THE TRUE MEANING OF JEWISH UNIVERSALISM

 In the course of the long controversy¹ between Jewish nationalists and opponents of Jewish nationalism many have come to believe that those who oppose nationalism stand for universal Judaism, especially since the anti-nationalists call themselves Jewish universalists. After the publication of the declaration of the British Government with regard to Palestine the main anti-nationalistic spokesman in America, Dr. Philipson of Cincinnati, summed up his negative attitude to Zionism with the short sentence, "I stand by my Jewish universalism." One even hears people from the radical² camp of the left proclaiming their Jewish universalism. The impression has thus been created that while the nationalists stand for a petty, provincial³ conception of Judaism, they, the anti-nationalists, advocate a broad-minded universalism.

 

We deem it opportune⁴ to examine this Jewish universalism, which is played up today against the nationalistic efforts of our people to re-establish a Homeland in Palestine and to see how far it is sincere in its motives⁵ and compatible with Jewish tradition, and how far it is intellectual camouflage⁶. We think it rather curious that those who claim to be Jewish universalists—the radical Reform rabbis and assimilationists from other camps—always lay stress on American, German, French or English Judaism, and often speak of the American Jewish Church or the English Jewish Church, and so forth⁷. It is also remarkable⁸ that these Jewish universalists have always worked for a "readjustment" of Judaism to local conditions and have tried to Americanize Judaism in America, to Germanize it in Germany, to Anglicize it in England, to Magyarize it in Hungary, and so forth.

 

On the other hand, those who were considered as standing⁹ for a petty, provincial conception of Judaism, the nationalists, have not only never tried to do anything of the sort but have always defended the interritoriality and catholicity of Judaism. One never hears a Jewish nationalist here or abroad speaking of an American Jewish Church or an English Jewish Church, and so forth. It seems to us that in view of these facts the sort of universal Judaism as proclaimed by the assimilationists is of rather doubtful origin and character and that it is everything but universal, for it is territorial¹⁰ and provincial to the core. As a matter of fact, Reform Judaism as established by the Reform rabbis in the middle of the nineteenth century, and developed by American rabbis at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, is the first gigantic attempt to break the catholicism of Judaism and to territorialize it, that is to say, to annihilate¹¹ its organic unity¹². Reform Judaism is in fact nothing else but territorialism in religious terms, just as Yiddishism is a territorialism in linguistic¹³ terms. Those who divide Judaism geographically¹⁴ and claim that each part has little or nothing to do with the other, and that each part is organically connected only with its surroundings, that there is such a thing as American Judaism, English Judaism, German Judaism, French Judaism, and so on, stand for the same policy as do the Yiddishists, who divide the Jewish people into ten or fifteen separate groups, claiming that every group is a unit by itself and has nothing to do with the others. According to Yiddishists the Ladino-speaking Jew has scarcely anything in common with the Judeo-German-speaking Jew, just as the Arabic or Greek-speaking Jews have little or nothing in common with the Ladino or Yiddish-speaking Jews. Some express their Jewish territorialism and provincialism in terms of religion, the others in terms of language. Both are opponents of Jewish unity and Jewish catholicism, both are opposed to traditional Judaism, both are opposed to Jewish nationalism that is organically connected with Hebrew, and both are, of course, opposed to a Hebrew Palestine.

 

Why these people, who, as we have seen, stand for territorialistic Judaism instead of universal, should call themselves Jewish universalists, we are at a loss to understand. The fact that their notion of God is as colorless and pale as that of the Unitarians, and the fact that their conception of ethics¹⁵, especially of Jewish ethics, is as bloodless and vague as that of the rationalists of the eighteenth century, gives them scarcely any right to call themselves Jewish universalists and to assert that they stand for universal Judaism. Our only consolation¹⁶ is that this sort of territorialistic Judaism that goes under the false mark of universal Judaism is not the invention of the Reform rabbis, nor that of the Yiddishists, but is as old as Judaism itself. All who have carefully paged the history of our people know that there always was a Jewish minority from time immemorial that stood for a territorialistic Judaism, and if there is any difference in principle between the Judeans and Israelites this difference consists in that the Judeans always stood for universal Judaism, while the Israelites stood for a territorialistic Judaism. The Judeans were what the nationalists are today—traditional, conservative and nationalistic, while the Israelites were reformers, assimilationists and territorialists. The Judeans advocated a Palestinian and Hebrew Judaism, while the Israelites always opposed it and were satisfied even with the Temple outside of Palestine.

 

The first radical reformer, assimilationist and territorialist was not Abraham Geiger, but Jeroboam Ben Nebat. The Judeans, advocating a Palestinian and Hebrew Judaism, produced the true, great prophets, the prophets of truth and justice, while the Israelites produced the false prophets, who misled the people and displayed religious and moral camouflage. The notion of a universal God, of a universal morality and of the brotherhood¹⁷ of man, the fundamental teachings of Jewish universalism, have not been created by the prophets of the Israelites, the false universalists, but by the prophets of Judea, the nationalistic prophets. These great nationalistic prophets, who alone made Judaism that tremendous force in history and who, by their genius, secured immortality¹⁸ for our religion and ethics, must turn in their grave when they hear the false prophets of today claiming them as their witnesses. The teachings of our great prophets have been distorted and falsified by many of our enemies and opponents, but none has falsified and distorted them more than the representatives of the so-called universal Judaism of today, because our great prophets, who were at the same time great Jewish statesmen, taught the doctrine¹⁹ of the indestructible Jewish nation and the immortality of our people as a people, and they were so extreme in their nationalism and nationalistic conception of Judaism that they dreamt of the Jewish nation to be the glory of all the peoples of the earth and the center of all that is good and great and beautiful in humanity.

 

We doubt whether there are many Jewish nationalists today whose nationalistic feelings run as high as did those of our great prophets whom Jewish universalists claim as their chief witnesses for their falsified Judaism. It was the great Hebrew prophets of old who first fought against territorializing Judaism and who fought against the attempt to Yiddishize it in one form or another. They all stood for the pure, traditional, Palestinian and Hebrew Judaism. They were bitter against Ephraim, because Ephraim stood for what the Israelites stand for today: "Ubi bene, ibi patria"—Where I do well there is my fatherland.

 

That the Judeans and not the Israelites were right in their conception of Judaism can be seen from the fate of both. Israel disappeared, swept away by the storm of history, while Judea remained. It is only a pity that all of the Israelites did not disappear also for, if they did, we would have no Israelites today in our midst, and God knows that the Israelites of today are unnecessary Jews and that those who claim a mission for Israel have no mission at all. The Jewish universalism advocated today by all those who stand for the disintegration and deterioration of Judaism is not universalism, and if its advocates are anything, they are Jewish nihilists, because Judaism is nihil to them—no people, no race, no nation, no religion, no tradition, but——

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

3 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

4 opportune   

adj.合适的，适当的

参考例句：

• Her arrival was very opportune.她来得非常及时。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

5 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

6 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 territorial   

adj.领土的，领地的

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。

11 annihilate   

v.使无效；毁灭；取消

参考例句：

• Archer crumpled up the yellow sheet as if the gesture could annihilate the news it contained.阿切尔把这张黄纸揉皱，好象用这个动作就会抹掉里面的消息似的。
• We should bear in mind that we have to annihilate the enemy.我们要把歼敌的重任时刻记在心上。

12 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

13 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

14 geographically   

adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe. 从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。 来自辞典例句
• All these events, however geographically remote, urgently affected Western financial centers. 所有这些事件，无论发生在地理上如何遥远的地方，都对西方金融中心产生紧迫的影响。 来自名作英译部分

15 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

16 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。

17 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

18 immortality   

n.不死，不朽

参考例句：

• belief in the immortality of the soul 灵魂不灭的信念
• It was like having immortality while you were still alive. 仿佛是当你仍然活着的时候就得到了永生。

19 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。