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

Through the operation of a newly awakened sense
of solidarity among the Jews, the scheme of colonizing Palestine launched by
a handful of devoted and judicious leaders in the face of apparently
insuperable difficulties, has already prospered so far that I feel no doubt
about its permanent success. The value of this achievement for the Jews
everywhere is very great. Palestine will be a centre of culture for all
Jews, a refuge for the most grievously oppressed, a field of action for the
best among us, a unifying ideal, and a means of attaining inward health for
the Jews of the whole world.

Anti-Semitism and Academic Youth

So long as we lived in the ghetto our Jewish nationality involved for
us material difficulties and sometimes physical danger, but no social or
psychological problems. With emancipation the position changed, particularly
for those Jews who turned to the intellectual professions. In school and at
the university the young Jew is exposed to the influence of a society with a
definite national tinge, which he respects and admires, from which he
receives his mental sustenance, to which he feels himself to belong, while
it, on the other hand, treats him, as one of an alien race, with a certain
contempt and hostility. Driven by the suggestive influence of this
psychological superiority rather than by utilitarian considerations, he
turns his back on his people and his traditions, and considers himself as
belonging entirely to the others while he tries in vain to conceal from
himself and them the fact that the relation is not reciprocal. Hence that
pathetic creature, the baptized Jewish Geheimrat of yesterday and to-day. In
most cases it is not pushfulness and lack of character that have made him
what he is, but, as I have said, the suggestive power of an environment
superior in numbers and influence. He knows, of course, that many admirable
sons of the Jewish people have made important contributions to the glory of
European civilization; but have they not all, with a few exceptions, done
much the same as he?

In this case, as in many mental disorders, the cure lies in a clear
knowledge of one's condition and its causes. We must be conscious of our
alien race and draw the logical conclusions from it. It is no use trying to
convince the others of our spiritual and intellectual equality by arguments
addressed to the reason, when their attitude does not originate in their
intellects at all. Rather must we emancipate ourselves socially and supply
our social needs, in the main, ourselves. We must have our own students'
societies and adopt an attitude of courteous but consistent reserve to the
Gentiles. And let us live after our own fashion there and not ape duelling
and drinking customs which are foreign to our nature. It is possible to be a
civilized European and a good citizen and at the same time a faithful Jew
who loves his race and honours his fathers. If we remember this and act
accordingly, the problem of anti-Semitism, in so far as it is of a social
nature, is solved for us.

A Letter to Professor Dr. Hellpach, Minister of State

Dear Herr Hellpach,

I have read your article on Zionism and the Zurich Congress and
feel, as a strong devotee of the Zionist idea, that I must answer
you, even if it is only shortly.

The Jews are a community bound together by ties of blood and
tradition, and not of religion only: the attitude of the rest of the
world towards them is sufficient proof of this. When I came to
Germany fifteen years ago I discovered for the first time that I
was a Jew, and I owe this discovery more to Gentiles than Jews.

The tragedy of the Jews is that they are people of a definite
historical type, who lack the support of a community to keep
them together. The result is a want of solid foundations in the
individual which amounts in its extremer forms to moral
instability. I realized that the only possible salvation for the race
was that every Jew in the world should become attached to a
living society to which the individual rejoiced to belong and
which enabled him to bear the hatred and the humiliations that he
has to put up with from the rest of the world.

I saw worthy Jews basely caricatured, and the sight made my
heart bleed. I saw how schools, comic papers, and innumerable
other forces of the Gentile majority undermined the confidence
even of the best of my fellow-Jews, and felt that this could not
be allowed to continue.

Then I realized that only a common enterprise dear to the hearts
of Jews all over the world could restore this people to health. It
was a great achievement of Herzl's to have realized and
proclaimed at the top of his voice that, the traditional attitude of
the Jews being what it was, the establishment of a national home
or, more accurately, a centre in Palestine, was a suitable object
on which to concentrate our efforts.

All this you call nationalism, and there is something in the
accusation. But a communal purpose, without which we can
neither live nor die in this hostile world, can always be called by
that ugly name. In any case it is a nationalism whose aim is not
power but dignity and health. If we did not have to live among
intolerant, narrow-minded, and violent people, I should be the
first to throw over all nationalism in favour of universal humanity.

The objection that we Jews cannot be proper citizens of the
German State, for example, if we want to be a "nation," is based
on a misunderstanding of the nature of the State which springs
from the intolerance of national majorities. Against that
intolerance we shall never be safe, whether we call ourselves a
"people" (or "nation") or not.

I have put all this with brutal frankness for the sake of brevity,
but I know from your writings that you are a man who attends to
the sense, not the form.

Letter to an Arab

March 15, 1930

Sir,

Your letter has given me great pleasure. It shows me that there is good
will available on your side too for solving the present difficulties in a
manner worthy of both our nations. I believe that these difficulties are
more psychological than real, and that they can be got over if both sides
bring honesty and good will to the task.

What makes the present position so bad is the fact that Jews and Arabs
confront each other as opponents before the mandatory power. This state of
affairs is unworthy of both nations and can only be altered by our finding a
via media on which both sides agree.

I will now tell you how I think that the present difficulties might be
remedied; at the same time I must add that this is only my personal opinion,
which I have discussed with nobody. I am writing this letter in German
because I am not capable of writing it in English myself and because I want
myself to bear the entire responsibility for it. You will, I am sure, be
able to get some Jewish friend of conciliation to translate it.

A Privy Council is to be formed to which the Jews and Arabs shall each
send four representatives, who must be independent of all political parties.

Each group to be composed as follows:--

A doctor, elected by the Medical Association;
A lawyer, elected by the lawyers;
A working men's representative, elected by the trade unions;
An ecclesiastic, elected by the ecclesiastics.

These eight people are to meet once a week. They undertake not to
espouse the sectional interests of their profession or nation but
conscientiously and to the best of their power to aim at the welfare of the
whole population of the country. Their deliberations shall be secret and
they are strictly forbidden to give any information about them, even in
private. When a decision has been reached on any subject in which not less
than three members on each side concur, it may be published, but only in the
name of the whole Council. If a member dissents he may retire from the
Council, but he is not thereby released from the obligation to secrecy. If
one of the elective bodies above specified is dissatisfied with a resolution
of the Council, it may repiace its representative by another.

Even if this "Privy Council" has no definite powers it may nevertheless
bring about the gradual composition of differences, and secure as united
representation of the common interests of the country before the mandatory
power, clear of the dust of ephemeral politics.

Christianity and Judaism