The American Jewish world. [volume], September 14, 1917, Image 20

About The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
America's fundamental law seeks to
make real the brotherhood of man.
That brotherhood became the Jewish
fundamental law more than twenty
five hundred years ago. America's in
sistent demand in the twentieth cen
tury is for social justice. That also
has been the Jew's striving for ages.
Their affliction as well as their re
ligion has prepared the Jews for ef
fective democracy. Persecution broad
ened their sympathies it trained
them in patient endurance, in self-con
trol, and in sacrifice. It made
them think as well as suffer.
It deepened tfie passion for
righteousness.
The Jewish spirit, the pro
duct of their religion and ex
periences, is essentially mod
ern an I essentially American.
Not since the destruction of
the temple have the Jews in
spirit and in ideals been, in
these respects, so fully in har
mony with the noblest aspira
tions of the country in which
they lived. The Jewish spirit,
so long preserved, the charac
ter developed by so many
centuries of sacrifice, should
bep reserved and developed
further, so that in America as
elsewhere the sons of the race
may in future live lives and do
deeds worthy of their ancest
ors.
But as the Ghetto walls are
falling, Jewish life cannot be
preserved and developed, as
similation cannot be averted,
unless there be re-established
in the fatherland a center,
from which the Jewish spirit
may radiate, and give to the
Jews scattered throughout the world
that inspiration which springs from
memories of a great past and the hope
of a great future.
To accomplish this, it is not acces
sary that the Jewish population of
Palestine be large as compared with
the whole number of Jews in the
world.
Throughout centuries when the Jew
ish influence was greatest, during the
Persian, the Greek and the Roman em
pires, only a relatively small part of
the Jews lived in Palestine and only
a small part of the Jews returned
from Babylon when the temple was
rebuilt.
But we have also an immediate and
more pressing duty in the perform
ance of which Zionism alone seems
capable of affording effective aid.
ZIONISM AND PATRIOTISM
By Louis D. Brandeis.
September 14, 1917. THE AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD 17
We must protect America and our
selves from demoralization which has
to some extent already set in among
American Jews.
Throughout all the years of perse
cution the general standard of morals
was exceptionally high among the
Jews. The Jewish criminal was very
rare for with the Jews laws were
self-inforced and each individual was
his own policeman. The Rosenthal
case with its horrible revelations of
violence and corruption, and the white
JUSTICE LOUIS D. BRANDEIS
slave persecution, with their disclos
ures of prostitution among Jewish
women, brought to the American Jew
a deep sense of humiliation, and to
the thoughtful, grave concern. What
could be more remote from Jewish
tradition unless it be the prevalence
of unchastity?
The cause of this demoralization is
clear. It results in large part from
the fact that in our land of liberty all
the restraints of liberty, and of law by
which the Jews were protected in
their Ghettos, had been removed and
a new generation was left without
necessary moral and spiritual support.
And is it not equally clear what the
only possible remedy is It is the
laborious .task of inculcating self-re
spect—a task which can be accom­
plished only by restoring the ties of
the Jew to the noble past of his race,
and by making him realize the possi
bilities of a no less glorious future.
The only bulwark against demoral
ization is to develop in each new gen
eration of Jews in America the sense
of Noblesse oblige." That spirit can
be developed only with those who re
gard their race as destined to live with
a bright future.
That spirit can best be developed
by actively participating in some way
in furthering the ideals of the Jewish
renaissance, and this can be done ef
fectively only through furthering the
Zionist movement.
In the Jewish colonies -of Palestine
there are no Jewish criminals be
cause everyone, old and young alike,
is led to feel the glory of his
race and his obligation to
carry forward its ideals. The
new Palestine Jewry produces
.instead of criminals, great
scientists like Aaron Aaron
sohn, the discoverer of wild
wheat great pedagogues like
David Yellin craftsmen like
Boris Schatz, the founder of
the Bezalal intrepid Shomer
im, the Jewish guards of
peace, who stand watch in the
night against marauders and
doers of violent deeds.
Every Irish American who
contributed towards advanc
ing home rule was a better
man and a better American
for the sacrifice he made.
Every American Jew who aids
in advancing the Jewish set
tlement in Palestine, though
hc feels neither he nor his de
scendants will ever be there,
will likewise be a better man
and a better American for
doing so.
There is one other consi
deration to which the Jews of
America should give thought.
Though the war has already
caused the removal of the disabilities
under which the Jews labor in eastern
Europe, nevertheless, when peace
comes, emigration from the war
stricken countries will certainly pro
ceed in large volume, because of the
misery incident to the war's devasta
tion. More than one-half of the Jews
of the whole world live in that terri
tory near the western frontier of Rus
sia, which has become one of the two
vast battlefields of the nations. It is
desirable that America should be prac
tically the only country to which the
Jews of eastern Europe may emigrate?
Is it not desirable that Palestine
should give a special welcome to the
Jews, as the Zionists propose?
Our loyalty to America, our loyalty
to Judaism, should lead us to support
the Zionist cause,