Rome and Jerusalem

A Study in Jewish Nationalism

Moses Hess

• Publisher: Left of Brain Books
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781396317828
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

This is the book that ultimately led to the creation of Israel.European Jews had been vilified and persecuted for centuries, and Moses Hess discussed it long before the rise of Hitler and Nazism.He believed that the Jews would always be homeless, unwelcomed people unless they had their own country, and was the first to introduce the concepts of Zionism, and the first to call for the foundation of a Jewish socialist commonwealth.Hess blends secular and religious philosophies, Hegelian dialectics, Spinoza's pantheism, and Marxism into philosophical ground for Jewish Nationalism.He explains why the Jewish race is indestructible, and that the only solution of the Jewish question lies in returning to Palestine.Hess is prophetic in his writing.
"Rome and Jerusalem belongs to the very few books which are written in advance of their time."
He paints a vivid picture of 20th century Jews in Europe and provides you with an eye-opening display of the intellectual and religious unrest in Germany at the time."The ideas expressed in it are valuable, not only as a foundation of the philosophy of Jewish Nationalism, but also as a contribution to human thought in general."

Notes

[←1]

See the writer’s article on Halevi in The American Hebrew, November 10, 1916.

[←2]

Die Einheit des Judenthums innerhalb der heutigen Religiosen Anarchie, in the Monatsschrift, 1869.

[←3]

Innocent III, Pope from 1198 to 1216, was distinguished for his cruel hatred toward the Jews. At his instigation, the fourth Lateran Council adopted a Resolution urging the Christian Princes to force the Jews to wear a distinctive badge on their garments—Translator.

[←4]

At the time when Hess wrote these lines, Italy, under the leadership of Garibaldi, was struggling to wrest Rome from the Papal government and annex it to the new unified Kingdom. The remarks in regard to Poland and Hungary are also explained by the events of the time—Translator.

[←5]

Graetz, History of the Jews, German edition, Vol. 5, Introduction, p. 3.

[←6]

Cf. Note I at end of book.

[←7]

Genesis xii, 3.

[←8]

See Note II at end of book. Hess alludes here to the famous saying of Archimedes: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.”—Translator.

[←9]

For the references to the sayings of R. Jochanan, see Sanhedrin, 98b and 99a. —Translator.

[←10]

The solidarity of the Jews covers also the Shem, i.e., the name of God. The Jewish law of solidarity: “All Israelites are responsible for one another,” is expressed also in the form of Kiddush Hashem, the Sanctification of God’s name; i.e., the Jew is urged to act in a more unselfish spirit than the law requires, and even to sacrifice his own interests and person, that he may thereby reflect glory upon the name of Judaism and all other Jews.

[←11]

Compare Note V at the end, where the opinion of the Rabbis in the Sayings of the Fathers about the various standards of conduct in relation to “mine and thine” are given in detail. In regard to the ordinary conception of common morality of “everyone for himself,” it is said there: He who says: “What is mine is mine and what is thine is thine, his is a neutral character;—some say this is a character like that of Sodom.” (Ethics, V. 13.)

Another saying in Aboth, which is also found in Aboth d’ R. Nathan in an imperfect and contradictory form, admonishes us that we should not be like servants who serve for the sake of reward but like children who perform their duty because of the reverence inspired in them by the majesty of the father of all being. This teaching seems to be indifferent to the doctrine of immortality. (Compare Epilogue, 3.)

[←12]

See the extracts from the pamphlet: The New Oriental Problem, quoted in the eleventh letter.

[←13]

See Epilogue, 6.

[←14]

See Note III at end of book.

[←15]

Exodus ii, 14. Auerbach gave me great satisfaction by quoting the biblical verse in the original Hebrew. He recognizes my right to express my Jewish sympathies and feelings, to which he is not averse. But he claims that such an expression should hear more of the character of personal sentiment and not be made public. Such action, according to him, is dangerous and can become a “fire brand” in the hands of the Anti-Semites.

[←16]

Sinai and Golgotha, by F. A. Strauss, p. 69.

[←17]

Russia was overrun in the thirteenth century by Mongolian hordes and for a time was subject to one of the Tartar kingdoms established on its borders. During this time the two races mingled freely, so that, as a result, the Mongolian type is quite prevalent among the Russians—Translator.

[←18]

See Note IV at end of book.

[←19]

Jeremiah xxxi, 14.

[←20]

The monistic teaching of Spinoza is here referred to by Hess.—Translator.

[←21]

Micah iv, 1; Isaiah ii, 2. “But in the last days it shall come to pass that… the Law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” It is an old prophecy, repeated in identical words by various prophets, the echo of which reverberates throughout our entire history.

[←22]

This is the well-known ritual murder case of Damascus, usually referred to as the Damascus affair, of 1840. The number of accused Jews, as well as the inquisitorial methods applied in extorting a confession, attracted the attention of the leading Jews of Europe, including Sir Moses Montefiore and Isaac Cremieux, through whose efforts the Government of France and England finally intervened and obtained the release of the accused—Translator.

[←23]

The Emperor of France at the time was Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon.—Translator.

[←24]

This refers to the crushing of the popular revolution in Germany by Prussia, in the year 1849.—Translator.

[←25]

Young Hegelianism is the name given to the radical interpretation of Hegel’s philosophy. Its followers were mostly revolutionaries and socialists. Ruge was one of its principal leaders.—Translator.

[←26]

Frederick Barbarossa was Emperor of Germany from 1152 to 1189. His reign was marked by brilliancy, power and iron handed ruling. His strong personality left a lasting impression upon the mind of the German people, so that he became the hero of a number of legends. He represents, therefore, to the German, the ideal type of a strong-handed Emperor.—Translator.

[←27]

The Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, which is otherwise a progressive publication, complained bitterly at the time. “Europe,” says this worthy publication, in one of its issues, has spared the followers of the religion of Israel neither pain, nor tears, nor bitterness.” Were the Jews only followers of a certain religious denomination, like the others, then it were really inconceivable that Europe, and especially Germany, where the Jews have participated in every cultural activity, “should spare the followers of the Israelitic confession neither pain, nor tears, nor bitterness. The solution of the problem, however, consists in the fact that the Jews are something more than mere “followers of a religion,” namely, they are a race brotherhood, a nation, one which, unfortunately, whose existence is ...