The world as I see it - Albert Einstein (easy books to read .txt) 📗

show that the world, and especially the British
Government, is disposed to recognize the great things which lie behind our
struggle for the Zionist ideal. Let us at this moment remember with
gratitude our leader Weizmann, whose zeal and circumspection have helped the
good cause to success.

The difficulties we have been through have also brought some good in
their train. They have shown us once more how strong the bond is which
unites the Jews of all countries in a common destiny. The crisis has also
purified our attitude to the question of Palestine, purged it of the dross
of nationalism. It has been clearly proclaimed that we are not seeking to
create a political society, but that our aim is, in accordance with the old
tradition of Jewry, a cultural one in the widest sense of the word. That
being so, it is for us to solve the problem of living side by side with our
brother the Arab in an open, generous, and worthy manner. We have here an
opportunity of showing what we have learnt in the thousands of years of our
martyrdom. If we choose the right path we shall succeed and give the rest of
the world a fine example.

Whatever we do for Palestine we do it for the honour and well-being of
the whole Jewish people.

III

I am delighted to have the opportunity of addressing a few words to the
youth of this country which is faithful to the common aims of Jewry. Do not
be discouraged by the difficulties which confront us in Palestine. Such
things serve to test the will to live of our community.

Certain proceedings and pronouncements of the English administration
have been justly criticized. We must not, however, leave it at that but
learn by experience.

We need to pay great attention to our relations with the Arabs. By
cultivating these carefully we shall be able in future to prevent things
from becoming so dangerously strained that people can take advantage of them
to provoke acts of hostility. This goal is perfectly within our reach,
because our work of construction has been, and must continue to be, carried
out in such a manner as to serve the real interests of the Arab population
also.

In this way we shall be able to avoid getting ourselves quite so often
into the position, disagreeable for Jews and Arabs alike, of having to call
in the mandatory Power as arbitrator. We shall thereby be following not
merely the dictates of Providence but also our traditions, which alone give
the Jewish community meaning and stability.

For that community is not, and must never become, a political one; this
is the only permanent source whence it can draw new strength and the only
ground on which its existence can be justified.

IV

For the last two thousand years the common property of the Jewish
people has consisted entirely of its past. Scattered over the wide world,
our nation possessed nothing in common except its carefully guarded
tradition. Individual Jews no doubt produced great work, but it seemed as if
the Jewish people as a whole had not the strength left for great collective
achievements.

Now all that is changed. History has set us a great and noble task in
the shape of active cooperation in the building up of Palestine. Eminent
members of our race are already at work with all their might on the
realization of this aim. The opportunity is presented to us of setting up
centres of civilization which the whole Jewish people can regard as its
work. We nurse the hope of erecting in Palestine a home of our own national
culture which shall help to awaken the near East to new economic and
spiritual life.

The object which the leaders of Zionism have in view is not a political
but a social and cultural one. The community in Palestine must approach the
social ideal of our forefathers as it is laid down in the Bible, and at the
same time become a seat of modern intellectual life, a spiritual centre for
the Jews of the whole world. In accordance with this notion, the
establishment of a Jewish university in Jerusalem constitutes one of the
most important aims of the Zionist organization.

During the last few months I have been to America in order to help to
raise the material basis for this university there. The success of this
enterprise was quite natural. Thanks to the untiring energy and splendid
self-sacrificing spirit of the Jewish doctors in America, we have succeeded
in collecting enough money for the creation of a medical faculty, and the
preliminary work isbeing started at once. After this success I have no doubt
that the material basis for the other faculties will soon be forthcoming.
The medical faculty is first of all to be developed as a research institute
and to concentrate on making the country healthy, a most important item in
the work of development. Teaching on a large scale will only become
important later on. As a number of highly competent scientific workers have
already signified their readiness to take up appointments at the university,
the establishment of a medical faculty seems to be placed beyond all doubt.
I may add that a special fund for the university, entirely distinct from the
general fund for the development of the country, has been opened. For the
latter considerable sums have been collected during these months in America,
thanks to the indefatigable labours of Professor Weizmann and other Zionist
leaders, chiefly through the self-sacrificing spirit of the middle classes.
I conclude with a warm appeal to the Jews in Germany to contribute all they
can, in spite of the present economic difficulties, for the building up of
the Jewish home in Palestine. This is not a matter of charity, but an
enterprise which concerns all Jews and the success of which promises to be a
source of the highest satisfaction to all.

V

For us Jews Palestine is not just a charitable or colonial enterprise,
but a problem of central importance for the Jewish people. Palestine is not
primarily a place of refuge for the Jews of Eastern Europe, but the
embodiment of the re-awakening corporate spirit of the whole Jewish nation.
Is it the right moment for this corporate sense to be awakened and
strengthened? This is a question to which I feel compelled, not merely by my
spontaneous feelings but on rational grounds, to return an unqualified
"yes."

Let us just cast our eyes over the history of the Jews in Germany
during the past hundred years. A century ago our forefathers, with few
exceptions, lived in the ghetto. They were poor, without political rights,
separated from the Gentiles by a barrier of religious traditions, habits of
life, and legal restrictions; their intellectual development was restricted
to their own literature, and they had remained almost unaffected by the
mighty advance of the European intellect which dates from the Renaissance.
And yet these obscure, humble people had one great advantage over us each of
them belonged in every fibre of his being to a community m which he was
completely absorbed, in which he felt himself a fully pnvileged member, and
which demanded nothing of him that was contrary to his natural habits of
thought. Our forefathers in those days were pretty poor specimens
intellectually and physically, but socially speaking they enjoyed an
enviable spiritual equilibrium.

Then came emancipation, which suddenly opened up undreamed-of
possibilities to the individual. Some few rapidly made a position for
themselves in the higher walks of business and social life. They greedily
lapped up the splendid triumphs which the art and science of the Western
world had achieved. They joined in the process with burning enthusiasm,
themselves making contributions of lasting value. At the same time they
imitated the external forms of Gentile life, departed more and more from
their religious and social traditions, and adopted Gentile customs, manners,
and habits of thought. It seemed as though they were completely losing their
identity in the superior numbers and more highly organized culture of the
nations among whom they lived, so that in a few generations there would be
no trace of them left. A complete disappearance of Jewish nationality in
Central and Western Europe seemed inevitable.

But events turned out otherwise. Nationalities of different race seem
to have an instinct which prevents them from fusing. However much the Jews
adapted themselves, in language, manners, and to a great extent even in the
forms of religion, to the European peoples among whom they lived, the
feeling of strangeness between the Jews and their hosts never disappeared.
This spontaneous feeling is the ultimate cause of anti-Semitism, which is
therefore not to be got rid of by well-meaning propaganda. Nationalities
want to pursue their own path, not to blend. A satisfactory state of affairs
can be brought about only by mutual toleration and respect.

The first step in that direction is that we Jews should once more
become conscious of our existence as a nationality and regain the
self-respect that is necessary to a healthy existence. We must learn once
more to