SOME RECENT BOOKS
“ZIONISM” By Richard J. H. GottheilJewish Publication Society,Philadelphia, Pa.
A treatise on Zionism at this moment when the spirit of battle in the Zionist Movement is undulating between a number of centers, must be an object both of curiosity and interest. But those who, on opening the book, imagine that they are about to be led into some interesting speculations, are bound to be surprised. For Prof. Richard J. H. Gottheil has had quite a different, much more serious, purpose in view.
The first three chapters are devoted to a review of the positive influences which prepared Eastern and Western Jewry for the call of Theodore Herzl. The activities of Perez Smolenskin, Moses Hess, George Eliot, Sir Moses Montefoire, Leo Pinsker, and the Chovevi Zionists are drawn out clearly in the maze of conflicting tendencies which tore European Jewry at that time. The numerous attempts on the part of various elements of the Jewish population in Eastern and Western Europe to readjust themselves to their conditions each of which invariably terminated in the agonizing realization that “not there” was salvation are well described and make apparent what was inevitable.
The touches upon the personality of Herzl in the fourth chapter are particularly fine. He says, for instance: “He (Herzl) possessed in a larger measure than most men intellectual grace and pursuasive enthusiasm. In a short time he was surrounded by a band of determined men, to whom his word was almost law, his wish a command. They put themselves willingly under his somewhat autocratic rule, and gathered around his still unfurled banner.” In the very same chapter there is also a description of the fierce opposition against Zionism by the reformed Jews of Germany and America. Here we become somewhat impatient with Prof. Gottheil’s serene and dispassionate manner. We feel that he ought to tell the reformed Jews just “what they are.”
The next three chapters treat of “The Jewish Congress” and the evolution of the constructive work of the movement. The different colonization disputes which terminated in the severence of Israel Zangwill from the movement; the abandonment of the faith in political tactics and the redoubled concentration on a systematic colonization of Palestine and the rise of the Poale Zion movement and co-operative colonization are equally well described. But the author’s own attitude, in spite of his attempt to give merely an account, is very apparent, and if it were not so conservative, we might find fault with him for that. In the very last sentence he speaks his mind very frankly: “As a member of such a reorganized state (The Ottoman Empire) a Jewish Palestine will take its due and proper place.” We do not find in the course of the whole book a single hint of those fine hopes, cherished by good Zionists of all parties, for the benefit and enhancement of nationalism everywhere which are to attend the re-establishment of the Jewish State. We will not quarrel with the author, we will even call it good politics. But surely Prof. Gottheil has failed to voice—where the opportunities were numerous and fitting, an idealism which is essentially Jewish, the fulfillment of which will yet inspire the whole world with a decided elevation of the human spirit, and the dignity of human life.
After a chapter on “Ahad Ha’am and the Philosophy of Jewish History”, the author speaks of “Zionism and the Western Jews”...He recounts a good deal of what had already been told in previous chapters. The closing words are, however, particularly striking. I quote them: “However, the continuing dispersion of the Jews into yet new corners of the globe makes the Jewish patriot, whether he be purely religious or purely national, or religiously national, fearful of the consequences. The incessant pressure of the outside world is having its slow and cumulative effect. Those who do not see