DR. H. A. WOLFSON CONSIDERS THE JEWISH PROBLEM

Dr. Harry Austrvn Wolfson is instructor 'at the University In Jewish Literature and Philosophy, having graduated in 1912 with the degree of A. B. and receiving in 1915 a Ph.D. degree from the University. From 1912 to 1914 Dr. Wolfson, who was awarded the Harvard Travelling Fellowship, studied in all the principal countries of Europe; and he is today considered by many the most scholarly student of the country in Jewish Philosophy.

Men in their mutual dislikes, suspicions and jealousies make a problem out of each other. Since about fifteen million of the earth's inhabitants happen to be Jews, it is quite inevitable that they should constitute as many million problems to the rest of the world. That is what we should naturally expect, and it is quite an unjustifiable optimism on our part to believe that it is every going to be otherwise. We can only hope that the world might some day realize that it is essentially the natural friction of human relationships that is commonly misnamed the Jewish problem. There is one kind of Jewish problem, however, that is real, and that is the problem of the Jew to himself.

To the Jew life is a struggle for the continuation of his historical identity against many fearful odds. It is the struggle of a social inheritance, which no Jew can dispose of and remain at peace with himself, trying to maintain itself in a world which is inhospitable, if not altogether hostile, to it. In this uneven conflict of tradition with a foreign environment, of conscience with convenience, the Jew is faced with the real Jewish problem. I imagine that this real Jewish problem could be solved at once, for all Jews, and for all time, if we could be solved at once, for all Jews, and for all time, if we could start on a certain given day with a new generation of Jews and raise them in absolute freedom of Jewish influence; but so, too, I imagine, could we solve all the social ills and ailments of the world by starting with a new generation of men and bringing them up under conditions completely free from all influences and traditions of the past. Unfortunately, we cannot start with a new generation of men on a given day, and old generation of men persist in remaining whatever they happen to be, and can be sooner destroyed than remade. Over in Russia, closeted within the secret chambers of the Kremlin, a group of well-meaning individuals, having discarded experiences and traditions of the past, are trying to reorganize the shattered world by remaking grown up men. Do we welcome their experiment?

No Adequate Solution Yet Found

It is well-nigh over a century since the Jew has been let out of the grim ghettos to fight the battle of conscience and convenience in this strange world in which he had been placed by the turning fortunes of his history. As yet no adequate solution has been found. Some, weary with the long struggle, throw the burden of inheritance overboard, and thus emancipated, freed, and untrammeled, set out to claim their share of the world's goods, in which they are quite often very successful. But instead of being welcomed by the world, they are not infrequently regarded as invaders and intruders. Others, quite willing to resist the lure of the great world, are contented to shut themselves up within a voluntary ghetto, to discharge their duties of citizenship in a humble and modest manner, in order to be able to live their own life as Jews. But instead of appreciation for their spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice, they often bring upon themselves misunderstanding and suspicion, Still others demand their full rights as men and insist also upon their full rights as Jews, and when these two come in conflict, they clamor for special privileges. Instead of sympathizing with them for their honest strivings to maintain a difficult position, the world treats them with impatience as a general nuisance.

The problem of the individual Jew, however, is quite distinct from the problem of the Jewish race as a whole. The problem of Judaism to the individual Jew, if not altogether a religious problem, shares of the nature of a religious problem, and can best be left to each individual to be solved by himself according to his own lights. The individual Jew, as a rule, will try to save as much as he can of his tradition in his adjustment to life; he will temporize, he will compromise, he will somehow patch up differences, for it is essentially in the illogic of life that the individual finds a satisfactory solution for his difficulties. But for the race as a whole there can be no temporizing, no compromising, no half measures; it is either to exist or to cease to exist. If the race is to exist, it must create for itself conditions of life where it can function properly, and have room and opportunity for a free and unhampered development, just as of old, on the soil where it had its birth.

As this naturally leads me to Zionism, I am touching upon a phase of Jewish life which is no longer a problem, no longer a subject of discussion, but an accomplished fact, though some people do no seem to realize it. Not long ago, a professor of a sister university, quite an eminent authority in his own field, published an article in the Atlantic Monthly, in which he questioned the Jewish historical rights to Palestine. But his present attempt to unmake the old history of the Jews is as whimsical as his earlier attempt to make a new history of the Amorites. There are indeed many practical difficulties in the way of the Jew's return to his ancestral soil, but the best British statesmanship and Jewish zeal are working conscientiously toward removing these difficulties in accordance with the highest principles of justice. Men of the present age should have their eyes on Palestine, where one of the greatest events in history is now being enacted, the revival of ancient race, the fulfilment of prophecies, the triumph of justice, the reward of the patient waiting of a people which has remained faithful to its ideals throughout many trials and tribulations. The best Jews of the world, who themselves do not intend to become returning pilgrims, are lending a helping hand in this great work of restoration. Among the sponsors for the establishment of a Hebrew university in Jerusalem are Bergson and Einstein. The latter is now on a special mission to this country for this particular purpose.

Mr. Chesterton Cannot Be Ignored

Speaking of the Jewish problem we can easily ignore Mr. Henry Ford, but we cannot afford to ignore Mr. G. K. Chesterton and his latest book, "The New Jerusalem." Mr. Chesterton has been acclaimed as what is popularly called an anti-Semite. I wonder if Mr. Chesterton has ever accepted that designation given him by some offended Jews. I can never think of him as an anti-Semite, for I always find that his views on the Jews, if only properly understood, properly modified, supplemented, and placed in their right setting, are not far from my own. I rather take his occasional ill-humored quips against the Jews as temporary deteriorations in the quality of his humor. The quality of Mr. Chesterton's humor, on the whole, is far superior to that popular brand which we get from public entertainers on the vaudeville stage. For one, he has never taken as butts for his jests, as far as I can recall, the much maligned mother-in-law and plumber. His is a humor of a higher kind, angling for larger fry, such as Protestantism, Modernism, historical criticism, German professors, and the economic law. But occasionally even Mr. Chesterton nods, and when he does nod, his leonine head sinks very low, indeed. Such low ebbs in his humor are to be noticed, for instance, when he turns his shafts against such popular objects of mirth as prohibition and Jews.

Chesteton has a theory that no man of Jewish descent can ever become a true Englishman. For once he agrees with that object of his detestation, the dehumanized scientist, who believes in the inevitable, in determinism, and in the theory that blood is thicker than ideals. Mr. Chesterton does not altogether advocate that the Jews be treated as Isaac of York, but he does not like to see them rise as high as Disraeli and Lord Reading.

I remember, in those halcyon days of the war, Mr. Chesterton had delightful fun with one of his imaginary German professors who had tried to prove that Michelangelo was a German, because Michelangelo had black hair, and some Germans, too, have black hair. I am afraid that in his preoccupation with the German professor, Mr. Chesterton has acquired much of the latter's logic. If Mr. Chesterton's jests could be reduced to a reasoned argument, I suppose it would run like this: No man of Jewish descent can become an Englishman, for some Jews take Mr. Chesterton seriously.

Still, Mr. Chesterton redeems himself, at least in my eyes, by advocating the Jewish restoration to Palestine as the only solution of the problem of Jews and Judaism. I only wish he had dwelt more on the rights of the Jews to rule Palestine than on their having no right to rule in England. But I suppose this is temperamentally impossible for Mr. Chesterton. For to speak ill of Lord Reading's services in England is, to put it mildly, paradoxical; to exalt the work of Sir Herbert Samuel in Palestine is simply to state a truth.