AN ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THE JEWISH PROBLEM
The “Jewish Colonization Association” (1891)――Statutes and
shareholders――Baron _de_ Hirsch’s letter to the Russian Jews
――His articles in the _Forum_ and the _North American Review_
――Baroness Clara _de_ Hirsch.
BARON _de_ HIRSCH was not a Zionist, nor do we desire to claim him as
a national Jew. Had he been asked whether he recognized the national
idea, he would undoubtedly have replied that he was opposed to it.
He was not much interested in abstract ideas, and it is questionable
whether he could be made to fit in with any cut-and-dried theory
at all. Nevertheless, his activities became those of a national Jew
when once he was made fully conscious of the Jewish tragedy. Born in
Munich, heir to an Austrian title, distinguished for his industrial
undertakings in the East, resident in Paris, with powerful connections
in England, he devoted himself at last almost entirely to his brethren
in Russia. Was the impelling feeling a colourless cosmopolitan
humanism? One might have called it so as long as he merely supported
education and sent contributions to charities. But one cannot, without
doing violence to facts, regard the work of what we have called his
fourth period――which was the very climax of his activity――as the mere
charitable routine which is characteristic of Jews whose purpose and
hope is “assimilation.” Hirsch was more than a Jew of that type. The
tendency towards assimilation destroys the Jew, discourages the man,
kills his individuality, “and thus the native hue of resolution is
sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,” and the Jew becomes an
emulator of what other people do, a slave of other people’s opinions.
If a personality like that of Hirsch could develop in such an
environment, it was because his inquiring mind, the experience gained
in his travels and his absorption during youth of the old traditions
of his people carried him far beyond his actual surroundings. It
was due to his individual gifts that he took up the great idea of
concentration of the persecuted Jewish people by means of colonization.
He directed all his energies to the investigation of the best places
for colonization, and the result was the formation of an international
association, incorporated under English law, and known as the Jewish
Colonization Association, whose Memorandum of Association includes the
following clauses:――
“To assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any part of Europe
or Asia――and principally from countries in which they may for the
time being be subjected to any special taxes or political or other
disabilities――to any parts of the world, and to form and establish
colonies in various parts of North and South America and other
countries for agricultural, commercial and other purposes.
“To purchase and acquire, by donation or otherwise, from any
Governments, States, municipal or local authorities, corporations,
firms, or persons any territories, lands, or other property, as
concessions, powers and privileges, which may be necessary or
convenient for developing the resources of the same and rendering
the same available for colonization.
“To accept gifts, donations and bequests of money and other property,
on the terms of the same being applied for all or some one or more of
the purposes of the company, or such other terms as may be consistent
with the objects of the company.”
The Articles of Association provide, among other things, that no more
than half the capital is to be employed in the purchase of land, that
the governing body shall consist of a Council of Administration, who
in their turn shall elect Directors, and these shall be paid officials
and carry out all the executive work. The machinery provided by the
Articles enables representative Jewish institutions to become members
of the Company, and thereby to have a certain voice in the management.
The constitution further provides that under no circumstances shall
any of the members derive any profit from the undertaking.
With regard to the objects of the Company, the last clause was
amplified at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company by the
addition before “or on such terms” of the following words: “or for any
other philanthropical purposes specified by the donor or testator for
the benefit of Jewish communities or individuals either in Europe or
in America.”
The Jewish Colonization Association was founded with a capital of £2,
000,000 divided into 20,000 non-dividend bearing shares of £100 each.
Baron _de_ Hirsch subscribed for 19,993 shares; and Lord Rothschild
(1840‒1915), Sir Julian Goldsmid (1838‒1896), Ernest (afterwards
Sir Ernest) Cassel, Frederic David Mocatta (1828‒1905), and Benjamin
Louis (afterwards Sir Benjamin Louis) Cohen (1844‒1909) of London, and
Salomon H. Goldschmidt (1814‒1898) and Solomon Reinach of Paris for
one share each.¹
¹ Before his death Baron _de_ Hirsch divided his shares among
the following corporations: the Synagogues of Brussels and
the Jewish communities of Berlin and Frankfort-on-the-Main,
3600 each; the Anglo-Jewish Association of London and the
Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris, 4595 shares each.
About the time when the Jewish Colonization Association was formed,
Baron _de_ Hirsch addressed an appeal to the Jews in Russia concerning
the emigration schemes which he intended to carry out under the
auspices of the Company. The following is a translation of this
appeal:――
“To my co-religionists in Russia: You know that I am endeavouring to
better your lot. It is, therefore, my duty to speak plainly to you,
and to tell you what it is necessary for you to know.
“I am acquainted with the reasons which oblige many of you to emigrate,
and I will gladly do all in my power to assist you in your hour of
distress. But you must make this possible for me. Your emigration
must not resemble a rash and reckless flight by which the endeavour
to escape danger ends in destruction. You know that properly organized
committees are shortly to be established in Russia, with the consent
and under the supervision of the Imperial Russian Government. The
duty of these committees will be to organize the emigration in a
business-like way. All persons desirous of emigrating will have to
apply to the local committees, who alone will be authorized to give
you the necessary facilities. Only those persons who have been elected
by the committees can have the advantage of the assistance of myself
and of those who are working with me. Any one who leaves the country
without the concurrence of the committees will do so at his own risk,
and must not count on any aid from me.
“It is obvious that in the beginning the number of emigrants cannot
be large; for not only must places of refuge be found for those who
first depart, but the necessary preparations must be made for those
who follow. Later on the emigration will be able to assume larger
proportions.
“Remember that I can do nothing for you without the benevolent and
gracious support of the Imperial Russian Government.
“In conclusion, I appeal to you. You are the inheritors of your
fathers, who for centuries have suffered so much. Bear this
inheritance yet awhile with equal resignation. Have also further
patience, and thus make it possible for those who are anxious to help
you to do so effectively.
“I send you these words of warning and of encouragement in my own name
and in the name of thousands of your co-religionists. Take them to
heart and understand them.
“May the good God help you and me, and also the many who work with us
for your benefit with so much devotion.”
This appeal, though it only urged the Jewish masses to assist the
great work by obeying certain necessary prescribed regulations,
had the effect of rousing the entire Jewish population to a new
hopefulness and of stimulating communal workers, leaders and
publicists to further activity. There was not a poor Jewish home in
Russia where the name of Hirsch did not receive a daily blessing――not
for what he had given or for what he was about to give, but because
he had stretched out a hand to them in their misery, because they no
longer felt themselves forsaken, and because a touch of kindness from
an unseen hand gave them fresh courage, new resolution, and new hope.
As is usual in such cases, no warnings or denials could correct the
estimate formed by the popular imagination of the possibilities of
the undertaking. Baron _de_ Hirsch himself was supposed to have said
or written that he was going to transmigrate five million Jews from
Russia in twenty years; and this statement, which was published in an
official Russian paper, though in the unofficial part of it, gained
currency at once, and remained in the minds of the people as a kind of
programme. And, though the immediate excitement abated, and gave way
to disappointment among those who had looked forward to a new gigantic
exodus, it was evident that the chances of a partial solution of the
Jewish problem were immensely greater than they had ever been before.
Baron _de_ Hirsch caused careful inquiries and investigations to
be made in countries which offered suitable land for agricultural
development. It may be observed that, though the wording of the
statutes contemplates commercial colonies and the encouragement of
artisans, and speaks of “any parts of the world,” in reality Hirsch
had never thought of commercial colonies nor of artisans nor of small
groups scattered all over the world, since first he started dealing
with the Jewish problem in Russia. Commercial colonies for Jews
are as unnecessary as they are impossible, because Jews engaged in
commerce need not and would not congregate in colonies; and as to the
industrial education and encouragement of artisans, it is true that
Hirsch was interested in useful work of this kind, but this was at
an earlier period, and belongs to the kind of philanthropic activity
which he carried on, particularly in the East, through the “Alliance,”
_etc._ As to Russia, anybody who had any conversation with him, or
read his articles¹ on the subject, or was in touch with his advisers
at that period, will testify that what Hirsch had decided to initiate
was a great undertaking for the persecuted Jewish people. Since he
had received, much to his surprise, the reply that he would not be
allowed to work in Russia, he had systematically declined to undertake
anything there except the support of emigration. Petitions poured into
his office at Paris, rue d’Elysée 2, from innumerable Jewish societies
and communities in Russia, but he refused to pay any attention to all
these schemes for the encouragement of artisans and industries. He was
devoted to the idea of concentrating masses of Russian Jews elsewhere,
and of making them agriculturists. Since 1887 he had practically
decided to make the Jewish people the principal heirs of his fortune,
in order to enable them radically to change their status.
¹ _North American Review_, July, 1891: _Forum_, August, 1891.
Personal experiences of a sentimental nature had contributed to this
decision. The terrible and unexpected blow, in losing his only son
Lucien (1851‒1887), a young man of exceptional gifts and promise,
touched his most tender affections and gave a fresh impetus to his
desire to succour human misery. It was feared for a moment that he
would be overwhelmed by the weight of a catastrophe which had ruined
so many hopes. But he possessed such energy, such powerful resources
of character, that he soon recovered. His very natural grief found
sanctification in the noble diversion of devoting himself more eagerly
than before to his immense task. His wife, a keenly idealistic Jewess,
exerted a strong Jewish influence upon him, encouraging to the utmost
the great work which he started. The unfortunate mother, after having
lost her only child, found comfort in the idea of “establishing a home
for the oppressed Jewish people.”
Another personal experience which had some influence on Hirsch was
the anti-Semitic attitude of the Jockey Club of Paris towards him,
an attitude that made him realize the futility of dreams of unity.
There is no need, however, to lay particular stress on these personal
experiences. Apart from them, he could not fail to notice the workings
of anti-Semitism, not only in its violent and brutal forms, but also
in its subtler manifestations; and this brought home to his mind the
necessity of a solution which should prove more practical than the old
methods.
But the thing that did most to bring him nearer to Zionism than to
assimilation, in spite of his dissent from Zionist views, was his
belief in the Jewish people. He was a believer in the regeneration of
the Russian Jews through agriculture, from which occupation they were
barred in the country in which they lived. What, unfortunately, was
lacking in him was the sense of historic tradition and the love of
Palestine.