Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Page 12 The Southern Israelite England and Palestine By DR. ALEXANDER LYONS Rabbi of Temple Beth Elohim, Brooklyn, New York Jewish nationalism has received another se vere and serious jolt. England’s presumptu ous perfidy in treating the Balfour Declara tion as a scrap of paper has pained not only the Jews of the world, but also shocked many of its outstanding Christians. I am not a Jew ish nationalist. My nationality is American. Religiously I am a Jew. And yet many like- minded with myself feel aggrieved by Eng land’s high-minded injustice to a considerable group whose manifold sacrifice and accom plishment of a humanitarian nature deserved to be aided and not antagonized. It is true that England is beset with tremendous politi cal problems charged with greater consequence to her than the welfare of Palestine, but no nation plays safe that subordinates principle to politics, faith to fear. I would like to sec England resc nd her latest pronouncement on Palestine. I believe that she will. That done as an act of fair play to the Jews and to the world’s sense of justice I would like to see the Jews also modify radically their attitude to a Jewish homeland. From the very beginning of bis recorded history the Jew has been an other-regarding individual. He has been a pioneer in this. To be a blessing to the world has been his fun damental ideal and persistent effort. In this he has construed ability into responsibility, regarding a Divine endowment of spiritual- ethical power as a summons to service. I bis construction of his function by the Jew has not been a mere magnanimous gesture. Its realization in a persistent fructification of civ ilization spiritually and culturally was war ranted the claim. The good the Jew has done in his historic pilgrimage in face of great odds of persecuting opposition has not depended upon or been determined by a Jewish political organization. He has succeeded without a country or an organized political mechanism because he rep resented, embodied, and irradiated a palpable and irresistible spiritual influence that com pelled conscious or unconscious acceptance and emulation. Accordingly, I would like to see the Jew make it somewhat easier and more practicable for England in the present emergency by con senting to forego the establishment of a po litical Jewish entity in Palestine on condition that the Jewish people as a specific, distinc tive, cultural group be assured a homeland to which Jews may resort to realize their altruistic ideals without any interference from any other group. In such a situation England as mandatory of the League of Nations would serve as umpire. This would save the Jewish program of idealism and at the same time not deny to Mohammedan and Christian their just due. The spirit of Judaism is without superior in the hospitality of its inclusiveness. It regards the good among all faiths as accept able to God. It can therefore live and labor alongside of other religious aspirations, sym pathetically and co-operatively, as long as its own right of safety and progress is safe guarded. This the Jew is entitled to. This he should have. 1'his should be his minimal expectation at the hand of England. In this he should have the moral backing of the rest of the world. His ambition is to serve the world. He should not be compelled to be a voice crying in the wilderness. More than a free fair field for his several activities culminating in a specific spiritual service the Jew should not ask. 1'his he should have, adequately safeguarded, beyond the pos sibility of interference or disturbance. This he ^ % ess % J// \ ZSS % ZSS "WCf* ZJS THE JEW / he blood of vagabonds is my inheritance, The hunger for the wind and open sky; A/.v quest for Trcedotn knows the sting of Egypt; I trace a race of men that do not die. Aline is the love of Eife, the throb of Beauty; The passion for the wisdom of the sage; 1 bear upon my heart the seal of wonder; I he Bock of Ages is my heritage! —Victor Emaxuf.l Reichert. should seek and insist upon, not as a favor but as a right. It is a right for the reason that by endowment of God and self-commitment the Jew has ever regarded himself as in a sacred serious trusteeship of certain spiritual possessions which he is to preserve and pur vey for humanity. This inspired Abraham It motivated the superb little parable of the book of Jonah. For the realization of his mission the Jew docs not need and should not aspire to a political national organum. Such an institu tion will not secure his safety in a world already inflamed with mutually threatening nationalities. To insist upon such a national organization seems to me to expose the Jews clamoring for it to the dangerous blindness of not seeing the tragic failure of Jewish po litical nationality in the past. A Jewish politi cal state in Palestine would, to my mind, be an invitation to increased disaster. The Jew does not need a political organi zation either to conserve his self-respect and pride or to spread his faith. That faith, properly presented, so glows with winsome charm that it gains admiration and emulation through inherent worth. This has been the mainspr ng of its marvelous success and spread till now, not the backing of political power. In its inherent worth and in the thought of the service the Jew can render the world by loyalty to his faith lies a magnetic pull that to me has been the source of an ever-growing strength and enthusiasm of Jewish loyalty. At the present juncture of disappointment in the Palestinian situation the Jews of the world, aided by the co-operation of the fair- minded of other faiths, should stand solemnly for the vindication of right against a faith lessness that does violence to humanity as a whole. This vindication effected, the Jew should relinquish his fatuous fight for politi cal independence and with a more promising, because more potent, commitment he should aspire to become a light unto the nations, an illuminant of that 1‘ght which he has glimpsed from the central Sun of Truth and feels called to irradiate through conduct upon the rest of the world. We are told that from Zion shall go forth the Law. I believe in the ultimate acceptance of that Law, which is of God, by all of His human children. It has alreadv made tre mendous strides. Its further spread doo necessitate a return to a Palestinian pe organization that history has discredited each Jew be a pattern of Jewish piety ever he is and instead of a Jewish sta uncertain Palestine we shall have a h because helpful, Jewish status everywhe