The Maccabaean

“Profession of another natiopality (Das Bekenntnis von einem anderen Volke) would be perjury, which none can or shall ever force us to commit. We shall continue loyally to fulfil as Jews, as a people of equal status and with equal " 1Lsı- _N L.._ 1.1.'__L _\Ä _.°,°___.

rights, all our duties as citizens. "We Jewish soldiers hold together as compatriots (Volks- genossen), wear blue and white cockades in our caps, and place ourselves at the disposal of the Jewish National Council for German-Austria. This body alone is competent to deal with our entry into the new national army.

“Jewish soldiers in all the newly created States are recommended to follow this example.”

The reference to the "perjury" of professing another nationality is no mere rhetorical flourish, and may involve a very severe test for those who have been rash enough to bind themselves in this way. A proposal has been laid before the new Staatsrat that every applicant for civil rights should be required to profess his adhesion not merely to the German-Austrian State but to the German nationality. The Jewish National Council has, of course, protested, but this will not necessarily prevent the proposal from becoming law; and in that case it will be interesting to see whether the zealots of the Vienna meeting will have the courage of their convictions. Not unnaturally their attitude is criticized by those Jews who cannot see eye to eye with them, and among whom will probably be found some of the most respected Jews of Austria. Dr. Bloch's Wochenschrift of November 22d rightly points out the absolute necessity for the Jews of keeping on good terms with the majority in the State, and the danger of their committing themselves beforehand by fiery resolutions and noisy declamation. That is not the way, it says, for the National Council to win to its side the members of what used to be the solid middle class or the self-supporting wage-earners. Nor is this the only reason why a "ca' canny" policy is urgently required. In

the Wochenschrift of October 25th, Dr. Heinrich Schreiber makes capital out of the fact that the Jewish national endeavors are hailed with the liveliest satisfaction by the Pan-Germans and Christian Socialists, in fact by the anti-Semites generally, who insist that with the recognition of their own nationality and national status all the Jews must either emigrate or else confine themselves within the narrow limits of their own national organization. That this correctly represents the sentiments of the anti-Semites is sufficiently shown by the following passage from the Ostdeutsche Rundschau:

“We are in full agreement with the Jewish National Council. In the German-Austria of the future naturally only Germans should vote and be eligible for ofice. The Jewish National Council has expressiy resolved that the Jews in future will have only Jewish politics. But German-Austria will have German politics. Hence Adler, Austerlitz, Ellen- bogen, etc., have no say in the affairs of a genuine German-Austria. A Jewish National Council will make them representatives of Jewry. With this we quite agree.” And the notorious Reichspost rubs it in even more strongly when it says: “It is a surprising thing that the Jews, although they possess their own right of national self-determination, and also make use of it, as is shown by the election of Jewish National Councils, yet claim and obtain seats and votes in the national representation of the Germans of Austria.”

Of course there is neither sense nor justification in the suggestion that because the Jews have their own national organization, therefore they may take no share in the affairs of the State of which their national group forms a component part; but the Jewish position is as yet none too strong, and circumspection and moderation are essential.

YEHOODI.

The Hon. A. J. Balfour, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has written an introduction to “A History of Zionism,” by Mr. N. Sokolow. Mr. Balfour says that the Zionist problem had for long had an interest for him and that as long as January, 1906, he had been convinced that history could not be ignored, arıd “that if a home was to be found for the Jewish people, homeless now for nearly nineteen hundred years, it was vain to seek it anywhere but in Palestine.” In a few lines he shows what in his opinion Zionism means for the Jews.. “No one can reasonably doubt,” he says, “that if, as I believe, Zionism can be developed into a working scheme, the benefit it would bring to the Jewish people, especially perhaps to that section of it which most deserves our pity, would be great and lasting. It is not merely that large numbers of them would thus find a refuge from religious and social persecutions; but that they would bear corporate responsibilities and enjoy corporate opportunities of a kind which, from the nature.of the case, they can never possess as citizens of any non-Jewish State... .. Zionism will mitigate the lot and elevate the status of no negligible fraction of the Jewish race. Those who go to Palestine will not be like those who now migrate to London or New York. They will not be animated merely by the desire to lead, in happier surroundings, the kind of life they formerly led in Eastern Europe. They

will go in order to join a civil community which completely harmonizes with their historical and religious sentiments; a community bound to the land it inhabits by something deeper even than custom: a community whose members will suffer from no divided loyalty, nor any temptation to hate the laws under which they are forced to live. To them the material gain should be great; but surely the spiritual gain will be greater still.” Mr. Balfour deals with the fears and position of those “who, though Jews by descent, and often by religion, desire wholly to identify themselves with the life of the country wherein they have made their home.” But he sees no firm foundation for their fears. Finally, he says “That it (Zionism) will settle the Jewish question.” I dare not hope: “But that it will tend to promote that mutual sympathy and comprehension which is the only sure basis of toleration I firmly believe... . If it succeeds, it will do a great spiritual and material work for the Jews, but not for them alone, For as I read its meaning it is. among other things, a serious endeavor to mitigate the age-long miseries created for Western civilization by the presence in its midst of a Body which it too long regarded as alien and even hostile, but which it was equally unable to expel or to absorb. Surely, for this if for no other reason, it should receive our support.”