The phenomenal tempo made by the United States in preparation for the
war is a very interesting phenomenon of our time. What England did in
many years of struggle America has achieved within a few weeks. It
took England more than a year and a half before she saw her way clear
to resort to compulsory service, and it required many weary months to
organize the administrative branch of the war service and to place
the country on a solid war footing. Even countries with long military
traditions, such as France, Italy, Austria, and even Germany, had to
struggle long before they were in the war with both feet. America,
though unmilitaristic, did all that within a very short time. Over
night there was a national army in America. The economic life of the
country adapted itself to war conditions, and everything to conduct
a war on an unheard-of scale was created within a few months. That
a non-militaristic country like America could adapt itself to war
conditions within such a short time must puzzle every observer, and
it will be a puzzle to the historian of the future, also, unless he
recognizes the touchstone of American genius as displayed at present.
This touchstone is the absence of long historical traditions.
We Jews, who are preparing ourselves to start a new life as a nation,
ought to learn in this respect. We have old traditions of our own and
we are burdened with a great many non-Jewish traditions in addition,
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 Rome. The European state that is today undergoing
a crisis as never before is the inheritance of old Rome. The entire
system of European politics is Roman in origin. International political
relations can be traced to ancient Roman origin. 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 Rome. All the severe criticisms leveled by Montesquieu against
ancient Rome are still timely today. All branches of the activities
of the European state, civil administrations, jurisdiction, matters
military, foreign affairs, and so on, are more or less remnants of
ancient Roman civilization.
In short, we have to be conscious of the fact that the life of the
Jewish people in Europe was lived amid a system of Roman civilization.
The old Jewish preachers, who characterized our present Diaspora life
as Goluth-Rome, knew what they were talking about, though they could
not exactly explain why they characterized our present Goluth as Roman
in nature. Since we have lived for two thousand years in this system
of civilization, 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 own. Traditions sometimes strengthen a
nation, but they also may weaken it. The most traditional people in
the world, the Chinese, are practically the weakest, while the most
non-traditional people, the Americans, are today the best fitted for
modern life.
National traditions, of course, cannot be cast away over night. In the
Diaspora old and genuine Jewish traditions were the life-giver of our
people. They were the main force that preserved us from annihilation,
as long as we were facing the problem, "How can we best preserve our
national existence?" Today, however, we are not only facing the problem
of preserving our national existence, but also that of rebuilding our
nation and reorganizing our people so as to make its future safe. Since
the entire Jewish problem has changed so radically, our attitude to
the complex Jewish traditions must change. We cannot possibly use the
same methods in rebuilding our national existence as in preserving our
nation. The two different problems need two different positions. Just
as China is a terrifying example of what slavery to tradition can do to
a nation, so is America an edifying example of what traditions can do
in strengthening a nation. A nation does not live to uphold traditions
only; and where, instead of helping a nation, traditions handicap it,
they will be superceded by new traditions to be created by national
deeds.
We do not want to describe our future life in Palestine, for we are
today unable to do so. 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 Palestine. Life is much stronger than
the Book and the principle derived from the Book. In the Diaspora it
was the principle of the Book that shaped our life, because it helped
to preserve it. In Palestine, where there will be an active Jewish
life, Jewish life itself must work out its own principles. This is what
we should bear in mind, whether we are orthodox or free-thinkers. We
must go to Palestine with the consciousness of freedom and not with the
feeling that we are the creatures of traditions. We will have to free
ourselves not only from many Roman traditions that was most worthy in
the Diaspora, but will be superfluous in Palestine.
The future Jewish State in Palestine will draw its strength from Jewish
life and not from principles of the Book; it will be free from all
inorganic traditions which we have acquired during our long life in the
Diaspora, and from those traditions which were un-Jewish in nature.