In view of the rise of Jewish nationalism during the last decade,
especially during the war, 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 asked.
There are no prophets nowadays. 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 future. Sociology has not yet discovered laws with the
help of which one can predict future material happenings. Nevertheless,
serious-minded Jews, especially nationalists, should give a thought to
the question of possible future developments and should ask themselves
in which direction they have decided to go.
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 us.
When Theodor Herzl appeared before the Zionist Congress in 1906 with
his famous Uganda proposition, the Jewish people was amazed. How could
a man like Theodor Herzl, whose love for Palestine was beyond doubt,
propose to the Jews to settle in East Africa, on a stretch of territory
not only outside the pale of Jewish traditions but even outside the
pale of civilization? 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 happiness, were there not
plenty of civilized countries where the Jews could find a refuge? These
and similar questions were raised after Herzl brought forth the Uganda
proposal. But those who were on intimate terms with the great leader
later explained this apparently strange mood.
It was in 1903 that von Plehve began his policy of pogroms, and from
1903 to 1906 hundreds of pogroms were perpetrated against the Jews in
Russia and Poland. Theodor Herzl, who witnessed the development of
the tragic Dreyfus affair and who had some experience with western
European anti-Semitism, knew perfectly well the prevailing hatred
against the Jews everywhere, but he could not imagine that a Christian
State, forming a member of the family of nations, should in the
twentieth century resort to such barbarities as pogroms, in order to
carry out its anti-Semitic policy. Man of delicate and fine feelings as
he was, he became so disgusted with the situation and so downhearted
on account of these pogroms that, in a moment of despair, he said to
himself, "We would rather live among the Hottentots and other savages
in Africa than among the civilized Christian nations in Europe." The
entire Uganda proposition can be understood as an expression of disgust
with European civilization on the part of our great Jewish statesman
and artist. In short, Uganda was a loud protest against Christian
civilization and Christian political methods.
In a lesser degree Zionism, also, is partly a protest against European
Christian civilization, which is an inheritance of ancient Rome.
We want to go back to Palestine not only because we want to live
a national life of our own there, 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 might. We are disgusted with this
civilization because we do not believe that "might is right," because
we do not believe in the political heritage of ancient Rome.
We cannot say whether or not every nationalistic Jew is conscious of
this fact, 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 Jews, 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 Rome. We, for
one, firmly believe that Zionism, in spite of its purely political
aspects, has the ethical consciousness of the Jewish nation as its
basis and as its driving power; Zionism is thus to our mind not only a
_political_, but also _an ethical movement_--or even a revolutionary
movement, in the sense that the Jewish people revolts against a system
of civilization from which not only entire humanity has suffered, but
from which it has suffered most. Now, since Zionism is also an ethical
movement, one can easily see to what its realization should lead.
Though the Jewish people lived in a Europe dominated by Roman ideas
for two thousand years, it did not become an adherent of the Roman
school of thought. We have remained Jews, still cherishing Jewish
ideals of justice and equity, and we mean to go back to Palestine
not as "Europeans," but as Jews pure and simple. 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 Europe. _We are going to Palestine not
only to begin a new national life, but also to create a new system
of civilization._ This is the justification of Zionism from a broad
ethical point of view. We are going to realize there not the old Roman
inheritance but the old Jewish inheritance. We have for the last 2,500
years had a political philosophy of our own, a political philosophy
that is just the opposite of the Roman political philosophy. 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 Romans, and we believe that our national political philosophy,
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 nature, is at least as sound as the one-sided Roman
political philosophy, which takes into account only the physical nature
of man and hence teaches that "might is right."
It is our firm conviction that Jewish national ideals of old, though
buried in books for the last two thousand years, can be turned into
reality and be applied to life. This is what we are going to do in
Palestine. But, people will ask, if the Jewish ideals are based on
life's reality, why did not the Jewish people succeed in making its
ideals a force in life when it lived on its own soil and enjoyed
independence? To this we reply that the ancient Jewish genius, which
devised such grand plans of life, failed, for reasons which we cannot
enumerate here, to create the technique and methods, with the help of
which these grand plans could have been carried out. The Romans, on
the other hand, invented a wonderful technique of life, but failed to
devise a plan of life which would make life more worth living than
it is now. We have lived under the system of Roman civilization for
nearly two thousand years. We have not been imbued with Roman ideals.
We have not accepted the Roman doctrine of life, but we have learned a
great deal from Roman technique, and we are therefore now equipped with
both--with the Jewish idealistic traditions and with the experiences
of Roman civilization and Roman technique. Now we are in a position to
apply our ideals of old to life, because we possess the methods and
the technique of the application. We know today a great deal about
administrative and constitutional technique, of which our ancestors
knew next to nothing. We know today a great deal about organization,
of which our ancestors had not the slightest idea. Having gone through
the Roman school, we today know something about organization and this
knowledge of organization we are going to apply to our political
traditions, to our philosophy of life; 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 form. Might will not be
right, because man is not only a physical but also an intellectual and
spiritual being. Justice and equity will be thoroughly organized and
will not be left to the conscience of the idealistic individual only,
as was the case in ancient Judea.
Whether the future Jewish State in Palestine will be a republic or a
monarchy does not matter. The form of government never testifies to the
soundness of the state; there are good monarchies and bad republics.
One thing is as clear as day: If there is going to be a Jewish
Palestine, it will be a land of justice and freedom, where right will
prevail and where the demands of the spirit will be complied with. All
forms of life will have to be different from what they are in the pale
of Roman civilization. "Thou shalt be a light unto the nations." This
must be our ambition.
Jews as individuals can accomplish very little for Judaism, cannot help
to realize its ideals and cannot possibly make it a force in life. For
two thousand years we have lived in the Diaspora as individuals, and
what did we accomplish for the realization of our old ideals, of which
we are so proud? Nothing. Only feeble-minded rabbis, who are constantly
talking of the mission of Judaism without knowing what they are talking
about, can speak of the mission of the Jews in the face of the present
catastrophe. Jews as individuals cannot have any Jewish mission in
life, but a people can, if it is inspired by ideals.
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 people. It is only with reluctance that we
use the much abused phrase, "Jewish mission," but if there is such a
thing as the Jewish mission, 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 old: "Thou shalt
be a light unto the nations." This is the true meaning of the Jewish
mission. This and nothing else.