An Anti-Zionist’s Comment to the Polish Jewish Intelligentsia

I was born a Jew, and as I attained self-awareness, I realized that almost four thousand years of human history were working to present me with questions: How was I to understand myself as a Jew, how was I to understand the position of my coreligionists and fellow members of our tribe in relation to their aims and responsibilities, in relation to their attitude toward the peoples among whom they live? It is not at all surprising that the solution is difficult, since the case files contain the contents of almost forty centuries! [ . . . ]

I am human, and thus everything that should be required of the highest being on earth is required of me. I must possess those high virtues and advantages that a human can and must possess. Human dignity makes people resemble each other. A true human, no matter which nationality he belongs to, possesses a heart filled with love for his fellows, and is just, honest, and sensible. Universal-human ideals rise high above the ideals of separate human collectives, because the former include the latter in the purity and measure due them. We include the entirety of universal-human ideals in the expression civilization. True civilization elevates humanity in its entirety, defends the just interests of each nation, and guards the most effective security and the best development of the individual. [ . . . ]

I am human, and my spirit rejoices in the delightful awareness that I love all humanity, that I believe that my spirit aspires to strengthen its spiritual dignity on this earth, that it strives, admittedly in a wavering trajectory, ever higher, ever higher.

I am a Jew. Since the highest aspect of my being is that I am human, in the light, also, of these universal-human ideals, I believe I can illuminate most accurately for myself the Jewish characteristic of my being.

I am a Jew, and thus I am the descendant of a people who in the distant past introduced the sublime idea of a detached divinity into a world sunk in the most animal paganism—a people who promoted ideas of the humanity and purity of customs in a healthier and more sober form, and thus one more capable of development than the principles of Hindu Buddhism [sic]—undoubtedly sublime, but with a harmful substratum of sterile asceticism and morbidly exuberant fantasy.

I am a Jew and thus a descendant of a people who, from its womb, produced Moses, a man who proclaimed the words that are the alpha and omega of universal-human ideals: “Love your neighbor as yourself”; a people who produced Jesus, understanding that the aim of the world is “the union in love of the peoples of all corners of the world and all the islands of the sea,” because “my house will be a house of prayer in all nations”—thus, a descendant of a people within whose womb, in opposition to the cult of sensual joys of Greece and to the harsh cruelty of imperial Rome, there blossomed forth on the soil of the human principles of Mosaic law: on one side, the sublime principles of Hillelism, and on the other, the idealistic aspirations of the Essenes, cherishing piety and a strict purity of customs, nursing a fervent and great yearning for the kingdom of heaven on earth; a people from whose womb, from whose soul, without any fundamental antagonism at all, the great ethics of true Christianity was born.

I am, thus, as a Jew, the descendant of a people who prepared the most beautiful, the purest, though still slowly sprouting, seeds of a future universal-human civilization. [ . . . ]

The ethics of pure Judaism in its evolution from Moses to the great ranks of the students of Hillel is sublime and highly humanitarian. The idealistic ethics of pure Christianity are blood from blood, bone from the first bone. But there exists today a different, sublime ethics which the fruits of our understanding, independent of any religion, dictates to us—an ethics whose sources are philosophy and knowledge. And who among the believers will deny that human knowledge is also a manifestation of the divine!

Today, to defend the principles of any religion is an entirely unnecessary task, because there is no religious struggle today. Already today, despite certain reactionary waves that do not at all refute the line of development of human culture always raising itself up—in waves, but constantly upward—religious tolerance is the hard-won fruit of mankind. The variously named religious beliefs no longer turn people into fanatics; today, everyone is free to confess the belief into which he was born. And those Jews who defend and fervently love their faith can be proud of the greatness of spirit of their forebears who courageously survived moments of the most terrible religious passions and through their martyrdom allowed their descendants to rejoice in the glow of the jewel of their beloved faith. [ . . . ]

Thanks to the universal current of civilization, we Jews can freely profess our faith. Our special merit is only that we endured, but it is the merit of universal-human culture that we survived to know this freedom. And once again we see how universal-human matters are the loftiest because their development gives law and protection to nations, corporate entities, and individuals. To work for these universal-human interests is the loftiest task of nations and individuals.

The love of all humankind is rational; it cannot engulf sober patriotism, for humanity is composed of nations. Work on the development and prosperity of the fatherland is territorial work for the development and prosperity of humanity. Looking at this matter realistically, the interests of humanity demand individual safety, just social organizations, just courts, good schools, the development of civic virtues, favorable conditions for health, healthy relations in trade and industry, good roads and communication equipment, the development of science, art, and letters, and so forth. These matters can be most fervently nurtured on separate territories of the earth, in separate human communities—in nations and states.

The permanent inhabitants of given regions of the earth, born in those regions, have a sacred duty to turn all their efforts to the development and perfection of all those above-named agents and expressions of culture. In other words: the inhabitants of a given country that gave birth to them, which nourishes them and covers the ashes of their forebears, must love that country with all their heart, be concerned with the development of its spiritual and material interests, devote all their strength to its well-being and prosperity, and must have as their first obligation to be in word and deed fervent patriots, the devoted children of their fatherland.

Only on this path will they contribute to the progress of universal culture and to the prosperity of their closest brethren.