History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)Sokolow, Nahum
History
History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Sokolow, Nahum
Jews -- Restoration; Zionism -- History
We shall not talk about the levity, the insolence, the egotism, nor
about those satiated folk who philosophize with their stomachs, nor
about those others who do not know their own minds, whose shallow
little heads float like foam in any current. We do not talk about those
idle jesters who have found another opportunity of showing the sad
wit of the _Ghetto_ which takes pleasure in ridiculing and despising
one’s own self. Indeed even respectable, serious and honest, though
unfortunately shortsighted and obstinate men, who imagined themselves
enthusiastic concerning Judaism, kind-hearted but automatic leaders
of Jewish communal life who, though philosophizing about mankind, are
inwardly divided from their own people, came to us with “fatherly”
advice, with moral lectures, with sonorous phrases about humanity.
They wanted to destroy most quickly, annihilate and extinguish
the “dangerous chimæra,” the “reaction,” the “chauvinism,” the
“_Sabbatai-Zvi’ism_,” the “decay of religion,” “religious fanaticism,”
“tribalism,” and all the other things they ascribed to Zionism in their
political delusion and contradictory nomenclature.
“You must scatter yourselves all over the world,” they said, “just as
a handful of seeds, scattered by the wind, germinate, grow and ripen,
all in different spots, replenishing the earth with their fruits! What
do you want with a country of your own? You are made for something
better! To be priests, teachers of ethics, missionaries of God――that is
a higher ambition! Your contribution to mankind is social justice and
the brotherhood of men. Why be a nation and for what purpose? You will
be great in the memory of peoples. You have earned a golden throne in
history’s temple of fame. You _have been_, to-day you are no more!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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