ZIONISM AS AN EXPRESSION OF JEWISH PATRIOTISM
The grounds on which we predicate Jewish nationality are our common history and ideals, language, land and race. Each of these elements of nationality is intimately bound up with patriotism. It is therefore not without interest to inquire what is the reference of each to the specific expression of patriotism which we find in Zionism.
It is not necessary here to define the term patriotism. There is a fine, broad, unselfish patriotism that involves the merging of the individual's interest in that of his country for the love of that country, its laws, right, institutions and welfare, as there is a raucous, childish patriotism of flag frenzy, or a narrow, jealous, rancorous patriotism that breeds prejudice, dissension and strife. For the present we may accept the term patriotism in its atmospheric vagueness without further definition. Its implications will become clearer as our consideration unfolds itself.
Our common history is the first element of nationality to attract our attention.
Patriotism is closely bound up with the popular historic consciousness. It draws much of its inspiration from history. A national hero lives in popular legends, songs and folk celebrations as a perpetual stimulant of patriotic spirit. To this day on the Lake of Lucerne, William Tell, even though he may never have lived, is commemorated in an annual celebration. To this day the more modern national hero, Andreas Hofer, living on in folksongs and celebrations, inspires the sturdy Tyrolese with patriotic fervor. "Scots wha hae wi Wallace bled, Scots wham Bruce has often led," is the verse of Burns voicing the spirit that is not yet dead on the moors of Scotland. What Joan of Arc means to the French people, and what such recently apotheosized popular demigods as Bismarck, Garibaldi, Cavour, Mazzini, Washington, Lincoln, Kossuth, Gustavus Vasa or Kosciuszko mean to the peoples who keep their memory
green with patriotic love, is known to all.
What, then, of our national heroes? Our Jewish hall of fame is overcrowded, even if we do not include Hillel, Saadya, Rashi, Maimonides and the large host of heroes of spirit who throng in our history. We can vaunt ourselves on a noble company of national heroes, using the term national in a narrower sense, such as Judas Maccabaeus, Bar Kochba and all the national heroes of the Bible from Moses to Ezra. Before Zionism was born these all, with the exception of Moses, were literary, and not popular, heroes. They did not live in the popular mind and heart. Although most Jews had heard of Judas Maccabaeus he was to them a name and a stirring melody rather than a principle and a personality. Bar Kochba, unknown to the masses, was a discredited charlatan rather than a hero, even to those who knew his name. Few, indeed, recognized that our Isaiahs or Jeremiahs, besides being preachers of righteousness and literary prophets, were also great patriot heroes. Samuel and David, and the other stalwart warrior- heroes of ancient Israel, were either vague, remote shadows from the past, or, like the magniflcent figure of Elijah, were reduced in the popular consciousness to the level of miracle-mongers. National Israel did not realize that in the life history of one man such as that of David there is the riches of an unsurpassed, national epic, capable of inspiring the national spirit in every man, woman and child. Is not the story of David and Goliath at least the equal of the legend of Saint George and the Dragon; the history of David and the Philistines at least as heroic as that of King Alfred and the Danes; the picture of David, the sweet singer of Israel, the master psalmist, at least as glorious as that of King Alfred and his harp; the story of David the outlaw at least as thrilling as that of Richard Coeur de