Constitutional Foundations of the New Zion
THE history of civilization in Europe has been distinguished by the constant and relentless conflict of two groups and forces, which are designated, according to the aspects of them men choose to consider, as tradition and intelligence, authority and freedom, privilege and justice, property and humanity, autocracy and democracy. In this conflict the rank and file of mankind, dispossessed, enslaved and exploited by the classes, have slowly and with immense pain and travail, broken one strand after another of the bonds with which the minorities of privilege have bound them. Often they have broken one band only to find themselves fast in another, as in the substitution, in the industrial countries of Europe of wage-slavery for serfdom. Often instruments of liberation have been converted into tools of exploitation as in the transition from the medieval to the capitalistic system in modern Europe. Mankind, nevertheless, has to-day won to a freedom inconceivable a hundred years ago and entirely foreign to the mind of antiquity. The chief agency in this successful democracy of protest and liberation has been the growth of knowledge- the knowledge of the nature and laws of the world we live in, the knowledge of the nature of man and of the society and civilization he makes. This knowledge has led to the successful conquest of nature and to the successful challenge of authority, tradition, privilege, property and autocracy. D R. KALLEN con- of The Menorah article of a series of discussion of the funda- involved in the creation state. These questions portance, for the Public will be called upon to pass of certain conditions and ommendations that will of far-reaching importions should be taken up ist circles, in order that will have to be rendered in the Zionist organiza- be in existence a body opinion, based upon the facts and principles. To ish thought, Dr. Kallen is our readers as a frequent writer, who writes out of a clear notion of the article, the conclusions of pear in our next issue, to contributions by other
The success has been far from uniform and nowhere thoroughgoing. It was easy for the ruling class everywhere to acquire a monopoly of the agencies of knowledge and production and to pervert them to its purposes. At the beginning of the twentieth century it seemed as if privilege were more firmly than ever astride mankind. At the end of its second decade it seems again about to be finally unhorsed. Those standing like the Japanese, Okuma, outside the continuum of Occidental civilization, able to observe and
DR. KALLEN contributes to this issue of The Maccabaean the first article of a series to be devoted to a discussion of the fundamental problems involved in the creation of the Jewish state. These questions are of prime importance, for the Palestine Commission will be called upon to make investigations of certain conditions that will call for recommendations that will involve policies of far-reaching importance. These questions should be taken up now in all Zionist circles, in order that when decisions will have to be rendered by authorities in the Zionist organization, there may be in existence an intelligent public opinion, based upon knowledge of the facts and principles. In the field of Jewish thought, Dr. Kallen is well known to our readers as a trenchant, thorough writer, who writes deliberately and with a clear notion of fundamentals. This article, the conclusion of which will appear in our next issue, will be followed by contributions by other writers of merit.
to judge it with detachment, see in the present war the end of this civilization. Men of the western world have now a chance to make a new beginning, in a world which all the fervor and nobility of youth is with its blood making safe for democracy. The autocratic enemy of this democracy has been destroyed in Russia; in England the British labor party is threatening privilege in all its forms with a new program. And the democratic hope of the United States is the initiative and leadership of President Wilson.
That the present worldwar marks the end of a civilization no better witness is to be found than the new political status of the Jewish people. For a millennium and a half the Jewish people has been kept beyond the law of the family of nations. Its place among mankind had been defined for it by a theological system, familiar to all men, which declared the Jewish people to have been accursed of God and destined to wander, an outlaw at the borders of civilization, until the second coming of the Man-god. Only the slow growth of scientific knowledge, the discovery of the truth about the nature of the world and the place of man in the world, only the reconstruction of history by the methods of science and the discovery of the sharp conflict between legend and fact concerning the Jews, could displace this system in the minds of men and restore the Jews
to the normalities of international life. The progress of democracy and the liberation of the Jewish people, their admission into the family of nations, are coincident.
And the connection between these two matters are no more coincidence. The Jewish people have had neither a small nor an undistinguished share in the liberation of Europe. The foundations of their ancient tradition are the ideals of social justice and fundamental economic democracy. These are the burden of the teachings of their prophets, these are the substance of two great codes—that of Deuteronomy and that of Leviticus—in their Bible. From the soils of these