In all the countries where the Jews have heretofore enjoyed freedom
there has been no special Jewish problem during this war. The Jews
have identified themselves completely with the lands of their birth or
adoption, and have shared the trials and glories of the peoples among
whom their lot was cast.
In England, the Jewish population, according to estimates prepared
by Lord Rothschild, furnished more than its share of recruits to the
British army, its quota of 17,000 comprising about eight and a half per
cent. of the total Jewish population as compared with the six per cent.
furnished by the non-Jewish population. The Lord Chief Justice, Baron
Reading, a Jew, mobilized the financial resources of the country and
was called upon to head the Anglo-French commission which negotiated
the $500,000,000 credit secured in the United States. Lord Rothschild
is treasurer of the Red Cross organization. Hon. Herbert Samuels is
a member of the Coalition cabinet. A Jewish battalion organized by
Palestinian fugitives rendered exceptional service to the allies in the
Gallipoli Peninsula. Many rewards, including the bestowal of Victoria
Crosses and promotions, are listed in the Anglo-Jewish press every week.
In Germany the Jews, although without complete social privileges, have
borne their full share of the burdens of war. To Herr Ballin, the
head of the mercantile marine, was given the task of organizing the
national food supply, and other Jews have been prominently identified
with every department of the industrial mobilization of the country.
In France and Italy, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, Jews are to be found
in the ministerial cabinets, in command of troops in the field, and
prominent in charge of the medical service of the armies.
* * * * *
Thus the present war has again demonstrated the great truth that, in
times of struggle as in times of peace, the Jews constitute a most
valuable asset to those nations that accept them as an integral part
of their population and permit them to develop freely, but wherever an
autocratic government demoralizes its people by confronting them with
the spectacle of an unprotected minority denied all human rights, the
government itself feels the reaction and the moral tone of the nation
is thereby impaired.