Jews -- Periodicals; Jews -- United States -- Periodicals
His shortcomings in interpretation, however, are negative rather than
positive; they are due to omission rather than to commission. There is
inadequate consideration of the philosophy of Jewish life; external
description has crowded out internal analysis; the point of view is
too largely objective. While, for example, the conclusion is reached
that Zionism is the only permanent and adequate solution of the Jewish
problem--with which we do not disagree--insufficient stress is laid
upon the distinctive Jewish obligation in the Diaspora; the Jewish
contributions to general culture and progress which the author
enumerates with such concreteness and detail are not distinctively
Jewish contributions. Even if Zion is the ultimate destiny of the Jew,
he must, in the meantime, justify his separate existence among the
nations; if he is to remain a Jew as well as a citizen of the world,
his contribution must be that of a Jewish citizen; in addition to the
general obligation of his citizenship, he must fulfil the special
obligation of his Jewishness. But these deficiencies of
interpretation, like the inadequacies of description arising from the
impossibility of treating exhaustively so large a field within so
narrow a compass, but reflect the inherent limitations of the task set
himself by our author.
_University of Michigan._
[Illustration: Signature: I. Leo Sharfman]
JEWISH STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
_An Excerpt from Israel Cohen's Book, "Jewish Life in Modern Times,"
pages 105-106:_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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