Of all the ancient peoples none had more marked race consciousness and racial feeling than the Jews and Greeks. It is very characteristic of Greek race consciousness that Greek philosophers, when discussing ethical or political subjects, have only the Hellenic people in mind. Their notions of justice and peace were applied only to the Hellenic people. The ancient Jews were not so one-sided. Yet they, too, had a well developed race consciousness which showed not merely in the religious idea that they were the chosen people, but in a very general acceptance of the belief that they were a distinct unit. Even the call to righteousness uttered by the prophet is colored by racial motives: "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness; ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." Another of the prophets, Ezekiel, even speculated as to the origin of the Jewish race. All the terms, ger, nakhri, akum and others used by ancient Jews to describe non-believers characterized non-Jews with reference to race also. The feeling of racial consciousness among Jews to the present day and the consciousness of the isolation of that race are best expressed in the popular Hebrew term, "Umoth ha-Olam," the people of the world. The "Umoth ha-Olam" are the non-Jews, as the "barbaroi" were the non-Greeks. This throws light on the mental disposition of the Jews. While, in the eyes of the Greek, the non-Greek is an inferior, being a "barbaros," in the eyes of the Jews the non-Jew is simply different and not necessarily inferior. Even the term goy, which is so much abused by anti-Semites, means only non-Jew. But while the Jew never held the non-Jew in contempt merely for differences of race, he had always and still has intense feeling for his own race.
In theological periods of history the fight against Judaism was perhaps a conflict of theologies only. Today, however, a fight against Judaism is inevitably a fight against the Jewish race. In times of old the religious motives of Judaism seem to have been the prime factors in Jewish life. Today the driving powers in Jewish history are not so much religious as race and national consciousness. It is, therefore, characteristic of those Jews whose Jewish backbone is broken to deny the existence of the race and to scoff at race consciousness in general.
Race consciousness is not a myth invented by the professors, but a fact of life.
AHAD HA'AM
The sixtieth anniversary of Ahad Ha'am, the foremost Hebrew thinker of his time, is a notable event in Hebrew literature, and will no doubt be celebrated by Hebraists all over the world in a manner worthy of the man and of the thinker. Next to Bialik, the great Hebrew poet, Ahad Ha'am is today the most popular Jew among the Jewries of the East and the best known representative of Hebrew thought among Jewish intellectuals in the West. His name is identified with the formulation of the program of Hebrew nationalism and the creation of a Hebrew cultural centre in Palestine. Unlike other thinkers who consider their convictions their own private affair, Ahad Ha'am had the courage of his convictions and defended them against great odds. He had the courage to take his stand against the giant, Herzl, and the powerful dialectician and publicist, Max Nordau. He knew that the fight against Herzl, when the great leader of Zionism was at his height, would not win him friends, but he had the daring to take up the fight.
For Ahad Ha'am the question of political Zionism and that of cultural Zionism as represented by himself, were matters of principle and had to be fought out sooner or later. While Ahad Ha'am fought against Herzl and Nordau and against the other powerful representatives of political Zionism, he had no personalities in mind and fought for principles only. The whole position of things was such that Ahad Ha'am could at that time have had no hope to win the struggle because political Zionism was at its height and because Theodor Herzl was the shining star in the firmament of Jewish political life. But disregarding the disadvantageous position in which he found himself, he fought courageously until he believed the danger was passed.
We mention this fight against Herzl and Nordau because it best characterizes the man, Ahad Ha'am. Though his philosophy of life is a philosophy of abstract ideas, he is at the same time a man full of life and temperament, a hard public worker and a political Jew in the best sense of the term. A great deal of his popularity must be ascribed not only to his philosophy and his system of Jewish politics, but also to his manliness and wonderful qualities of character.
As a Hebrew thinker, Ahad Ha'am represents the last point in the line of Jewish thought which can be characterized as Hebrew intellectualism as distinguished from Hebrew irrationalism and mysticism, which found its expression in the teachings of the Hassidic sect.