Books-New and Old
A Chronicle of Our Own People
Past and Present: A Collection of Jewish Essays. By ISRAEL FRIEDLAENDER. Obtainable from Zionist Organization of America. $2.25.
A FAR cry from "The Political Ideal of the Prophets" to "Palestine and the World War." Yet the vast distance between the two has been shrunk into the limits of a single volume of twenty-seven chapters in Professor Israel Friedlaender's "Past and Present." The volume consists of a collection of essays that have appeared from time to time during the past fifteen years in various publications. These essays fall approximately into three groups, concerned respectively with Biblical Times, the Spanish period, and the present day.
Speaking generally, all the articles have a bearing on the solution of the Jewish problem of today. Indeed, one who is posted on contemporary discussion is startled by the pertinency of the articles in the first group. Apparently the Jewish problem is now what it was long ago. Age, alas, could not wither it, nor custom make stale its relentless uniformity. This is the impression we get from reading the book, for the author, by a miraculous shrinkage of the centuries intervening between the prophets of old and the prophets of today, has made the remote past a vivid and relevant reality. The cry may be a far one but it is still the same.
The order of the articles gives no indication of the chronology of composition, the present arrangement being determined solely by logical requirements in the development of the theme, which the author himself pithily expresses as Zionism plus Diaspora. The Diaspora note is dominant only in the second group, which numbers but four papers, three of which are devoted to Maimonides. In the Spanish period Judaism was called upon to adjust itself to European culture and under the leadership of Maimonides it succeeded in doing so. Thus was demonstrated once for all, that Judaism had nothing to fear from other cultures.
Zionism is now the dominant note in the life of the Jews; nevertheless the Diaspora problems were never more grave or compelling. Hence the chapters concerned with the present day, though mainly Zionistic in their tenor, are yet in large measure devoted to problems of the Diaspora. Indeed, it is the author's opinion that the Diaspora will remain a permanent and significant fact in Jewish life even after the realization of the Zionist ideal. We find, therefore, a paper on "The Problem of Polish Jewry," one on "The Present Jewish Outlook in Russia," and, significantly enough, no less than five on Judaism in America. The aim of these papers is to demonstrate the compatibility of genuine Judaism "with the life of the nations in whose midst we dwell." In this contention the author has the overwhelming support of the facts of history.
Particularly interesting in this series are "The Function of Jewish Learning in America" and "The Americanization of the Jewish Immigrant." The former is a trumpet-call to an opportunity. The author makes clear that Jewish learning, to be vital, must be of a kind with the non-Jewish learning of the day. The Spanish period serves as an example. Maimonides, as the author shows in the articles devoted to
him, was a European scholar, but no whit less a Jewish scholar on that account. Correspondingly, America, which is destined shortly to become the leading Jewish center of the Diaspora, may, and ought to be, the scene of a powerful revival of productive Jewish scholarly activity, in line with the contemporary scholarship of the world. As a field for this activity the author suggests the much inclusive Science of Judaism, a field which non-Jews tread familiarly and which they are perfectly willing to occupy exclusively. Would it not be to our disgrace were we to permit them? Surely, for instance, Semitic philology is the Jew's subject. Incidentally it may be noted as an encouraging sign, that at this moment the leading students of Egyptian philology in this country are Jews.
In "The Americanization of the Jewish Immigrant" is considered thoughtfully the serious situation that develops when one is wrenched from his old environment and thrust into a new one, of which he is apt to grasp and incorporate only the superficialities. The gravity of the situation as far as American Jewry is concerned cannot escape any observer. What is the solution? Not the further, and, if possible, complete, uprooting of the Jew from his past, but, on the contrary, the reconstruction of his old environment. The modifications necessary to establish a harmony with American conditions will then begin at once and proceed in a normal way. But nothing essential will have to be given up. It is significant that the same conclusion is reached by Dr. Max Radin, an American bred Jew, an American scholar, and American educator, writing in the June, 1919, issue of THE MACCABAEAN.
The rest of the book may be said to be concerned directly with the Zionist movement. After decisively, and in masterly fashion, disposing of the so-called "Mission Theory" (see page 378), the author proceeds to consider successively the three chief views of Jewish nationalism; namely, "Spiritual Nationalism," "Spiritual Zionism," and "Political Zionism," represented respectively by Dubnow, Ahad Ha'am, and Herzl. The author is content to make clear the position of each. No refutation is called for, for most Zionists will agree with either Dubnow or Ahad Ha'am as far as each goes, but will hold that neither goes far enough.
There are two papers that do not fit snugly into the scheme of the book. They are "Maimonides as a Master of Style" and "A New Specimen of Biblical Exegesis." Yet we are thankful to the author that he did not omit either: one, because it vitalizes a great Jewish figure; the other—well, the other because it is an admirable specimen of that same American Jewish scholarship that he pleads for so eloquently in another chapter. It is gratifying to have among us a Jewish scholar equipped to face undaunted the best-known Old Testament scholar in America; one, moreover, who has the prestige back of him of having been a martyr to the cause of Higher Criticism and of having given his name to a theologic heresy.
To say that the book is readable would not be rendering adequate justice. The book has style—a style that is not only clear but beautiful. It is hard to believe that the man responsible for such diction delivered his first English address less than fifteen years ago. Here evidently we meet a minute scholar who has found time to read his Shake-