The Reform Advocate (Chicago, Illinois) (July 3, 1897)
A Protest from Germany .
EDITORIAL .
We have all along contended that Zionism is a chapter in the pathology of modern Judaism. This our view has been challenged by both enthusiasts and sentimentalists. But a mere glance at the personnel of the leaders and spokesmen might suggest the strong probability of our estimate of the movement.
A more motley crowd and conglomeration of otherwise incongruous elements could not well be imagined, than is the staff of agitators or literary defenders of the new Zion . Atheism joins hands with the darkest bigotry of orthodoxy. Those that cannot wait with patience till Judaism be dead, and who have for years permitted no opportunity to pass without lustily shouting their prophesy that Judaism is bound to die, try to play the first fiddle in this wonderful orchestra, called together for a grand rehearsal at Munich, most appropriately in the dog-days.
It is not often that we have the satisfaction of having our views shared by others . As a rule we enjoy the privilege of solitude. In this instance, however, almost all the respectable authorities within and on Judaism are on our side . Can it be said that the rabbis of Vienna, Berlin or Hamburg, among others, have no heart for the suffering of our fellowJews in Russia? If our opposition to this craze is proof of our lack of finer sympathy, then our failing has afflicted many more victims, and the true lovers of our Russian co-religionists are a very small company.
But it will appear that those who have at all time been the champions theoretically and practically of the Jews in exile and under persecution , are almost without an exception now doing their utmost to discredit this Don Quixotic venture , headed by blind fanatics, sentimentalists, and—circus clowns, if not worse. The following protest of the German rabbis as translated from the Allgevmeine Zeitung des Judenthums deserves for this reason to be reproduced:
“That was a pretty how-do-you-do ! (Bescheerung.) Immediately before the day which, more than any other, brings to memory that Israel's original destiny is to be ‘a kingdom of priests,’ we received from Vienna the new journal of the ‘Zionists’, called Die Welt, which has the aim to make propaganda for the congress of the national Jews, to convene in Munich , August 20th.
“The journal is a calamity which by all means must be averted. As long as the Zionists wrote in Hebrew, they were not dangerous. Now that they write in German, we have to oppose them. Not that we would refute them, for what arguments might be able to influence people who on the one hand romance about Zion and a Jewish nationality, and on the other, bitterly complain that the Austrian government requires the production of a certificate of baptism on the part of candidates for the vacant post of secretary in the Bukowina. If the Zionist movement were endorsed by the Jews of Austria, they would have no right to complain that they are considered and treated as foreigners by the government and excluded from appointment to political offices.
We may, with fullest conviction, say that our fellow-Jews desire only to be a religious communion. In every other regard, we feel ourselves nationally to be of the same fellowship as all the sons of our fatherland and will work for the moral and mental and spiritual welfare of our common country with the same zeal as they do. For this reason we have the right to insist upon our equality with all our fellow-citizens and to deplore whatever infringement thereof as a violation of our most sacred sentiments.
“What shall we say about the guileless naiveté of our Zionists. Do they really believe that western Jews will spend their money to buy Palestine from the Sultan and thereby to create a Jewish organization which turns the whole development of Judaism topsy-turvy?
“National Judaism has been judged for ever and put to rest by history the last eighteen centuries ago through the dissolution of the Jewish state and the burning of the Temple. Jewish ‘Wissenschaft’ may claim this to be among its most glorious achievements to have spread this view among the Jews of all the civilized countries.
“The Zionists would create under international guarantees a secure homestead for such Jews as will not or cannot assimilate themselves to their present surroundings.’ Where are the Jews that will not be assimilated? That at this time there are countries where they are not allowed, places upon us especially the duty to struggle for the abolition of all exceptional laws for the Jews. Our Zionists have the insolence to talk about a ‘Jew distress’ (Judennoth) of which the powers would be free. This is both an indignity and a shameless slander and we protest most emphatically against this imputation. We are sure in this we express the unanimous sentiment of all the Jewish congregations of our German fatherland. But the Zionists we would ask to tell us in whose name and by what authority they presume to speak? Who has empowered them to call a congress to Munich, which would even be out of place in Pizemysl, Grodno or Jassy ? We protest against the assumption that those that called the congress speak in the name of Jewry, and we are sure that no rabbi or officer of a single German congregation will participate or appear at the congress. Thus we shall show the whole world, that the German Jews have not the least sympathy for, and nothing in common with the tendencies and projects of the Zionists.”
This protest is signed by Drs . Maybaum and Vogelstein, and the editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung informs us that similar protests have been sent in by other rabbis.
It would thus seem that in our opposition to this dementia or intrigue we are in the best of company, while to one or the other of its sympathizers and abettors we feel like saying “dass ich Dich in der Gesellschaft seh,’” etc., etc. In America sensible men and loyal Jews will have as little to do with the Zionist cranks, or worse, as have our co religionists in Germany. Down with the whole humbug!