Past and present; a collection of Jewish essays

Preface

The collection of essays presented herewith to the public consists of a number of articles and addresses which I have written or delivered during the last twenty years — since 1899 when, as a young student, I entered literary and public life. They are intended for the general reader, although it is hoped that they may not prove altogether valueless to the specialist.

However, the volume represents not only a collection but also a selection. I have rigidly excluded everything that I thought was of merely passing interest at the time it was written, or that I did not consider sufficiently popular, either in subject-matter or in form of presentation, to appeal to the intelligent layman. In one or two instances I found myself compelled to substantiate my theses by a few technical references. I have put these references in small type, in the hope that they will not obtrude themselves upon the reader, and, like the proverbial good children, will be seen and not heard.

Three of the essays ("The Hebrew Language," "The Messianic Idea in Islam," and "Maimonides as a Master of Style") were originally written in German and translated by the author for the present volume.

Two of the essays ("Were Our Ancestors Capable of Self-Government?" and "A New Specimen of Modern Biblical Exegesis") are polemical in character. The former is a rejoinder to an article attacking Zionism on the basis of alleged historical facts; the latter viii PREFACE

is a review of a bulky commentary which represents the most radical type of modern Biblical criticism. It is needless for me to say that, in spite of their polemical tone, the essays are free from all personal animosity; as a matter of fact, neither of the authors against whom they were directed were personally known to me at the time of writing. Nevertheless, I felt considerable hesitation before embodying these essays in this volume. But the importance and timeliness of the issues discussed in them made me ultimately decide on their inclusion. In republishing these two essays here I have omitted in one of them the name of the writer whose arguments I endeavored to refute; in the case of the other essay it was unfortunately impossible for me to do so, without destroying its entire literary structure, but the unbiased reader will find that the tone, though sharply polemical, is free from personal acrimony.

All the essays collected in the present volume, with the exception of two ("The International Zionist Congress," and "Palestine and the World War"), which are printed here for the first time, originally appeared in various periodical publications, and are reproduced here with the permission of the editors.

The essays have been carefully revised for the present edition, though the revision has been limited to language and style. I did not consider myself at liberty to change the content. Where such changes became unavoidable, they were marked in the footnotes and placed in square brackets. It was a source of gratification to me to find that the views expressed in my earliest essays, nearly two decades ago, are

PREFACE ix

substantially the same which are advocated in my latest articles.

I have entitled this volume "Past and Present" in order to indicate the two-fold character of its subject-matter, dealing as it does with various phases of the Jewish past, on the one hand, and with numerous problems of the Jewish present, on the other. At the same time the title is intended to convey the fundamental tendency of these essays, viz., to interpret the events of the past in the light of the present, and the problems of the present in the light of the past. I have written neither as an archeologist, with his eye riveted on the past, nor as a journalist, with his horizon limited to the present, but rather as an historian — in that sense in which the ancient Romans called history Magistra Vitae, "The Teacher of Life." Nowhere is this historical method of approach more applicable and, indeed, more imperative than it is in the case of the Jews, in whose life the past and the present are inextricably bound up with one another.

While the diversity of subjects treated in this volume is undoubtedly due — as it is in every collection of essays — to the personal equation of the author, representing the range of his literary and public interests, yet I venture to claim that the thoughtful reader will be able to detect the common bond which links all the essays together and transforms the apparently heterogeneous mass of material into one homogeneous whole. The volume is based upon the fundamental conception of Judaism as a living organism, which is one and indivisible at all times and in all climes; changing and yet unchanged;

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harking back to a great past and struggling, in the midst of a harassing present, towards a glorious future. That conception views Israel as a community in which the religious and racial element is inseparably intertwined with one another, in which the universal ideals and the national aspirations form a harmonious combination — a combination which can be realized only through the untrammeled and unhindered development of the Jewish genius on a Jewish soil. It is essentially the ancient Messianic tenet of Judaism, which looks forward to the restoration of Israel as part of the restoration of the entire human race. It is, therefore, natural that Zionism, which is the modern successor of Messianism, should occupy a conspicuous place in this collection. The first essays in this volume deal with the Zionist ideal as formulated and preached by the prophets of Israel, and the last essays treat of the same ideal in its modern manifestations.

But while believing in Zionism as the ultimate consummation of Israel's hope, and his only safeguard against absorption in the whirlpool of humanity, the writer does not belong to those who champion "the denial of the Golus" and are willing to neglect or to sacrifice the bulk of the Jewish people outside of Palestine for the sake of a small minority who are to form the Jewish nucleus in Palestine. Basing his deductions upon acknowledged historical facts, he is convinced that, given the unifying and inspiring influence of a Jewish center in our ancient homeland, Jewish life in the Diaspora may be so shaped as to harmonize both with the age-long traditions of our

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people and with the life of the nations in whose midst we dwell. It is for this reason that a number of essays have been included which are dedicated to the Jewish-Arabic period, for during that period Judaism and Islam exercised a profound influence on each other, and Jewish culture, while adapting itself successfully to the environment, was yet able to remain genuinely and distinctively Jewish.

The author, moreover, thoroughly shares the view, which is held and has frequently been expressed by many thinking Jews of Europe, that America is destined to become in the near future the leading Jewish center of the Diaspora, and that it is the duty of American Jewry to live up to the great obligation placed upon it by history. Hence, a number of essays are devoted to a discussion of Jewish problems in our own country. Zionism plus Diaspora, Palestine plus America — these formulas express in a nutshell the leading thoughts of the present volume.

A considerable number of essays embodied in this collection were originally public addresses delivered on various occasions. Some of them were reduced to writing after their delivery, and, therefore, cannot claim to be a faithful reproduction of the original public utterances. It is in view of this character of the volume that I venture to repeat at the entrance to this publication the plea, made in one of these addresses ("The Function of Jewish Learning in America"), in favor of the establishment of a proper and responsible agency for the public discussion of Jewish problems. Although this country affords a much wider scope and attaches much greater significance xii PREFACE

to the platform in public life than is customary in Europe, we have as yet failed to create a medium of expression for public opinion, such as is to be found in practically all European centers of Jewry. In Russia there existed as far back as 1908 a Jewish Literary Society which maintained one hundred and twenty branches throughout that huge empire; in Germany there existed, and probably still exists, a vast net-work of Societies for Jewish History and Literature, which are centralized in a common "League"; and in England there is similarly to be found a Union of Jewish Literary Societies. If it be our desire to establish the Jewish platform in America on a proper basis, so that it may combine dignity with popularity, and an enlightened interest in the past with a practical insight into the present, it is absolutely essential that we create here a similar organization which will enable Jewish men of letters as well as Jewish men of affairs to discuss the problems of Jewish life and history on a high plane, and will give stability and permanency to the numerous public utterances regarding Jews and Judaism, which at present are entirely haphazard, and in most cases carry no weight whatsoever. The coming era of reconstruction, which is bound to affect American Jewry as it will the rest of humanity, ought to be particularly favorable to the realization of this plan, as of many other schemes, looking to the development and betterment of American Israel.

Israel Friedlaender New York, February 28th, 1919.

Contents

I The Political Ideal of the Prophets 1

II Nationalism and Assimilation in Bible Times 35

III Were Our Ancestors Capable of Self-Government?. 39