The Allied Countries and the JewsEnelow, H. G. (Hyman Gerson)
History
The Allied Countries and the Jews
Enelow, H. G. (Hyman Gerson)
Jews; World War, 1914-1918 -- Jews
Cromwell's indignant question has been justified by history. Now,
years after their complete emancipation, the Jews have not yet
appropriated all the wealth of England, they have not yet dispossessed
the rest of Britain's population, nor yet has St. Paul's been turned
into a synagogue. At any rate, England's interest in commerce has
contributed greatly to the ascendency of her Jewish subjects.
Finally, there is the remarkable kinship between the English spirit
and the spirit of Israel.
Leroy-Beaulieu, in his celebrated book _Israel among the Nations_, has
pointed out that the claim of such kinship is made for many nations in
regard to Israel. But surely it is not without reason that some one
has called England the Israel of Europe. There is no modern country
that has been saturated more thoroughly with the spirit of Israel than
England.
No country, for one thing, has been so completely influenced by the
Bible. The English translation of the Bible is an English classic, as
well as Jewish. Insofar as the Puritans molded English civilization,
it meant the introduction of a strong and unmistakable Hebrew
influence. It is in England that Biblical learning, of a devout and
constructive kind, has flourished as nowhere else, there that a
society for the diffusion of the Scriptures first was founded, there
that most has been done for the exploration of Palestine, there that
some of the finest collections of Hebrew books and manuscripts are
found (in the British Museum and in the Bodleian Library at Oxford),
and there that even rabbinical learning has found its most earnest and
sympathetic devotees among non-Jews.
It would take us far afield to trace the relationship between the
English spirit and that of Israel. But we cannot think of it without
realizing why some people should believe that the English in reality
are descendants of the Ten Tribes, why the integration of Israel in
English life should have become so complete, and why the Jew should
finally have found such appreciation and happiness in England.
How about the future? What effect has the War had on the position of
the Jew in England?
It is whispered here and there that the War had created an increase of
anti-Semitism in England. This is impossible. It is true that in the
early days of the War some sensation-mongers tried to cast aspersions
on the Jews. It is true, also, that in those days a serious problem
was created by the presence of many Russian Jews who would not fight
for the old government of Russia, thus giving rise to some slurs upon
the patriotism of the Jews. No less true it is that some few fanatical
journalists seem to regard this as a good time for creating strife and
spreading anti-Jewish prejudice. But the futility of such an
enterprise is self-evident.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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