Ber Borochov

“ It would be possible to formulate and explain clearly this uniqueness of the Jewish economic past and present, through recourse to the literature of the Poale Zion in Russia before and during the last decade, but we will base our analysis on literature much older than this. Let us begin with a distinction made by Aristotle, whom Marx frequently quotes with much respect (a distinction which Marxists unfortunately have forgotten or neglected.) Aristotle distinguishes between two modes of gaining a livelihood: first, the livelihood gained from nature; and second, the livelihood gained from man. ”

“ The story told by the figures of Table I is that of a people far removed from the most important, most influential, and most stable branches of production — far removed from the occupations which are at the hub of history. Instead of concentrating about the vital center of economic life, the Jews are scattered on its periphery. Obviously, the fate of society does not to any extent rest on the needle or tobacco industries. ”

“ Those who seek to strengthen the attachment of the Jews to the rarefied economic stratosphere of the Galut, those who seek comfort for the Jewish people in Exile songs and Exile hopes merely help to perpetuate our chronic malady. ”

“ In America, too, Jews are losing control of the needle trade of which they were founders. Gradually, step by step, they are being eased out of their jobs in the American needle industry by the influx of Italians, Poles, Lithuanians and Syrians.
As we proceed, it becomes more obvious that the Jewish economic structure is malformed because of its remoteness from nature. The so-called Jewish malady is a result of historical conditions and therefore chronic. It is well known that an organism: it has adapted itself to this chronic ailment that has tortured it for almost two thousand years. ”

“ It remains true, however, that Jewish industries never attain the large-scale development achieved by non-Jewish industries. No Jewish factory, not even the largest, can compete with such gigantic enterprises as Krupp’s iron works, or Ford’s automobile factories. The Jewish entrepreneur never dreams of industries on this scale, not does the Jewish laborer never dreams of industries on this scale, nor does the Jewish laborer have any access to them. ”

“ More than one-fourth of the Jews are engaged in industry, and in the majority of cases not as capitalists, but rather as wage-earners and small-scale owners. Almost 13% of the Jews of Austria are engaged in agriculture. In general, then, we have a picture of a substantial number of Jews who have penetrated into the primary and basic levels of production.
In Russia, too, we can discern a similar return to productive occupations. Whereas in all other countries of Europe the Jew lives chiefly by commerce rather than industry, in Russia there is a greater tendency to industrialization. ”

“ Further, within the labor element in production we should distinguish between physical labor and mental labor. It is a commonplace that in Jewish economic life occupations that require mental labor far outnumber those requiring physical labor. Of course, we must not overlook the fact that among other nations, too, the proportion of mental workers increases with the cultural development of the people. In the case of no other nation is the proportion as high as among the Jews. ”

“ The moral of this story told by dry statistics is, that as long as the Jews remain remote from nature and basic industry, Jewish economic life will remain stagnant, Jewish culture will be at a low ebb, and the political welfare of the Jews will remain the plaything of chance. These figures force upon us the inevitable conclusion that in international Socialism, the class struggle, and the revolution, the part played by Jewish Socialism will be as insignificant as the Jewish needle and flatiron are when compared to the non-Jewish tractor, locomotive, or steamship. ”

“ Moreover, Jewish entrepreneurs seem to have a natural tendency to small-scale production. S.O. Margolin, the economist, calls this tendency the individualization of industry. A Jew, possessing meager means, often decides to become a boss "on his own" under circumstances in which a Gentile will never dare undertake such a venture. The Jew will often establish a business or factory with negligible "capital" and thus become a "capitalist." The Gentile will more often choose to remain a "wage-slave" for his entire life, even when his savings are larger than those of his Jewish fellow worker. ”

“ There was no doubt about the patient’s illness, but in the course of the illness the body developed some measure of resistance to it. As the years progressed and new resistances were built up, the character of the disease changed, new symptoms appeared, and the physician found himself in a continuous state of bewilderment. ”

“ The level of basic industry, in which we include the branches of production nearest nature, e.g., agriculture, gardening, ranching, etc. Here the element of soil, or nature, is preponderant over that of the human labor. ”

“ The development of technology will inevitably through Jewish workers out of employment. Jewish labor will inevitably remain technologically backward, because the machine is its most formidable enemy. And all this, in turn, can be explained only by the fact that the Jew is divorced by nature. ”

“ Despite the government restrictions that forbid the Jew to live in rural areas outside of the Pale of Settlement, we find many Jews forcing their way back to the soil, to nature.
A slow, but fundamental, revolution has been taking place in Jewish life. We have been witnessing the slow transition of the Jewish masses from unproductive to productive occupations. Emigration is the culminating point of this process. American statistics tell us that productive work has become the basis of Jewish economic life ”

“ In Europe, Jewish weavers, shoemakers, cabinet-makers, and cigar makers are being gradually displaced by non-Jewish labor. With the introduction of the power-loom, Jewish weavers in Lodz and Bialystok have become almost entirely a thing of the past and non-Jewish labor operates the machines. The shoe industry in Warsaw and Odessa has passed through the same evolutionary process. The large tobacco factories in Russia are now almost entirely in the hands of Gentile labor.
The Jews are compelled to seek new work ”

“ Zionism is the logical, natural consequence of the economic revolution that has been going on within Jewish life for the past few hundred years. Even in the Galut, our people have been striving to turn to more "natural" and more productive occupations, but this radical change cannot come to its full fruition in the hostile atmosphere of the Galut. ”

“ On the final level of production Jewish labor represents 50% of the total; i.e., the Jews have their highest representation in occupations that are at the greater distance from nature.
(d) The vast majority of non-Jews gain their livelihood from nature (in levels 1 and 2, i.e., agriculture and basic industry) , whereas the majority of Jews earn their living directly from other men. In Russia and Galicia 70-80% of non-Jews earn their livelihood directly from nature; a similar percentage of Jews earn theirs from men. ”

“ This superficies of social life, which is made up of the give-and-take of finished goods, must draw its sustenance from labor in such central branches of production as agriculture, sheep-raising, mining, railways, shipping, etc. ”

“ No statistics are available concerning Jewish factories in the United States, but of this we are certain: that Jewish labor in America, which is concentrated almost exclusively in the needle industry (in contradistinction to greater diversification of employment in Russia) , has definitely assumed the proportions of mass-production that characterize big business. In Paterson, N.J., for example, there are large textile factories with an enormous number of Jewish workers. In Chicago, Rosenwald’s clothing shops employ several thousand Jewish laborers. ”

“ Jewish occupations are remote from nature. In Russia only 0.6% of those engaged in agriculture are Jews, and in Galicia only 1.5%.
(b) The percentage of Jews in any level of production varies directly with its remoteness from nature. On the level of basic industry, 8 to 9% of the laborers are Jews. On the secondary-middle level the percentage of Jews rises to between 15 and 20. In the tertiary-middle-level it reaches 25 to 33%. ”

“ The case of the Jewish people is analogous to that of the patient who has complained of sundry aches and pains for a number of years, but whose physician has not been able to arrive at a satisfactory diagnosis. ”

“ Likewise, the Jewish nation has not been a passive patient awaiting his inevitable demise. Resistance to the disease has appeared at various times. There has always been the normal effort to regain organic equilibrium. ”

“ Moreover, the literature of the general and Jewish labor movement in Russia contains detailed accounts of numerous strikes conducted by Jewish workers in the Russian Pale of Settlement. [4] The illegal literature of that period (1900-1905) records no less than fifty factories, each employing more than a hundred Jewish workers. The following outstanding examples are also worthy of notice: a millinery factory in Warsaw with 1,000 Jewish employees, a tobacco factory employing 500 Jews, and a glassware factory in Polonoye with 400 Jewish workers. ”