Protest against Zionism

A

We recently received from Vienna the new newspaper of the “Zionists,” Die Welt. It appeared on the eve of the holiday of the Feast of Weeks, which reminds us more than any other holiday that it was Israel’s destiny from the start to be a “Kingdom of Priests.” This newspaper contains propaganda for a Congress of Jewish Nationals, called for the twenty-fifth of August of this year [1897] in Munich.

Die Welt is a calamity and must be resisted. As long as the Zionists wrote in Hebrew they were not dangerous, but now that they are writing in German, they must be opposed. It is not a question of refuting their claims. For how can one speak with people who on the one hand are fanatics regarding Jewish nationhood and, on the other hand, complain that the Austrian government required a baptismal certificate from the candidate for the position of secretary of Bukowina. If the Austrian Jews support the efforts of the Zionists, then they should not complain that they are treated by the government like foreigners and are barred from public office.

We, however, can say to our fellow countrymen with complete conviction that we comprise a separate community solely with respect to religion. Regarding nationality, we feel totally at one with our fellow Germans and therefore strive towards the realization of the spiritual and moral goals of our dear fatherland with an enthusiasm equalling theirs. Hence, we are permitted to urge the complete implementation of equal rights and to perceive every curtailment of these rights as an injury to our most righteous sensibilities.

What more can one say, if people are so naive as to believe that the West European Jews will hand over their money to purchase Palestine from the Turks and to create a Jewish organization that will reverse the entire development of the Jewish nation. Eighteen hundred years ago, history made its decision regarding Jewish nationhood through the dissolution of The Jewish State and the destruction of the Temple. Recent Jewish scholarship can count among its highest achievements the fact that this conception has gained the widest circulation among the Jews of all civilized countries.

The Zionists want to provide “an internationally guaranteed place to call home” for those Jews “who cannot or do not want to assimilate in their present places of residence.” But where are the Jews who do not want to assimilate? The fact that right now they are still unable to assimilate in many countries makes it precisely our duty to fight in common with the most noble and best men of all confessions for the removal of discriminatory laws. Let us protest in the most decisive manner against such a defamation [implied in the claim that there are Jews who do not wish to assimilate] as well as against the insult that the Zionists level at us in that they speak of a “Jewish distress” which they want to eliminate. In this protest, we shall know ourselves to be in complete agreement with all the Jewish communities of the German fatherland.

We ask the Zionists then, in whose name and by what authority do they speak? Who gave them a mandate to call for a congress in Munich, when it would not even be suitable for Przemysl, Grodno, or Jaffa. We are protesting against the organizers who claim to speak for all of Jewry, but behind whom stands not one single Jewish congregation. We are convinced that no Rabbi or Director of a German congregation will appear at the congress. Thus will be demonstrated to the entire world that German Jewry has nothing in common with the intentions of the Zionists.

Dr. S. Maybaum, Berlin; Dr. H. Vogelstein, Stettin.

B

Owing to the convening of a Zionist Congress and the publication of its Agenda, so many erroneous impressions have gone forth respecting the teachings of Judaism and its efforts, that the undersigned Executive Committee of the Union of Rabbis in Germany deem it their duty to make the following Declaration:

1. The efforts of so-called Zionists to create a Jewish National State in Palestine are antagonistic to the messianic promises of Judaism, as contained in Holy Writ and in later religious sources.
2. Judaism obliges its followers to serve the country to which they belong with the utmost devotion, and to further its interest with their whole heart and all their strength.
3. There is no antagonism, however, between this duty and the noble efforts directed towards the colonization of Palestine by Jewish agriculturists, as they have no relation whatsoever to the founding of a National State.

Religion and Patriotism alike impose upon us the duty of begging all who have the welfare of Judaism at heart, to hold aloof from the before-mentioned Zionist Movement, and to abstain from attending the Congress, which in spite of all warnings is yet to be held.

The Executive Committee: Dr. Maybaum, Berlin; Dr. Horovitz, Frankfurt; Dr. Guttmann, Breslau; Dr. Auerbach, Halberstadt; Dr. Werner, Munich.