The Probable Strengthening of Anti-Semitic Influences
BUT the chief evil which will result from the present war, whatever its outcome, will be the increased influence of just those circles from whom the anti-Semitic movement has emanated throughout Europe for the past forty years. It is, in my opinion, absurd to think that militarism will be killed or even scotched by the present war; militarism cannot cast out militarism. Even if Germany is defeated, it is impossible to imagine that she will rest content with her defeat, and practically the only change in the situation will be that "La Revanche" will be translated into "Die Rache"; and in Russia, the defeat of Germany will simply increase the prestige and influence of the grand-ducal circles from which the persecution of the Jews has mainly emanated.
In the contrary case, if Germany gets the upper hand, the influence of the Junkers in Germany, with their anti-Semitic tendencies, would be raised to intolerable limits, while the Reaction in Russia, even if it loses prestige, will yet be granted more power in order to carry out the projected revenge.
Diminished Chances of Emigration
ANOTHER unfortunate result for Jews from the present war will be the decreased stream of emigration from Russia and Galicia to this country, so that the escape from the House of Bondage would be still more limited. Many will be so impoverished by the war that they will not be able to afford the minimum sum needed for migration. Death on the battle-field or in the military hospitals will remove many energetic young fellows who would otherwise have come to this country and afterwards have brought their relatives with them. Conditions here too, in the immediate future, are likely to be less attractive for the immigrant from the economic point of view owing to the dislocation of trade caused by the current conflict.
Altogether, as will have been seen from the above enumeration, I am strongly of opinion that the Jews will suffer even more than most peoples concerned in the present war. They have nothing to gain by it; they are sure to lose by it.
SURELY a law, the essence of which is mercy and justice to one's fellow men, is not a narrow rule of life, to be discarded by us today on any plea that we have outgrown it; surely a history of thousands of years' devotion to spiritual ideals is not a history to be forgotten. America is a land of divers races and divers religions. Each race and each religion owes to it the duty of bringing to its service all its strength; it derives no added strength from a race which has forgotten the lessons it has learnt in the past, a race which deliberately discards the spiritual strength which it has obtained by devotion to its ideals.—From a Menorah Address by Justice Irving Lehman.