I know that there are a great many of our people who look for a final
solution of the Jewish question in what they call "assimilation." The
more the Jews assimilate themselves to their surroundings, they think,
the more completely will the causes for anti-Jewish feeling cease to
exist. But have you ever for a moment stopped to consider what
assimilation means? It has very pertinently been pointed out that the
use of the word is borrowed from the dictionary of physiology. But in
physiology it is not the food which assimilates itself into the body. It
is the body which assimilates the food. The Jew may wish to be
assimilated; he may do all he will towards this end. But if the great
mass in which he lives does not wish to assimilate him - what then? If
demands are made upon the Jew which practically mean extermination,
which practically mean his total effacement from among the nations of
the globe and from among the religious forces of the world, - what
answer will you give? And the demands made are practically of that
nature.
I can imagine it possible for a people who are possessed of an
active and aggressive charity which it expresses, not only in words, but
also in deeds, to contain and live at peace with men of the most varied
habits. But, unfortunately, such people do not exist; nations are swayed
by feelings which are dictated solely by their own self-interests; and
the Zionists in meeting this state of things, are the most practical as
well as the most ideal of the Jews.
It is quite useless to tell the English workingman that his
Jewish fellow-laborer from Russia has actually increased the riches of
the United Kingdom; that he has created quite a new industry, - that of
making ladies' cloaks, for which formerly England sent £2,000,000 to the
continent every year. He sees in him some one who is different to
himself, and unfortunately successful, though different. And until that
difference entirely ceases, whether of habit, of way, or of religious
observance, he will look upon him and treat him as an enemy.
For the Jew has this especial disadvantage. There is no place
where that which is distinctively Jewish in his manner or in his way of
life is à la mode. We may well laugh at the Irishman's brogue; but in
Ireland, he knows, his brogue is at home. We may poke fun at the
Frenchman as he shrugs his shoulders and speaks with every member of his
body. The Frenchman feels that in France it is the proper thing so to
do. Even the Turk will wear his fez, and feel little the worse for the
occasional jibes with which the street boy may greet it. But this
consciousness, this ennobling consciousness, is all denied the Jew. What
he does is nowhere à la mode; no, not even his features; and if he can
disguise these by parting his hair in the middle or cutting his beard to
a point, he feels he is on the road towards assimilation. He is even
ready to use the term "Jewish" for what he considers uncouth and low.
For such as these amongst us, Zionism also has its message. It
wishes to give back to the Jew that nobleness of spirit, that confidence
in himself, that belief in his own powers which only perfect freedom can
give. With a home of his own, he will no longer feel himself a pariah
among the nations, he will nowhere hide his own peculiarities, -
peculiarities to which he has a right as much as any one, - but will see
that those peculiarities carry with them a message which will force for
them the admiration of the world. He will feel that he belongs somewhere
and not everywhere. He will try to be something and not everything. The
great word which Zionism preaches is conciliation of conflicting aims,
of conflicting lines of action; conciliation of Jew to Jew. It means
conciliation of the non-Jewish world to the Jew as well. It wishes to
heal old wounds; and by frankly confessing differences which do exist,
however much we try to explain them away, to work out its own salvation
upon its own ground, and from these to send forth its spiritual message
to a conciliated world.
But, you will ask, if Zionism is able to find a permanent home in
Palestine for those Jews who are forced to go there as well as those who
wish to go, what is to become of us who have entered, to such a degree,
into the life around us, and who feel able to continue as we have begun?
What is to be our relation to the new Jewish polity? I can only answer:
Exactly the same as is the relation of people of other nationalities all
the world over to their parent home. What becomes of the Englishman in
every corner of the globe? What becomes of the German? Does the fact
that the great mass of their people live in their own land prevent them
from doing their whole duty towards the land in which they happen to
live? Is the German-American considered less of an American because he
cultivates the German language and is interested in the fate of his
fellow-Germans at home? Is the Irish-American less of an American
because he gathers money to help his struggling brethren in the Green
Isle? Or are the Scandinavian- Americans less worthy of the title
Americans, because they consider precious the bonds which bind them to
the land of their birth, as well as those which bind them to the land of
their adoption?
Nay! it would seem to me that just those who are so afraid that
our action will be misinterpreted should be among the greatest helpers
in the Zionist cause. For those who feel no racial and national
communion with the life from which they have sprung should greet with
joy the turning of Jewish immigration to some place other than the land
in which they dwell. They must feel, for example, that a continual
influx of Jews who are not Americans is a continual menace to the more
or less complete absorption for which they are striving.
But I must not detain you much longer. Will you permit me to sum
up for you the position which we Zionists take in the following
statements:
We believe that the Jews are something more than a purely
religious body; that they are not only a race, but also a nation; though
a nation without as yet two important requisites - a common home and a
common language.
We believe that if an end is to be made to Jewish misery and to
the exceptional position which the Jews occupy, - which is the primary
cause of Jewish misery, - the Jewish nation must be placed once again in
a home of its own.
We believe that such a national regeneration is the fulfillment
of the hope which has been present to the Jew throughout his long and
painful history.
We believe that only by means of such a national regeneration can
the religious regeneration of the Jews take place, and they be put in a
position to do that work in the religious world which Providence has
appointed for them.
We believe that such a home can only naturally, and without
violence to their whole past, be found in the land of their fathers - in
Palestine.
We believe that such a return must have the guarantee of the
great powers of the world in order to secure for the Jews a stable
future.
And we hold that this does not mean that all Jews must return to
Palestine.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Zionist program. Shall we be
able to carry it through? I cannot believe that the Jewish people have
been preserved throughout these centuries either for eternal misery or
for total absorption at this stage of the world's history. I cannot
think that our people have so far misunderstood their own purpose in
life, as now to give the lie to their own past and to every hope which
has animated their suffering body.
Bear with me but a few moments longer while I read the words
which a Christian writer puts into the mouth of a Jew. "The effect of
our separateness will not be completed and have its hightest
transformation, unless our race takes on again the character of a
nationality. That is the fulfillment of the religious trust that molded
them into a people, whose life has made half the inspiration of the
world...Revive the organic centre; let the unity of Israel which
has made the growth and form of its religion be an outward reality.
Looking toward a land and a polity, our dispersed people in all the ends
of the earth may share the dignity of a national life which has a voice
among the peoples of the East and the West - which will plant the wisdom
and skill of our race so that it may be, as of old, a medium of
transmission and understanding. Let that come to pass, and the living
warmth will spread to the weak extremities of Israel. Let the central
fire be kindled again, and the light will reach afar. The degraded and
scorned of the race will learn to think of their sacred land, not as a
place for saintly beggary to await death in loathsome idleness, but as a
republic, where the Jewish spirit manifests itself in a new order
founded on the old, purified, enriched by the experiences which our
greatest sons have gathered from the life of the ages. A new Judea,
poised between East and West - a covenant of reconciliation. The sons of
Judah have to choose, that God may again choose them. The Messianic time
is the time when Israel shall will the planting of the national ensign.
The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory. Let
us help to will our own better future of the world - not renounce our
higher gift and say: 'Let us be as if we were not among the
populations,' but choose our full heritage, claim the brotherhood of our
nation, and carry into it a new brotherhood with the nations of the
Gentiles. The vision is there; it will be fulfilled."
These are the words of the non-Jewish Zionist, George Eliot. We
take hope, for has not that Jewish Zionist said: "We belong to a race
that can do everything but fail."
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