The new Jewish State must be properly founded, with due regard to our
future honorable position in the world. Therefore every obligation in
the old country must be scrupulously fulfilled before leaving. The
Society of Jews and the Jewish Company will grant cheap passage and
certain advantages in settlement to those only who can present an
official testimonial from the local authorities, certifying that they
have left their affairs in good order.
Every just private claim originating in the abandoned countries will
be heard more readily in the Jewish State than anywhere else. We shall
not wait for reciprocity; we shall act purely for the sake of our own
honor. We shall thus perhaps find, later on, that law courts will be
more willing to hear our claims than now seems to be the case in some
places.
It will be inferred, as a matter of course, from previous remarks,
that we shall deliver up Jewish criminals more readily than any other
State would do, till the time comes when we can enforce our penal code
on the same principles as every other civilized nation does. There
will therefore be a period of transition, during which we shall
receive our criminals only after they have suffered due penalties.
But, having made amends, they will be received without any
restrictions whatever, for our criminals also must enter upon a new
life.
Thus emigration may become to many Jews a crisis with a happy issue.
Bad external circumstances, which ruin many a character, will be
removed, and this change may mean salvation to many who are lost.
Here I should like briefly to relate a story I came across in an
account of the gold mines of Witwatersrand. One day a man came to the
Rand, settled there, tried his hand at various things, with the
exception of gold mining, till he founded an ice factory, which did
well. He soon won universal esteem by his respectability, but after
some years he was suddenly arrested. He had committed some
defalcations as banker in Frankfort, had fled from there, and had
begun a new life under an assumed name. But when he was led away as
prisoner, the most respected people in the place appeared at the
station, bade him a cordial farewell and _au revoir_--for he was
certain to return.
How much this story reveals! A new life can regenerate even criminals,
and we have a proportionately small number of these. Some interesting
statistics on this point are worth reading, entitled "The Criminality
of Jews in Germany," by Dr. P. Nathan, of Berlin, who was commissioned
by the "Society for Defense against Anti-Semitism" to make a
collection of statistics based on official returns. It is true that
this pamphlet, which teems with figures, has been prompted, as many
another "defence," by the error that Anti-Semitism can be refuted by
reasonable arguments. We are probably disliked as much for our gifts
as we are for our faults.