The year 1882, with its pogroms and the atrocious Jewish disabilities which it introduced, was a turning-point in Hirsch’s philanthropic activities as much as in the activities of all the Jewish organizations and of individual philanthropists. When 40–50,000 pogrom refugees in a starving condition crowded into the already crowded Galician Ghettoes, adding their starvation and agonies to the misery already there, and the great Jewish organizations and communities sent their representatives to afford protection to the suffering (Mr. Samuel Montagu—afterwards Lord Swaythling—and Dr. Asher Asher (1837–1889) came from London, also Mr. Laurence Oliphant), M. Veneziani appeared as representative of Baron de Hirsch, and offered enormous sums—by which, however, only a small part of the appalling distress was met. Baron de Hirsch also sent money to Russia for years.
At that period Baron de Hirsch, like most other emancipated Jews in Western Europe, believed that a solution of the Jewish problem could be achieved by steps taken in Russia itself. Like the others, he knew very little of the great complexity and peculiar conditions of the problem. So with the assistance of a Commission he devoted much of his time to drawing up a scheme for the improvement of the condition of the Jews in Russia. Bearing in mind the activity of the “Alliance” in the East, he paid due regard to the need for providing Russian Jews with modern education, and his scheme contemplated a fund of 50,000,000 francs to be used for educational purposes—under his own control. But this was a Utopian idea. Anyone acquainted with the conditions could easily have shown him that this offer would be declined.
He was finally and unalterably convinced that the only hope lay in emigration. With the adoption of this view began the third period of his activity, in which he supported emigration in every shape and form. It is difficult to estimate how much he spent for this purpose; but by far the greatest part of the support given by the “Alliance” and other organizations to emigration came from him. Later, however, he realized that this support, useful as it was to individuals, was of no permanent value, and then, entering upon the fourth and most important period of his activity, he became the Baron de Hirsch who will for ever be remembered in Jewish history—the man who endeavoured to solve the Jewish problem not by charities, schools, contributions to the “Alliance” or schemes for the benefit of Russia, but by a single great effort for Jewish Emancipation.
CHAPTER XLV.
AN ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THE JEWISH PROBLEM
The “Jewish Colonization Association” (1891)—Statutes and shareholders—Baron de Hirsch’s letter to the Russian Jews—His articles in the Forum and the North American Review—Baroness Clara de Hirsch.
Baron de Hirsch was not a Zionist, nor do we desire to claim him as a national Jew. Had he been asked whether he recognized the national idea, he would undoubtedly have replied that he was opposed to it. He was not much interested in abstract ideas, and it is questionable whether he could be made to fit in with any cut-and-dried theory at all. Nevertheless, his activities became those of a national Jew when once he was made fully conscious of the Jewish tragedy. Born in Munich, heir to an Austrian title, distinguished for his industrial undertakings in the East, resident in Paris, with powerful connections in England, he devoted himself at last almost entirely to his brethren in Russia. Was the impelling feeling a colourless cosmopolitan humanism? One might have called it so as long as he merely supported education and sent contributions to charities. But one cannot, without doing violence to facts, regard the work of what we have called his fourth period—which was the very climax of his activity—as the mere charitable routine which is characteristic of Jews whose purpose and hope is “assimilation.” Hirsch was more than a Jew of that type. The tendency towards assimilation destroys the Jew, discourages the man, kills his individuality, “and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,” and the Jew becomes an emulator of what other people do, a slave of other people’s opinions. If a personality like that of Hirsch could develop in such an environment, it was because his inquiring mind, the experience gained in his travels and his absorption during youth of the old traditions of his people carried him far beyond his actual surroundings. It was due to his individual gifts that he took up the great idea of concentration of the persecuted Jewish people by means of colonization. He directed all his energies to the investigation of the best places for colonization, and the result was the formation of an international association, incorporated under English law, and known as the Jewish Colonization Association, whose Memorandum of Association includes the following clauses:—
“To assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any part of Europe or Asia—and principally from countries in which they may for the time being be subjected to any special taxes or political or other disabilities—to any parts of the world, and to form and establish colonies in various parts of North and South America and other countries for agricultural, commercial and other purposes.
“To purchase and acquire, by donation or otherwise, from any Governments, States, municipal or local authorities, corporations, firms, or persons any territories, lands, or other property, as concessions, powers and privileges, which may be necessary or convenient for developing the resources of the same and rendering the same available for colonization.
“To accept gifts, donations and bequests of money and other property, on the terms of the same being applied for all or some one or more of the purposes of the company, or such other terms as may be consistent with the objects of the company.”