[Illustration: _RICHARD GOTTHEIL (born in Manchester, England, in
1862; came to New York in 1873), educated at Columbia and at German
Universities; since 1887 Professor of Semitic Languages and Rabbinical
Literature at Columbia. Apart from his scholarly labors, Professor
Gottheil has devoted himself body and soul to many Jewish causes,
notably Zionism, in which he has been a leader in America from the
beginning. He was among the first to extend an encouraging hand to the
Menorah movement and has responded generously to repeated calls to
lecture before Menorah Societies. The present article is based upon an
address recently delivered before the Cornell Menorah Society._]
The war in Europe presents problems for the Jews which must be faced
no matter what the consequences may be. These problems are of two
kinds, due to the fact that we are members of a race that is scattered
over the whole earth, and the units of which are to be found in the
four corners of the globe. In this way a double set of duties is
entailed upon us. On the one hand, we have to take our rightful place
as citizens of the different countries in which we live: to accept all
the burdens that go with such citizenship, and to partake of the joys
and sorrows that are its inevitable accompaniment--in a word, to take
the advice of the Rabbis of old and "seek the welfare" of the country
in which we live. But this obligation is so self-evident, and the
problems raised by it solve themselves so naturally, that they need no
further thought. In point of fact, the patriotism of the Jews for the
lands in which they live has been demonstrated on so many occasions
that only blind ignorance or wilful misrepresentation can call it into
question. At the present moment, in all the armies that are at the
front, our brethren are doing service even beyond their numerical
proportion.
_The Toll Paid by the Jew_
It is to the second set of problems that I venture to call
attention--those Jewish problems that concern ourselves in particular,
that deal with our relations to and with our fellow Jews--problems
which I am afraid are not always present in our minds. For one reason
or another, they are apt to be forgotten, to slip into the background
through sheer negligence. Indeed, in many cases we are fain to put
them intentionally into a corner and remove them discreetly from
sight. It has needed a great world event at this time, as it has in
the past, to bring many of us to reason and to a realization of our
duty. The titanic struggle in which so many of the nations of the
world are engaged has come to remind us also of our position as Jews
and to recall to us our relations with the past, our connections with
the present, and our hopes for the future. It is indeed true that none
of the great political movements that have affected the world have
passed by without in some special manner affecting the Jewish people.
As we look back through history and allow our thoughts to run down the
highway of the ages, we perceive the effects such struggles have had
upon the Jew. We think of the time when ancient Babylonia stretched
out its arm from the East to gain a foothold on the Mediterranean and
to grasp the power of the world. What was the effect upon the Jews?
The Babylonian captivity. Many hundreds of years after, Rome--the
Babylonia of the West--lunged out toward the East in the same search
for universal dominion; and we still observe the Ninth of Ab in
commemoration of the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. Again
some centuries passed us by, and we come to the inevitable conflict
between Christianity and the rising power of Islam. Who was it but our
own Jews who suffered most as the crusading hordes moved through
Europe--our own Jews who were driven before them from the Rhine into
what at a later time became the great national Ghetto in Poland? And
now in this twentieth century, as a people, and in proportion to its
numbers, which body of men, women and children is paying the most
exacting toll to the forces of destiny? Again it is the Jew.
_"The Belgians of All History"_
We all have the greatest possible sympathy for the Belgian people and
for the Belgian land. Yet how much greater has been the suffering of
the Jewish people--the Belgians not of a day but of all history? In
Eastern Europe, in Poland, in Galicia and in parts of Russia, at least
two or three millions of Jews have suffered from the ravages of a war
waged with a bitterness that exceeds all bounds. Invading armies have
passed and re-passed over their homes--miserable as they were even in
times of peace. False accusations have been launched against them so
that they have been regarded as enemies by both sides and treated as
such. Thousands have been driven from their homes to congest villages
already filled to overflowing or to increase the want and suffering
indigenous to towns and cities. An amount of anguish and pain has been
caused such as the Jews have never known in all their long tramp
through the ages. What have we done, we Jews in America, to assuage
even a part of this pain? What measures have we in view, when once the
war shall be over, to regain for these people the possibility of
living, to bring back for them a little of that which they have lost
through no fault of their own and in no cause which is theirs? In
most cases the only right permitted to them is the right to suffer,
and they must in addition pay the price of that suffering. As we think
of all these circumstances, is it not proper and meet that we should
ponder the whole situation in which we Jews find ourselves today?
I believe that it is eminently the moment to do so. We refuse to
believe that the great waste of human life and energy now going on in
Europe is a waste pure and simple. We refuse to believe that some
purification is not to result from the fire through which mankind is
passing, and that some sanity in handling human affairs is not to
follow the evident insanity with which we are now confronted.
Something a little more stable because a little more reasonable must
appear at the end to replace the inconstancy and unrest which have up
to now characterized the relations of peoples to each other. And as we
hope this for the world at large, we are hopeful too that full
attention will be given to those problems which concern the Jews
specifically. I wish then to indicate the chief among these problems,
in order that we may ourselves see clearly the road that must be
taken.
_The Prospect in Russia and Poland_
First and foremost, of course, rank the questions that concern the
Jews in Russia. Quite apart from any consideration of the general
problems affecting that country, the case of the Jews in Russia and
Poland demands a settlement that shall make existence bearable for
them, and which at the same time shall not run counter to the real and
vital interests of the Russian people. Nay more; such existence must
not only be bearable. It must be of a kind that will place the Jews
upon a level with the other inhabitants of the Empire and will give
them the necessary opportunity to develop whatever talents or
capabilities they possess. It is not for us to prescribe in what
manner and by what means this shall be accomplished; and I use the
word "must" not in the sense that any compulsion is to be applied to
Russia in this respect, but rather as an expression of the certainty
that the trial through which the Czar's land is now passing is of such
a kind as to purge her necessarily of all traces of national and
religious intolerance. This feeling cannot be expressed in better
words than those used by M. Bourtzeff, the well-known reactionary,
when he said, "We are convinced that after this war there will no
longer be any room for political reaction and Russia will be
associated with the existing group of cultured and civilized
countries."
Proof that such feelings are making their way among the most
intelligent portion of the Russian population is shown by the
remarkable document put forth some weeks ago over the signatures of
noted Christian professors, litterateurs, and members of the Duma, in
which the plea is made for the removal of all restrictions that at
present shackle the Jews. "Let us understand," they say, "that the
welfare and the power of Russia are inseparably bound up with the
welfare and liberties of all the nationalities that constitute the
whole Empire. Let us then conceive this truth. Let us act in
accordance with our intelligence and our conscience, and then we are
sure that the disappearance of all kinds of persecution of the Jews
and their complete emancipation, so as to be our equals in all rights
of citizenship, will form one of the conditions of a real constructive
imperial policy." And we are the more persuaded that these views will
prevail when we remember that Russia has been brought into closer
contact with just those nations of Europe where Jewish emancipation
has been most perfect and has brought forth the best fruits. It is
unthinkable that these nations should fail to put their influence on
the side of Jewish freedom in Russia when European accounts are
finally balanced.[B]
_The Broken Faith of Roumania_
In the second place, any regulation of the Jewish status in Europe
must of necessity include Roumania. The injustice of the Government's
attitude in that country is even more pronounced than it is in Russia.
For Roumania is bound to a certain course by a "scrap of paper." At
the Berlin Congress of 1878, one of the conditions upon which
statehood was granted to Roumania was that the rights of free
citizenship should be conferred upon the Jewish inhabitants in the
principality--who, it may be remarked in passing, were among the
oldest residents there. Roumania gave her solemn promise to carry out
this condition; but by political subterfuge of the most brazen kind
she has circumvented the whole spirit of the demand. The Roumanian
Chamber passed a law to the effect that only Jews who had been
naturalized by it were entitled to citizenship; and as the Chamber
refused to naturalize more than a handful each year, the provisions
of the Berlin Treaty have been as good as void. When quite
recently--in 1913--during the progress of the last Balkan War and
prior to the intervention of Roumania, the Roumanian Jews volunteered
to serve in large numbers, the proposal was brought forward to grant
the rights of citizenship to all Jews who had entered the army. Yet
this proposal was voted down; and the condition of the Jews has
remained as it was prior to 1878. They are inhabitants in a country,
subject to its laws, liable to all duties placed upon citizens--but
they are themselves prohibited from becoming citizens. It is
intolerable that such a condition should be allowed to continue; and
if right is to take the place of might in the inevitable
re-arrangement of the community of European nations, the status of the
Roumanian Jews must be one of the Jewish problems to be solved.
_The Hope of Regaining Palestine_
There is a third Jewish problem the importance of which perhaps even
transcends the two just mentioned; transcends because of the interest
that attaches to it and because of its vital import to every Jew the
world over. I refer to the problem of Palestine, which is wrapt up
with the very existence of the Jews and which symbolizes the hopes
that have been nurtured throughout the centuries. We know that the Jew
in his inevitable march westward has kept his face turned towards the
East; that in prayer and in meditation his gaze has rested upon that
country which enshrined at one and the same time his origin and his
future aspirations. It is true that up to within some forty years that
aspiration remained in large part a pious wish; and that though it was
cherished as coming to realization "quickly and in our day," very few
attempts were put through to arm the Almighty with human effort. At
best, God-fearing and pious Jews removed to Palestine, either to
immerse themselves there in study and contemplation, or to end their
days in the odor of sanctity.
But the last twenty-five years have witnessed a conscious effort to
make of Palestine a rallying point for the Jewish people, a place
where Jewish life may be lived to its fullest extent and which may
serve as a beacon light to all parts of the Diaspora. Many a waste
place has been made to blossom again; and much of the culture and
learning acquired by the Jews in the long centuries of toil and effort
has been made available to revivify the Land of Promise. With infinite
pains and untold sacrifices the Jewish pioneers went forward in their
peaceful effort to regain the soil of their forefathers. Colonies have
been founded there; primary schools, high schools and technical
institutions have been established, and many of the forces have been
started that make the foundation for a permanent settlement. This
conscious effort can not have been put forth in vain. Palestine
represents the goal of our endeavor. And any settlement after the war
that has in view the general problems involved will be forced to take
cognizance of the just hopes that we Jews place in the future of that
country and the just rights that the Jewish people believe they
possess and have acquired there. The form in which such rights shall
be expressed is not a matter for discussion at present. The fact alone
is of importance. In the past the world has applauded the fight made
by the Poles for their national existence; it has followed with
interest the Greek War of Independence, the Italian striving for
unity, the Irish endeavors for racial autonomy, and the Alsatian
effort after independent expression. It must and will appreciate and
esteem the attempt made by the Jews to re-fashion their anomalous
status and to re-create the statehood that they lost nearly two
thousand years ago.
_The Collapse of Principles Held Sacred by the Jews_
Our concern, however, in the present world conflict goes further than
our own immediate affairs, and meets those interests which we have in
common with the rest of humankind. Much as we deplore the wanton
destruction of property, much as we bewail the reckless loss of life,
we mourn especially the diminution of ethical standards and the
perversion of our whole outlook on life. For this means the lapse of
much for which our own teachers have stood, the forfeit of many a
principle which has been dear to the Jewish heart. Let me touch
lightly upon three points out of the many that come to mind.
First of all, what we must deplore most is the defiance to law and to
its reign which has become so marked a characteristic during the
present war. The agreements arrived at in conventions, the bases of
treaties, the binding character of compacts, and the sanctity of
engagements--all seem to have been thrown into one melting pot. The
mere fact that the expression "a scrap of paper" has become a
household word, bandied about by orators and scribblers, shows the
distance we have descended into the abyss. The whole structure of our
international relations seems to have fallen to the ground and the
labored work of centuries to have been undone in a few months. Now,
the Jews have been from the earliest times a people that have laid the
greatest possible stress upon the rule of law; so much so, that their
own laws were supposed to have divine sanction. In olden Jewish times
everything was regulated by law--man's relation to his fellow men, to
the state, and to God; to such a degree that we have been blamed often
for being a law-ridden people. We cannot, therefore, remain oblivious
to the fact that the sanctity of law has now been rudely called into
question and its authority greatly weakened. As Jews we must be deeply
concerned in assisting the European world back to a full consciousness
of the majesty and eminence of the rule of law.
But more than that, it was part of our earliest teaching that "thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." What clouds of hatred have not
been blown from one line of trenches to the other! What volumes of
spleen have not been sent from one country to the other! In countless
speeches, in newspapers and in books, the doctrines of dislike, of
animosity, of deepest malice have been preached. Men have been taught
to look upon certain neighbors as born enemies, to see in those who do
not speak their own tongue not only a stranger but an enemy. Back of
the soldiers under arms, back of the cannons with their deadly
missiles, stand millions of loathing men and women shooting darts of
odium that reach further than any shell and that are more poisonous
than any gas. When shall we be able once again to preach the beautiful
teaching of the prophet, "Have we not all one Father; hath not one God
created us all?"
And lastly, we must bear in mind that the Jews have been opposed from
of old to the rule and reign of might as represented by the God of
War. In a syllabus on the history of the Peace Movement just published
by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, it is passing
strange to find that the Old Testament is entirely overlooked and that
from the first point, "The Cosmopolitan Ideal among the Greek
Philosophers," the jump is made at once to the second, "Jesus Christ,
the Prince of Peace." And yet we know that in the outlook of our
greatest teachers and philosophers the vision of peace loomed large
and powerful. "Ye shall not teach war any more," said one of our
greatest. And for another the true sign of his prophetic mission is
that he preached peace. How sadly these teachings have been belied in
the present war we know only too well.
_Is War Necessary and Good?_
In many circles it has been held that development is possible for the
human race only with the concomitance of war. What wonder--when modern
teachers have preached just such a necessity? Even so great a
religious leader as Luther said, "War is a business divine in itself,
and is as necessary as eating or drinking or any other work." Should
we then wonder that a historian such as von Treitschke has added, "War
is the last revealer of power. God will see to it that war always
recurs as a drastic medicine for the human race,"--or that another
historian, Delbrueck, should have said, "What beauty was to the Greek,
holiness to the Hebrew, government to the Romans; what liberty is to
the Englishman, war is to the Prussian." Nietzsche, one of the
greatest of modern apostles, has based many of his theories upon "a
violent repudiation of any faith or tradition which recognizes a power
of right and justice lying beyond our impulsive nature; an
identification of self-restraint with degeneracy and of self-assertion
with health; a search for happiness in the conquest of others rather
than in self-conquest; a substitution of the Will to Power for the
Darwinian Will to Live, with the consequent intensification of the
unconscious and instinctive struggle for existence into a battle for
conscious mastery; and a sharpening of the competition of life, with
its self-observed rules of fair play or its traditionally imposed
limitations, into a glorification of war as the supreme test of
strength, obtaining its justification in success."
In a very remarkable article which appeared in the _Nineteenth
Century_ for last September, written by a man evidently most
religiously minded, appears the following: "Is the heart of England
still strong to bear and to resolve and to endure? How shall we know?
By the test? What test? That which God has given for the trial of
people--the test of war. The real court, the only court in which this
case can and will be tried, is the court of God. This twentieth
century will see that trial, and whichever people shall have in it the
greater soul of righteousness will be the victor. The discovery that
Christianity is incompatible with the military spirit is made only
among decaying people. While the nation is still vigorous, while its
population is expanding, while the blood in its veins is strong, then
on this hope no scruples are felt. But when its energies begin to
wither, when self-indulgence takes the place of self-sacrifice, when
its sons and daughters become degenerate, then it is that a spurious
and bastard humanitarianism masquerading as religion declares war to
be an anachronism and a barbaric sin."
_The Jewish Answer_
The Jewish attitude in regard to this great problem before the world
can be dealt with in a very few words. These words have already been
given to us in the twentieth chapter of Exodus: "If thou wilt make an
altar, thou shalt not wave thy sword over it; for if thou wavest thy
sword over it thou hast polluted it." It has been emphasized by the
prophet Jeremiah when he said, "Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the
rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory in
this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord who
exerciseth loving kindness, judgment and righteousness on the earth."
To this I will add only one single word of the Rabbis: "The whole
Torah exists solely for the sake of the ways of peace." This ideal of
peace has been the guiding star of Israel for which the Jew has prayed
morning, noon and night, and I trust that the young men of the Menorah
will be true to that which the Menorah typifies, and will assist in
the spreading of its light by upholding the reign of law, the reign of
love, and the reign of peace.
[Illustration: Signature: Richard Gottheil]