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Palestine
A Policy
Albert M. Hyamson
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Palestine
A Policy
Albert M. Hyamson
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First published in 1942, Palestine is a brief history of Zionism, interspersed with a wealth of observation stimulation for the seeker of objective truth. The author develops his own theories of Jewish racialism, nationalism and colonization, and elaborates on the role of Britain with respect to Zionism in Palestine. He also expands on the binary of a spiritual Zionism and a territorial neo-Zionism stating that former believed in peaceful coexistence with the Arab population in Palestine, while the latter is only invested in aggressive nationalism. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this republication. This book will be of interest to students of history, political science, international relations and geography.
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CHAPTER ITHE JEW AND THE MISSION OF ISRAEL
DOI: 10.4324/9781003307501-1
What is a Jew: JewâHebrewâIsraelite: The Mission of Israel: Israel among the Nations: Palestine, the Centre of Jewry.
THE PROBLEM of Palestine is in part the Problem of the Jews. The latter problem is not a mere modern invention. It goes back to the beginning of the present era and even earlier. Remembering the past, one feels justified perhĂ ps in saying that the Jewish Problem will always be with us. But it is a problem that concerns not only the Jews, but almost, perhaps quite, as deeply the people in whose midst they live. It is to the interest of all, Gentile as well as Jew, that it should be solved and it can be solved only on just lines, fair to everybody. The Arab-Jewish Question is a part of the Jewish Question and if a way of resolving that can be found one step will be taken towards the greater solution.
Before it is possible, however, to give useful consideration to either the larger or the smaller problem we must clear our minds and define precisely what is meant by the term Jew, a term to which has been attributed almost as many meanings as there are continents in which it is used. The Oxford English Dictionary defines âJewâ as âA person of Hebrew race, an Israeliteâ, and then continues âOriginally a Hebrew of the kingdom of Judah, as opposed to those of the ten tribes of Israel, later, any Israelite who adhered to the worship of Jehovah as conducted at Jerusalem. Applied comparatively rarely to the ancient nation before the exile, but the commonest name for contemporary or modern representatives of the race; almost always connoting their religion and other characteristics which distinguish them from the people among whom they live, and thus often opposed to Christian, and (especially in early use) expressing a more or less opprobrious sense.â
But this is clearly insufficient. There are Jews who are not of Hebrew race, even if the fact is ignored that within historical times there have been large admixtures of foreign blood. To say that a Jew is an Israelite carries one no distance. Again to say or to suggest that observance of or adherence to the Jewish religion is an essential qualification for a Jew would not be accepted by a very large and ever increasing number of persons who consider themselves almost passionately to be Jews and yet over whom the Jewish religion has no admitted influence. Moreover the other peoples label and consider many as Jews who have never seen the inside of a synagogue. The term Jew is very loose and is applied both to observers of the Jewish religion and even to those of another faith.
The Jewish Encyclopedia, which should perhaps be accepted as a better authority than The Oxford English Dictionary on this matter, says âthe word is often applied to any person of the Hebrew race, apart from his religious creed,â and the writer proceeds to use Hebrew and Israelite as synonymous for Jew. This definition is somewhat more embracing than that of The Oxford English Dictionary, but, as has been pointed out, it is not sufficient. A man not of Jewish race who has adopted Judaism is generally considered a Jew, yet he would be excluded by the encyclopaediaâs definition. The truth is that the word âJewâ is used to connote three entirely separate ideas and in consequence much confusion, which could be avoided if separate terms were used, is caused and even further difficulties and impediments are put in the way of a clear and openminded consideration of a problem which is quite sufficiently difficult and complicated without anv such avoidable obstacles.
That this question of terminology is not merely an academic one appears from an essay on âThe Primary Cause of Anti-Semitism â which was published by Mr. A. S. Schomer in New York in the year 1909. To him nomenclature was most certainly an element in that mental attitude towards the Jews which is generally known as Anti-Semitism. âThe names âIsraelâ and âJewâ impress the mind in a strikingly different manner. The mind realizes that the names âIsraelâ and Jewâ mean one and the same thing, yet its impression of these names is somehow different. The name âIsraelâ is regarded as something definite and normal, while the name âJewâ is considered as something vague, mysterious, puzzling.â
By the term âJewâ as generally used to-day we understand either an adherent of the Jewish religion or a member of the Jewish race.1 There is even arising in Palestine a third class, distinct from these two, which nevertheless considers itself Jewish. These are people who are neither of the Jewish faith nor of the Jewish race who yet live entirely in a Jewish environment, who marry with Jews and whose children will grow up ignorant that they are in any way different from the children of Jewish race with whom they play and next to whom they sit at school. We have in Palestine in these very early days of the Resettlement an assimilation of Gentile to Jew paralleled by the similar but necessarily far more widespread assimilation of Jew to Gentile in all the lands of the Diaspora. There are also baptized Jews, Hebrew Christians as they term themselves, who consider themselves members of the Jewish people although not of the Jewish faith. It is said that some of these made themselves evident at the Berlin Congress when it was thought that the future of Palestine would be taken into consideration. The International Hebrew Christian Alliance, when its constitution was drawn up, included among its aims âTo make it possible for Hebrew Christians, who may desire to do so, to share in the activities of Zionism, and to claim for them equal rights in terms of the Balfour Declaration.â Projects for Hebrew-Christian settlements in Palestine have been contemplated and even attempted.
1 It may be argued that there is no Jewish race, but it is convenient to use the term which has acquired a definite and accepted meaning. Biologically the Jews are certainly not a race. The physical differences between Chinese, Yemenite, Abyssinian and European Jews are as great, greater, than those between Slavs and Latins and Teutons. The Sephardi of Spanish origin is as different from the Ashkenazi Jew of Poland or Russia as is the Spaniard from the Slav. Even psychologically there are great differences between the Jews of different countries. Only in Eastern Europe where the Jews lived for the most part in one great Pale, mental and intellectual even more than geographical, is there a common psychology and culture. There as everywhere the Jew, psychologically, culturally and physically, is the child of his environment. The Yemenite Jew is closer to the Arab than to the Jews of Europe; those of England or France to their fellow citizens than to their fellow Jews of other lands.
Thus one term at present describes the adherent of the Jewish religion, the person of Jewish race and the member of the Jewish community or nationality, three entirely different ideas. And confusion necessarily follows. Once all three coincided, but that is no longer the case. It was not very long ago that all Jews, with very few exceptions, professed and practised the Jewish religion, were of the Jewish raceânot necessarily a pure race but one practically so for many centuriesâand lived together in self-contained communities. There were no Jews outside of these communities, we are justified in saying, and there were no non-Jews within them. Then a Jew was a Jew in all three senses. There was no need for a definition or for the discovery of alternative terms. That time has, however, passed and is unlikely to return in our generation. Before we can give proper consideration to the problem that is before us we must therefore define clearly what we mean by Jew, and state what terms we propose to use to designate those to whom this definition does not apply.
To Jew certainly and to Gentile also, the first idea that generally starts to the mind at the mention of the word âJewâ is that of an adherent of the Jewish faith. He may be other things also, but he must be within the orbit of the synagogue if he is a Jew. Morris Joseph has expressed }:his view very clearly in his very valuable Judaism as Creed and Life. âJudaism is something more than a badge, something more than a birthmark, it is a life. To be born a Jew does not declare any of us to be of the elect, it only designates us for enrolment among the elect.... âWhat makes a man a Jew?â is a question that is often asked. The answer is two things: membership of the Jewish brotherhood, and loyal fulfilment of the obligations which that membership imposes. At a time when religious observance among Jews as among non-Jews is falling into desuetude the word synagogue is used in the widest sense as representing any Jewish communal institution. A Jew must have some sort of connexion if not directly with a synagogue or Jewish religious organization, then indirectly through some Jewish lay institution. Otherwise he should not be termed a Jew. If he is what is known as a national Jew who looks forward hopefully and ardently to the creation in the near or distant future of a Jewish state or Jewish commonwealth or Jewish self-governing community either in Palestine or elsewhere, if the renascence of the Hebrew language is one of his ideals, he is more properly termed a Hebrew than a Jew. He may be both, for there is no reason why a Hebrew nationalist should not be a regular worshipper in synagogue, but if the synagogue and the many communal organizations of the Diaspora are nothing to him he is a Hebrew none the less, just as a professing Jew or one who takes his part in the management of his local Jewish community is a Jew even though he be definitely opposed to the nationalistic hopes and strivings of his fellows. And also just as a Jew need not be of Jewish parentageâhe may have adopted Judaismâso any Gentile who adopts the Hebrew ideals and does his best to assimilate to a Hebrew environment may be a Hebrew even though there be not a drop of Israelite blood in his veins and he may never have seen the interior of a synagogue.
There remains the third class, that of members of what is generally known as the Jewish race. These had best be known as Israelites. They may also be Jews and Hebrews, or only Jews or Hebrews or neither. Lord Beaconsfield was an Israelite. He could not fulfil the conditions here laid down for a Jew or a Hebrew. All converts from Judaism to Christianity are Israelites although no longer Jews and almost certainly not Hebrews. In fact they often term themselves Christian Israelites. Opposite to them for instance are the Russian Slavs who have adopted Judaism and settled in Palestine. These are Jews and Hebrews but not Israelites and their brethren who remained in Russia with no neo-Zionist inclinations became Jews but not Hebrews. They could not become Israelites. Most Jews and Hebrews will also be Israelites.1 There are also the Russian Slavs who have gone half-way to Judaism, Sobotniki, âProselytes of the Gateâ, many of whom have settled in Palestine. These are not Israelites, hardly Jews. Under this nomenclature they should be termed Hebrews.
1 The difficulty has been realized in other countries and in other languages, German, French, Polish, Roumanian, Russian, two, sometimes three, terms are employed to express the several ideas.
Before one proceeds to the main purpose before us there is one other matter, that at first sight might be considered irrelevant but is not really so, that may be briefly touched on. This is the so-called âMission of Israel â which to very many Jews and to a large number of non-Jews is the main if not the only justification for the survival of the Jew. To this end the survival of the Israelite is not sufficient. At the most it carries on the mission for a short time and in a diluted form. The survival of the Hebrew only helps towards the end in so far as the Hebrew movementâcrystallized in Zionismâhelps to preserve Judaism, in the preservation of which it is unquestionably a factor. But before it is possible to define the present of the Jew or the Hebrew or to forecast his future it is necessary to ascertain what exactly is the Mission of Israel, to what extent it has been fulfilled and what hope or expectation there is of its future complete or partial fulfilment.
The Idea of the Mission of Israel goes back to the day of Sinai when the Divine message was given through Moses: âAnd ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.'1 And by the term âpriestsâ was meant, not ministers of a cult, masters of ceremonies, but teachers of and examples to all the other peoples, teachers not so much by precept as by example. Not individuals were to be selected as depositaries of the truth, to hold the lamp of virtue and right-doing to the world, but the entire people. The People of Israel was to light the way to the Millennium, the era of human perfection. It has even been said that the destruction of the Judaean state was a part of the Divine purpose of spreading Israel among the nations so that they might lead them to the true knowledge and worship of God.2 âThe main hope of the fulfilment of Israelâs vocation has always been centred in a gradual conquest of Manâs minds and hearts by the silent influence of the Jewish life. The Jewâs own fidelity to his religious and ethical ideals is at length to win the worldâs allegiance for themâ, said Morris Joseph in his Judaism as Creed and Life. A priest needs a congregation to whom to minister: a kingdom of priests, a nation of priests is commissioned to serve the other nations, all humanity. Again quoting Joseph: âThus Israelâs mission, like his election, is purely religious. His is no worldly vocation, he has been called not for empire, for earthly power, for conquest, but to distribute the spiritual riches that have been entrusted to him. He has been called to be not the master, but the servant of mankindâ.
1 Exodus xix, 6.
2 This view was expressed in a resolution adopted by the first Conference of American Jewish reformers in 1869.
It must not be thought that the Mission of Israel is to convert the World to Judaism. Judaism with its observances, its historical background, its rules and regulations all tending to segregate the Jew, is essentially a national or communal religion as opposed to a universal one. In its present form, that is to say so long as it remains Judaism, it is impossible for this faith to draw its adherents from all sides. If it ever becomes universal it will cease to be Judaism, just as once before when its child Christianity, originally merely a reformed Judaism, made its appeal to the nations of the world, at the same time ceased to be the Jewish religion, the religion of the People of Israel.
The Mission of Israel is therefore not to act as missionaries of Judaism in the narrow sense, but to spread the essential truths of their faith and by both precept and example to propagate them among the peoples, and these essential truths have been defined as âGod, one, a spirit, the universal Father; man, heavenly in origin, free, responsible, endowed with the power of lifting himself to God in prayer and purity without extraneous aids.â This definition appeals perhaps more to the scholar, to the disputant, to the theological student. Translated into the language of the man in the street it means the white-heat passion for rightdoing, for justice, for mercy, for sympathy, for pity, for kindness. âOne law shall be to him that is home born and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you,â says the author of Exodus. âHe raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill,â says the psalmist. Character and righteousness are the keynotes of Judaism and these it is the mission of Israel to form and to preach.
The kernel of the Jewish teaching which it is the mission of Israel to spread throughout the world is the idea of justice, but of justice tempered by mercy. âLove thy neighbour as thyself,â is a Christian doctrine, but it became Christian only through inheritance from Israel. Hillel, the Jewish teacher who flourished before the opening of the Christian era, taught the same when he said to a heathen enquirer: âWhat is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow man; this is the whole law, the rest is mere commentary.â Brotherly feeling towards all others was demanded and therefore justice came first, so that a kindness to one might not be at the expense of another. Only when the interests of others had been safeguarded should justice be tempered by mercy. To perform this mission Israel had to be scattered among the peoples so that he might come into contact with them and everywhere point by the living example the way they should go. From this point of view the Dispersion was providential, for without it the Mission of Israel could never be fulfilled. Painful, acutely painful to the People of Israel and to its individual members, but the price or a part of the price the people had to pay for having been selected for its Mission, for the honour of being the Chosen People.
Judaism through its instrument, the Jewish people, fulfils another purpose in the moral history of mankind. Not only a minority but an almost infinitesmal minority in most lands, its mere existence breaks the overwhelming power of uniformity so harmful for the character of a people. The mere existence of the Jews shows Christendom that there may be more than one road that point to the ideal of perfection, that virtue is not necessarily the monopoly of one race or one faith and that following different roads we and our neighbours may still reach the same goal. This of course is not a new truth which the physical presence of the Jew is required to make manifest. The thinkers and philosophers of all times have realized this, but for the mass of the people things seen are mightier than things heard and one living Jew is more convincing than volumes of philosophy and history.
The existence of the Jew also helps to teach the Divine function of the protestant. Again the dead level of uniformity is broken up: the ever more heavy inertia that is inevitable when the rule is never broken, when an exception is unknown, is lightened. The changes that the passage of time always brings and the adaptations of practice and belief that must follow are forced into the consciousness by the existence of this ever present minority. If the Jew serves any purpose in the world it is that of the progressive and the reformer, the mind that realizes the changes that have imperceptibly come about and drives them into the consciousness of mankind. And this function again is not a popular one. The protester, the goad, the disturber of the serenity of uniformity, even if accepted as inevitable, is never universally liked. And since he is necessarily always in a minority, generally a very small one, his mere existence produces thorns in a bed that might, if he were as other people, be one of roses. The reformer is often crucified. That has been the fate of most of the prophets, but their prophecies have been none the less justified. If the Jewish people is looked on as the prophetic people, it will be realized that part of its mission is also to suffer.
As has been said, the Mission or Israel is a mission of example rather than of precept. It follows therefore that the Jew and the Jewish People, which is made up of Jewish individuals, need not be conscious of its mission to succeed or to perform its task. Rather the opposite, the less consciousness the greater the possibility of success. No teacher who...