Anti-Zionism—A Reply
THE discourse on "The Crisis in American Israel" is the culmination of a series of violent attacks on Zionism, recently launched by the Rev. Samuel Schulman—at the occasion of the dedication of a temple, then again as an article in non-Jewish press, and now as a commentary on the meeting in Philadelphia on the Congress. With Isaiah, whose universalism the rabbi is so fond of misinterpreting, we feel "For the sake of Zion will I not be silent." For the sake of right action by the great body of Jews of this day in matters concerning all of time, it is of gravest moment that we have a true concept of Jewish life. Clear thought in the present crisis will affect the generations of the centuries to come.
It is further necessary that all passionate partisanship be ruled out. We dare not emulate the reverend doc- ‚tor’s example when he slurs an Orthodox Rabbi as “impertinent,” taunts a non-Ziontst rabbi, sympathetic to Zionism, with “carrying water on both shoulders,” re- viles the good name of another Jew in terms of ‘“demo- gogic speeches” while he offers a Reform rabbi, an advocate of Zionism, the delicate dilemma of being “intellectually muddle-headed or intellectually disingenuous.”” If the attacks were based entirely on personal animus toward those who oppose him, we should ignore the insults, and say inwardly, with the Psalmist, “silence the lips of them that speak insolently of the righteous, with haushtiness and contempt.”
Anti-Zionism—Its Results and History.
But it is because there are bound up in the position of the anti-Zionists logical fallacies and perversions of history; it is because the consequences of their theories would be a continuation of the disaster which trails cosmopolitan Reform, that these attacks must be answered again. The charges of Dr. Schulman are similar to those of the "Protestrabbiner," Maybaum, Horovitz, Guttman, Auerbach, and Werner, a refutation of whose indictment may be found in Herzl's "Zionistische Schriften." Nevertheless "in every generation do they arise to destroy us."
The Separation of Race and Creed.
For their purpose anti-Zionists have conceived of a fracture of Jewish life into religion and nationality, and have for the purpose of suppressing the national element cunningly stressed the religious factor. So says this rabbi in various paraphrases, "Israel never was a nation in the modern sense. It outgrew every trace of nationality." Fourteen millions of Jews are unified by religion only."
A theory of this kind can pass muster in a Jewish audience only when it has suffered from a policy of neglect of Jewish education.
The Evidence from Jewish Literature.
To any one who is familiar with the Bible and the Talmud, who reads Jewish history in the light of social evolution, such a dichotomy is beyond understanding. The identity of the national and religious factors is shown in the bibical quotation, “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The Midrash has it “The Holy One, blessed be He, the Torah and Israel are One.” That such a division is unhistoric and incorreet is made manifest bv the national character of
the prayers down the centuries. Until the inception of the Reform movement all Jews prayed twice daily "Guardian of Israel, preserve Thou the remnant of Israel and suffer not Israel to be destroyed" (repeated as "holy nation" and "unique nation" substituted for "Israel").
Evidences from Non-Jewish Sources.
However, since the rabbi may disdain such proof, I would refer him to some non-Jewish sources. In a series of twelve sociological studies entitled “The Making of a Nation,” Charles Foster Kent, a teacher of the science of religion, and Jeremiah Whipple Jenks, an authority on politics and social legislation, developed in a very simple way the nationalistic basis of Jewish life. Lyman Abbott in “The Life and Letters of the Ancient Hebrews’” revalues the Bible in terms of recent criticism, and shows how Israel in its normal functioning as a nation developed the Bible—a system of laws governing human relations in society. Wellhausen refers to national growfh in ancient Israel in the statement: “The time of Moses is the most creative in Israel’s history. The later prophets merely gave greater distinctiveness to the peculiar character of the nation.”
The Evidence from Sociology.
Nationalism and religion are not only inseparable in the case of Israel but are not even mutually exclusive in any case. Benjamin Kidd in his “Social Evolution” defines religion as the function of a social group. When Dr. Schulman says that the religious idea organized the nation he confuses cause and effect. One might as truthfully say that a sermon created Dr. Schulman.
Sei Ar" Be a RE ae ip Our entire theological thinking has been recast as a result of the growth of sociology. The doctorate thesis on “The Social Origin of the Synagogue” by Rabbi Mendel Silber is an application of the science of sociology to Jewish life. The glib repetition of the term Keneseth Yisroel as an epitome of the Jewish church finds justification neither in Jewish literature nor in philology. The Midrashic interpretation of “Shir Ha-Shirim” the Song of Songs, pictures the Keneseth Yisroel, the people of Israel, the Jewish nation, or the community, seeking after (God. The word “Kenes” root of Keneseth means to gather, to assemble—a secular term, and is first applied in the Book of Esther. The religious significance of the word Keneseth depends upon its association with the Jewish people, with the nation. The Beth Ha-Keneseth, the community centre, according to our authority, was the prototype of the New England town hall. Truth transcends time. That this concept of the Beth Ha- Keneseth is correct is evident from its influence to this day in the founding of the “Central Jewish Institute” and in the projection of “The Tewish Centre.”
World Progress Since the Initiation of Reform.
Because the work of August Comte in the founding of the science of sociology did not influence David Friedlander, Geiger and Holdheim, this is no reason for any scholar or rabbi to-day to reiterate the arrant nonsense about “secular nationalism being a destructive force” or about “the church of Israel.” Because in the mad desire for freedom early reformers needlessly bartered for civic rights the Jewish soul with its tradition and its hopes for restoration, shall we, after watching the failure of the vast experiment from the perspective of three generations, rehearse their folly? Let the cosmonpolitan Reform rabbi