Montella acquiesced.
“That being so, then, your tastes are naturally British, and your interest is to a great degree monopolised by the country of your birth. This is proved by the mere fact of your being an ex-member of Parliament, in which capacity I know you desired to exercise your influence for the national good.”
“Certainly.”
“Yet when you are told that a certain legislation concerning the question of the Jews is for the national good, you steadfastly set your face against it, and resent its introduction. Being hemmed in by the narrowness of your creed, you are unable to get outside yourself, so to speak, and look at the matter from a rational and utilitarian point of view. That is the great difference between you and your parliamentary colleagues.”
“Exactly,” put in Montella eagerly. “I am a Jew.”
“A Jew, yes; but I wish to discover how much of the Jew there is in you—the real Jew, according to the Oriental sense of the term. That there is an element of Hebraism in your moral and intellectual nature I do not dispute; but there are other and Occidental elements which you have inherited to a greater degree. Do you think your forefathers, when they left Palestine and lived in the West, were not affected by the influences of Hellenism, of Chivalry, of the Renaissance, of the Reformation, and of the Christian ethics in general, with which they came into contact? My dear fellow, the Occidental Jew—such as yourself—is no more like the Hebrew of old than I am! Do you think that if you were forced to live in strict accordance with the Talmudic law, you would feel that you were fulfilling the obligations of your race? I assure you that you would feel nothing of the kind; you would know that you were returning to darkness, shutting out civilisation and light.”
“Perhaps so,” replied the young man thoughtfully, “but for all that, I am a Jew, and not all the Occidental influences in the world have been able to break the bond which unites me to my forefathers. Blood is thicker than water, Mr. Holmes; and when once the blood of an Israelite flows in a man’s veins, it is impossible for him to forget his heritage. He may renounce it as he likes, but by his looks, his temperament, his associations, his very tricks of gesture, he betrays it. That I have nothing in common with the typical Jew of tradition, and that I am a thorough Englishman at heart I am glad to admit; nevertheless there is a difference between myself and you, for instance. Small and indefinable though it may be, you know that it is there.”
He had drawn his chair back from the table in his ardour, and leant back with a flush on his brow. His dark eyes glowed with the intensity of feeling, and about the youthful, clean-shaven face, with its splendid forehead, sensitive nostrils, and firm, yet gentle mouth, there was a nobility which it was hard to resist. Holmes secretly considered Montella a perfect specimen of his race, but he was loath to believe that he had inherited a single good quality from his Hebrew ancestors.
“As long as you remain an idealist, my dear boy, you will never be able to take a dispassionate view of the matter,” he returned, with deliberation. “It is that sentimental clinging to tradition which is your people’s bane. My standpoint, however, is simply this: A Jewish element in a nation is a desirable and almost an essential thing to have, but as soon as that element preponderates—as now—it becomes a danger to the State. Therefore it must be kept within bounds, and those Jews who refuse to conform to the customs of this country must be weeded out. The only way out of the present crisis, it seems to me, is absorption, for as long as you Jews remain separatists you have no right to the full privileges of the land of your adoption. Therefore the Government has thought fit to take stringent measures to bring about this result; and although I admit that those measures seem unnecessarily harsh, I know that they are for the benefit of the nation at large. Let those Jews who cherish the scriptural tradition and maintain their clannishness return to the land of their fathers. There must be either assimilation or a separate Jewish state.”
“And you think this justifies the persecution of two hundred and seventy thousand people, the majority of whom are loyal subjects of the King?”