H. G. Enelow

“ If it proves possible, under solemn guarantees of the nations, to permit Jews to settle in Palestine, and to live there in security, we may be sure that many Jews will flock thither, and that they will consecrate all their energies [73] to the restoration of the land so dear to every true Jewish heart. And thus Palestine would not only become again an important factor in Jewish life; it would become again a centre of material and spiritual riches, a land flowing as of old with milk and honey, and a stronghold of Justice and Righteousness, which are the core of Democracy. ”

“ Even more important, however, has been the spiritual life of the Jewish community itself. It has thrived despite persecution. It has created centres of learning, scholars, saints, and above all masses of learned and saintly men and women, which both in number and character have never been surpassed in the whole heroic range of Jewish history. It is this spiritual life of the Jew of Russia—devout, loyal, God-intoxicated—that could not help but excite the admiration, and ultimately to gain the recognition, of the world. ”

“ But all in all, the Jews have had a glorious history in France, crowned by the fact that she was the first country in Europe to give full civil and political rights to the Jews, as she did during the Revolution, on September 28th, 1791. France thus inaugurated a new era in Jewish history. Indeed, she thus brought about the modern rebirth of the Jew—the Jew's full entry into modern life. Therefore, when it is said that every man has two countries—his own and France, we may justly apply it in particular to the modern Jew. ”

“ Whoever doubts the patriotism of the American Jew, does not know him. And never was the Jew of America more ready than today to do his patriotic duty, to make all the sacrifices demanded by the hour, to stand guard for the Republic and for Democracy. ”

“ One of the first consequences of the Revolution was the abolition of Jewish disabilities, the specific abrogation of all Jewish restrictions, the repudiation of all the laws and regulations against them that centuries had accumulated—the instant recognition of the Jew. It is nothing short of marvellous to think that today Jews are found in the highest positions in Russia—in the Senate, which means their Supreme Court, in the police administration, in the army, and on most responsible commissions to foreign lands. Magic could have wrought no more marvellous change. ”

“ In France, in England, in Italy, in Russia, in America—everywhere the promotion of the democratic spirit and law are followed, sooner or later, often promptly, by removal of Jewish disabilities and recognition of the rights and powers of the Jew. A country, or a leader, could not be democratic and fail sooner or later to acknowledge what was due to the Jew. This is why all champions of democracy were advocates of the rights of the Jews—Montesquieu and Mirabeau, Cromwell and Macauley, Cavour and Mazzini, Uvaroff and Milyukoff, Washington, and every other pioneer and hero of democracy. ”

“ And this duty and part the Jew will have not in one corner only—not in one only secluded, far-off spot, but everywhere, in the midst of the world, amid the storm and stress of the world's life, amid the agony of human suffering and need, where every other Religion will be at work, and men will be engaged in the momentous tasks of rebuilding and rejuvenation. ”

“ If today the Jews of England form so integral a part of their country, and if they are so whole-heartedly and single-mindedly devoted to its welfare, it is not merely because they feel that they have wrought and fought enough for their patrimony, but also because they are conscious of their long association with England and her civilization, and of the fact that their beginnings on English soil go back to earliest times, to the very time that the Normans came to their shores and William the Conqueror invited the Jew to follow him to his new domain. ”

“ Some superficial and servile people may contend that it does not matter what kind of government a country has, or under what kind of government we live; the student of history knows that it does matter, that the difference is vital, and if not apparent at any particular moment, certainly clear as the sun in the course of time.
Triumphant democracy will lead to full recognition of the citizenship of the Jew in every country. ”

“ When we fight for the cause of democracy, when our sons are preparing to shed their blood for it, when we are asking for the support of it with our wealth and our work, let us remember that we are fighting also for the cause of Israel in the world. ”

“ While it is erroneous to assume, as some people do, that all Jews are rich, or that the richest men are Jews (assumptions which are contradicted by facts) , it is true that nowhere else have the Jewish people been given such an unhampered opportunity for advancement and such an unrestricted field of work and usefulness.
As a result, Jews are found in every sphere of work, in every honorable and useful occupation. In commerce, in the liberal and practical professions, in all the various forms of industry, the American Jew is found, and many have achieved eminent success. ”

“ But above all, it is a symbol of the liberty and happiness that the advance of democracy has brought to the Jew of Italy, as well as of other lands. It inspires us with the hope that so long as Italy remains true to the cause of democracy, which is the cause of justice and enlightenment, so long will the Jew be free and safe and happy within her borders! ”

“ Democracy, however, means not only recognition, but also responsibility, duty as well as rights, service as well as privilege. Jewish history teaches nothing so clearly as that the Jew has persisted not so much because of what the world has done for him, as because of what he has done for the world. ”

“ The very fact that we have succeeded in transplanting Judaism to this country, so different from the Old World, is an achievement of importance. And the transplanting has been rapid. There have been losses, quite naturally, but there have been gains, too, and, whatever is said to the contrary, there is an intense and manifold Jewish activity in this country today unsurpassed anywhere else, though perhaps only the historian of the future will acknowledge it, just as our historians today laud the glories of the past. ”

“ If the Jew of Russia has been adopted so promptly and so fully into the new-born Russian democracy, it is because in the past he has shown his mettle, because his whole record has demonstrated his civic worth, and because his character and his attainments even under the worst possible conditions demonstrated what he was capable of being and doing once he was given that boon of recognition and opportunity which it is the aim of democracy to bring to all men. ”

“ A long history—full of heroism and honor—links the Jew with France. Let us hope that the future may add to this splendor, and that France will ever remain the exemplar of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and that she will continue to play an important part in the spiritual as well as the secular life of Israel! ”

“ It is certainly true that to no group of people has America proved more truly a land of opportunity than to the Jews. A mere survey of the American period of Jewish history is sufficient to convince us of this, and such a survey is especially appropriate at present when the history of the world is being recast and remade, and the future destiny of both America and the Jew is a subject of frequent discussion. ”

“ It is for this reason that we have a right to say, with the ancient rabbis, that Palestine and Israel are inseparable.
Moreover, it is an error to assume that when the Jews were forced to leave Palestine, first by the Romans, and then by the various foes of Israel who seized it, it ceased to play a part in their lives. There are those who believe that in the life of human beings two sentiments, or forces, mean a great deal more than the actualities of the moment, namely, memory and hope. ”

“ Every American is now more than ever interested in Europe, and especially in those countries with which we are associated in the War. France, in particular, claims our attention. It is for this reason that as Jews we cannot help being interested in the relation of France to the Jewish people. Many of our sons soon will find themselves on French soil to take part in the liberation of France, which now means part of the defense of our own Republic. Not a few of our women, also, will be there—are there already, engaged in work of relief and restoration. ”

“ This is why during the terrible struggle that has been going on, so many of us have turned to the records of history for help and direction. It is no less true of our Jewish history. When we engage in a survey of it, and especially in a study of its course in the allied countries, it is not merely for the purpose of refreshing our memories of what happened in days gone by, but also in order to learn what we might expect to happen in the future and to be fortified in our duty today. ”

“ When the history of the emancipation of the Jews is written, a place of honor surely will be accorded to the help rendered by America, through some of her foremost and most humane statesmen, from Theodore Fay [86] to John Hay, and through the energy and self-sacrifice of her Jewish citizens.
Nor would our survey be sufficient without a reference to the patriotism of the American Jew. If the patriotism of the Jew has been proved in every country, nowhere has it been more ardent and ready than here. ”

“ For hundreds of years Italy was broken up into many independent towns and rival principalities, competing and contending with one another, which frequently proved to the advantage of the Jew, who, when driven from one part, found refuge in another. Then, the Italians have always been known for their love of liberty and justice, of education and enlightenment, in addition to being a pre-eminently practical and commercial people. This, in its turn, could not help but make them hospitable to the Jews. ”

“ When we think of all the misery that the Russian Jew had to undergo, we cannot but marvel that he should have been able to survive it all, and thus to belie the prediction of that arch-enemy, Pobiedonostseff, that as a result of the laws against them, one third of the Jews of Russia would emigrate, one third would be baptized, and the rest would perish. ”

“ First of all, there is the fact of England's democracy. It has often been observed that in no country is democracy more widespread and secure than in England. One thing is certainly true, namely, that England has led in the democratization of the world.
And nothing is more potent a lesson of history than that the Jew has always been benefited by true democracy. There have been autocrats who have been kind to the Jews, and there have been times when democracy has betrayed the Jew ”

“ Yet it would be an error to suppose that the emancipation and the attainments of the Jews in England were due to mere accident. Rather have they been due to certain characteristics of the English people, and to those tendencies and qualities of English [28] civilization which have made it so distinguished and potent in the world. The rise of the Jew in England may have been slow, but it has been sure, and it came because it was inevitable under the conditions that have served to make England herself great and strong and free. ”

“ Often short-sighted Englishmen were afraid that by giving equality and rights to the Jews, they would make it possible for the latter, by their commercial talent, to overwhelm the rest of the population and to absorb all the wealth of Britain. It was even feared that the Jews would buy up St. Paul's Cathedral and turn it into a synagogue! "You say they are the meanest and most despised of all people," exclaimed Cromwell, at the Conference on the Re-admission of the Jews. ”

“ But the one thing that never did occur was a wholesale expulsion of the Jews from all her domain, similar to the one from England in [52] 1290, from France in 1393, and from Spain in 1492.
As a result, the history of the Jews of Italy affords today a record of uninterrupted activity and glory, extending over more than the entire period of Christian history. In every century of Italian Jewish history, we find men and movements of importance, bearing witness to the energy of the Jew and to the opportunities for its exercise. ”

“ As a rule, the cause of Israel in the world has gone hand in hand with the progress of democracy—of true democracy. Democracy has been an invariable aid to the [29] Jew, and not because (as practical politicians assume sometimes) its government depends on votes, and Jews might command votes; not at all, but rather because under the protection and in the atmosphere of democracy it is easiest for principles to be promulgated and for ideals to penetrate. ”

“ Let us not forget, however, that spiritual pessimism is nothing new, whether among Jews or non-Jews. There have always been men who have thought their own time and place to be the worst-off spiritually in history. The student of history and literature finds many such resemblances through the centuries, and there is nothing said about our present-day spiritual and moral degeneration that might not be paralleled in the literature of previous generations, to which [84] we sometimes look back as the very embodiment of virtue and spirituality. ”

“ For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."
The Jew has nothing to fear from anti-Semitism in America. It amounts to nothing, except in so far as we help create it. What counts is our own life and what we do for the maintenance of democracy in America and elsewhere. ”

“ The Jew has always been a patriot, but his patriotic devotion, service, and self-sacrifice shown in the present War has never been surpassed and in point of magnitude and scope never equaled. The effect of it will be the abatement of anti-Jewish prejudice and suspicion, increased respect for the Jew, and complete recognition of his position and rights as a citizen everywhere. ”