It is generally asserted that, though the Jews as such have not produced a civilization during their life in diaspora, they have produced a culture. This is sincerely believed by all Jews, by believers and disbelievers, orthodox and reform, nationalists and assimilationists. Though one lays more stress on the spiritual and the other more on the secular aspect of the so-called Jewish culture, the outstanding fact is, however, that the belief in the Jewish culture produced in the diaspora is general. But if it is true that culture is a superstructure of civilization and has civilization as its basis, it is hard to see how it is possible to assume for one moment that the Jews have produced anything like a culture during their diaspora life.
It is true that Jews have written books among which some are famous in world-literature. It is true that the Jews have painted good pictures. It is also true that the Jews have composed good music. But the question is often more than justified whether or not the Jewish genius has drawn the material from Jewish sources and Jewish life. Are all the good books Jews have written Jewish books? Are all the good pictures Jews have painted Jewish art? And is the good music Jews have composed Jewish music? In some cases they are partly Jewish. In the overwhelming majority of cases they are not Jewish at all. Neither Spinoza nor Bergson, neither Heine nor Hoffmannsthal, are Jews in the sense that they have been inspired exclusively by Jewish motives and that they have drawn their inspiration from Jewish sources alone. But we can go even further and maintain that even those great Jews from Philo of Alexandria to Maimonides and from Maimonides to Herman Cohen, who were always conscious of their Judaism and who thought that they were working as Jews and that their creations were Jewish, stood much more under the spell of alien than Jewish influence, and in their work were less Jews than is generally supposed. In spite of their racial enthusiasm, their intellect was hyphenated. Philo was at least as much Greek as he was Jew, Maimonides at least as much Greek and Arab, and Cohen is at least as much German as he is Jew, if not more.
We are quick in our condemnation of those who wrote on the tombstone of Maimonides, "Heretic and Disbeliever." We are angry at the "fanatics" of Amsterdam who excommunicated Spinoza, and we are often angry at those who utter severe criticism of Herman Cohen as a Jew. But these fanatics, wrong as they may be in their methods, are not entirely wrong in their motives and ideas. They are Jews in whom strong Jewish instincts are alive and these Jews, gifted with more original instincts than the average Jew, see more quickly what is Jewish and what is not in the work of a great Jew; it is the un-Jewish motive in these works by which they are repulsed.
Even the Jewish religion has been largely influenced, not only by non-Jewish surroundings, but also by non-Jewish religious motives. The truth of the matter is that national Jewish culture ceased to be with the destruction of the Jewish state. From that time on, individual Jews have cultivated Jewish thoughts and Jewish feelings, but they could not prevent their thoughts and feelings from being so mingled with and darkened by non-Jewish thoughts and feelings as to lose their original strength. Much of our so-called national literature is not organic, but consists of a number of books written by individual Jews who were only too often inspired by motives more non-Jewish than Jewish. The same is true of Jewish art, Jewish music, etc. Only when our culture touches upon our classical past or upon our national future, that is to say, when it is not influenced by the chaos of the present, is it truly Jewish.
When the Jews return to Palestine and begin to develop a national civilization, their culture will be built up not only on the past or the future, but also on the present. It will grow with the growth of civilization and it will not be a culture of individuals who are inspired by one thought appearing in different colors as the result of various influences; it will be the culture of a nation, an organic essence produced and developed with the help of the entire nation.
This will be the consequence of a national Jewish homeland in Palestine.
PALESTINE'S ROLE IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY
Even territories are subject to the incalculable caprice of Fate. Palestine, a small territory in Western Asia, forming the southern third of the province of Syria, excelled in natural beauty by Switzerland or the Tyrol, has nevertheless been touched by the Spirit of Humanity and has exerted a greater influence upon the development of the human mind than any other country in the world, not excepting ancient Hellas and Rome. There is hardly another land that has witnessed as great historic events as has Palestine; there is surely no other land that has seen so many invading conquerors on its soil. No other spot on the globe has so kindled the magnetism of the great nations throughout the ages as Palestine. Today, when an army of the mighty British Empire is fighting hard to conquer Palestine, the land of eternal mystery and miracles, it is well to remember that throughout the ages every great power has fought for the possession of the Holy Land. In the early days of our civilization Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians and Persians in turn tried to conquer the country. At a later time, the Greeks and the Romans made the attempt; in the middle ages the great nations of Europe were organized by the Church to wrest Palestine from the Mohammedans. All the great conquerors in history, from Nebuzaradan and Titus to Napoleon, have commanded invading armies on Palestine soil.