The Maccabaean

UNEXPECTEDLY and like a bolt from the blue, Congressman Kahn of California has come out with a severe attack against Zionism. It would be futile to enter into a discussion with this gentleman for the reason that his statement is characterized by a fearful poverty of spirit. Not a single original phrase is to be found there. Again and again the worn and frayed argument which every thoughtful person has long since repudiated; again and again the same bombastic phrases which no longer impress anybody, namely, that one cannot be a good American and be a Zionist; that one cannot respect the Jewish flag if one loves the American flag.

I can well imagine the impression that such an attack would make upon our fellow-citizens, the Gentiles. The foremost statesmen of every land display at this moment touching and noble interest in the realization of the two thousand year dream of the Jewish people. The Balfour Declaration favoring a national Jewish homeland in Palestine has been endorsed by the Allied Governments of Europe and Asia, by the supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church and by the Inter-Allied labor parties. Theodore Roosevelt, considered by many as the greatest exponent of the American spirit, on more than one occasion enthusiastically endorsed the Zionist program. President Wilson, in a letter to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Vice-President of the Zionist Organization of America, wrote among other things: "I welcome an opportunity to express the satisfaction I have felt in the progress of the Zionist movement in the United States."

Mr. Kahn is a representative from the State of California. The following representatives of California in Congress have expressed themselves in favor of the Zionist program: Denver S. Church, Charles F. Curry, Everet A. Hayes, William Kettner, Clarence F. Lea, Henry J. Osborn and John E. Rader. Senator J. D. Phelan of California writes: “I would give them (the Zionists) this word of encouragement from the poet, ‘Dream bravely and well and your dreams shall be prophets!’” Forsooth, what do these representatives of the people know about Americanism and patriotism? The Jew, Kahn of California, alone seems to have acquired a 100 per cent monopoly on Americanism.

As one who has had the honor and privilege of serving in the American Army, I know what feelings of bitterness such an attack on Zionism calls out in the hearts of thousands of Jewish boys who have performed their duty towards America courageously, who do not intend to leave this country, at the same time have never ceased to love the Jewish people and to hope for the Restoration of Palestine as the Jewish homeland. As a member of the Zionist Organization I know that the Congressman from California is too weak to hinder so wholesome and natural a movement. I know that greater men than he have butted their heäds against Zionism and were either caught by the powerful current or flung aside.

What interests me in the statement of Mr. Kahn is the psychological background, the inner motive which compels gentlemen of that class to break out from time to time and heap shame and scorn on the Jewish name. For many Americans unfamiliar with the inner life of the Jewish people are perhaps under the belief that these Kahns,

Frishes, Philipsons and so forth, really represent the Jewish people whose interests and welfare they ignore but in whose name they permit themselves to speak.

The American people know that the victory of the Allies in this war has freed the world from the German menace. Not all, however, know that this same victory has freed the Jewish people from the moral domination of a small group of German Jews who, having became saturated with the German chauvinistic lunacy of “Deutchland, Deutchland Uber Alles,” repudiated every quality of nationhood in the Jewish people and developed the queer idea of a Jewish mission. The Jews, according to this idea, are not a people but a sect, and as such they must remain scattered among all the peoples of the world in order to enlighten them. This mission idea, like the German “Kultur” idea, is essentially a colossal piece of impudence for the reason that this enlightenment is entirely unsolicited.

The cradle of hostility towards Zionism is to be found in Germany. The first who issued a protest against Zionism were a number of rabbis in Germany known as the Protest Rabbis. And when they saw themselves defeated, when they saw that the best friends of the Jews among the Gentiles endorsed the idea, they took up another weapon: Calumniation. When some one declared himself a Zionist, they placed in question his patriotism. And it is remarkable that whenever a Jew comes out against Zionism he hails as a rule from Germany. The phenomenon is characteristic. Without wishing it, perhaps, and without knowing it, they speak under the influence of that theory of Jewish life which was “made in Germany.”

The founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, once said: “There may be very high, very respectable reasons why a Jew does not wish or is not able personally to participate in this national movement. But from this it does not follow that he is obliged to suspect and combat it. If he is so far removed from ihe Jewish people that the fate of his former kinsfolk no longer interests him, he may be certain that they likewise will ignore him. Furthermore, the further he has gone from Jewry, the greater should be the respect with which he must look upon the strivings of this national consciousness which is foreign to him. He simply is a non-Zionist. He remains neutral and lukewarm. As a stranger he will appreciate and support the just objects of the Zionists just as is done by our Christian friends who belong to the various nations.. When, however, he comes out as an Anti-Zionist in a loud and offensive manner, when he scoffs, utters abuse, calumniates, traduces, then it is clear that there is something wrong with his amalgamation with the people to which he claims to belong exclusively. Then it is clear that he lacks moral equilibrium.”

Congressman Kahn is a good example of this tragic-comic phenomenon in Jewish life. In the Zionist Organization there are men who have a greater right to speak in the name of the Jewish people. They are men who have been chosen by the people and they are men, also, who have done for America at least as much as he. Nevertheless, they are not at all afraid of becoming suspect and do not flaunt their patriotism. Only a few weeks ago there met in Philadelphia the Jewish Congress in which every section of American Jewry was represented. Among the delegates there were