&nv:;3 
 
 
 ZIONISM AND PATRIOTISM 
 
 BY 
 
 LOUIS D. BRANDEIS, Esq. 
 
 1918 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 Federation of American Zionists 
 
 44 East 23d Street 
 New York 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/zionismpatriotisOObran 
 
ZIONISM AND PATRIOTISM. 
 
 During most of my life my contact with Jews and Judaism was 
 slight, and I gave little thought to their problems save by asking 
 myself from time to time whether we were showing by our lives 
 due appreciation of the opportunities which this hospitable country 
 affords. My approach to Zionism was through Americanism. Practi¬ 
 cal experience and observation convinced me that to be good Ameri¬ 
 cans, we must be better Jews, and to be better Jews we must be 
 Zionists. 
 
 Lest there be misunderstanding, let me state at the outset what 
 Zionism is and what it is not. 
 
 It is not a movement to remove all the Jews of the world 
 compulsorily to Palestine. In the first place there are 14,000,000 
 Jews, and Palestine would not accommodate more than one-fifth 
 of that number. In the second place, it is not a movement to compel 
 anyone to go to Palestine. It is essentially a movement to give to 
 the Jew more, not less freedom,—it aims to enable the Jews to 
 exercise the same right now exercised by practically every other peo¬ 
 ple in the world: to live at their option either in the land of their 
 fathers or in some other country; a right which members of small 
 nations as well as of large,—which Irish, Greek, Bulgarian, Servian, 
 or Belgian, may now exercise as fully as Germans or English. 
 
 Furthermore, Zionism is not a movement to wrest from the 
 Ottoman the sovereignity of Palestine. Palestine merely seeks to 
 establish in Palestine, as part of the Turkish Empire, for such Jews 
 as choose to go and remain there, and for their descendants, a legally 
 secured home, where they may live together and lead a Jewish life; 
 where they may expect ultimately to constitute a majority of the 
 population, and may look forward to what we should call home rule. 
 
 Since the destruction of the Temple, nearly two thousand years 
 ago, the longing for Palestine has been ever present with the Jew. 
 It was the hope of a return to the land of his fathers that buoyed 
 up the Jew amidst persecution, and for the realization of which the 
 devout ever prayed. Until a generation ago this was a hope merely— 
 a wish piously prayed for but not worked for. The Zionist movement 
 is idealistic, but essentially practical. It seeks to realize that hope; 
 to make the dream of a Jewish life in a Jewish land come true as 
 other great dreams of the world have been realized—by men working 
 with devotion, intelligence, and self-sacrifice. It was thus the dream 
 of Italian independence and unity, after centuries of vain hope, came 
 true through the efforts of Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour; that the 
 dream of home rule in Ireland has just been realized; that the dream 
 of Greek, of Bulgarian and of Servian independence became facts. 
 
 1 
 
The rebirth of the Jewish nation is no longer a mere dream. 
 It is in process of accomplishment in a most practical way; and the 
 story is a most wonderful one. A generation ago a few Jewish emi¬ 
 grants from Russia and from Roumania, instead of proceeding West¬ 
 ward to this hospitable country where they might easily have secured 
 material prosperity, turned Eastward for the purpose of settling in 
 the land of their fathers. They came from countries where the Jews 
 were persecuted and subjected to the gravest injustice; but the desire 
 to avoid persecution and injustice was not the main cause of their 
 settling in Palestine. Some of them were devoutely orthodox; but 
 religious devotion was not the main cause of their settling in Palestine. 
 They went to Palestine because they were convinced that the undying 
 longing of Jews for Palestine was a fact of deepest significance; that 
 it was a manifestation in the struggle for existence by an ancient 
 people which had established its right to live—a people whose three 
 thousand years of civilization had produced a faith, culture, and in¬ 
 dividuality which enable them to contribute largely in the future, as 
 they had in the past, to the advance of civilization; and that it was 
 not a right view, that it was not a right merely, but a duty of the 
 Jewish nation to survive and develop. 
 
 These new Pilgrim Fathers sought, therefore, to restore in the 
 land of their fathers the Jewish national life. They believed that 
 there only could Jewish life to be protected from the forces of dis¬ 
 integration; that there alone could the Jewish spirit reach its full 
 and natural development; and that by securing for those Jews who 
 wished to settle in Palestine the opportunity to do so, not only those 
 Jews, but all other Jews would be benefited and that the long perplex¬ 
 ing Jewish problem would at last, find solution. 
 
 To the worldly wise these efforts at colonization appeared very 
 foolish. Nature and man presented obstacles in Palestine which ap¬ 
 peared to them insuperable; the colonists were in fact ill-equipped 
 for their task, save in their spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice. The 
 land, harassed by centuries of misrule, was treeless and apparently 
 sterile; and it was infested with malaria. The Government ofliered 
 them no security, either as to life or property. The colonists them¬ 
 selves were not only unfamiliar with the character of the country, 
 but were ignorant of the farmer’s life which they proposed to lead; 
 for the Jews of Russia and Roumania had been generally denied the 
 opportunity of owning or working land. Furthermore, these colonists 
 were not inured to the physical hardships to which the life of a 
 pioneer is necessarily subjected. To these hardships and to malaria 
 the men succumbed. Those who survived were long confronted with 
 failure. But at last success came. Within a generation these Jewish 
 Pilgrim Fathers, and those who followed them, had succeeded in 
 establishing these two fundamental propositions: 
 
 First .—That Palestine is fit for the modern Jew. 
 
 Second .—That the modern Jew is fit for Palestine. 
 
 2 
 
This land, then treeless and supposed to be sterile and hope¬ 
 lessly arid, has been shown to have been treeless and sterile only be¬ 
 cause of man’s misrule. It has been shown to be capable of becoming 
 again a land “flowing with milk and honey.” Oranges and grapes, 
 olives and almonds, wheat and other cereals are now growing there in 
 profusion. Those who undertake to describe Palestine are apt to 
 speak of it as a miniature California, in its climate, its topography and 
 its agricultural possibilities. Others have compared it with Sicily—• 
 long the granary of Rome. 
 
 Much patience and perseverance and faith have been recpiired 
 to develop these possibilities in Palestine; and very much remains to 
 be done to make the life of the Jewish settler what it should be. But 
 the commercial test has been made. The progress is obvious to every 
 traveller; and it may already be measured in statistics. In a single 
 generation the export of oranges increased from 60,000 boxes to 
 1,500,000 and in recent years the groves have been so largely extended 
 that exports to twice this amount are expected within a few years 
 when these trees shall begin to bear fruit. The grape, the almond 
 and the olive culture have prospered likewise, and there are important 
 exports of wheat and other cereals. 
 
 This material development has been attended by a spiritual and 
 social development no less extraordinary; a development in education, 
 in health and in social order; and in the character and habits of the 
 population. Perhaps the most extraordinary achievement of Jewish 
 nationalism is the revival of the Hebrew Language, which has again 
 become a language of the common intercourse of men. The Hebrew 
 tongue, called a dead language for nearly two thousand years, has, 
 in the Jewish colonies and in Jerusalem, become again the living 
 mother-tongue. The effect of this common language in unifying the 
 Jews is, of course, great; for the Jews of Palestine came literally 
 from all the lands of the earth, each speaking, except for the use of 
 Yiddish^ the language of the country from which he came, and re¬ 
 maining, in the main, almost a stranger to the others. 
 
 But the effect of the renaissance of the Plebrew tongue is far 
 greater than that of unifying the Jews. It is a potent factor in re¬ 
 viving the essentially Jewish spirit. It was a bold dream to plan the 
 foundation of a new Jewish nation in Palestine by giving a common 
 language to the natives of so many lands, particularly so when it is 
 remembered that the language, long called dCad, had not only to be 
 introduced, but to be adapted to modern use. Yet this has actually 
 been accomplished in a single generation; and the man who took the 
 first practical step, Eliezer Ben Jehuda—is still in Jerusalem, engaged 
 in furthering the work. 
 
 Ben Jehuda’s story will have a place in history. In 1880, living 
 comfortably in Paris, he wrote an article for a Jerusalem paper, 
 demanding that Plebrew become the language of intercourse in the 
 Talmud Torahs and Yeshibahs of Palestine. The editor of the paper 
 in which the article was published spoke of the propositions as “a 
 pious wish;” but Ben Jehuda was not content that it should remain a 
 
 3 
 
wish. He proposed that the wish become a fact, so he went to Pales¬ 
 tine himself. He concluded that if Hebrew was to become a spoken 
 language, the way to begin with Hebrew, as with charity, was at home. 
 He said he would marry no woman who did not speak Hebrew 
 fluently. Fortunately, he found one who could; and Hebrew became 
 the language of his own household. Then he declared that he would 
 deal only with those who could speak Hebrew. He was naturallv 
 regarded as half-crazy. But soon others followed his example! 
 
 And before a generation had passed, Hebrew became the language 
 of kindergartens, of primary schools and of higher institutions of 
 learning. Daily papers and magazines are now published, public 
 lectures are delivered and plays performed in Hebrew. Many were 
 the parents who learned Hebrew from their children! and there are 
 instances also of non-Jews learning Hebrew in order to avail them¬ 
 selves of the advantages offered by the Hebrew educational and 
 cultural institutions. 
 
 It was no ordinary sense of piety that made Ben Jehuda seek 
 to introduce the Hebrew language. He recognized what the leaders 
 of other peoples, seeking re-birth and independence, have recognized: 
 that it is through the national language expressing the people’s soul 
 that the national spirit is aroused and the national power restored. 
 In spite of the prevalence of the English tongue in Ireland, the revival 
 of Gaelic was one of the most important factors in the movement 
 which has just resulted in securing for the Irish their long-coveted 
 home rule. The revival of Flemish was a potent factor in the re-birth 
 of the Belgian people, who have now given such good account of them¬ 
 selves. And so it was with the revival of Greek, of Bulgarian and 
 of Servian. 
 
 The intensity of conviction and the devotion which the revival 
 of Hebrew has developed was shown in the struggle for its mainte¬ 
 nance last year (1914) in the Palestinian schools. Believing that an 
 effort was being made to supersede it in some of the schools, practical¬ 
 ly every teacher—two hundred in all—struck, giving up their only 
 means of livelihood rather than submit to the impairment of the posi¬ 
 tion of the Hebrew language. Pupils followed teachers, and parents 
 aided by others in the community willingly faced, despite their poverty, 
 the burden of establishing new national schools, so that their new-old 
 national language might predominate. This is stuff out of which 
 nations can be built! 
 
 The burden has fallen upon America to maintain the Zionist 
 movement, now so promising after years of travail. 1 he organiza¬ 
 tion which has hitherto directed the movement had its headquarters 
 in Berlin. The governing committee is composed mainly of citizens 
 of the different nations now at war with one another. Some of the 
 members are from Russia, some from Germany, some from Austria. 
 The president of the Zionist congress was a German ; and the leading 
 financial institutions through which the business of the organization 
 was conducted, were organized under British law. d he war has scat¬ 
 tered these officers under conditions which prevent their cooperating 
 
 4 
 
or, indeed, communicating freely with one another; and which pre¬ 
 vents them from directing affairs in Palestine. The establishment 
 in a neutral country of a provisional committee to take up the 
 work thus became necessary; and such a committee was naturally 
 established in America, the only neutral country which has a large 
 Jewish population, and where more than one-fifth of all the Jews 
 in the world live. The committee so formed has at the outset the 
 task of providing funds necessary for maintaining the Zionist organi¬ 
 zation and institutions. 
 
 Hitherto ninety percent of all the money required for this pur¬ 
 pose was raised in Europe. The European Jews are now prevented 
 from contributing practically anything. Upon us falls the obligation 
 and the privilege of providing the needed funds. When we consider 
 how large and generous has been the contribution of the Irish in 
 America for the cause of home rule—the present demand upon the 
 Jews for this purpose seems very small indeed. 
 
 The Jews in America can be relied upon to perform fully their 
 obligation. And there are special reasons why we should be eager 
 to do so; for Palestine gives promise of doing for us far more than 
 we can ever be called upon to do for Palestine; for the Jewish renais¬ 
 sance in Palestine will enable us to perform our plain duty to America. 
 It will help us to make toward the attainment of the American ideals 
 of democracy and social justice that large contribution for which 
 religion and life have peculiarly fitted the Jew. 
 
 America’s fundamental law seeks to make real the brotherhood 
 of man. That brotherhood became the Jewish fundamental law more 
 than twenty-five hundred years ago. America’s insistent demand in 
 the twentieth century is for social justice. That also has been the 
 Jews’ striving for ages. Their affliction as well as their religion has 
 prepared the Jews for effective democracy. Persecution broadened 
 their sympathies ; it trained them in patient endurance, in self-control, 
 and in sacrifice. It made them think as well as sufifer. It deepened 
 the passion for righteousness. 
 
 The Jewish spirit, the product of their religion and experiences, 
 is essentially modern and essentially American. Not since the des¬ 
 truction of the Temple have the Jews in spirit and in ideals been, in 
 these respects, so fully in harmony with the noblest aspirations of the 
 country in which they lived. The Jewish spirit, so long preserved, 
 the character developed by so many centuries of sacrifice, should be 
 preserved and developed further, so that in America as elsewhere 
 the sons of the race may in future live lives and do deeds worthy of 
 their ancestors. 
 
 But as the Ghetto walls are falling Jewish life cannot be pre¬ 
 served and developed, assimilation cannot be averted, unless there l)e 
 re-established in the fatherland a centre, from which the Jewish spirit 
 may radiate, and give to the Jews scattered throughout the world that 
 inspiration which springs from memories of a great past and the hope 
 of a great future. To accomj^lish this, it is not necessary tliat the 
 lewisii population of Palestine be large as comj)ared with the whole 
 
 5 
 
number of Jews in the world. Throughout centuries when the Jewish 
 inlluence was greatest, during the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman 
 Empires, only a relatively small part of the Jews lived in Palestine; 
 and only a small part of the Jews returned from Babylon when the 
 Temple was rebuilt. 
 
 But we have also an immediate and more pressing duty in the 
 performance of which Zionism alone seems capable of affording effect¬ 
 ive aid. We must protect America and ourselves from demoralisation 
 which has to some extent already set in among American Jews. 
 Throughout all the years of persecution the general standard of morals 
 was exceptionally high among the Jews. The Jewish criminal was 
 very rare; for with the Jews laws were self-enforced and each 
 individual was his own policeman. The Rosenthal case with its 
 horrible revelations of violence and corruption, and the white slave 
 persecutions, with their disclosures of prostitution among Jewish 
 women, brought to the American Jew a deep sense of humiliation, 
 and to the thoughtful grave concern. What could be more remote 
 from Jewish tradition than such resorts to violence, unless it be the 
 prevalence of unchastity? 
 
 The cause of this demoralisation is clear. It results in large part 
 from the fact that in our land of liberty all the restraints of liberty 
 and of law by which the Jews were protected in their Ghettos, had been 
 removed and a new generation was left without necessary moral and 
 spiritual support. And is it not equally clear what the only possible 
 remedy is? It is the laborious task of inculcating self-respect,—a 
 task which can be accomplished only by restoring the ties of the Jew 
 to the noble past of his race, and by making him realize the possibili¬ 
 ties of a no less glorious future. The only bulwark against demoralisa¬ 
 tion is to develop in each new generation of Jews in America the 
 sense of “Noblesse oblige.” That spirit can be developed only with 
 those who regard their race as destined to live and to live with a bright 
 future. That spirit can best be developed by actively participating 
 in some way in furthering the ideals of the Jewish renaissance, and 
 this can be done effectively only through furthering the Zionist move¬ 
 ment. 
 
 In the Jewish colonies of Palestine there are no Jewish criminals; 
 because everyone, old and young alike, is led to feel the glory of his 
 race and his obligation to carry forward its ideals. The new Pales¬ 
 tinian Jewry produces instead of criminals, great scientists like Aaron 
 .Aaronsohn, the discoverer of wild wheat; great pedagogues like David 
 Vellin ; craftsmen like Boris Schatz. the founder of the Bezalel; intre¬ 
 pid Shomerim, the Jewish guards of peace, who stand watch in the 
 night against marauders and doers of violent deeds. 
 
 Every Irish American who contributed towards advancing home 
 rule was a better man and a better American for the sacrifice be made. 
 Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in 
 Palestine, though he feel tb.at neither he nor his descendants will ever 
 be there, will likewise be a better man and a better American for 
 doing so. 
 
 6 
 
There is one other consideration to which the Jews of America 
 should give thought. Though the result of this war should be as we 
 hope, the removal or lessening of the disabilities under which the 
 Jews labour in Eastern Europe, nevertheless, when peace comes, 
 emigration from the war-stricken countries will certainly proceed in 
 large volume, because of the misery incident to the war's devastation. 
 More than one-half of the Jews of the whole world live in that terri¬ 
 tory near the western frontier of Russia, which has become one of 
 the two vast battlefields of the nations. Is it desirable that America 
 should be practically the only country to which the Jews of Eastern 
 Europe may emigrate? Is it not desirable that Palestine should give 
 a special welcome to the Jews, as the Zionists propose? 
 
 I am impelled all the more to ask for your support, both moral 
 and financial, because at this critical juncture we should all stand 
 together, so that when the occasion arises, we may be of lasting service 
 to our people. Now is not the time to foreshadow the policy which 
 we should engage upon. But when the nations approach peace, the 
 Jews of America, if united, may be factors in obtaining for the Jews 
 of the other parts of the world something more real than promises 
 of amelioration; something more lasting than philanthropy. And 
 this greater undertaking depends upon the readiness with which you 
 rally in every possible form to the cause. 
 
 Your loyalty to America, your loyalty to Judaism, should lead 
 you to support the Zionist cause. 
 
 7 
 
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 T/?e Unexcelled Jewish Magazine 
 
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 THE MACCABAEAN MAGAZINE 
 
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WHAT TO READ TO UNDERSTAND 
 
 ZIONISM 
 
 THE JEWISH STATE. By Theodore HerzI. Contain¬ 
 ing the fundamentals of modern Zionism and an out¬ 
 line of how the Jewish State could be established. 
 
 AUTO-EMANCIPATION. By Leo Pinsker. An appeal 
 to the Jewish people to put an end to Jewish wandering 
 by reviving the Jewish nationality in Palestine. Paper 
 cover, $.15. 
 
 ZIONIST WORK IN PALESTINE. By Israel Cohen. 
 A description of what the Zionists are doing in Palestine. 
 Paper cover, $.35. 
 
 RECENT JEWISH PROGRESS IN PALESTINE. 
 By Henrietta Szold; a complete story of Palestinian 
 colonization and the cultural development of the Jews 
 in the Holy Land. Paper cover $.25. 
 
 A COURSE IN ZIONISM. By Jessie L. Sampler 
 a book for the student of Zionism, with complete 
 bibliography. Paper cover, $.35, 
 
 ZIONISM AND THE JEWISH FUTURE. A collection 
 of essays written by the best authorities in the Move¬ 
 ment, dealing with the various aspects of the Zionist 
 movement and its significance to Judaism and the world. 
 Price, $1.00. 
 
 Send for a catalogue of Zionist literature. All books 
 and pamphlets and periodicals can be ordered of the 
 Federation of American Zionists, 44 Last 23d St., New York.