consent to a certain amount of "inflation," as compared with the
present monetary situation, if one could believe that the State
would really make a rational use of the windfall thus accruing to
it.
The weaknesses of your plan lie, so it seems to me, in the sphere
of psychology, or rather, in your neglect of it. It is no accident
that capitalism has brought with it progress not merely in
production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are,
alas, stronger forces than public spirit and sense of duty. In
Russia, they say, it is impossible to get a decent piece of
bread.…Perhaps I am over-pessimistic concerning State
and other forms of communal enterprise, but I expect little good
from them. Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work. I have
seen and experienced too many dreadful warnings, even in
comparatively model Switzerland.
I am inclined to the view that the State can only be of real use to
industry as a limiting and regulative force. It must see to it that
competition among the workers is kept within healthy limits, that
all children are given a chance to develop soundly, and that
wages are high enough for the goods produced to be consumed.
But it can exert a decisive influence through its regulative function
if--and there again you are right--its measures are framed in an
objective spirit by independent experts.
I would like to write to you at greater length, but cannot find the
time.
Minorities
It seems to be a universal fact that minorities--especially when the
individuals composing them are distinguished by physical peculiarities--are
treated by the majorities among whom they live as an inferior order of
beings. The tragedy of such a fate lies not merely in the unfair treatment
to which these minorities are automatically subjected in social and economic
matters, but also in the fact that under the suggestive influence of the
majority most of the victims themselves succumb to the same prejudice and
regard their brethren as inferior beings. This second and greater part of
the evil can be overcome by closer combination and by deliberate education
of the minority, whose spiritual liberation can thus be accomplished.
The efforts of the American negroes in this direction are deserving of
all commendation and assistance.
Observations on the Present Situation in Europe
The distinguishing feature of the present political situation of the
world, and in particular of Europe, seems to me to be this, that political.
development has failed, both materially and intellectually, to keep pace
with economic necessity, which has changed its character in a comparatively
short time. The interests of each country must be subordinated to the
interests of the wider community. The struggle for this new orientation of
political thought and feeling is a severe one, because it has the tradition
of centuries against it. But the survival of Europe depends on its
successful issue. It is my firm conviction that once the psychological
impediments are overcome the solution of the real problems will not be such
a terribly difficult matter. In order to create the right atmosphere, the
most essential thing is personal co-operation between men of like mind. May
our united efforts succeed in building a bridge of mutual trust between the
nations!
The Heirs of the Ages
Previous generations were able to look upon intellectual and cultural
progress as simply the inherited fruits of their forebears' labours, which
made life easier and more beautiful for them. But the calamities of our
times show us that this was a fatal illusion.
We see now that the greatest efforts are needed if this legacy of
humanity's is to prove a blessing and not a curse. For whereas formerly it
was enough for a man to have freed himself to some extent from personal
egotism to make him a valuable member of society, to-day he must also be
required to overcome national and class egotism. Only if he reaches those
heights can he contribute towards improving the lot of humanity.
As regards this most important need of the age the inhabitants of a
small State are better placed than those of a great Power, since the latter
are exposed, both in politics and economics, to the temptation to gain their
ends by brute force. The agreement between Holland and Belgium, which is the
only bright spot in European affairs during the last few years, encourages
one to hope that the small nations will play a leading part in the attempt
to liberate the world from the degrading yoke of militarism through the
renunciation of the individual country's unlimited right of
self-determination.
Germany 1933
Manifesto
As long as I have any choice, I will only stay in a country where
political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law
are the rule. Political liberty implies liberty to express one's political
views orally and in writing, toleration, respect for any and every
individual opinion.
These conditions do not obtain in Germany at the present time. Those
who have done most for the cause of international understanding, among them
some of the leading artists, are being persecuted there.
Any social organism can become psychically distempered just as any
individual can, especially in times of difficulty. Nations usually survive
these distempers. I hope that healthy conditions will soon supervene in
Germany, and that in future her great men like Kant and Goethe will not
merely be commemorated from time to time, but that the principles which they
inculcated will also prevail in public life and in the general
consciousness.
March, 1933.
Correspondence with the Prussian Academy of Sciences
The following correspondence is here published for the first time in
its authentic and complete form. The version published in German newspapers
was for the most part incorrect, important sentences being omitted.
The Academy's declaration of April I, 1933, against Einstein.
The Prussian Academy of Sciences heard with indignation from the
newspapers of Albert Einstein's participation in atrocity-mongering in
France and America. It immediately demanded an explanation. In the meantime
Einstein has announced his withdrawal from the Academy, giving as his reason
that he cannot continue to serve the Prussian State under its present
Government. Being a Swiss citizen, he also, it seems, intends to resign the
Prussian nationality which he acquired in 1913 simply by becoming a full
member of the Academy.
The Prussian Academy of Sciences is particularly distressed by
Einstein's activities as an agitator in foreign countries, as it and its
members have always felt themselves bound by the closest ties to the
Prussian State and, while abstaining strictly from all political
partisanship, have alwa58 stressed and remained faithful to the national
idea. It has, therefore, no reason to regret Einstein's withdrawal.
Prof. Dr. Ernst Heymann, Perpetual Secretary. Le Coq, near Ostende,
April 5, 1933
To the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
I have received information from a thoroughly reliable source
that the Academy of Sciences has spoken in an official statement
of "Einstein's participation in atrocity-mongering in America and
France."
I hereby declare that I have never taken any part in
atrocity-mongering, and I must add that I have seen nothing of
any such mongering anywhere. In general people have contented
themselves with reproducing and commenting on the official
statements and orders of responsible members of the German
Government, together with the programme for the annihilation of
the German Jews by economic methods.
The statements I have issued to the Press were concerned with
my intention to resign my position in the Academy and renounce
my Prussian citizenship; I gave as my reason for these steps that
I did not wish to live in a country where the individual does not
enjoy equality before the law and freedom to say and teach what
he likes.
Further, I described the present state of affairs in Germany as a
state of psychic distemper in the masses and also made some
remarks about its causes.
In a written document which I allowed the International League
for combating Anti-Semitism to make use of for the purpose of
enlisting support, and which was not intended for the Press at all,
I also called upon all sensible people, who are still faithful to the
ideals of a civilization in peril, to do their utmost to prevent this
mass-psychosis, which is exhibiting itself in such terrible
symptoms in Germany to-day, from spreading further.
It would have been an easy matter for the Academy to get hold
of a correct version of my words before issuing the sort of
statement about me that it has. The German Press has
reproduced a deliberately distorted version of my words, as
indeed was only to be expected with the Press muzzled as it is
to-day.
I am ready to stand by every word I have published. In return, I
expect the Academy to communicate this statement of mine to
its members and also to the German public before which I have
been slandered, especially as it has itself had a hand in slandering
me before that public.
The Academy's Answer of April 11, 1933
The Academy would like to point out that its statement of April
1, 1933. was based not merely on German but principally on
foreign, particularly French and Belgian, newspaper reports
which Herr Einstein has not contradicted; in addition, it had
before it his much-canvassed statement to the League for
combating anti-Semitism, in which he deplores Germany's
relapse into the barbarism of long-passed ages. Moreover, the
Academy has reason to know that Herr Einstein, who according
to his own statement has taken no part in atrocitymongering, has
at least done nothing to counteract unjust suspicions and
slanders, which, in the opinion of the Academy, it was his duty
as one of its senior members to do. Instead of that Herr Einstein
has made statements, and in foreign countries at that, such as,
coming from a man of world-wide reputation, were bound to be
exploited and abused by the enemies not merely of the present
German Government but of the whole German people.
For the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
(Signed) H. von Ficker,
E. Heymann,
Perpetual Secretaries.
Berlin, April 7, 1933
The Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Professor Albert Einstein, Leyden,
c/o Prof. Ehrenfest, Witte Rosenstr.
Dear Sir,
As the present Principal Secretary of the Prussian Academy I
beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication dated
March 28 announcing your resignation of your membership of
the Academy. The Academy took cognizance of your
resignation in its plenary session of March 30, 1933.
While the Academy profoundly regrets the turn events have
taken, this regret is inspired by the thought that a man of the
highest scientific authority, whom many years of work among
Germans and many years of membership of our society must
have made familiar with the German character and German
habits of thought, should have chosen this moment to associate
himself with a body of people abroad who--partly no doubt
through ignorance of actual conditions and events--have done
much damage to our German people by disseminating erroneous
views and unfounded rumours. We had confidently expected
that one who had belonged to our Academy for so long would
have ranged himself, irrespective of his own political sympathies,
on the side of the defenders of our nation against the flood of lies
which has been let loose upon it. In these days of mud-slinging,
some of it vile, some of it ridiculous, a good word for the
German people from you in particular might have produced a
great effect, especially abroad. Instead of which your testimony
has served as a handle to the enemies not merely of the present
Government but of the German people. This has come as a
bitter and grievous disappointment to us, which would no doubt
have led inevitably to a parting of the ways even if we had not
received your resignation.
Yours faithfully,
(signed) von Ficker.
Le Coq-sur-Mer, Belgium, April 12, 1933
To the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin.
I have received your communication of the seventh instant and
deeply deplore the mental attitude displayed in it.
As regards the fact, I can only reply as follows: What you say
about my behaviour is, at bottom, merely another form of the
statement you have already published, in which you accuse me
of having taken part in atrocity-mongering against the German
nation. I have already, in my last letter, characterized this
accusation as slanderous.
You have also remarked that a "good word" on my part for "the
German people" would have produced a great effect abroad. To
this I must reply that such a testimony as you suggest would have
been equivalent to a repudiation of all those notions of justice
and liberty for which I have all my life stood. Such a testimony
would not be, as you put it, a good word for the German nation;
on the contrary, it would only have helped the cause of those
who are seeking to undermine the ideas and principles which
have won for the German nation a place of honour in the
civilized world. By giving such a testimony in the present
circumstances I should have been contributing, even if only
indirectly, to the barbarization of manners and the destruction of
all existing cultural values.
It was for this reason that I felt compelled to resign from the
Academy, and your letter only shows me how right I was to do
so.
Munich, Aril 8, 1933
>From the Bavarian Academy of Sciences to Professor Albert Einstein.
Sir,
In your letter to the Prussian Academy of Sciences you have
given the present state of affairs in Germany as the reason for
your resignation. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences, which
some years ago elected you a corresponding member, is also a
German Academy, closely allied to the Prussian and other
German Academies; hence your withdrawal from the Prussian
Acadeiny of Sciences is bound to affect your relations with our
Academy.
We must therefore ask you how you envisage your relations with
our Academy after what has passed between yourself and the
Prussian Academy.
The President of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Le Coq-sur-Mer, April 21, 1933
To the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich.
I have given it as the reason for my resignation from the Prussian
Academy that in the present circumstances I have no wish either
to be a German citizen or to remain in a position of
quasi-dependence on the Prussian Ministry of Education.
These reasons would not, in themselves, involve the severing of
my relations with the Bavarian Academy. If I nevertheless desire
my name to be removed from the list of members, it is for a
different reason.
The primary duty of an Academy is to encourage and protect
the scientific life of a country. The learned societies of Germany
have, however--to the best of knowledge--stood by and said
nothing while a not inconsiderable proportion of German savants
and students, and also of professional men of university
education, have been deprived of all chance of getting
employment or earning their livings in Germany. I would rather
not belong to any society which behaves in such a manner, even
if it does so under external pressure.
A Reply
The following lines are Einstein's answer to an invitation to associate
himself with a French manifesto against Anti-Semitism in Germany.
I have considered this most important proposal, which has a bearing on
several things that I have nearly at heart, carefully from every angle. As a
result I have come to the conclusion that I cannot take a personal part in
this extremely important affair, for two reasons:--
In the first place I am, after all, still a German citizen, and in the
second I am a Jew. As regards the first point I must add that I have worked
in German institutions and have always been treated with full confidence in
Germany. However deeply I may regret the things that are being done there,
however strongly I am bound to condemn the terrible mistakes that are being
made with the approval of the Government; it is impossible for me to take
part personally in an enterprise set on foot by responsible members of a
foreign Government. In order that you may appreciate this fully, suppose
that a French citizen in a more or less analogous situation had got up a
protest against the French Government's action in conjunction with prominent
German statesmen. Even if you fully admitted that the protest was amply
warranted by the facts, you would still, I expect, regard the behaviour of
your fellow-citizen as an act of treachery. If Zola had felt it necessary to
leave France at the time of the Dreyfus case, he would still certainly not
have associated himself with a protest by German official personages,
however much he might have approved of their action. He would have confined
himself to--blushing for his countrymen. In the second place, a protest
against injustice and violence is incomparably more valuable if it comes
entirely from people who have been prompted to it purely by sentiments of
humanity and a love of Pew This cannot be said of a man like me, a few who
regards other Jews as his brothers. For him, an injustice done to the Jews
is the same as an injustice done to himself. He must not be the judge in his
own case, but wait for the judgment of impartial outsiders.
These are my reasons. But I should like to add that I have always
honoured and admired that highly developed sense of justice which is one of
the noblest features of the French tradition.
The Jews
Jewish Ideals
The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of
justice, and the desire for personal independence--these are the features of
the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.
Those who are raging to-day against the ideals of reason and individual
liberty and are trying to establish a spiritless State-slavery by brute
force rightly see in us their irreconcilable foes. History has given us a
difficult row to hoe; but so long as we remain devoted servants of truth,
justice, and liberty, we shall continue not merely to survive as the oldest
of living peoples, but by creative work to bring forth fruits which
contribute to the ennoblement of the human race, as heretofore.
Is there a Jewish Point of View?
In the philosophical sense there is, in my opinion, no specifically
Jewish outlook. Judaism seems to me to be concerned almost exclusively with
the moral attitude in life and to life. I look upon it as the essence of an
attitude to life which is incarnate in the Jewish people rather than the
essence of the laws laid down in the Thora and interpreted in the Talmud. To
me, the Thora and the Talmud are merely the most important evidence for the
manner in which the Jewish conception of life held sway in earlier times.
The essence of that conception seems to me to lie in an affirmative
attitude to the life of all creation. The life of the individual has meaning
only in so far as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler
and more beautiful. Life is sacred--that is to say, it is the supreme value,
to which all other values are subordinate. The hallowing of the
supra-individual life brings in its train a reverence for everything
spiritual--a particularly characteristic feature of the Jewish tradition.
Judaism is not a creed: the Jewish God is simply a negation of
superstition, an imaginary result of its elimination. It is also an attempt
to base the moral law on fear, a regrettable and discreditable attempt. Yet
it seems to me that the strong moral tradition of the Jewish nation has to a
large extent shaken itself free from this fear. It is clear also that
"serving God" was equated with "serving the living." The best of the Jewish
people, especially the Prophets and Jesus, contended tirelessly for this.
Judaism is thus no transcendental religion; it is concerned with life
as we live it and can up to a point grasp it, and nothing else. It seems to
me, therefore, doubtful whether it can be called a religion in the accepted
sense of the word, particularly as no "faith" but the sanctification of life
in a supra-personal sense is demanded of the Jew.
But the Jewish tradition also contains something else, something which
finds splendid expression in many of the Psalms--namely, a sort of
intoxicated joy and amazement at the beauty and grandeur of this world, of
which, man can just form a faint notion. It is the feeling from which true
scientific research draws its spiritual sustenance, but which also seems to
find expression in the song of birds. To tack this on to the idea of God
seems mere childish absurdity.
Is what I have described a distinguishing mark of Judaism? Is it to be
found anywhere else under another name? In its pure form, nowhere, not even
in Judaism, where the pure doctrine is obscured by much worship of the
letter. Yet Judaism seems to me one of its purest and most vigorous
manifestations. This applies particularly to the fundamental principle of
the sanctification of life.
It is characteristic that the animals were expressly included in the
command to keep holy the Sabbath day, so strong was the feeling that the
ideal demands the solidarity of all living things. The insistence on the
solidarity of all human beings finds still stronger expression, apd it is no
mere chance that the demands of Socialism were for the most part first
raised by Jews.
How strongly developed this sense of the sanctity of life is in the
Jewish people is admirably illustrated by a little remark which Walter
Rathenau once made to me in conversation: "When a Jew says that he's going
hunting to amuse himself, he lies." The Jewish sense of the sanctity of life
could not be more simply expressed.
Jewish Youth
An Answer to a Questionnaire
It is important that the young should be induced to take an interest in
Jewish questions and difficulties, and you deserve gratitude for devoting
yourself to this task in your paper. This is of moment not merely for the
destiny of the Jews, whose welfare depends on their sticking together and
helping each other, but, over and above that, for the cultivation of the
international spirit, which is in danger everywhere to-day from a
narrow-minded nationalism. Here, since the days of the Prophets, one of the
fairest fields of activity has lain open to our nation, scattered as it is
over the earth and united only by a common tradition.
Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine
Ten years ago, when I first had the pleasure of addressing you on
behalf of the Zionist cause, almost all our hopes were still fixed on the
future. To-day we can look back on these ten years with joy; for in that
time the united energies of the Jewish people have accomplished a splendid
piece of successful constructive work in Palestine, which certainly exceeds
anything that we dared to hope then.
We have also successfully stood the severe test to which the events of
the last few years have subjected us. Ceaseless work, supported by a noble
purpose, is leading slowly but surely to success. The latest pronouncements
of the British Government indicate a return to a juster judgment of our
case; this we recognize with gratitude.
But we must never forget what this crisis has taught us--namely, that
the establishment of satisfactory relations between the Jews and the Arabs
is not England's affair but ours. We--that is to say, the Arabs and
ourselves--have got to agree on the main outlines of an advantageous
partnership which shall satisfy the needs of both nations. A just solution
of this problem and one worthy of both nations is an end no less important
and no less worthy of our efforts than the promotion of the work of
construction itself. Remember that Switzerland represents a higher stage of
political development than any national state, precisely because of the
greater political problems which had to be solved before a stable community
could be built up out of groups of different nationality.
Much remains to be done, but one at least of Herzl's aims has already
been realized: its task in Palestine has given the Jewish people an
astonishing degree of solidarity and the optimism without which no organism
can lead a healthy life.
Anything we may do for the common purpose is done not merely for our
brothers in Palestine, but for the well-being and honour of the whole Jewish
people.
We are assembled to-day for the purpose of calling to mind our age-old
community, its destiny, and its problems. It is a community of moral
tradition, which has always shown its strength and vitality in times of
stress. In all ages it has produced men who embodied the conscience of the
Western world, defenders of human dignity and justice.
So long as we ourselves care about this community it will continue to
exist to the benefit of mankind, in spite of the fact that it possesses no
self-contained organization. A decade or two ago a group of far-sighted men,
among whom Herzl of immortal memory stood out above the rest, came to the
conclusion that we needed a spiritual centre in crder to preserve our sense
of solidarity in difficult times. Thus arose the idea of Zionism and the
work of settlement in Palestine, the successful realization of which we have
been permitted to witness, at least in its highly promising beginnings.
I have had the privilege of seeing, to my great joy and satisfaction,
how much this achievement has contributed to the recovery of the Jewish
people, which is exposed, as a minority among the nations, not merely to
external dangers, but also to internal ones of a psychological nature.
The crisis which the work of construction has had to face in the last
few years has lain heavy upon us and is not yet completely surmounted. But
the most recent reports show that the world, and especially the British
Government, is disposed to recognize the great things which lie behind our
struggle for the Zionist ideal. Let us at this moment remember with
gratitude our leader Weizmann, whose zeal and circumspection have helped the
good cause to success.
The difficulties we have been through have also brought some good in
their train. They have shown us once more how strong the bond is which
unites the Jews of all countries in a common destiny. The crisis has also
purified our attitude to the question of Palestine, purged it of the dross
of nationalism. It has been clearly proclaimed that we are not seeking to
create a political society, but that our aim is, in accordance with the old
tradition of Jewry, a cultural one in the widest sense of the word. That
being so, it is for us to solve the problem of living side by side with our
brother the Arab in an open, generous, and worthy manner. We have here an
opportunity of showing what we have learnt in the thousands of years of our
martyrdom. If we choose the right path we shall succeed and give the rest of
the world a fine example.
Whatever we do for Palestine we do it for the honour and well-being of
the whole Jewish people.
I am delighted to have the opportunity of addressing a few words to the
youth of this country which is faithful to the common aims of Jewry. Do not
be discouraged by the difficulties which confront us in Palestine. Such
things serve to test the will to live of our community.
Certain proceedings and pronouncements of the English administration
have been justly criticized. We must not, however, leave it at that but
learn by experience.
We need to pay great attention to our relations with the Arabs. By
cultivating these carefully we shall be able in future to prevent things
from becoming so dangerously strained that people can take advantage of them
to provoke acts of hostility. This goal is perfectly within our reach,
because our work of construction has been, and must continue to be, carried
out in such a manner as to serve the real interests of the Arab population
also.
In this way we shall be able to avoid getting ourselves quite so often
into the position, disagreeable for Jews and Arabs alike, of having to call
in the mandatory Power as arbitrator. We shall thereby be following not
merely the dictates of Providence but also our traditions, which alone give
the Jewish community meaning and stability.
For that community is not, and must never become, a political one; this
is the only permanent source whence it can draw new strength and the only
ground on which its existence can be justified.
For the last two thousand years the common property of the Jewish
people has consisted entirely of its past. Scattered over the wide world,
our nation possessed nothing in common except its carefully guarded
tradition. Individual Jews no doubt produced great work, but it seemed as if
the Jewish people as a whole had not the strength left for great collective
achievements.
Now all that is changed. History has set us a great and noble task in
the shape of active cooperation in the building up of Palestine. Eminent
members of our race are already at work with all their might on the
realization of this aim. The opportunity is presented to us of setting up
centres of civilization which the whole Jewish people can regard as its
work. We nurse the hope of erecting in Palestine a home of our own national
culture which shall help to awaken the near East to new economic and
spiritual life.
The object which the leaders of Zionism have in view is not a political
but a social and cultural one. The community in Palestine must approach the
social ideal of our forefathers as it is laid down in the Bible, and at the
same time become a seat of modern intellectual life, a spiritual centre for
the Jews of the whole world. In accordance with this notion, the
establishment of a Jewish university in Jerusalem constitutes one of the
most important aims of the Zionist organization.
During the last few months I have been to America in order to help to
raise the material basis for this university there. The success of this
enterprise was quite natural. Thanks to the untiring energy and splendid
self-sacrificing spirit of the Jewish doctors in America, we have succeeded
in collecting enough money for the creation of a medical faculty, and the
preliminary work isbeing started at once. After this success I have no doubt
that the material basis for the other faculties will soon be forthcoming.
The medical faculty is first of all to be developed as a research institute
and to concentrate on making the country healthy, a most important item in
the work of development. Teaching on a large scale will only become
important later on. As a number of highly competent scientific workers have
already signified their readiness to take up appointments at the university,
the establishment of a medical faculty seems to be placed beyond all doubt.
I may add that a special fund for the university, entirely distinct from the
general fund for the development of the country, has been opened. For the
latter considerable sums have been collected during these months in America,
thanks to the indefatigable labours of Professor Weizmann and other Zionist
leaders, chiefly through the self-sacrificing spirit of the middle classes.
I conclude with a warm appeal to the Jews in Germany to contribute all they
can, in spite of the present economic difficulties, for the building up of
the Jewish home in Palestine. This is not a matter of charity, but an
enterprise which concerns all Jews and the success of which promises to be a
source of the highest satisfaction to all.
For us Jews Palestine is not just a charitable or colonial enterprise,
but a problem of central importance for the Jewish people. Palestine is not
primarily a place of refuge for the Jews of Eastern Europe, but the
embodiment of the re-awakening corporate spirit of the whole Jewish nation.
Is it the right moment for this corporate sense to be awakened and
strengthened? This is a question to which I feel compelled, not merely by my
spontaneous feelings but on rational grounds, to return an unqualified
"yes."
Let us just cast our eyes over the history of the Jews in Germany
during the past hundred years. A century ago our forefathers, with few
exceptions, lived in the ghetto. They were poor, without political rights,
separated from the Gentiles by a barrier of religious traditions, habits of
life, and legal restrictions; their intellectual development was restricted
to their own literature, and they had remained almost unaffected by the
mighty advance of the European intellect which dates from the Renaissance.
And yet these obscure, humble people had one great advantage over us each of
them belonged in every fibre of his being to a community m which he was
completely absorbed, in which he felt himself a fully pnvileged member, and
which demanded nothing of him that was contrary to his natural habits of
thought. Our forefathers in those days were pretty poor specimens
intellectually and physically, but socially speaking they enjoyed an
enviable spiritual equilibrium.
Then came emancipation, which suddenly opened up undreamed-of
possibilities to the individual. Some few rapidly made a position for
themselves in the higher walks of business and social life. They greedily
lapped up the splendid triumphs which the art and science of the Western
world had achieved. They joined in the process with burning enthusiasm,
themselves making contributions of lasting value. At the same time they
imitated the external forms of Gentile life, departed more and more from
their religious and social traditions, and adopted Gentile customs, manners,
and habits of thought. It seemed as though they were completely losing their
identity in the superior numbers and more highly organized culture of the
nations among whom they lived, so that in a few generations there would be
no trace of them left. A complete disappearance of Jewish nationality in
Central and Western Europe seemed inevitable.
But events turned out otherwise. Nationalities of different race seem
to have an instinct which prevents them from fusing. However much the Jews
adapted themselves, in language, manners, and to a great extent even in the
forms of religion, to the European peoples among whom they lived, the
feeling of strangeness between the Jews and their hosts never disappeared.
This spontaneous feeling is the ultimate cause of anti-Semitism, which is
therefore not to be got rid of by well-meaning propaganda. Nationalities
want to pursue their own path, not to blend. A satisfactory state of affairs
can be brought about only by mutual toleration and respect.
The first step in that direction is that we Jews should once more
become conscious of our existence as a nationality and regain the
self-respect that is necessary to a healthy existence. We must learn once
more to glory in our ancestors and our history and once again take upon
ourselves, as a nation, cultural tasks of a sort calculated to strengthen
our sense of the community. It is not enough for us to play a part as
individuals in the cultural development of the human race, we must also
tackle tasks which only nations as a whole can perform. Only so can the Jews
regain social health.
It is from this point of view that I would have you look at the Zionist
movement. To-day history has assigned to us the task of taking an active
part in the economic and cultural reconstruction of our native land.
Enthusiasts, men of brilliant gifts, have cleared the way, and many
excellent members of our race are prepared to devote themselves heart and
soul to the cause. May every one of them fully realize the importance of
this work and contribute, according to his powers, to its success!
The Jewish Community
A speech in London
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is no easy matter for me to overcome my natural inclination to a
life of quiet contemplation. But I could not remain deaf to the appeal of
the O.R.T. and O.Z.E. societies*; for in responding to it I am responding,
as it were, to the appeal of our sorely oppressed Jewish nation.
The position of our scattered Jewish community is a moral barometer for
the political world. For what surer index of political morality and respect
for justice can there be than the attitude of the nations towards a
defenceless minority, whose peculiarity lies in their preservation of an
ancient cultural tradition?
*Jewish charitable associations.
This barometer is low at the present moment, as we are painfully aware
from the way we are treated. But it is this very lowness that confirms me in
the conviction that it is our duty to preserve and consolidate our
community. Embedded in the tradition of the Jewish people there is a love of
justice and reason which must continue to work for the good of all nations
now and in the future. In modern times this tradition has produced Spinoza
and Karl Marx.
Those who would preserve the spirit must also look after the body to
which it is attached. The O.Z.E. society literally looks after the bodies of
our people. In Eastern Europe it is working day and night to help our people
there, on whom the economic depression has fallen particularly heavily, to
keep body and soul together; while the O.R.T. society is trying to get rid
of a severe social and economic handicap under which the Jews have laboured
since the Middle Ages. Because we were then excluded from all directly
productive occupations, we were forced into the purely commercial ones. The
only way of really helping the Jew in Eastern countries is to give him
access to new fields of activity, for which he is struggling all over the
world. This is the grave problem which the O.R.T. society is successfully
tackling.
It is to you English fellow-Jews that we now appeal to help us in this
great enterprise which splendid men have set on foot. The last few years,
nay, the last few days, have brought us a disappointment which must have
touched you in particular nearly. Do not gird at fate, but rather look on
these events as a reason for remaining true to the cause of the Jewish
commonwealth. I am convinced that in doing that we shall also indirectly be
promoting those general human ends which we must always recognize as the
highest.
Remember that difficulties and obstacles are a valuable source of
health and strength to any society. We should not have survived for
thousands of years as a community if our bed had been of roses; of that I am
quite sure.
But we have a still fairer consolation. Our friends are not exactly
numerous, but among them are men of noble spirit and strong sense of
justice, who have devoted their lives to uplifting human society and
liberating the individual from degrading oppression.
We are happy and fortunate to have such men from the Gentile world
among us to-night; their presence lends an added solemnity to this memorable
evening. It gives me great pleasure to see before me Bernard Shaw and H. G.
Wells, to whose view of life I am particularly attracted.
You, Mr. Shaw, have succeeded in winning the affection and joyous
admiration of the world while pursuing a path that has led many others to a
martyr's crown. You have not merely preached moral sermons to your fellows;
you have actually mocked at things which many of them held sacred. You have
done what only the born artist can do. From your magic box you have produced
innumerable little figures which, while resembling human beings, are compact
not of flesh and blood, but of brains, wit, and charm. And yet in a way they
are more human than we are ourselves, and one almost forgets that they are
creations not of Nature, but of Bernard Shaw. You make these charming little
figures dance in a miniature world in front of which the Graces stand
sentinel and permit no bitterness to enter. He who has looked into this
little world sees our actual world in a new light; its puppets insinuate
themselves into real people, making them suddenly look quite different. By
thus holding the mirror up to us all you have had a liberating effect on us
such as hardly any other of our contemporaries has done and have relieved
life of something of its earth-bound heaviness. For this we are all devoutly
grateful to you, and also to fate, which along with grievous plagues has
also given us the physician and liberator of our souls. I personally am also
grateful to you for the unforgettable words which you have addressed to my
mythical namesake who makes life so difficult for me, although he is really,
for all his clumsy, formidable size, quite a harmless fellow.
To you all I say that the existence and destiny of our people depend
less on external factors than on ourselves remaining faithful to the moral
traditions which have enabled us to survive for thousands of years despite
the heavy storms that have broken over our heads. In the service of life
sacrifice becomes grace.
Working Palestine
Among Zionist organizations "Working Palestine" is the one whose work
is of most direct benefit to the most valuable class of people living
there--namely, those who are transforming deserts into flourishing
settlements by the labour of their hands. These workers are a selection,
made on a voluntary basis, from the whole Jewish nation, an Иlite composed
of strong, confident, and unselfish people. They are not ignorant labourers
who sell the labour of their hands to the highest bidder, but educated,
intellectually vigorous, free men, from whose peaceful struggle with a
neglected soil the whole Jewish nation are the gainers, directly and
indirectly. By lightening their heavy lot as far as we can we shall be
saving the most valuable sort of human life; for the first settlers'
struggle on ground not yet made habitable is a difficult and dangerous
business involving a heavy personal sacrifice. How true this is, only they
can judge who have seen it with their own eyes. Anyone who helps to improve
the equipment of these men is helping on the good work at a crucial point.
It is, moreover, this working class alone that has it in its power to
establish healthy relations with the Arabs, which is the most important
political task of Zionism. Administrations come and go; but it is human
relations that finally turn the scale in the lives of nations. Therefore to
support "Working Palestine" is at the same time to promote a humane and
worthy policy in Palestine, and to oppose an effective resistance to those
undercurrents of narrow nationalism from which the whole political world,
and in a less degree the small political world of Palestine affairs, is
suffering.
Jewish Recovery
I gladly accede to your paper's request that I should address an appeal
to the Jews of Hungary on behalf of Keren Hajessod.
The greatest enemies of the national consciousness and honour of the
Jews are fatty degeneration--by which I mean the unconscionableness which
comes from wealth and ease--and a kind of inner dependence on the
surrounding Gentile world which comes from the loosening of the fabric of
Jewish society. The best in man can flourish only when he loses himself in a
community. Hence the moral danger of the Jew who has lost touch with his own
people and is regarded as a foreigner by the people of his adoption. Only
too often a contemptible and joyless egoism has resulted from such
circumstances. The weight of outward oppression on the Jewish people is
particularly heavy at the moment. But this very bitterness has done us good.
A revival of Jewish national life, such as the last generation could never
have dreamed of, has begun. Through the operation of a newly awakened sense
of solidarity among the Jews, the scheme of colonizing Palestine launched by
a handful of devoted and judicious leaders in the face of apparently
insuperable difficulties, has already prospered so far that I feel no doubt
about its permanent success. The value of this achievement for the Jews
everywhere is very great. Palestine will be a centre of culture for all
Jews, a refuge for the most grievously oppressed, a field of action for the
best among us, a unifying ideal, and a means of attaining inward health for
the Jews of the whole world.
Anti-Semitism and Academic Youth
So long as we lived in the ghetto our Jewish nationality involved for
us material difficulties and sometimes physical danger, but no social or
psychological problems. With emancipation the position changed, particularly
for those Jews who turned to the intellectual professions. In school and at
the university the young Jew is exposed to the influence of a society with a
definite national tinge, which he respects and admires, from which he
receives his mental sustenance, to which he feels himself to belong, while
it, on the other hand, treats him, as one of an alien race, with a certain
contempt and hostility. Driven by the suggestive influence of this
psychological superiority rather than by utilitarian considerations, he
turns his back on his people and his traditions, and considers himself as
belonging entirely to the others while he tries in vain to conceal from
himself and them the fact that the relation is not reciprocal. Hence that
pathetic creature, the baptized Jewish Geheimrat of yesterday and to-day. In
most cases it is not pushfulness and lack of character that have made him
what he is, but, as I have said, the suggestive power of an environment
superior in numbers and influence. He knows, of course, that many admirable
sons of the Jewish people have made important contributions to the glory of
European civilization; but have they not all, with a few exceptions, done
much the same as he?
In this case, as in many mental disorders, the cure lies in a clear
knowledge of one's condition and its causes. We must be conscious of our
alien race and draw the logical conclusions from it. It is no use trying to
convince the others of our spiritual and intellectual equality by arguments
addressed to the reason, when their attitude does not originate in their
intellects at all. Rather must we emancipate ourselves socially and supply
our social needs, in the main, ourselves. We must have our own students'
societies and adopt an attitude of courteous but consistent reserve to the
Gentiles. And let us live after our own fashion there and not ape duelling
and drinking customs which are foreign to our nature. It is possible to be a
civilized European and a good citizen and at the same time a faithful Jew
who loves his race and honours his fathers. If we remember this and act
accordingly, the problem of anti-Semitism, in so far as it is of a social
nature, is solved for us.
A Letter to Professor Dr. Hellpach, Minister of State
Dear Herr Hellpach,
I have read your article on Zionism and the Zurich Congress and
feel, as a strong devotee of the Zionist idea, that I must answer
you, even if it is only shortly.
The Jews are a community bound together by ties of blood and
tradition, and not of religion only: the attitude of the rest of the
world towards them is sufficient proof of this. When I came to
Germany fifteen years ago I discovered for the first time that I
was a Jew, and I owe this discovery more to Gentiles than Jews.
The tragedy of the Jews is that they are people of a definite
historical type, who lack the support of a community to keep
them together. The result is a want of solid foundations in the
individual which amounts in its extremer forms to moral
instability. I realized that the only possible salvation for the race
was that every Jew in the world should become attached to a
living society to which the individual rejoiced to belong and
which enabled him to bear the hatred and the humiliations that he
has to put up with from the rest of the world.
I saw worthy Jews basely caricatured, and the sight made my
heart bleed. I saw how schools, comic papers, and innumerable
other forces of the Gentile majority undermined the confidence
even of the best of my fellow-Jews, and felt that this could not
be allowed to continue.
Then I realized that only a common enterprise dear to the hearts
of Jews all over the world could restore this people to health. It
was a great achievement of Herzl's to have realized and
proclaimed at the top of his voice that, the traditional attitude of
the Jews being what it was, the establishment of a national home
or, more accurately, a centre in Palestine, was a suitable object
on which to concentrate our efforts.
All this you call nationalism, and there is something in the
accusation. But a communal purpose, without which we can
neither live nor die in this hostile world, can always be called by
that ugly name. In any case it is a nationalism whose aim is not
power but dignity and health. If we did not have to live among
intolerant, narrow-minded, and violent people, I should be the
first to throw over all nationalism in favour of universal humanity.
The objection that we Jews cannot be proper citizens of the
German State, for example, if we want to be a "nation," is based
on a misunderstanding of the nature of the State which springs
from the intolerance of national majorities. Against that
intolerance we shall never be safe, whether we call ourselves a
"people" (or "nation") or not.
I have put all this with brutal frankness for the sake of brevity,
but I know from your writings that you are a man who attends to
the sense, not the form.
Letter to an Arab
March 15, 1930
Sir,
Your letter has given me great pleasure. It shows me that there is good
will available on your side too for solving the present difficulties in a
manner worthy of both our nations. I believe that these difficulties are
more psychological than real, and that they can be got over if both sides
bring honesty and good will to the task.
What makes the present position so bad is the fact that Jews and Arabs
confront each other as opponents before the mandatory power. This state of
affairs is unworthy of both nations and can only be altered by our finding a
via media on which both sides agree.
I will now tell you how I think that the present difficulties might be
remedied; at the same time I must add that this is only my personal opinion,
which I have discussed with nobody. I am writing this letter in German
because I am not capable of writing it in English myself and because I want
myself to bear the entire responsibility for it. You will, I am sure, be
able to get some Jewish friend of conciliation to translate it.
A Privy Council is to be formed to which the Jews and Arabs shall each
send four representatives, who must be independent of all political parties.
Each group to be composed as follows:--
A doctor, elected by the Medical Association;
A lawyer, elected by the lawyers;
A working men's representative, elected by the trade unions;
An ecclesiastic, elected by the ecclesiastics.
These eight people are to meet once a week. They undertake not to
espouse the sectional interests of their profession or nation but
conscientiously and to the best of their power to aim at the welfare of the
whole population of the country. Their deliberations shall be secret and
they are strictly forbidden to give any information about them, even in
private. When a decision has been reached on any subject in which not less
than three members on each side concur, it may be published, but only in the
name of the whole Council. If a member dissents he may retire from the
Council, but he is not thereby released from the obligation to secrecy. If
one of the elective bodies above specified is dissatisfied with a resolution
of the Council, it may repiace its representative by another.
Even if this "Privy Council" has no definite powers it may nevertheless
bring about the gradual composition of differences, and secure as united
representation of the common interests of the country before the mandatory
power, clear of the dust of ephemeral politics.
Christianity and Judaism
If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus
Christ taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the
priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the
social ills of humanity.
It is the duty of every man of good will to strive steadfastly in his
own little world to make this teaching of pure humanity a living force, so
far as he can. If he makes an honest attempt in this direction without being
crushed and trampled under foot by his contemporaries, he may consider
himself and the community to which he belongs lucky.
--end
present monetary situation, if one could believe that the State
would really make a rational use of the windfall thus accruing to
it.
The weaknesses of your plan lie, so it seems to me, in the sphere
of psychology, or rather, in your neglect of it. It is no accident
that capitalism has brought with it progress not merely in
production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are,
alas, stronger forces than public spirit and sense of duty. In
Russia, they say, it is impossible to get a decent piece of
bread.…Perhaps I am over-pessimistic concerning State
and other forms of communal enterprise, but I expect little good
from them. Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work. I have
seen and experienced too many dreadful warnings, even in
comparatively model Switzerland.
I am inclined to the view that the State can only be of real use to
industry as a limiting and regulative force. It must see to it that
competition among the workers is kept within healthy limits, that
all children are given a chance to develop soundly, and that
wages are high enough for the goods produced to be consumed.
But it can exert a decisive influence through its regulative function
if--and there again you are right--its measures are framed in an
objective spirit by independent experts.
I would like to write to you at greater length, but cannot find the
time.
Minorities
It seems to be a universal fact that minorities--especially when the
individuals composing them are distinguished by physical peculiarities--are
treated by the majorities among whom they live as an inferior order of
beings. The tragedy of such a fate lies not merely in the unfair treatment
to which these minorities are automatically subjected in social and economic
matters, but also in the fact that under the suggestive influence of the
majority most of the victims themselves succumb to the same prejudice and
regard their brethren as inferior beings. This second and greater part of
the evil can be overcome by closer combination and by deliberate education
of the minority, whose spiritual liberation can thus be accomplished.
The efforts of the American negroes in this direction are deserving of
all commendation and assistance.
Observations on the Present Situation in Europe
The distinguishing feature of the present political situation of the
world, and in particular of Europe, seems to me to be this, that political.
development has failed, both materially and intellectually, to keep pace
with economic necessity, which has changed its character in a comparatively
short time. The interests of each country must be subordinated to the
interests of the wider community. The struggle for this new orientation of
political thought and feeling is a severe one, because it has the tradition
of centuries against it. But the survival of Europe depends on its
successful issue. It is my firm conviction that once the psychological
impediments are overcome the solution of the real problems will not be such
a terribly difficult matter. In order to create the right atmosphere, the
most essential thing is personal co-operation between men of like mind. May
our united efforts succeed in building a bridge of mutual trust between the
nations!
The Heirs of the Ages
Previous generations were able to look upon intellectual and cultural
progress as simply the inherited fruits of their forebears' labours, which
made life easier and more beautiful for them. But the calamities of our
times show us that this was a fatal illusion.
We see now that the greatest efforts are needed if this legacy of
humanity's is to prove a blessing and not a curse. For whereas formerly it
was enough for a man to have freed himself to some extent from personal
egotism to make him a valuable member of society, to-day he must also be
required to overcome national and class egotism. Only if he reaches those
heights can he contribute towards improving the lot of humanity.
As regards this most important need of the age the inhabitants of a
small State are better placed than those of a great Power, since the latter
are exposed, both in politics and economics, to the temptation to gain their
ends by brute force. The agreement between Holland and Belgium, which is the
only bright spot in European affairs during the last few years, encourages
one to hope that the small nations will play a leading part in the attempt
to liberate the world from the degrading yoke of militarism through the
renunciation of the individual country's unlimited right of
self-determination.
Germany 1933
Manifesto
As long as I have any choice, I will only stay in a country where
political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law
are the rule. Political liberty implies liberty to express one's political
views orally and in writing, toleration, respect for any and every
individual opinion.
These conditions do not obtain in Germany at the present time. Those
who have done most for the cause of international understanding, among them
some of the leading artists, are being persecuted there.
Any social organism can become psychically distempered just as any
individual can, especially in times of difficulty. Nations usually survive
these distempers. I hope that healthy conditions will soon supervene in
Germany, and that in future her great men like Kant and Goethe will not
merely be commemorated from time to time, but that the principles which they
inculcated will also prevail in public life and in the general
consciousness.
March, 1933.
Correspondence with the Prussian Academy of Sciences
The following correspondence is here published for the first time in
its authentic and complete form. The version published in German newspapers
was for the most part incorrect, important sentences being omitted.
The Academy's declaration of April I, 1933, against Einstein.
The Prussian Academy of Sciences heard with indignation from the
newspapers of Albert Einstein's participation in atrocity-mongering in
France and America. It immediately demanded an explanation. In the meantime
Einstein has announced his withdrawal from the Academy, giving as his reason
that he cannot continue to serve the Prussian State under its present
Government. Being a Swiss citizen, he also, it seems, intends to resign the
Prussian nationality which he acquired in 1913 simply by becoming a full
member of the Academy.
The Prussian Academy of Sciences is particularly distressed by
Einstein's activities as an agitator in foreign countries, as it and its
members have always felt themselves bound by the closest ties to the
Prussian State and, while abstaining strictly from all political
partisanship, have alwa58 stressed and remained faithful to the national
idea. It has, therefore, no reason to regret Einstein's withdrawal.
Prof. Dr. Ernst Heymann, Perpetual Secretary. Le Coq, near Ostende,
April 5, 1933
To the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
I have received information from a thoroughly reliable source
that the Academy of Sciences has spoken in an official statement
of "Einstein's participation in atrocity-mongering in America and
France."
I hereby declare that I have never taken any part in
atrocity-mongering, and I must add that I have seen nothing of
any such mongering anywhere. In general people have contented
themselves with reproducing and commenting on the official
statements and orders of responsible members of the German
Government, together with the programme for the annihilation of
the German Jews by economic methods.
The statements I have issued to the Press were concerned with
my intention to resign my position in the Academy and renounce
my Prussian citizenship; I gave as my reason for these steps that
I did not wish to live in a country where the individual does not
enjoy equality before the law and freedom to say and teach what
he likes.
Further, I described the present state of affairs in Germany as a
state of psychic distemper in the masses and also made some
remarks about its causes.
In a written document which I allowed the International League
for combating Anti-Semitism to make use of for the purpose of
enlisting support, and which was not intended for the Press at all,
I also called upon all sensible people, who are still faithful to the
ideals of a civilization in peril, to do their utmost to prevent this
mass-psychosis, which is exhibiting itself in such terrible
symptoms in Germany to-day, from spreading further.
It would have been an easy matter for the Academy to get hold
of a correct version of my words before issuing the sort of
statement about me that it has. The German Press has
reproduced a deliberately distorted version of my words, as
indeed was only to be expected with the Press muzzled as it is
to-day.
I am ready to stand by every word I have published. In return, I
expect the Academy to communicate this statement of mine to
its members and also to the German public before which I have
been slandered, especially as it has itself had a hand in slandering
me before that public.
The Academy's Answer of April 11, 1933
The Academy would like to point out that its statement of April
1, 1933. was based not merely on German but principally on
foreign, particularly French and Belgian, newspaper reports
which Herr Einstein has not contradicted; in addition, it had
before it his much-canvassed statement to the League for
combating anti-Semitism, in which he deplores Germany's
relapse into the barbarism of long-passed ages. Moreover, the
Academy has reason to know that Herr Einstein, who according
to his own statement has taken no part in atrocitymongering, has
at least done nothing to counteract unjust suspicions and
slanders, which, in the opinion of the Academy, it was his duty
as one of its senior members to do. Instead of that Herr Einstein
has made statements, and in foreign countries at that, such as,
coming from a man of world-wide reputation, were bound to be
exploited and abused by the enemies not merely of the present
German Government but of the whole German people.
For the Prussian Academy of Sciences,
(Signed) H. von Ficker,
E. Heymann,
Perpetual Secretaries.
Berlin, April 7, 1933
The Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Professor Albert Einstein, Leyden,
c/o Prof. Ehrenfest, Witte Rosenstr.
Dear Sir,
As the present Principal Secretary of the Prussian Academy I
beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication dated
March 28 announcing your resignation of your membership of
the Academy. The Academy took cognizance of your
resignation in its plenary session of March 30, 1933.
While the Academy profoundly regrets the turn events have
taken, this regret is inspired by the thought that a man of the
highest scientific authority, whom many years of work among
Germans and many years of membership of our society must
have made familiar with the German character and German
habits of thought, should have chosen this moment to associate
himself with a body of people abroad who--partly no doubt
through ignorance of actual conditions and events--have done
much damage to our German people by disseminating erroneous
views and unfounded rumours. We had confidently expected
that one who had belonged to our Academy for so long would
have ranged himself, irrespective of his own political sympathies,
on the side of the defenders of our nation against the flood of lies
which has been let loose upon it. In these days of mud-slinging,
some of it vile, some of it ridiculous, a good word for the
German people from you in particular might have produced a
great effect, especially abroad. Instead of which your testimony
has served as a handle to the enemies not merely of the present
Government but of the German people. This has come as a
bitter and grievous disappointment to us, which would no doubt
have led inevitably to a parting of the ways even if we had not
received your resignation.
Yours faithfully,
(signed) von Ficker.
Le Coq-sur-Mer, Belgium, April 12, 1933
To the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin.
I have received your communication of the seventh instant and
deeply deplore the mental attitude displayed in it.
As regards the fact, I can only reply as follows: What you say
about my behaviour is, at bottom, merely another form of the
statement you have already published, in which you accuse me
of having taken part in atrocity-mongering against the German
nation. I have already, in my last letter, characterized this
accusation as slanderous.
You have also remarked that a "good word" on my part for "the
German people" would have produced a great effect abroad. To
this I must reply that such a testimony as you suggest would have
been equivalent to a repudiation of all those notions of justice
and liberty for which I have all my life stood. Such a testimony
would not be, as you put it, a good word for the German nation;
on the contrary, it would only have helped the cause of those
who are seeking to undermine the ideas and principles which
have won for the German nation a place of honour in the
civilized world. By giving such a testimony in the present
circumstances I should have been contributing, even if only
indirectly, to the barbarization of manners and the destruction of
all existing cultural values.
It was for this reason that I felt compelled to resign from the
Academy, and your letter only shows me how right I was to do
so.
Munich, Aril 8, 1933
>From the Bavarian Academy of Sciences to Professor Albert Einstein.
Sir,
In your letter to the Prussian Academy of Sciences you have
given the present state of affairs in Germany as the reason for
your resignation. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences, which
some years ago elected you a corresponding member, is also a
German Academy, closely allied to the Prussian and other
German Academies; hence your withdrawal from the Prussian
Acadeiny of Sciences is bound to affect your relations with our
Academy.
We must therefore ask you how you envisage your relations with
our Academy after what has passed between yourself and the
Prussian Academy.
The President of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
Le Coq-sur-Mer, April 21, 1933
To the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich.
I have given it as the reason for my resignation from the Prussian
Academy that in the present circumstances I have no wish either
to be a German citizen or to remain in a position of
quasi-dependence on the Prussian Ministry of Education.
These reasons would not, in themselves, involve the severing of
my relations with the Bavarian Academy. If I nevertheless desire
my name to be removed from the list of members, it is for a
different reason.
The primary duty of an Academy is to encourage and protect
the scientific life of a country. The learned societies of Germany
have, however--to the best of knowledge--stood by and said
nothing while a not inconsiderable proportion of German savants
and students, and also of professional men of university
education, have been deprived of all chance of getting
employment or earning their livings in Germany. I would rather
not belong to any society which behaves in such a manner, even
if it does so under external pressure.
A Reply
The following lines are Einstein's answer to an invitation to associate
himself with a French manifesto against Anti-Semitism in Germany.
I have considered this most important proposal, which has a bearing on
several things that I have nearly at heart, carefully from every angle. As a
result I have come to the conclusion that I cannot take a personal part in
this extremely important affair, for two reasons:--
In the first place I am, after all, still a German citizen, and in the
second I am a Jew. As regards the first point I must add that I have worked
in German institutions and have always been treated with full confidence in
Germany. However deeply I may regret the things that are being done there,
however strongly I am bound to condemn the terrible mistakes that are being
made with the approval of the Government; it is impossible for me to take
part personally in an enterprise set on foot by responsible members of a
foreign Government. In order that you may appreciate this fully, suppose
that a French citizen in a more or less analogous situation had got up a
protest against the French Government's action in conjunction with prominent
German statesmen. Even if you fully admitted that the protest was amply
warranted by the facts, you would still, I expect, regard the behaviour of
your fellow-citizen as an act of treachery. If Zola had felt it necessary to
leave France at the time of the Dreyfus case, he would still certainly not
have associated himself with a protest by German official personages,
however much he might have approved of their action. He would have confined
himself to--blushing for his countrymen. In the second place, a protest
against injustice and violence is incomparably more valuable if it comes
entirely from people who have been prompted to it purely by sentiments of
humanity and a love of Pew This cannot be said of a man like me, a few who
regards other Jews as his brothers. For him, an injustice done to the Jews
is the same as an injustice done to himself. He must not be the judge in his
own case, but wait for the judgment of impartial outsiders.
These are my reasons. But I should like to add that I have always
honoured and admired that highly developed sense of justice which is one of
the noblest features of the French tradition.
The Jews
Jewish Ideals
The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of
justice, and the desire for personal independence--these are the features of
the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.
Those who are raging to-day against the ideals of reason and individual
liberty and are trying to establish a spiritless State-slavery by brute
force rightly see in us their irreconcilable foes. History has given us a
difficult row to hoe; but so long as we remain devoted servants of truth,
justice, and liberty, we shall continue not merely to survive as the oldest
of living peoples, but by creative work to bring forth fruits which
contribute to the ennoblement of the human race, as heretofore.
Is there a Jewish Point of View?
In the philosophical sense there is, in my opinion, no specifically
Jewish outlook. Judaism seems to me to be concerned almost exclusively with
the moral attitude in life and to life. I look upon it as the essence of an
attitude to life which is incarnate in the Jewish people rather than the
essence of the laws laid down in the Thora and interpreted in the Talmud. To
me, the Thora and the Talmud are merely the most important evidence for the
manner in which the Jewish conception of life held sway in earlier times.
The essence of that conception seems to me to lie in an affirmative
attitude to the life of all creation. The life of the individual has meaning
only in so far as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler
and more beautiful. Life is sacred--that is to say, it is the supreme value,
to which all other values are subordinate. The hallowing of the
supra-individual life brings in its train a reverence for everything
spiritual--a particularly characteristic feature of the Jewish tradition.
Judaism is not a creed: the Jewish God is simply a negation of
superstition, an imaginary result of its elimination. It is also an attempt
to base the moral law on fear, a regrettable and discreditable attempt. Yet
it seems to me that the strong moral tradition of the Jewish nation has to a
large extent shaken itself free from this fear. It is clear also that
"serving God" was equated with "serving the living." The best of the Jewish
people, especially the Prophets and Jesus, contended tirelessly for this.
Judaism is thus no transcendental religion; it is concerned with life
as we live it and can up to a point grasp it, and nothing else. It seems to
me, therefore, doubtful whether it can be called a religion in the accepted
sense of the word, particularly as no "faith" but the sanctification of life
in a supra-personal sense is demanded of the Jew.
But the Jewish tradition also contains something else, something which
finds splendid expression in many of the Psalms--namely, a sort of
intoxicated joy and amazement at the beauty and grandeur of this world, of
which, man can just form a faint notion. It is the feeling from which true
scientific research draws its spiritual sustenance, but which also seems to
find expression in the song of birds. To tack this on to the idea of God
seems mere childish absurdity.
Is what I have described a distinguishing mark of Judaism? Is it to be
found anywhere else under another name? In its pure form, nowhere, not even
in Judaism, where the pure doctrine is obscured by much worship of the
letter. Yet Judaism seems to me one of its purest and most vigorous
manifestations. This applies particularly to the fundamental principle of
the sanctification of life.
It is characteristic that the animals were expressly included in the
command to keep holy the Sabbath day, so strong was the feeling that the
ideal demands the solidarity of all living things. The insistence on the
solidarity of all human beings finds still stronger expression, apd it is no
mere chance that the demands of Socialism were for the most part first
raised by Jews.
How strongly developed this sense of the sanctity of life is in the
Jewish people is admirably illustrated by a little remark which Walter
Rathenau once made to me in conversation: "When a Jew says that he's going
hunting to amuse himself, he lies." The Jewish sense of the sanctity of life
could not be more simply expressed.
Jewish Youth
An Answer to a Questionnaire
It is important that the young should be induced to take an interest in
Jewish questions and difficulties, and you deserve gratitude for devoting
yourself to this task in your paper. This is of moment not merely for the
destiny of the Jews, whose welfare depends on their sticking together and
helping each other, but, over and above that, for the cultivation of the
international spirit, which is in danger everywhere to-day from a
narrow-minded nationalism. Here, since the days of the Prophets, one of the
fairest fields of activity has lain open to our nation, scattered as it is
over the earth and united only by a common tradition.
Addresses on Reconstruction in Palestine
Ten years ago, when I first had the pleasure of addressing you on
behalf of the Zionist cause, almost all our hopes were still fixed on the
future. To-day we can look back on these ten years with joy; for in that
time the united energies of the Jewish people have accomplished a splendid
piece of successful constructive work in Palestine, which certainly exceeds
anything that we dared to hope then.
We have also successfully stood the severe test to which the events of
the last few years have subjected us. Ceaseless work, supported by a noble
purpose, is leading slowly but surely to success. The latest pronouncements
of the British Government indicate a return to a juster judgment of our
case; this we recognize with gratitude.
But we must never forget what this crisis has taught us--namely, that
the establishment of satisfactory relations between the Jews and the Arabs
is not England's affair but ours. We--that is to say, the Arabs and
ourselves--have got to agree on the main outlines of an advantageous
partnership which shall satisfy the needs of both nations. A just solution
of this problem and one worthy of both nations is an end no less important
and no less worthy of our efforts than the promotion of the work of
construction itself. Remember that Switzerland represents a higher stage of
political development than any national state, precisely because of the
greater political problems which had to be solved before a stable community
could be built up out of groups of different nationality.
Much remains to be done, but one at least of Herzl's aims has already
been realized: its task in Palestine has given the Jewish people an
astonishing degree of solidarity and the optimism without which no organism
can lead a healthy life.
Anything we may do for the common purpose is done not merely for our
brothers in Palestine, but for the well-being and honour of the whole Jewish
people.
We are assembled to-day for the purpose of calling to mind our age-old
community, its destiny, and its problems. It is a community of moral
tradition, which has always shown its strength and vitality in times of
stress. In all ages it has produced men who embodied the conscience of the
Western world, defenders of human dignity and justice.
So long as we ourselves care about this community it will continue to
exist to the benefit of mankind, in spite of the fact that it possesses no
self-contained organization. A decade or two ago a group of far-sighted men,
among whom Herzl of immortal memory stood out above the rest, came to the
conclusion that we needed a spiritual centre in crder to preserve our sense
of solidarity in difficult times. Thus arose the idea of Zionism and the
work of settlement in Palestine, the successful realization of which we have
been permitted to witness, at least in its highly promising beginnings.
I have had the privilege of seeing, to my great joy and satisfaction,
how much this achievement has contributed to the recovery of the Jewish
people, which is exposed, as a minority among the nations, not merely to
external dangers, but also to internal ones of a psychological nature.
The crisis which the work of construction has had to face in the last
few years has lain heavy upon us and is not yet completely surmounted. But
the most recent reports show that the world, and especially the British
Government, is disposed to recognize the great things which lie behind our
struggle for the Zionist ideal. Let us at this moment remember with
gratitude our leader Weizmann, whose zeal and circumspection have helped the
good cause to success.
The difficulties we have been through have also brought some good in
their train. They have shown us once more how strong the bond is which
unites the Jews of all countries in a common destiny. The crisis has also
purified our attitude to the question of Palestine, purged it of the dross
of nationalism. It has been clearly proclaimed that we are not seeking to
create a political society, but that our aim is, in accordance with the old
tradition of Jewry, a cultural one in the widest sense of the word. That
being so, it is for us to solve the problem of living side by side with our
brother the Arab in an open, generous, and worthy manner. We have here an
opportunity of showing what we have learnt in the thousands of years of our
martyrdom. If we choose the right path we shall succeed and give the rest of
the world a fine example.
Whatever we do for Palestine we do it for the honour and well-being of
the whole Jewish people.
I am delighted to have the opportunity of addressing a few words to the
youth of this country which is faithful to the common aims of Jewry. Do not
be discouraged by the difficulties which confront us in Palestine. Such
things serve to test the will to live of our community.
Certain proceedings and pronouncements of the English administration
have been justly criticized. We must not, however, leave it at that but
learn by experience.
We need to pay great attention to our relations with the Arabs. By
cultivating these carefully we shall be able in future to prevent things
from becoming so dangerously strained that people can take advantage of them
to provoke acts of hostility. This goal is perfectly within our reach,
because our work of construction has been, and must continue to be, carried
out in such a manner as to serve the real interests of the Arab population
also.
In this way we shall be able to avoid getting ourselves quite so often
into the position, disagreeable for Jews and Arabs alike, of having to call
in the mandatory Power as arbitrator. We shall thereby be following not
merely the dictates of Providence but also our traditions, which alone give
the Jewish community meaning and stability.
For that community is not, and must never become, a political one; this
is the only permanent source whence it can draw new strength and the only
ground on which its existence can be justified.
For the last two thousand years the common property of the Jewish
people has consisted entirely of its past. Scattered over the wide world,
our nation possessed nothing in common except its carefully guarded
tradition. Individual Jews no doubt produced great work, but it seemed as if
the Jewish people as a whole had not the strength left for great collective
achievements.
Now all that is changed. History has set us a great and noble task in
the shape of active cooperation in the building up of Palestine. Eminent
members of our race are already at work with all their might on the
realization of this aim. The opportunity is presented to us of setting up
centres of civilization which the whole Jewish people can regard as its
work. We nurse the hope of erecting in Palestine a home of our own national
culture which shall help to awaken the near East to new economic and
spiritual life.
The object which the leaders of Zionism have in view is not a political
but a social and cultural one. The community in Palestine must approach the
social ideal of our forefathers as it is laid down in the Bible, and at the
same time become a seat of modern intellectual life, a spiritual centre for
the Jews of the whole world. In accordance with this notion, the
establishment of a Jewish university in Jerusalem constitutes one of the
most important aims of the Zionist organization.
During the last few months I have been to America in order to help to
raise the material basis for this university there. The success of this
enterprise was quite natural. Thanks to the untiring energy and splendid
self-sacrificing spirit of the Jewish doctors in America, we have succeeded
in collecting enough money for the creation of a medical faculty, and the
preliminary work isbeing started at once. After this success I have no doubt
that the material basis for the other faculties will soon be forthcoming.
The medical faculty is first of all to be developed as a research institute
and to concentrate on making the country healthy, a most important item in
the work of development. Teaching on a large scale will only become
important later on. As a number of highly competent scientific workers have
already signified their readiness to take up appointments at the university,
the establishment of a medical faculty seems to be placed beyond all doubt.
I may add that a special fund for the university, entirely distinct from the
general fund for the development of the country, has been opened. For the
latter considerable sums have been collected during these months in America,
thanks to the indefatigable labours of Professor Weizmann and other Zionist
leaders, chiefly through the self-sacrificing spirit of the middle classes.
I conclude with a warm appeal to the Jews in Germany to contribute all they
can, in spite of the present economic difficulties, for the building up of
the Jewish home in Palestine. This is not a matter of charity, but an
enterprise which concerns all Jews and the success of which promises to be a
source of the highest satisfaction to all.
For us Jews Palestine is not just a charitable or colonial enterprise,
but a problem of central importance for the Jewish people. Palestine is not
primarily a place of refuge for the Jews of Eastern Europe, but the
embodiment of the re-awakening corporate spirit of the whole Jewish nation.
Is it the right moment for this corporate sense to be awakened and
strengthened? This is a question to which I feel compelled, not merely by my
spontaneous feelings but on rational grounds, to return an unqualified
"yes."
Let us just cast our eyes over the history of the Jews in Germany
during the past hundred years. A century ago our forefathers, with few
exceptions, lived in the ghetto. They were poor, without political rights,
separated from the Gentiles by a barrier of religious traditions, habits of
life, and legal restrictions; their intellectual development was restricted
to their own literature, and they had remained almost unaffected by the
mighty advance of the European intellect which dates from the Renaissance.
And yet these obscure, humble people had one great advantage over us each of
them belonged in every fibre of his being to a community m which he was
completely absorbed, in which he felt himself a fully pnvileged member, and
which demanded nothing of him that was contrary to his natural habits of
thought. Our forefathers in those days were pretty poor specimens
intellectually and physically, but socially speaking they enjoyed an
enviable spiritual equilibrium.
Then came emancipation, which suddenly opened up undreamed-of
possibilities to the individual. Some few rapidly made a position for
themselves in the higher walks of business and social life. They greedily
lapped up the splendid triumphs which the art and science of the Western
world had achieved. They joined in the process with burning enthusiasm,
themselves making contributions of lasting value. At the same time they
imitated the external forms of Gentile life, departed more and more from
their religious and social traditions, and adopted Gentile customs, manners,
and habits of thought. It seemed as though they were completely losing their
identity in the superior numbers and more highly organized culture of the
nations among whom they lived, so that in a few generations there would be
no trace of them left. A complete disappearance of Jewish nationality in
Central and Western Europe seemed inevitable.
But events turned out otherwise. Nationalities of different race seem
to have an instinct which prevents them from fusing. However much the Jews
adapted themselves, in language, manners, and to a great extent even in the
forms of religion, to the European peoples among whom they lived, the
feeling of strangeness between the Jews and their hosts never disappeared.
This spontaneous feeling is the ultimate cause of anti-Semitism, which is
therefore not to be got rid of by well-meaning propaganda. Nationalities
want to pursue their own path, not to blend. A satisfactory state of affairs
can be brought about only by mutual toleration and respect.
The first step in that direction is that we Jews should once more
become conscious of our existence as a nationality and regain the
self-respect that is necessary to a healthy existence. We must learn once
more to glory in our ancestors and our history and once again take upon
ourselves, as a nation, cultural tasks of a sort calculated to strengthen
our sense of the community. It is not enough for us to play a part as
individuals in the cultural development of the human race, we must also
tackle tasks which only nations as a whole can perform. Only so can the Jews
regain social health.
It is from this point of view that I would have you look at the Zionist
movement. To-day history has assigned to us the task of taking an active
part in the economic and cultural reconstruction of our native land.
Enthusiasts, men of brilliant gifts, have cleared the way, and many
excellent members of our race are prepared to devote themselves heart and
soul to the cause. May every one of them fully realize the importance of
this work and contribute, according to his powers, to its success!
The Jewish Community
A speech in London
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is no easy matter for me to overcome my natural inclination to a
life of quiet contemplation. But I could not remain deaf to the appeal of
the O.R.T. and O.Z.E. societies*; for in responding to it I am responding,
as it were, to the appeal of our sorely oppressed Jewish nation.
The position of our scattered Jewish community is a moral barometer for
the political world. For what surer index of political morality and respect
for justice can there be than the attitude of the nations towards a
defenceless minority, whose peculiarity lies in their preservation of an
ancient cultural tradition?
*Jewish charitable associations.
This barometer is low at the present moment, as we are painfully aware
from the way we are treated. But it is this very lowness that confirms me in
the conviction that it is our duty to preserve and consolidate our
community. Embedded in the tradition of the Jewish people there is a love of
justice and reason which must continue to work for the good of all nations
now and in the future. In modern times this tradition has produced Spinoza
and Karl Marx.
Those who would preserve the spirit must also look after the body to
which it is attached. The O.Z.E. society literally looks after the bodies of
our people. In Eastern Europe it is working day and night to help our people
there, on whom the economic depression has fallen particularly heavily, to
keep body and soul together; while the O.R.T. society is trying to get rid
of a severe social and economic handicap under which the Jews have laboured
since the Middle Ages. Because we were then excluded from all directly
productive occupations, we were forced into the purely commercial ones. The
only way of really helping the Jew in Eastern countries is to give him
access to new fields of activity, for which he is struggling all over the
world. This is the grave problem which the O.R.T. society is successfully
tackling.
It is to you English fellow-Jews that we now appeal to help us in this
great enterprise which splendid men have set on foot. The last few years,
nay, the last few days, have brought us a disappointment which must have
touched you in particular nearly. Do not gird at fate, but rather look on
these events as a reason for remaining true to the cause of the Jewish
commonwealth. I am convinced that in doing that we shall also indirectly be
promoting those general human ends which we must always recognize as the
highest.
Remember that difficulties and obstacles are a valuable source of
health and strength to any society. We should not have survived for
thousands of years as a community if our bed had been of roses; of that I am
quite sure.
But we have a still fairer consolation. Our friends are not exactly
numerous, but among them are men of noble spirit and strong sense of
justice, who have devoted their lives to uplifting human society and
liberating the individual from degrading oppression.
We are happy and fortunate to have such men from the Gentile world
among us to-night; their presence lends an added solemnity to this memorable
evening. It gives me great pleasure to see before me Bernard Shaw and H. G.
Wells, to whose view of life I am particularly attracted.
You, Mr. Shaw, have succeeded in winning the affection and joyous
admiration of the world while pursuing a path that has led many others to a
martyr's crown. You have not merely preached moral sermons to your fellows;
you have actually mocked at things which many of them held sacred. You have
done what only the born artist can do. From your magic box you have produced
innumerable little figures which, while resembling human beings, are compact
not of flesh and blood, but of brains, wit, and charm. And yet in a way they
are more human than we are ourselves, and one almost forgets that they are
creations not of Nature, but of Bernard Shaw. You make these charming little
figures dance in a miniature world in front of which the Graces stand
sentinel and permit no bitterness to enter. He who has looked into this
little world sees our actual world in a new light; its puppets insinuate
themselves into real people, making them suddenly look quite different. By
thus holding the mirror up to us all you have had a liberating effect on us
such as hardly any other of our contemporaries has done and have relieved
life of something of its earth-bound heaviness. For this we are all devoutly
grateful to you, and also to fate, which along with grievous plagues has
also given us the physician and liberator of our souls. I personally am also
grateful to you for the unforgettable words which you have addressed to my
mythical namesake who makes life so difficult for me, although he is really,
for all his clumsy, formidable size, quite a harmless fellow.
To you all I say that the existence and destiny of our people depend
less on external factors than on ourselves remaining faithful to the moral
traditions which have enabled us to survive for thousands of years despite
the heavy storms that have broken over our heads. In the service of life
sacrifice becomes grace.
Working Palestine
Among Zionist organizations "Working Palestine" is the one whose work
is of most direct benefit to the most valuable class of people living
there--namely, those who are transforming deserts into flourishing
settlements by the labour of their hands. These workers are a selection,
made on a voluntary basis, from the whole Jewish nation, an Иlite composed
of strong, confident, and unselfish people. They are not ignorant labourers
who sell the labour of their hands to the highest bidder, but educated,
intellectually vigorous, free men, from whose peaceful struggle with a
neglected soil the whole Jewish nation are the gainers, directly and
indirectly. By lightening their heavy lot as far as we can we shall be
saving the most valuable sort of human life; for the first settlers'
struggle on ground not yet made habitable is a difficult and dangerous
business involving a heavy personal sacrifice. How true this is, only they
can judge who have seen it with their own eyes. Anyone who helps to improve
the equipment of these men is helping on the good work at a crucial point.
It is, moreover, this working class alone that has it in its power to
establish healthy relations with the Arabs, which is the most important
political task of Zionism. Administrations come and go; but it is human
relations that finally turn the scale in the lives of nations. Therefore to
support "Working Palestine" is at the same time to promote a humane and
worthy policy in Palestine, and to oppose an effective resistance to those
undercurrents of narrow nationalism from which the whole political world,
and in a less degree the small political world of Palestine affairs, is
suffering.
Jewish Recovery
I gladly accede to your paper's request that I should address an appeal
to the Jews of Hungary on behalf of Keren Hajessod.
The greatest enemies of the national consciousness and honour of the
Jews are fatty degeneration--by which I mean the unconscionableness which
comes from wealth and ease--and a kind of inner dependence on the
surrounding Gentile world which comes from the loosening of the fabric of
Jewish society. The best in man can flourish only when he loses himself in a
community. Hence the moral danger of the Jew who has lost touch with his own
people and is regarded as a foreigner by the people of his adoption. Only
too often a contemptible and joyless egoism has resulted from such
circumstances. The weight of outward oppression on the Jewish people is
particularly heavy at the moment. But this very bitterness has done us good.
A revival of Jewish national life, such as the last generation could never
have dreamed of, has begun. Through the operation of a newly awakened sense
of solidarity among the Jews, the scheme of colonizing Palestine launched by
a handful of devoted and judicious leaders in the face of apparently
insuperable difficulties, has already prospered so far that I feel no doubt
about its permanent success. The value of this achievement for the Jews
everywhere is very great. Palestine will be a centre of culture for all
Jews, a refuge for the most grievously oppressed, a field of action for the
best among us, a unifying ideal, and a means of attaining inward health for
the Jews of the whole world.
Anti-Semitism and Academic Youth
So long as we lived in the ghetto our Jewish nationality involved for
us material difficulties and sometimes physical danger, but no social or
psychological problems. With emancipation the position changed, particularly
for those Jews who turned to the intellectual professions. In school and at
the university the young Jew is exposed to the influence of a society with a
definite national tinge, which he respects and admires, from which he
receives his mental sustenance, to which he feels himself to belong, while
it, on the other hand, treats him, as one of an alien race, with a certain
contempt and hostility. Driven by the suggestive influence of this
psychological superiority rather than by utilitarian considerations, he
turns his back on his people and his traditions, and considers himself as
belonging entirely to the others while he tries in vain to conceal from
himself and them the fact that the relation is not reciprocal. Hence that
pathetic creature, the baptized Jewish Geheimrat of yesterday and to-day. In
most cases it is not pushfulness and lack of character that have made him
what he is, but, as I have said, the suggestive power of an environment
superior in numbers and influence. He knows, of course, that many admirable
sons of the Jewish people have made important contributions to the glory of
European civilization; but have they not all, with a few exceptions, done
much the same as he?
In this case, as in many mental disorders, the cure lies in a clear
knowledge of one's condition and its causes. We must be conscious of our
alien race and draw the logical conclusions from it. It is no use trying to
convince the others of our spiritual and intellectual equality by arguments
addressed to the reason, when their attitude does not originate in their
intellects at all. Rather must we emancipate ourselves socially and supply
our social needs, in the main, ourselves. We must have our own students'
societies and adopt an attitude of courteous but consistent reserve to the
Gentiles. And let us live after our own fashion there and not ape duelling
and drinking customs which are foreign to our nature. It is possible to be a
civilized European and a good citizen and at the same time a faithful Jew
who loves his race and honours his fathers. If we remember this and act
accordingly, the problem of anti-Semitism, in so far as it is of a social
nature, is solved for us.
A Letter to Professor Dr. Hellpach, Minister of State
Dear Herr Hellpach,
I have read your article on Zionism and the Zurich Congress and
feel, as a strong devotee of the Zionist idea, that I must answer
you, even if it is only shortly.
The Jews are a community bound together by ties of blood and
tradition, and not of religion only: the attitude of the rest of the
world towards them is sufficient proof of this. When I came to
Germany fifteen years ago I discovered for the first time that I
was a Jew, and I owe this discovery more to Gentiles than Jews.
The tragedy of the Jews is that they are people of a definite
historical type, who lack the support of a community to keep
them together. The result is a want of solid foundations in the
individual which amounts in its extremer forms to moral
instability. I realized that the only possible salvation for the race
was that every Jew in the world should become attached to a
living society to which the individual rejoiced to belong and
which enabled him to bear the hatred and the humiliations that he
has to put up with from the rest of the world.
I saw worthy Jews basely caricatured, and the sight made my
heart bleed. I saw how schools, comic papers, and innumerable
other forces of the Gentile majority undermined the confidence
even of the best of my fellow-Jews, and felt that this could not
be allowed to continue.
Then I realized that only a common enterprise dear to the hearts
of Jews all over the world could restore this people to health. It
was a great achievement of Herzl's to have realized and
proclaimed at the top of his voice that, the traditional attitude of
the Jews being what it was, the establishment of a national home
or, more accurately, a centre in Palestine, was a suitable object
on which to concentrate our efforts.
All this you call nationalism, and there is something in the
accusation. But a communal purpose, without which we can
neither live nor die in this hostile world, can always be called by
that ugly name. In any case it is a nationalism whose aim is not
power but dignity and health. If we did not have to live among
intolerant, narrow-minded, and violent people, I should be the
first to throw over all nationalism in favour of universal humanity.
The objection that we Jews cannot be proper citizens of the
German State, for example, if we want to be a "nation," is based
on a misunderstanding of the nature of the State which springs
from the intolerance of national majorities. Against that
intolerance we shall never be safe, whether we call ourselves a
"people" (or "nation") or not.
I have put all this with brutal frankness for the sake of brevity,
but I know from your writings that you are a man who attends to
the sense, not the form.
Letter to an Arab
March 15, 1930
Sir,
Your letter has given me great pleasure. It shows me that there is good
will available on your side too for solving the present difficulties in a
manner worthy of both our nations. I believe that these difficulties are
more psychological than real, and that they can be got over if both sides
bring honesty and good will to the task.
What makes the present position so bad is the fact that Jews and Arabs
confront each other as opponents before the mandatory power. This state of
affairs is unworthy of both nations and can only be altered by our finding a
via media on which both sides agree.
I will now tell you how I think that the present difficulties might be
remedied; at the same time I must add that this is only my personal opinion,
which I have discussed with nobody. I am writing this letter in German
because I am not capable of writing it in English myself and because I want
myself to bear the entire responsibility for it. You will, I am sure, be
able to get some Jewish friend of conciliation to translate it.
A Privy Council is to be formed to which the Jews and Arabs shall each
send four representatives, who must be independent of all political parties.
Each group to be composed as follows:--
A doctor, elected by the Medical Association;
A lawyer, elected by the lawyers;
A working men's representative, elected by the trade unions;
An ecclesiastic, elected by the ecclesiastics.
These eight people are to meet once a week. They undertake not to
espouse the sectional interests of their profession or nation but
conscientiously and to the best of their power to aim at the welfare of the
whole population of the country. Their deliberations shall be secret and
they are strictly forbidden to give any information about them, even in
private. When a decision has been reached on any subject in which not less
than three members on each side concur, it may be published, but only in the
name of the whole Council. If a member dissents he may retire from the
Council, but he is not thereby released from the obligation to secrecy. If
one of the elective bodies above specified is dissatisfied with a resolution
of the Council, it may repiace its representative by another.
Even if this "Privy Council" has no definite powers it may nevertheless
bring about the gradual composition of differences, and secure as united
representation of the common interests of the country before the mandatory
power, clear of the dust of ephemeral politics.
Christianity and Judaism
If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus
Christ taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the
priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the
social ills of humanity.
It is the duty of every man of good will to strive steadfastly in his
own little world to make this teaching of pure humanity a living force, so
far as he can. If he makes an honest attempt in this direction without being
crushed and trampled under foot by his contemporaries, he may consider
himself and the community to which he belongs lucky.
--end