Jews -- Periodicals; Jews -- United States -- Periodicals
To justify Emancipation before and after it was secured, assimilative
doctrines of a peculiar type, known as Reform Judaism,[22] whereby the
essentials of Jewish life were to be separated and saved, constituted
the main attempt of the Jew to demonstrate that he was a member of the
households of Europe and not an intruder. Reform Judaism began as a
result of the Haskalah by simplifying and beautifying, according to
European standards, the Orthodox religious service (Germany 1810-20),
and ended by abandoning the Messianic Restoration, the doctrine that
Israel is in exile and that the prophecies are literally to be
fulfilled. The expediency of these measures is apparent. To refute the
anti-Semitic charge of racial inferiority, the existence of the race
as a separate entity was denied, and the necessary scientific backing
has lately been secured.[23] To meet the Nationalists, Israel's
national hopes were declared void, and it was strongly urged that the
basis of a modern nation is citizenship and not race.
The Reformers proceeded further and maintained that the Jewish people
were themselves the Messiah, whose mission was "to spread by its
fortitude and loyalty the monotheistic truth all over the earth, and
to be an example of rectitude to all others,"[24] whose goal was "not
a national Messianic State, but the realization in society of the
principles of righteousness as enunciated by the prophets;"[25]
wherefore, it was not only just that they receive citizenship, but
religious duty compelled the Jew to demand it.
The Jewish religion was considered the essential possession of the
Jewish people--so essential that it was to be maintained at the
sacrifice of assimilation; but nowhere is it made apparent how a
religion can be maintained without a people, how a people can be
maintained without separation, and how separation can be maintained
without abandoning the no-race, no-nation propositions. If these are
abandoned, the Jews are precisely where they began--another circle
whose viciousness is becoming obvious and is resulting in the constant
discarding of Jewish rite and form, until the religion which was to be
prized and saved is fast becoming a watery Unitarianism, and its
adherents are allowing themselves, where permitted, to become
completely assimilated. Reform Judaism which began as a compromise is
ending as a surrender. The final and unanswerable objection to Reform
Judaism as a solution is that the majority of Jews will not even in
theory accept it. The devotion to race, religion, and separation is
too strong. The Gentile in asking the Jew to assimilate is undoubtedly
right; the refusal of the Jew undoubtedly is not wrong; and the ring
of true tragedy becomes audible.
_The Palliative Measures of Philanthropy_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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