[¹] The desire to remove this sort of separatism was the fundamental idea of the Alliance Israélite Universelle.
Exceptional laws tend to isolate the Jews; the attacks and accusations directed against them collectively, the differential treatment meted out to them, the anti-Semitic policy, all necessarily contribute to strengthen the walls of the Ghetto. Every discrimination made against the Jews, be it only the merest chicane, is a stone added to the walls of the Ghetto. It is not to the Jews that the erection of a “State within a State” is to be credited; it is the anti-Semitic movement which is responsible for this anomaly. As soon as the Jews are subjected to differential treatment, they must likewise alter their attitude. Whether they will or no, there arises out of these conditions a complex of problems in consequence of the instinct for self-preservation, which acts with the force of an iron law. These problems, which in their origin have nothing to do with the national life and character of the Jews, invest them with the character of a politico-economic nationality, artificially isolated within the State. That is a kind of nationality to which the Jews do not aspire; it is forced on them from without. And it is in such conditions that the majority of the Jews live. It is a superficial method of computation which estimates the condition of the Jews according to the majority of the countries in which they live; the right method is to consider the condition of the majority of the people. That is the decisive factor. A well-known Jewish author has taken the trouble to collect in a book all the laws promulgated against the Jews in Russia under the old régime. These laws numbered more than a thousand, and subsequently they were increased by many hundreds. This code of laws—a kind of anti-Bible—affects half of the Jewish race. The originators of these special laws have consciously or unconsciously bestowed upon the Jews the predicates of a nationality within the domain of the State, but in a negative sense and with (as it were) inverted political rights. A group of men may thus be converted into a nation isolated within the State, not only by granting them special privileges, but also, and perhaps more thoroughly, by subjecting them to special restrictions.
As an inevitable result of this treatment, the thoughts, feelings and aspirations, the daily interests, the public opinion, the collective will of the Jewish masses have been driven to assume a tendency necessarily peculiar to themselves even in economic and general questions, in which they would otherwise have no special concern as Jews. In spite of the exceptional conditions artificially created for them they yet contrive on the whole to maintain their loyalty to the State, and make supreme sacrifices for it.
It stands to reason that when, in the course of one generation, a certain class of men has been called upon to suffer the martyrdom of violent persecutions and is constantly threatened by this gruesome spectre, the consequence is that whether they will or no, the members of the group become welded and cemented together into one body. It is also self-evident that given a certain class of men confined within a Ghetto or debarred from many professions—only a few in fact remaining open to them—the members of the community are bound to become a people of entirely exceptional character, with cares and problems of their own. In our day, as on innumerable previous occasions in Jewish history, malice makes use of this fact to bring forward fresh accusations against the Jew. The Jews are driven into certain positions, and are then held responsible for them. It is of no avail to give serious consideration to these charges. They are so numerous and so obstinate that it would be impossible to dispose of them all in an apology. Impartial observers will understand that the exceptional status of the Jews within the States, and the separate interests resulting therefrom, were not a consummation desired by the Jews, but a necessity imposed upon them against their will and of which they are compelled to bear the consequences. They are obliged to combine in many countries, just as any people taken collectively usually combine, when their interests as a collective body are at stake. This is a necessity even in the most ordinary matters of daily life, and it results in a national combination for economic interests, as, for instance, in the case of boycott or of social ostracism. But for these aggravations, it would not occur to the most zealous of Jewish nationalists to make attempts at organization in this direction. The distinctive Jewish national concept is not embodied in these organizations, nor dependent upon them. But the demand that these special organizations shall cease, is first of all a chimera: and secondly an injustice: a chimera because it transgresses the law of the instinct of self-preservation, and an injustice because one must not forbid a man who has been attacked to defend himself. One can only demand that the grievances shall be removed. Whether they will ever vanish, and when, is another question. The Russian revolution, with its boon of freedom to oppressed nationalities, will mark, we hope, an epoch in the struggle of the Jewish masses for the right to live freely in the political and economic sense. But history and experience warn us against believing too readily that salvation has come.
However that may be, Jewish nationality, as we said above, in no way depends on the political status and the position of the Jews in various countries. This question may be left entirely out of consideration. In dealing with Jewish nationality, we are concerned only with those predicates which are based upon the natio, that is the origin and the spirit or type of the race in question.
The Jewish national idea is not merely an historical tradition, it is a programme for outward as well as inward use. Outwardly it manifests itself in an energetic struggle for its own existence, in the development of its self-consciousness, in an active regard for its own interests; inwardly as a union of the Jews of all countries, rites, grades of culture and political parties on all questions which affect Jews and Judaism (though it is and must be set on one side in all non-Jewish questions relating to the State). As in the natio the fact of being at one with the race is the really characteristic feature, it is necessary to regard all Jews as members of the Jewish nationality without reference to their religious opinions or points of view. This is the meaning of the Talmudic dictum:—
אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא
סנהדרין דף מד ע'א:[¹]
[¹] Although he sinned he is an Israelite.—Sanhedrin 44ᵃ.
Nationality has nothing to do with the differences of theological opinion between the various sections of Jewry; it is based simply upon oneness with the race. The endeavour to form this union is the foundation of the national idea.