ABOUT THE JEWISH QUESTION .
The problem of Jewry has been discussed hundreds of times; great men have chosen this subject to write about; the newspapers and magazines have devoted columns and columns to this great question; pamphlets concerning this problem have been published and distributed; but it is still as much of a problem as ever.
There is, in reality, but one main problem of Judaism, and from this one great question spring all the others. Now, if we could but solve this one, there would be no other Jewish questions. It is like curing a complication of disease—we know the effect, but we must find the cause—the main cause, first. This main cause, we find, is at the root of all the minor troubles, and there is where we must begin to cure. When this main cause is cured, the rest is not so hard.
Now, let us compare the Jewish question to this complication of diseases. We shall start at the effect. Here we are, in the beginning of the twentieth century, scattered over the four corners of the earth—roaming. Wherefore? We have no home to go to when we become tired, no sheltering government to take us beneath her protecting wings; no mother, we might say, to pour into her ever-listening ears our trouble; we are only an orphan thrown upon the mercy of other countries. And, if those countries choose to have pity upon us, they allow us to live with them, but if they do not—then we are outcasts and aliens.
How, then, can we, who have no home,
no parent, expect to have equal rights with those people who have? We, who are free, cannot even extend a helping hand to our brethren who are being slaughtered in Russia and other countries, for what can we do for them? Take them off the shoulders of one country which has become tired of them and place them upon another's? We ought to have a home of our own, and there we would have religion, freedom, power, respect —everything that a human race can desire.
The main cause, then, is that we have no land which we may call home. From this, other troubles arise; we are driven out of other countries because those people think that we are trespassing on their land,—which we are really doing, without any idea of how to repay them. True, the Jew is a great help to any country; he builds up the industry and commerce of any land he may enter; he is bright, intellectual and all that, but this only serves to make him more disliked, for the goy becomes jealous of the Jew and will do all in his power to overthrow him. The Jew is hated more, not on account of his religion, but because he is a foreigner.
We have seen the main cause, and we all know the various effects. Can we cure this foundation of all our sorrows? Can we remove this one great cause and then let the other diseases cure themselves gradually? Yes, we can! A remedy in the form of Zionism is to be the cure of this awful disease. We can already see health, sunshine and freedom, ahead for our race. "Every cloud has a silver lining" and our cloud must turn.
IDA ROSENTHAL.
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