 ,mithnagdism1 is today even more       
stagnant than  ,mithnagdism4 ,in        
addition1 it is questionable whether the
 pantheistic  element in ,hassidism is  
altogether compatible with the          
traditional  ,jewish conception of ,god4
 ,all in all1 ,hassidism affords no     
proof that  the ,jewish religion has    
developed in the last #hjj years4 ,it   
would be  no exaggeration to say that   
ever since ,jewish religious philosophy 
chose the path of ,aristotelianism1 it  
has been favored only with the          
slightest development4    ,one must bear
 in mind that in the past the ,jewish   
religion1 though  more persecuted than  
at present1 had better chances of       

development  than in our own day4 ,the  
,gentiles surrounding the ,jews lived a 
more  intense spiritual life than is the
 case today and in addition they        
thought in terms of religion as the     
mediaeval philosophers thought  more    
theologico4 ,judaism and ,christianity  
were absolutely separated  and regarded 
each other with hostility4 ,the intense 
religious feeling  of the ,middle ,ages1
 the thinking in terms of religion on   
the part of  the ,gentile masses1 the   
hostility of the ,church to the         
,synagogue1  the isolation of ,jewish   
life and the persecution which must have
  intensified the religious feeling1    
were all factors conducive to  religious
 development4 ,however1 the fact remains
 that since ,maimonides1  the ,jewish   
religion has not undergone notable      
development4    ,is it capable of       
development in the future8    ,today    
humanity does not think in terms of     
religion2 modern philosophers  do not   
think more theologico but more          

biologico2 the synagogue in  the country
 where ,jews are free is not isolated as
 was the case in  the past1 nor is      
,jewish life isolated4 ,unlike the ,jews
 of the past1  the modern ,jew in these 
countries is actuated not by religious  
but by  economic and social motives and 
he has little time to give thought to   
,judaism4 ,to the average ,jew in the   
liberal countries1 ,judaism is either   
an unwelcome heritage or at best a      
synagogal duty4 ,in eastern ,europe     
there are two sorts of ,jews1 as far as 
religion is concerned4 ,there  are      
either rabbinic ,jews1 who are pious and
 naive1 or there are ,jews  whose views 
practically amount to a superficial     
atheism4 ,under these  conditions1 it is
 hard to tell how the ,jewish religion  
is to develop in  the ,diaspora1 or what
 its future may be4    ,the ,reformers1 
of course1 would point to the work of   
,geiger and  ,holdheim4 ,but is the work
 of these men really proof of organic   
development in ,jewish religion8 ,does  

the destruction of the bases of  a      
religion indicate development8 ,reform  
,judaism not only did away  with        
rabbinism1 but it would also deprive the
 ,bible of its religious  character1    
denying the divinity of its source and  
in addition  arbitrarily abolishing     
fundamental biblical laws for the       
convenience of  its practioners4 ,is    
there any intelligent ,jew1 with a fair 
knowledge of  ,judaism1 perhaps with the
 exception of a few ,reform rabbis1 who 
will  maintain that in these changes    
there is a trace of development8 ,if    
,reform ,judaism can do no more than    
destroy what others have built1 it  is  
not progress in ,jewish religion1 as its
 leaders assert1 but merely a  ruthless 
iconoclasm4    ,we do not say that      
,reform ,judaism is created by malice or
 by the wanton  desire to destroy1 but  
only that it serves as proof that from  
present  conditions the ,jewish religion
 seems to have no future in the         
,diaspora1  once it has come into       

contact with modern life4    ,the       
,jewish religion1 a product of national 
genius1 can live and thrive  only on its
 own soil4 ,it can live and thrive only 
if it is part and  parcel of the whole  
life of the nation1 because the ,jewish 
religion1 in  contradistinction to the  
universal religions1 is distinctly      
national in  character and wherever the 
,jewish nation is hampered in its       
movements  7as it is1 everywhere1 in the
 ,diaspora71 the ,jewish religion is    
also  hampered and condemned to         
stagnation4    ,the stronger and more   
intense the life surrounding the ,jews1 
the weaker  becomes their own religious 
impulse4    ,this is well known to the  
,reform rabbis4 ,we do not know how they
  conceive the future of ,judaism in the
 ,diaspora1 but we do know that the     
only possibility for a ,jewish religious
 revival lies in a national life  for   
the ,jewish people4          ,,the      
,,migrations ,,of ,,jewish ,,literature 
,among all the literatures of the world 

the ,jewish literature is the  only one 
that did not develop in any one land and
 the destinies  of which are not        
connected with any one country4 ,it has 
neither a  certain local odor nor a     
certain local color1 and it has seldom  
been  the product of local conditions4  
,there are a good many scholars who  go 
so far as to say that the ,jews had     
litterateurs only and not a  literature1
 because the conception of a national   
literature involves  national territory1
 a national political organization1 and 
national  traditions4 ,a people1 these  
scholars say1 may produce a great       
numbers  of writers and poets and may   
still be said not to possess a national 
literature4 ,formerly scholars who      
argued to that effect may have been     
right4 ,if we take into consideration   
the psychological continuity of  ,jewish
 literature ever since the ,jews began  
their career as a wandering  people1 we 
are justified in doubting the wisdom of 
this conception4    ,although ,jewish   

literature has undergone many radical   
changes 7the  change in language being  
only one prime fact7 and although it has
  been as restless as the ,jewish       
people1 compelled to wander from one    
country to another1 it has still        
succeeded in preserving certain prime   
qualities and characteristics which     
entitle it to bear the proud name  of   
national literature4 ,it is easy to     
recognize the age of a ,jewish  literary
 document1 but it is not so easy to     
ascertain the place and  locality where 
it was produced4 ,the ,hebrew-,italian  
school of the  eighteenth century       
resembles in many respects the          
,hebrew-,spanish school  of the ,middle 
,ages1 and the ,russian-,hebrew school  
of the present time  has much similarity
 not only to the various ,hebrew schools
 of the  twelfth and the eighteenth     
centuries but even to the ,biblical     
period4  ,it suffices only to mention   
the name of ,bialik to show how near we 
are  today to the spirit of the         

,biblical period4    ,this is true of   
,hebrew poetry but not of ,hebrew prose4
 ,here the  results of migration are    
very noticeable4 ,the ,jewish literature
 of  the ,alexandrian period has hardly 
anything in common with ,babylonian     
,jewish literature1 and the literature  
created in the ,provence is  quite      
different in character from that created
 in ,central ,asia or in  ,africa4 ,in  
other words1 while the contemplative    
,jewish mind succeeds  in preserving its
 chief original qualities1 the          
meditative ,jewish mind  was subject to 
certain degrees of assimilation4 ,as    
long as the ,hebrew  language was the   
means of expression for the ,jewish     
literary spirit  the effect of migration
 from one country to another was to make
 ,jewish  literature more picturesque   
and more interesting4 ,but it did not   
fill  the literary mind with new        
contents4 ,sometimes the effect of the  
new  surroundings was not felt at all4  
,this is due to the fact that1 with  the

 ,hebrew language as cultivated by the  
,jews1 there goes a certain  philosophy 
of life and of things4 ,the fate of the 
,jews throughout the  ages1 more or less
 similar in every land1 contributed also
 to the  psychological continuity of the
 ,hebrew literary mind4 ,this expresses 
itself best in the ,hebrew elegy4 ,when 
one reads ,bialik's ,poems of  ,wrath1  
one thinks at once of ,hebrew poems of a
 similar kind written  hundreds of years
 ago4 ,hebrew prose on the other hand   
underwent slight  changes during the    
,jewish migrations4    ,since the ,jews 
have entered modern civilization and    
have adopted  the language of the       
,gentiles as a medium of literary       
expression1  the effects of migration on
 the ,jewish literary mind have begun to
  make themselves felt in a rather      
unpleasant way4 ,this unpleasantness    
consists not in the variety of languages
 in which modern ,jewish  literature is 
so rich1 but in the variety of ideas and
 conceptions  which the ,hebrew language

 imposed on the individual4 ,the works  
of  ,jewish writers who write in        
,european languages1 even if they deal  
only  with ,jewish subjects1 do not     
belong to ,jewish literature alone2 we  
cannot proclaim these works as our      
national possessions because of the     
very non-,jewish elements which         
characterize them4    ,on another       
occasion we have already shown how      
,jewish historiography and  our history 
of ,jewish literature have been         
influenced by non-,jewish  elements4 ,it
 goes without saying that all the other 
branches of our  prose literature1 as   
far as they have not been written in    
,hebrew1 are  strongly influenced by    
non-,jewish elements to a very great    
extent4  ,very often it is difficult to 
recognize what is ,jewish and what is   
non-,jewish in these works4 ,everyone   
acquainted with the theological         
developments of ,judaism within the last
 hundred years knows how  ,jewish       
theology in the west has gradually      

become alienated from its  ,jewish      
origin and come nearer to a ,christian  
point of view4 ,no less an  important   
theologian than ,schleiermacher         
characterized so-called modern  ,judaism
 as being very similar to modern        
,christianism4 ,it will readily  be     
understood that it was not ,christianity
 that came nearer to ,judaism  but1 on  
the contrary1 ,judaism that came nearer 
,christianity4 ,it would1  of course1 be
 wrong and historically untrue to say   
that only in modern  times has a        
non-,jewish element begun to creep into 
,jewish literature4  ,it is moreover a  
fact that ever since the ,jews have used
 foreign  tongues for literary          
expression1 they have been compelled to 
admit  non-,jewish elements into their  
works4 ,this is true of ,philo and to a 
certain extent even of ,maimonides'     
,moreh4 ,is it not peculiar that all    
the great mediators between ,judaism and
 the ,gentile world have written  their 
philosophical works either in ,greek or 

in ,arabic or in some  modern language1 
and that those ,jewish philosophers who 
have written  their philosophical works 
in ,hebrew have never tried to play the 
rle  of mediators8 ,philo1 who wrote in 
,greek1 tried to mediate between        
,platonism and ,judaism4 ,maimonides1   
who wrote the ,moreh in ,arabic1  tried 
to mediate between ,aristotelism and    
,judaism1 and ,herman ,cohen  tries to  
mediate between ,kantianism and         
,judaism4 ,there are1 of course1        
exceptions to the rule4 ,nachman        
,krochmal was a thorough ,hegelian and  
wrote his ,moreh in ,hebrew4 ,but this  
is just the exception which  proves the 
rule4 ,most of our philosophers who     
wrote in ,hebrew developed  a more or   
less purely ,hebrew philosophy and      
contributed to the  development of the  
,hebrew mind which found its purest     
expression in the  ,bible1 the ,talmud  
and the ,haggaddah4    ,all this would  
go to show that the psychological       
continuity of the  ,hebrew literary mind

 and the true development of the ,jewish
 mind can  best be safeguarded through  
the medium of ,hebrew4 ,hebrew is to the
  ,jews and to the literature of the    
,jewish people more than a language4    
,it replaces the many elements required 
for the sound development of  a national
 literature which we have not1 such as a
 country1 local  traditions1 a national 
political organization1 and so on4 ,as  
long as  ,hebrew is the medium of       
literary expression among the ,jews1    
,jewish  literature deserves the name of
 a national literature and is a         
national literature4 ,if1 however1 the  
,jewish mind does not express  itself   
any more through the medium of ,hebrew1 
the productions of this  mind do not    
solely belong to us and are not part and
 parcel of our  national property4 ,they
 belong to the others as well as to us  
and  probably more to them4 ,herein lies
 the importance of ,hebrew for the      
development of ,judaism and the ,jewish 
mind4          ,,are ,,the ,,jews ,a    

,,commercial ,,people8      ,the        
reputation of the ,jews for being a     
business people has done them  more harm
 than good1 and has1 in fact1 retarded  
their emancipation in  many countries4  
,but nowhere has this reputation done   
them so much harm  as in ,russia4 ,even 
the ,russian liberals1 who are not      
anti-,semitic1  seem to believe that the
 ,jews1 if emancipated1 would ruin the  
,russian  peasantry and completely      
monopolize ,russian commerce4 ,they are 
therefore not eager to take up the cause
 of the ,jews1 though they may  be      
liberal in every other respect4    ,the 
,russian and ,roumanian anti-,semites1  
however1 base their theories  of the    
need for oppressing the ,jews on the    
belief that the ,jews are  too shrewd in
 business and that they will exploit the
 ,russians and  ,roumanians if they are 
given freedom to move about and to      
utilize all  their commercial energy and
 intelligence4 ,this view is not        
restricted  to those countries alone4   

,we find traces of it even in ,america4 
,has this belief any foundation in fact 
or is it only a myth8 ,the  question is 
interesting enough to be discussed4     
,there are two methods  of considering  
this question1 the historic and the     
pragmatic4 ,have  the ,jews always been 
a business people8 ,are they today a    
business  people8 ,instead of answering 
these questions in the affirmative or in
  the negative1 we think it wiser to lay
 the facts before the public and  to let
 it answer the two questions4    ,in    
ancient times--as confirmed by the      
,bible--the ,jews were not much of  a   
business people4 ,the bulk of the people
 were devoted to agriculture4  ,there   
are thirteen terms for rain in ,hebrew  
while there is only one for  commerce4  
,the number of agricultural laws in the 
,scriptures exceeds  by far the number  
of laws and regulations relating to     
commerce4 ,the  attitude of ancient     
,jews to commerce was similar to the    
attitude of the  ancient ,greeks to     

labor4 ,indeed the ancient ,jews1 in    
contradistinction  to the ,greeks1      
respected labor and despised business   
and commerce4  ,josephus ,flavius in his
 book against ,apion1 says clearly3 ,we 
,jews do  not find much pleasure in     
commerce4 ,the ,talmudic sages warned   
the  people against commerce again and  
again1 and represented the business  man
 as an ignoramus and a sinner4 ,rabbi   
,meir ruled3 ,trade less and  study     
more4 ,rabbi ,johanan exclaimed3 ,there 
is no ,torah among tradesmen  and       
business people4    ,taking all these   
facts into consideration1 we fail to see
 how any  intelligent person can say of 
the ,jews that they were always a       
business  people4 ,indeed1 it is        
interesting to observe that the word    
used in  ,hebrew for commerce is not of 
,hebrew but of ,greek origin4    ,but   
what about ,diaspora ,jewry8 ,the       
,diaspora ,jew was not allowed to       
become an agriculturist4 ,he was forced 
to live in the city and as  he was      

excluded from all artisan guilds he was 
obliged to become a  tradesman or a     
money lender4 ,how did the sturdy       
agricultural ,jew  become a business    
man1 when business was never his ideal8 
,to answer  this question we must learn 
the attitude of the early mediaeval     
,christian ,church to commercialism4    
,the slogan of the ,church was ,nullus  
,christianus debet esse mercator 7,no   
,christian dare be a merchant71 for     
commerce turned the ,christian from the 
,church4 ,this hostile attitude  of the 
,church toward commerce had its origin  
in the influence of ,greek  culture on  
,christianity4 ,the ,greeks1 as is well 
known1 despised the  merchant and       
considered him a necessary evil4 ,the   
social status of the  merchant in       
ancient ,greece was very low and the    
representatives of  ,greek thought1     
,plato and ,aristotle1 contributed      
largely to lowering  it still further4  
,according to ,plato the merchant class 
is to the  intellectual class what the  

stomach is to the brain and the raison  
d'tre of the merchant class is only to  
be found in its feeding the  warrior    
class4 ,plato describes the merchant as 
belonging to the third  and lowest class
 of society4 ,the early ,church had     
taken over these  views of commerce and 
made them its own4 ,even ,thomas        
,aquinas1 who lived  in the #acth       
century1 when commercial life still     
flourished1 adhered  still to the early 
,christian ideas about commerce4 ,but as
 commerce is  necessary to the existence
 of organized society1 the ,church made 
the  ,jews the bearers of commerce by   
forbidding ,christians to trade and     
inducing the ,jews to do so4    ,the    
,church had another reason for making   
the ,jew the business man4 ,the         
representatives of the ,church--fine    
psychologists that they were and  still 
are--knew that as long as the ,jew      
confined himself to agriculture  he     
would continue to be stubborn and       
stiff-necked1 and no ,christian         

propaganda would induce him to give up  
his religion4 ,the peasant is the       
conservative element of society4 ,the   
tradesman1 however1 whose business  it  
is to make bargains and compromises in  
his business life1 is always  inclined  
to make compromises in morality and     
religion4 ,if the ,jews were  made      
tradesmen1 so the leaders of the ,church
 thought1 two aims could  be achieved at
 one stroke4 ,first they would be made  
to do the dirty  work for the           
,christians1 and secondly1 their        
conservative ,jewish  spirit would be   
broken4 ,these were the reasons why the 
,christian world  consciously forced the
 ,jews into commercialism4 ,on the other
 hand1  political conditions in the     
,middle ,ages actually compelled the    
,jews to  take to commerce4    ,thus a  
people1 originally agricultural1 became 
commercial4 ,it is clear  that the ,jews
 are not a business people by nature but
 out of necessity  and by reason of     
historical developments4    ,but now    

another question arises3 ,are the ,jews 
clever as a business  people and do they
 really show an inherent business       
genius8 ,the  anti-,semites and many of 
our friends believe that every ,jew is  
potentially a business genius4 ,is this 
true8 ,this question is also best       
answered by facts4    ,in ,eastern      
,europe1 where industry and commerce are
 not developed1 and  where ,jews live in
 masses1 the ordinary ,jew is not a     
business man4 ,on  the contrary1 the    
ordinary ,jew in the ,east is a skilled 
or unskilled  laborer4 ,out of the      
million ,eastern ,jews1 who emigrated to
 this country  from #ahii-aijh1 about   
#fj per cent were laborers4 ,the great  
masses or  ,eastern ,jews in ,america   
are1 in the main1 laborers4 ,as ,eastern
 ,jewry  forms the bulk of the ,jewish  
people1 there is no reason to think that
  the modern ,jew is eo ipso a business 
man1 or a tradesman4 ,the great  ,jewish
 ,socialist movement likewise testifies 
to the fact that the ,jews  are not a   

business people in the sense used by our
 enemies and by many  of our friends1   
because a ,socialist movement cannot    
rise and flourish  among business       
people4    ,the ,jews1 in individual    
cases1 may be sharper in business than  
their  non-,jewish fellow business men  
of the same station in life4 ,belonging 
to an ,oriental1 passionate race1 they  
have a more vivid imagination and  can  
see things in brighter colors than the  
non-,jews4 ,this is1 however1  true only
 of individual cases4 ,the ordinary     
,jewish business man is  as clever or as
 stupid as the ,gentile business man4 ,a
 mediocrity1  whether a ,jew or a       
,gentile1 is a mediocrity1 and the      
,jewish mediocrity  is no more          
productive or creative than the         
non-,jewish mediocrity4 ,it  is         
interesting that in the ,levant1 where  
,greeks1 ,armenians and other  ,oriental
 people are active in business1 the ,jew
 cuts a relatively poor  figure as a    
business man4 ,there are in ,salonica   

great ,jewish merchants  but the vast   
majority of ,salonica ,jews are artisans
 and laborers4 ,the  ,jews of the ,east 
when settled in the ,west1 be it in     
,western ,europe or  ,america1 have     
seldom achieved a great success as      
merchants or business  men4    ,the fact
 is that the ,jew is no more shrewd as a
 business man than  the ,englishman1    
,frenchman1 or ,american4 ,it is true1  
however1 that in  exceptional cases the 
,jews produce commercial geniuses as    
they also  produce literary and artistic
 and scientific geniuses4 ,we are an old
  and relatively pure race and our      
experience is far-reaching4 ,we  have   
more productive powers than many other  
peoples1 and we produce  proportionately
 more great men than other peoples4     
,some of these great  men are great in  
business1 but that does not mean that   
the ,jews are a  business people and a  
clever business people4          ,,our  
,,national ,,budget ,,and ,,bribery     
,all peoples who live under normal      

conditions live economically1  that is1 
on a systematized budget in which       
expenditure is adjusted  to income4 ,the
 ,jewish people1 not living under such  
conditions1 do  not live economically4  
,their budget is not systematized nor   
are its  expenditures proportionate to  
the income4 ,the lack of a systematized 
budget1 however1 does not mean that we  
have no fixed annual  expenditures1     
although it is true that we have no     
fixed annual income4  ,the truth is that
 we1 as a people1 spend as much as any  
other people of  equal numbers who live 
a normal life4 ,the only difference is  
seen in  this3 while other peoples spend
 money for national organization and on 
national institutions1 we have to spend 
our money either in bribery or  to help 
pogrom victims4    ,on the eve of the   
,jewish ,new ,year it is proper that we 
draw up and  take account of our annual 
budget4 ,the biggest sum in this budget 
is  the item marked bribery4 ,few       
realize how many millions are spent     

annually by ,russian and ,roumanian     
,jews who seek to mollify their         
oppressors with bribe or gift offerings4
 ,few realize that the many  millions   
spent by wealthy ,assimilationists in   
non-,jewish philanthropies  are also    
bribe offerings4 ,the ,jew has learned  
that if he means to be a  ,jew he must  
pay bribery and that if he does not want
 to be a ,jew1 he  must also pay        
bribery4    ,when a few years ago a     
,jewish lord in ,england bequeathed his 
fortune  of #aj1jjj1jjj to non-,jewish  
institutions1 he made it clear that this
  gift should be taken as proof of his  
sincere ,anglicism1 which meant  the    
repudiation of ,judaism4 ,when the      
,french ,jew1 ,meurts de la ,deutsch    
spends #b1jjj1jjj francs annually to    
encourage aviation in ,france1 it  is   
for no nobler purpose than to deny that 
he is a ,jew1 and that he  has embraced 
all ,french interests4 ,the same is true
 of innumerable  wealthy ,jews who give 
millions for non-,jewish and often for  

anti-,jewish  purposes4 ,it might prove 
interesting to an economist to discover 
how  many millions are spent annually in
 such bribery4    ,it is not difficult  
to estimate in round figures the sums   
spent  annually by those who want to    
remain ,jews4    ,there are six million 
,jews in ,russia4 ,for every move he    
makes1 the  ,russian ,jew must bribe the
 authorities4 ,if he wants his son      
admitted  to the schools1 he must bribe 
the education officials4 ,if he wants to
  open a store and obtain a license1 he 
must bribe the village or town          
officials4 ,if he builds a house he must
 bribe the building inspectors4  ,if he 
seeks a passport1 he must bribe the     
police4 ,the whole run of  human        
activities is accompanied by an endless 
flow of bribes1 gifts1  presents1 etc4  
,it is no exaggeration to say that every
 ,jew in ,russia  must spend an average 
of ten rubles annually in bribing       
officials4 ,this  is #fj1jjj1jjj rubles1
 or #cj1jjj1jjj a year4 ,the total      

budget of the  ,swiss ,confederacy falls
 within this amount4 ,in return the     
,russian ,jews  are paid in exceptional 
laws and pogroms4 ,these laws and       
pogroms lead  to emigration which costs 
us1 on an average1 #aj1jjj1jjj a year4  
,in the last decade ,jewish emigration  
from ,russia has been at least  #ajj1jjj
 persons a year4 ,the cost to every     
immigrant is at least #abj  rubles4     
,this totals #g1bjj1jjj a year4         
,economists have calculated and         
discovered that the incidental expenses 
of each immigrant amount to  about #ajj 
rubles4 ,these expenses are caused by   
the loss entailed in  breaking up       
business1 selling out below cost1 etc4  
,this in turn totals  up to #ab1jjj1jjj 
rubles1 or #f1jjj1jjj a year4 ,in       
addition to these  sums there are       
extraordinary losses resulting from     
pogroms1 fire and  boycott4    ,we are  
not taking into consideration the       
hundreds of millions lost by  ,jews in  
the war owing to the malice of the      

,russian ,government4 ,these  losses are
 not recurrent4 ,but we must consider   
the losses of the ,jews  in ,russia as a
 result of pogroms4 ,in the pogroms of  
#aije and #aijf the  ,russian ,jews lost
 #bj1jjj1jjj rubles4 ,pogroms on a minor
 scale are  yearly events in ,russia4   
,all in all1 the sum which the ,russian 
,jews  spend annually in bribes or in   
expenses in connection with emigration1 
or which they lose in pogroms or other  
upheavals1 reaches the gigantic  sum of 
#ej1jjj1jjj1 a sum which exceeds the    
annual budget of ,bulgaria  or of       
,switzerland4 ,for less than this sum   
these two peoples enjoy  national       
independence and sovereignty while we   
enjoy--pogroms4    ,what is true of     
,russia is true of ,roumania1 partly    
true of ,galicia and  of the ,jews in   
northern ,africa1 ,persia and           
,afghanistan4 ,that these  million and a
 half of oppressed ,jews living outside 
of ,russia also  spend millions annually
 in bribery and emigration goes without 

saying4    ,as the emigration from the  
countries of oppression does not        
diminish  the number of ,jews1 because  
of the high birth-rate there1 and as    
conditions of life grow worse daily1 the
 emigrants have to support  their       
families and friends who stay behind4   
,the ,russian ,ministry of  ,post and   
,telegraph published statistical tables 
a few years ago1 which  show that the   
,russian immigrants in the ,united      
,states1 mostly ,jews1  send annually to
 their relatives and friends from       
#ae1jjj1jjj to  #ah1jjj1jjj a year4 ,a  
good part of this sum goes to the       
,russian post  office officials4 ,this  
fact became known four years ago when a 
group  of ,jews in ,petrograd and       
,moscow started a movement with the     
purpose of  founding a ,jewish          
immigrants' bank4    ,when speaking of  
necessary and incidental expenses of    
immigration one  must not overlook the  
losses accruing from re-immigration and 
from  a decrease of productive energy of

 many immigrants because of their       
inability to adapt themselves to new    
surroundings4    ,these are expenses    
caused by the decision of ,jews to      
remain ,jews4 ,we  maintain that the    
sums of money paid by ,jews who are     
determined to have  the world think them
 non-,jews1 or to have the world forgive
 them for  being ,jews1 are at least as 
large4    ,when1 a few years ago1 the   
,jewish millionaire ,efrussi died in    
,paris1  the ,french press without      
exception paid high tribute to his      
,french  patriotism and omitted all     
mention of his ,jewish origin4 ,efrussi 
used to spend #b1jjj1jjj francs on      
,french national sports1 races1  etc4   
,this was also the case with the ,french
 ,jew1 ,osiris1 who left  his fortune of
 #fj1jjj1jjj francs to the ,french      
people and ,french  institutions1 and   
#fj1jjj francs to the ,jewish people in 
the form of  a copy of ,michael         
,angelo's ,moses erected in the court of
 the ,jewish  ,teachers' ,seminary of   

the ,alliance ,israelite in ,paris4 ,an 
,austrian ,jew1  ,taussig1 gave         
#a1jjj1jjj kronen to the ,catholic      
,eucharist ,congress in  ,vienna1 while 
a relative of the same name left        
#ejj1jjj kronen to the  ,catholic church
 with the request that on his           
,jahr-,zeit two ,franciscan  monks visit
 the synagogue to pray for his soul4    
,the new university  in                 
,frankfort-on-,main1 which cost many    
million marks1 is a ,jewish  university 
in so far as large parts of this sum    
were contributed by  ,jews4 ,most of the
 contributors were ,jews who in no way  
support ,jewish  institutions4 ,a       
,prussian statistician discovered a few 
years ago that  not only do ,jews       
contribute to funds for the building of 
monuments to  national heroes1 but also 
to funds for ,catholic cathedrals and   
other  institutions that are            
anti-,semitic in character4    ,in      
,england there are hundreds of wealthy  
,jews who make annual  contributions to 

the ,church of ,england1 refusing at the
 same time to  support any ,jewish      
institutions4 ,lord ,rothschild1 who is 
by no means  the richest man in         
,england1 spends more in ,new ,year's   
gifts to various  non-,jewish classes in
 ,london than ten other rich lords      
combined4  ,another ,english ,jew1 ,sir 
,ernest ,cassel1 the son of a ,hebrew   
teacher  in ,germany1 has spent in the  
last decade #a1ejj1jjj in the support of
  non-,jewish institutions4 ,their      
contributions to ,jewish institutions   
have been insignificant in comparison4  
,the gift of these large sums is always 
made public1 but the sum total  of      
smaller gifts1 which are not made       
public1 exceed by far the amounts  given
 by very rich ,jews to non-,jewish      
institutions4 ,if we compare  the sums  
given by so-called ,jewish              
philanthropists to ,jewish and          
non-,jewish institutions we discover    
that they give at least five times  as  
generously to the non-,jewish as to the 

,jewish4 ,mr4 ,jacob ,h4 ,schiff's  gift
 of #ejj1jjj to ,barnard ,college is a  
striking instance4 ,at a time  when his 
own people experienced the greatest     
calamity in its history1  when millions 
of ,jews were starving1 and when ,jewish
 blood was being  shed freely1 ,schiff  
gave #ajj1jjj for ,jewish relief        
purposes and five  times as much to a   
single institution for the erection of  
one building  in ,new ,york4 ,this is   
the usual proportion that marks the     
giving of ,jews  to ,jewish and         
non-,jewish institutions4    ,we think  
that the form of bribery which the      
oppressed ,jews practice to  mollify    
their oppressors is sad enough as a     
commentary on ,jewish life4  ,but the   
more ostentatious form of bribery--a    
form of gift bestowal  which seeks to   
hide the giver's identity as a ,jew or  
at least to  purchase pardon for his    
,jewishness--is the greater tragedy4    
,these ,jews  spend millions to make the
 world forget they are ,jews1 but the   

world  remembers and laughs up its      
sleeve4          ,,the ,,true ,,meaning 
,,of ,,jewish ,,universalism      ,in   
the course of the long controversy      
between ,jewish nationalists and        
opponents of ,jewish nationalism many   
have come to believe that those  who    
oppose nationalism stand for universal  
,judaism1 especially since  the         
anti-nationalists call themselves       
,jewish universalists4 ,after the       
publication of the declaration of the   
,british ,government with regard  to    
,palestine the main anti-nationalistic  
spokesman in ,america1 ,dr4  ,philipson 
of ,cincinnati1 summed up his negative  
attitude to ,zionism  with the short    
sentence1 ,i stand by my ,jewish        
universalism4 ,one even  hears people   
from the radical camp of the left       
proclaiming their ,jewish  universalism4
 ,the impression has thus been created  
that while the  nationalists stand for a
 petty1 provincial conception of        
,judaism1 they1  the anti-nationalists1 

advocate a broad-minded universalism4   
,we deem it opportune to examine this   
,jewish universalism1 which is  played  
up today against the nationalistic      
efforts of our people to  re-establish a
 ,homeland in ,palestine and to see how 
far it is sincere  in its motives and   
compatible with ,jewish tradition1 and  
how far it  is intellectual camouflage4 
,we think it rather curious that those  
who claim to be ,jewish                 
universalists--the radical ,reform      
rabbis and  assimilationists from other 
camps--always lay stress on ,american1  
,german1 ,french or ,english ,judaism1  
and often speak of the ,american        
,jewish ,church or the ,english ,jewish 
,church1 and so forth4 ,it is  also     
remarkable that these ,jewish           
universalists have always worked  for a 
readjustment of ,judaism to local       
conditions and have tried  to           
,americanize ,judaism in ,america1 to   
,germanize it in ,germany1 to           
,anglicize it in ,england1 to ,magyarize

 it in ,hungary1 and so forth4    ,on   
the other hand1 those who were          
considered as standing for a petty1     
provincial conception of ,judaism1 the  
nationalists1 have not only  never tried
 to do anything of the sort but have    
always defended the  interritoriality   
and catholicity of ,judaism4 ,one never 
hears a ,jewish  nationalist here or    
abroad speaking of an ,american ,jewish 
,church or  an ,english ,jewish ,church1
 and so forth4 ,it seems to us that in  
view  of these facts the sort of        
universal ,judaism as proclaimed by the 
assimilationists is of rather doubtful  
origin and character and that  it is    
everything but universal1 for it is     
territorial and provincial  to the core4
 ,as a matter of fact1 ,reform ,judaism 
as established  by the ,reform rabbis in
 the middle of the nineteenth century1  
and  developed by ,american rabbis at   
the end of the nineteenth century  and  
the beginning of the twentieth1 is the  
first gigantic attempt to  break the    

catholicism of ,judaism and to          
territorialize it1 that is  to say1 to  
annihilate its organic unity4 ,reform   
,judaism is in fact  nothing else but   
territorialism in religious terms1 just 
as ,yiddishism  is a territorialism in  
linguistic terms4 ,those who divide     
,judaism  geographically and claim that 
each part has little or nothing to do   
with the other1 and that each part is   
organically connected only with  its    
surroundings1 that there is such a thing
 as ,american ,judaism1  ,english       
,judaism1 ,german ,judaism1 ,french     
,judaism1 and so on1 stand for  the same
 policy as do the ,yiddishists1 who     
divide the ,jewish people  into ten or  
fifteen separate groups1 claiming that  
every group is  a unit by itself and has
 nothing to do with the others4         
,according  to ,yiddishists the         
,ladino-speaking ,jew has scarcely      
anything in  common with the            
,judeo-,german-speaking ,jew1 just as   
the ,arabic or  ,greek-speaking ,jews   

have little or nothing in common with   
the ,ladino  or ,yiddish-speaking ,jews4
 ,some express their ,jewish            
territorialism and  provincialism in    
terms of religion1 the others in terms  
of language4  ,both are opponents of    
,jewish unity and ,jewish catholicism1  
both are  opposed to traditional        
,judaism1 both are opposed to ,jewish   
nationalism  that is organically        
connected with ,hebrew1 and both are1 of
 course1  opposed to a ,hebrew          
,palestine4    ,why these people1 who1  
as we have seen1 stand for              
territorialistic  ,judaism instead of   
universal1 should call themselves       
,jewish  universalists1 we are at a loss
 to understand4 ,the fact that their    
notion of ,god is as colorless and pale 
as that of the ,unitarians1 and  the    
fact that their conception of ethics1   
especially of ,jewish ethics1  is as    
bloodless and vague as that of the      
rationalists of the eighteenth  century1
 gives them scarcely any right to call  

themselves ,jewish  universalists and to
 assert that they stand for universal   
,judaism4 ,our  only consolation is that
 this sort of territorialistic ,judaism 
that  goes under the false mark of      
universal ,judaism is not the invention 
of the ,reform rabbis1 nor that of the  
,yiddishists1 but is as old as  ,judaism
 itself4 ,all who have carefully paged  
the history of our people  know that    
there always was a ,jewish minority from
 time immemorial that  stood for a      
territorialistic ,judaism1 and if there 
is any difference  in principle between 
the ,judeans and ,israelites this       
difference  consists in that the        
,judeans always stood for universal     
,judaism1 while  the ,israelites stood  
for a territorialistic ,judaism4 ,the   
,judeans  were what the nationalists are
 today--traditional1 conservative and   
nationalistic1 while the ,israelites    
were reformers1 assimilationists  and   
territorialists4 ,the ,judeans advocated
 a ,palestinian and ,hebrew  ,judaism1  

while the ,israelites always opposed it 
and were satisfied even  with the       
,temple outside of ,palestine4    ,the  
first radical reformer1 assimilationist 
and territorialist was  not ,abraham    
,geiger1 but ,jeroboam ,ben ,nebat4 ,the
 ,judeans1 advocating  a ,palestinian   
and ,hebrew ,judaism1 produced the true1
 great prophets1  the prophets of truth 
and justice1 while the ,israelites      
produced the  false prophets1 who misled
 the people and displayed religious and 
moral camouflage4 ,the notion of a      
universal ,god1 of a universal  morality
 and of the brotherhood of man1 the     
fundamental teachings of  ,jewish       
universalism1 have not been created by  
the prophets of the  ,israelites1 the   
false universalists1 but by the prophets
 of ,judea1  the nationalistic prophets4
 ,these great nationalistic prophets1   
who  alone made ,judaism that tremendous
 force in history and who1 by their     
genius1 secured immortality for our     
religion and ethics1 must turn in  their

 grave when they hear the false prophets
 of today claiming them  as their       
witnesses4 ,the teachings of our great  
prophets have been  distorted and       
falsified by many of our enemies and    
opponents1 but none  has falsified and  
distorted them more than the            
representatives of the  so-called       
universal ,judaism of today1 because our
 great prophets1 who  were at the same  
time great ,jewish statesmen1 taught the
 doctrine of  the indestructible ,jewish
 nation and the immortality of our      
people as a  people1 and they were so   
extreme in their nationalism and        
nationalistic  conception of ,judaism   
that they dreamt of the ,jewish nation  
to be the  glory of all the peoples of  
the earth and the center of all that is 
good and great and beautiful in         
humanity4    ,we doubt whether there are
 many ,jewish nationalists today whose  
nationalistic feelings run as high as   
did those of our great prophets  whom   
,jewish universalists claim as their    

chief witnesses for their  falsified    
,judaism4 ,it was the great ,hebrew     
prophets of old who first  fought       
against territorializing ,judaism and   
who fought against the  attempt to      
,yiddishize it in one form or another4  
,they all stood for  the pure1          
traditional1 ,palestinian and ,hebrew   
,judaism4 ,they were  bitter against    
,ephraim1 because ,ephraim stood for    
what the ,israelites  stand for today3  
,ubi bene1 ibi patria--,where ,i do well
 there is my  fatherland4    ,that the  
,judeans and not the ,israelites were   
right in their conception  of ,judaism  
can be seen from the fate of both4      
,israel disappeared1 swept  away by the 
storm of history1 while ,judea remained4
 ,it is only a pity  that all of the    
,israelites did not disappear also for1 
if they did1  we would have no          
,israelites today in our midst1 and ,god
 knows that  the ,israelites of today   
are unnecessary ,jews and that those who
 claim  a mission for ,israel have no   

mission at all4 ,the ,jewish            
universalism  advocated today by all    
those who stand for the disintegration  
and  deterioration of ,judaism is not   
universalism1 and if its advocates  are 
anything1 they are ,jewish nihilists1   
because ,judaism is nihil to  them--no  
people1 no race1 no nation1 no religion1
 no tradition1 but----          ,,the   
,,burden ,,of ,,tradition      ,the     
phenomenal tempo made by the ,united    
,states in preparation for the  war is a
 very interesting phenomenon of our     
time4 ,what ,england did in  many years 
of struggle ,america has achieved within
 a few weeks4 ,it  took ,england more   
than a year and a half before she saw   
her way clear  to resort to compulsory  
service1 and it required many weary     
months to  organize the administrative  
branch of the war service and to place  
the country on a solid war footing4     
,even countries with long military      
traditions1 such as ,france1 ,italy1    
,austria1 and even ,germany1 had to     

struggle long before they were in the   
war with both feet4 ,america1  though   
unmilitaristic1 did all that within a   
very short time4 ,over  night there was 
a national army in ,america4 ,the       
economic life of the  country adapted   
itself to war conditions1 and everything
 to conduct  a war on an unheard-of     
scale was created within a few months4  
,that  a non-militaristic country like  
,america could adapt itself to war      
conditions within such a short time must
 puzzle every observer1 and  it will be 
a puzzle to the historian of the future1
 also1 unless he  recognizes the        
touchstone of ,american genius as       
displayed at present4  ,this touchstone 
is the absence of long historical       
traditions4    ,we ,jews1 who are       
preparing ourselves to start a new life 
as a nation1  ought to learn in this    
respect4 ,we have old traditions of our 
own and  we are burdened with a great   
many non-,jewish traditions in addition1
  for we have lived in the last two     

thousand years in the ,diaspora and     
among those people whose life has been  
shaped by thoughts and the  spirit of   
ancient ,rome4 ,the ,european state that
 is today undergoing  a crisis as never 
before is the inheritance of old ,rome4 
,the entire  system of ,european        
politics is ,roman in origin4           
,international political  relations can 
be traced to ancient ,roman origin4 ,a  
comparison between  the history of the  
international relations of ancient ,rome
 and that  of any ,european state during
 the last five hundred years will       
clearly  show that the international    
political movements in ,europe for the  
last  centuries have their parallel in  
international political movements of    
ancient ,rome4 ,all the severe          
criticisms leveled by ,montesquieu      
against  ancient ,rome are still timely 
today4 ,all branches of the activities  
of the ,european state1 civil           
administrations1 jurisdiction1 matters  
military1 foreign affairs1 and so on1   

are more or less remnants of  ancient   
,roman civilization4    ,in short1 we   
have to be conscious of the fact that   
the life of the  ,jewish people in      
,europe was lived amid a system of      
,roman civilization4  ,the old ,jewish  
preachers1 who characterized our present
 ,diaspora life  as ,goluth-,rome1 knew 
what they were talking about1 though    
they could  not exactly explain why they
 characterized our present ,goluth as   
,roman  in nature4 ,since we have lived 
for two thousand years in this system   
of civilization1 it goes without saying 
that we have been greatly  influenced by
 it and that we ourselves are definitely
 subject to ,roman  traditions in       
addition to our own4 ,traditions        
sometimes strengthen a  nation1 but they
 also may weaken it4 ,the most          
traditional people in  the world1 the   
,chinese1 are practically the weakest1  
while the most  non-traditional people1 
the ,americans1 are today the best      
fitted for  modern life4    ,national   

traditions1 of course1 cannot be cast   
away over night4 ,in the  ,diaspora old 
and genuine ,jewish traditions were the 
life-giver of our  people4 ,they were   
the main force that preserved us from   
annihilation1  as long as we were facing
 the problem1 ,how can we best preserve 
our  national existence8 ,today1        
however1 we are not only facing the     
problem  of preserving our national     
existence1 but also that of rebuilding  
our  nation and reorganizing our people 
so as to make its future safe4 ,since   
the entire ,jewish problem has changed  
so radically1 our attitude to  the      
complex ,jewish traditions must change4 
,we cannot possibly use the  same       
methods in rebuilding our national      
existence as in preserving our  nation4 
,the two different problems need two    
different positions4 ,just  as ,china is
 a terrifying example of what slavery to
 tradition can do to  a nation1 so is   
,america an edifying example of what    
traditions can do  in strengthening a   

nation4 ,a nation does not live to      
uphold traditions  only2 and where1     
instead of helping a nation1 traditions 
handicap it1  they will be superceded by
 new traditions to be created by        
national  deeds4    ,we do not want to  
describe our future life in ,palestine1 
for we are  today unable to do so4 ,we  
are only anxious to lay stress upon the 
fact  that what we have called our      
traditions in ,diaspora life will       
probably  have to be revised in a       
,jewish ,palestine4 ,life is much       
stronger than  the ,book and the        
principle derived from the ,book4 ,in   
the ,diaspora it  was the principle of  
the ,book that shaped our life1 because 
it helped  to preserve it4 ,in          
,palestine1 where there will be an      
active ,jewish  life1 ,jewish life      
itself must work out its own principles4
 ,this is what  we should bear in mind1 
whether we are orthodox or              
free-thinkers4 ,we  must go to          
,palestine with the consciousness of    

freedom and not with the  feeling that  
we are the creatures of traditions4 ,we 
will have to free  ourselves not only   
from many ,roman traditions that was    
most worthy in  the ,diaspora1 but will 
be superfluous in ,palestine4    ,the   
future ,jewish ,state in ,palestine will
 draw its strength from ,jewish  life   
and not from principles of the ,book2 it
 will be free from all  inorganic       
traditions which we have acquired during
 our long life in the  ,diaspora1 and   
from those traditions which were        
un-,jewish in nature4          ,,what   
,,is ,,the ,,jewish ,,mission8      ,in 
view of the rise of ,jewish nationalism 
during the last decade1  especially     
during the war1 it is understandable why
 the fancy of the  ,jewish masses should
 be directed to the future of the       
,jewish ,state  in ,palestine and that  
quite premature questions as to the form
 and  character of the ,jewish ,state   
should be asked4    ,there are no       
prophets nowadays4 ,no serious-minded   

man would even dare  to anticipate the  
development of many generations and     
attempt to  foresee the character of the
 time which is deeply enshrouded in the 
bosom of the future4 ,sociology has not 
yet discovered laws with the  help of   
which one can predict future material   
happenings4 ,nevertheless1              
serious-minded ,jews1 especially        
nationalists1 should give a thought to  
the question of possible future         
developments and should ask themselves  
in which direction they have decided to 
go4    ,an unequivocal answer to this   
question will help to clarify matters   
and  will deprive the enemy of many of  
the weapons which he is always ready  to
 use against us4    ,when ,theodor      
,herzl appeared before the ,zionist     
,congress in #aijf with  his famous     
,uganda proposition1 the ,jewish people 
was amazed4 ,how could  a man like      
,theodor ,herzl1 whose love for         
,palestine was beyond doubt1  propose to
 the ,jews to settle in ,east ,africa1  

on a stretch of territory  not only     
outside the pale of ,jewish traditions  
but even outside the  pale of           
civilization8 ,if it had been a question
 only of enabling the  then badly       
persecuted ,russian ,jews to emigrate to
 other countries where  they could live 
in relative freedom and happiness1 were 
there not  plenty of civilized countries
 where the ,jews could find a refuge8   
,these  and similar questions were      
raised after ,herzl brought forth the   
,uganda  proposal4 ,but those who were  
on intimate terms with the great leader 
later explained this apparently strange 
mood4    ,it was in #aijc that von      
,plehve began his policy of pogroms1 and
 from  #aijc to #aijf hundreds of       
pogroms were perpetrated against the    
,jews in  ,russia and ,poland4 ,theodor 
,herzl1 who witnessed the development of
  the tragic ,dreyfus affair and who had
 some experience with western  ,european
 anti-,semitism1 knew perfectly well the
 prevailing hatred  against the ,jews   

everywhere1 but he could not imagine    
that a ,christian  ,state1 forming a    
member of the family of nations1 should 
in the  twentieth century resort to such
 barbarities as pogroms1 in order to    
carry out its anti-,semitic policy4 ,man
 of delicate and fine feelings as  he   
was1 he became so disgusted with the    
situation and so downhearted  on account
 of these pogroms that1 in a moment of  
despair1 he said to  himself1 ,we would 
rather live among the ,hottentots and   
other savages  in ,africa than among the
 civilized ,christian nations in        
,europe4 ,the  entire ,uganda           
proposition can be understood as an     
expression of disgust  with ,european   
civilization on the part of our great   
,jewish statesman  and artist4 ,in      
short1 ,uganda was a loud protest       
against ,christian  civilization and    
,christian political methods4    ,in a  
lesser degree ,zionism1 also1 is partly 
a protest against ,european  ,christian 
civilization1 which is an inheritance of

 ancient ,rome4  ,we want to go back to 
,palestine not only because we want to  
live  a national life of our own there1 
but also because we are utterly         
repelled by ,european civilization and  
because we do not believe in a          
civilization that leads to the murder   
and pillage of entire nations  and the  
reign of horror and brutal might4 ,we   
are disgusted with this  civilization   
because we do not believe that might is 
right1 because  we do not believe in the
 political heritage of ancient ,rome4   
,we cannot say whether or not every     
nationalistic ,jew is conscious of  this
 fact1 but the conscientious historian  
who does not believe in  the inheritance
 of ,rome will certainly ascribe the    
revival of ,jewish  nationalism not only
 to the national memories of the ,jews1 
but also to  the radical difference     
between ,jewish and ,roman political    
ideas and  ideals and to the difference 
in the concept of life of the ,jew and  
those who live on the political         

inheritance of ancient ,rome4 ,we1 for  
one1 firmly believe that ,zionism1 in   
spite of its purely political  aspects1 
has the ethical consciousness of the    
,jewish nation as its  basis and as its 
driving power2 ,zionism is thus to our  
mind not only a  political1 but also an 
ethical movement--or even a             
revolutionary  movement1 in the sense   
that the ,jewish people revolts against 
a system  of civilization from which not
 only entire humanity has suffered1 but 
from which it has suffered most4 ,now1  
since ,zionism is also an ethical       
movement1 one can easily see to what its
 realization should lead4    ,though the
 ,jewish people lived in a ,europe      
dominated by ,roman ideas  for two      
thousand years1 it did not become an    
adherent of the ,roman  school of       
thought4 ,we have remained ,jews1 still 
cherishing ,jewish  ideals of justice   
and equity1 and we mean to go back to   
,palestine  not as ,europeans1 but as   
,jews pure and simple4 ,it cannot       

possibly  be our desire to erect in     
,palestine such a system of civilization
  and to establish there such an order  
of things as have created the  present  
state of affairs in ,europe4 ,we are    
going to ,palestine not  only to begin a
 new national life1 but also to create a
 new system  of civilization4 ,this is  
the justification of ,zionism from a    
broad  ethical point of view4 ,we are   
going to realize there not the old      
,roman  inheritance but the old ,jewish 
inheritance4 ,we have for the last      
#b1ejj  years had a political philosophy
 of our own1 a political philosophy     
that is just the opposite of the ,roman 
political philosophy4 ,we believe  that 
the political philosophy of the old     
prophets is just as human  and at least 
as near to reality as the political     
philosophy of the  ancient ,romans1 and 
we believe that our national political  
philosophy1  which considers men not    
only as physical beings but also        
intellectual  and spiritual beings and  

urges them to live up to their spiritual
  and intellectual nature1 is at least  
as sound as the one-sided ,roman        
political philosophy1 which takes into  
account only the physical nature  of man
 and hence teaches that might is right4 
,it is our firm conviction that ,jewish 
national ideals of old1 though  buried  
in books for the last two thousand      
years1 can be turned into  reality and  
be applied to life4 ,this is what we are
 going to do in  ,palestine4 ,but1      
people will ask1 if the ,jewish ideals  
are based on  life's reality1 why did   
not the ,jewish people succeed in making
 its  ideals a force in life when it    
lived on its own soil and enjoyed       
independence8 ,to this we reply that the
 ancient ,jewish genius1 which  devised 
such grand plans of life1 failed1 for   
reasons which we cannot  enumerate here1
 to create the technique and methods1   
with the help of  which these grand     
plans could have been carried out4 ,the 
,romans1 on  the other hand1 invented a 

wonderful technique of life1 but failed 
to  devise a plan of life which would   
make life more worth living than  it is 
now4 ,we have lived under the system of 
,roman civilization for  nearly two     
thousand years4 ,we have not been imbued
 with ,roman ideals4  ,we have not      
accepted the ,roman doctrine of life1   
but we have learned a  great deal from  
,roman technique1 and we are therefore  
now equipped with  both--with the       
,jewish idealistic traditions and with  
the experiences  of ,roman civilization 
and ,roman technique4 ,now we are in a  
position to  apply our ideals of old to 
life1 because we possess the methods and
  the technique of the application4 ,we 
know today a great deal about           
administrative and constitutional       
technique1 of which our ancestors  knew 
next to nothing4 ,we know today a great 
deal about organization1  of which our  
ancestors had not the slightest idea4   
,having gone through  the ,roman school1
 we today know something about          

organization and this  knowledge of     
organization we are going to apply to   
our political  traditions1 to our       
philosophy of life2 we are going to     
create in  ,palestine that synthesis of 
civilization which will be ,jewish to   
the  core in its contents and ,roman in 
shape and form4 ,might will not be      
right1 because man is not only a        
physical but also an intellectual and   
spiritual being4 ,justice and equity    
will be thoroughly organized and  will  
not be left to the conscience of the    
idealistic individual only1  as was the 
case in ancient ,judea4    ,whether the 
future ,jewish ,state in ,palestine will
 be a republic or a  monarchy does not  
matter4 ,the form of government never   
testifies to the  soundness of the      
state2 there are good monarchies and bad
 republics4  ,one thing is as clear as  
day3 ,if there is going to be a ,jewish 
,palestine1 it will be a land of justice
 and freedom1 where right will  prevail 
and where the demands of the spirit will

 be complied with4 ,all  forms of life  
will have to be different from what they
 are in the pale  of ,roman             
civilization4 ,thou shalt be a light    
unto the nations4 ,this  must be our    
ambition4    ,jews as individuals can   
accomplish very little for ,judaism1    
cannot help  to realize its ideals and  
cannot possibly make it a force in life4
 ,for  two thousand years we have lived 
in the ,diaspora as individuals1 and    
what did we accomplish for the          
realization of our old ideals1 of which 
we are so proud8 ,nothing4 ,only        
feeble-minded rabbis1 who are constantly
  talking of the mission of ,judaism    
without knowing what they are talking   
about1 can speak of the mission of the  
,jews in the face of the present        
catastrophe4 ,jews as individuals cannot
 have any ,jewish mission in  life1 but 
a people can1 if it is inspired by      
ideals4    ,what we have failed to do as
 individuals for two thousand years--to 
make humanity recognize that the        

political philosophy of the old         
prophets is much stronger than that of  
the old ,romans--we may be able  to     
realize in ,palestine as a people4 ,it  
is only with reluctance that we  use the
 much abused phrase1 ,jewish mission1   
but if there is such a  thing as the    
,jewish mission1 it will only be        
realized when the ,jews are  reorganized
 as a people on the soil of their       
ancestors and lead such a  life as to   
justify the prediction of the prophet of
 old3 ,thou shalt  be a light unto the  
nations4 ,this is the true meaning of   
the ,jewish  mission4 ,this and nothing 
else4