THE 
 
 WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 OF A 
 
 JEWISH STATE 
 
 BY 
 
 A. A. BERLE, A.M., D.D. 
 
 DS 
 149 
 . B4 
 1918 
 
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 rv? » .?.:? _-_. 
 
 DS 149 .B4 1918 
 Berle, A. A. 1866-1960. 
 
 The world significance of a 
 Jewish state 
 
 
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THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 OF A JEWISH STATE 
 

THE 
 
 WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 OF A 
 
 JEWISH STAT 
 
 >/ 
 
 BY 
 
 0F mi ^ 
 
 A. A. BERLE, A.M., 
 
 MAY 27 191 f) 
 
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 AUTHOR OF ‘CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL RAGE, 
 
 “THE SCHOOL IN THE HOME,” “TEACHING IN THE HOME,” ETC. 
 
 FORMER PROFESSOR OF APPLIED CHRISTIANITY IN TUFTS COLLEGE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MITCHELL KENNERLEY 
 MCMXVIII 
 
COPYRIGHT 1918 BY 
 MITCHELL KENNERLEY 
 
 PRINTED IN AMERICA 
 
LOUIS D. BRANDEIS 
 
 ASSOCIATE JUSTICE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT 
 
 EXEMPLAR AND LEADER OF THE LIBERATING INFLUENCE 
 OF THE JEW IN AMERICAN LIFE 
 
 WITH MEMORIES OF OUR STRUGGLES IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/worldsignificancOOberl 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 I T is many years since the author of this 
 little essay became interested in the sub¬ 
 ject of which it treats. The Zionist move¬ 
 ment, as such, has interest chiefly for Jews. 
 But the history of the Jews is a human pos¬ 
 session, priceless because of its influence 
 upon the moral and religious conceptions of 
 men. This essay does not treat of the Zion¬ 
 ist movement, as such, but considers the pro¬ 
 posed Jewish state for its significance to 
 the Christian world. 
 
 The Jew himself is a social factor of such 
 importance to the world that his racial and 
 national interests are world-interests per se; 
 and whatever tends to unify the Jews, espe¬ 
 cially religiously, and centre their thought 
 and action in a solidarity, religious and so¬ 
 cial, in a concrete form representative of 
 the highest and finest aspirations of the race, 
 is a sublime subject for speculation. And 
 when there appears on the horizon a possi- 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 bility that this speculative centre of Jewish 
 interests may become a practical reality, 
 we may well take note of it for the sake of 
 the whole world. That is what this essay 
 attempts to do. 
 
 The present writer can think of no greater 
 contribution to the world’s life than the relig¬ 
 ious rehabilitation and unification of the 
 Jews. And because a Jewish state looks 
 like the best instrument to this end, the sub¬ 
 ject becomes commanding. I look to the 
 Christian world to supplement, with gen¬ 
 erous enthusiasm, this national aspiration of 
 devoted Jews, that Americans may join with 
 Englishmen, some of whose leading states¬ 
 men are already committed to the plan, in 
 bringing their influence to bear upon our 
 own government, toward the fulfilment of 
 so worthy an international end. 
 
 A. A. B. 
 
 Boston, February, 1918 . 
 
THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE OF 
 A JEWISH STATE 
 
 T HE outstanding fact about the great 
 war which has now raged throughout 
 the civilized world for three years has been 
 the element of surprise. It has seemed as 
 though nothing had developed according to 
 the previous expectations or according to 
 previous modes of reasoning. The most as¬ 
 tonishing developments have succeeded one 
 another with a swiftness and variety which, 
 if we had read of them before the war, in 
 some imaginative publication, would have 
 caused contemptuous scepticism. The mo¬ 
 bilization of the brains of the world, for the 
 purpose of slaughter, has been an astound¬ 
 ing exhibit, not only of what the mobiliza¬ 
 tion of the brains of the world could do, but 
 of what strange and uncanny combinations 
 have resulted. There is hardly a field where 
 the weirdness of the results is not entirely 
 equal to the skill and ingenuity which pro¬ 
 duced them. 
 
 9 
 
10 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 This is seen, for example, in the unusual 
 combinations of nations for war, quite irre¬ 
 spective of their religious interests or affili¬ 
 ations. For years civilization has protested 
 against the rule or misrule of the Turk. Yet 
 the Turk to-day is allied with the Central 
 Empires, especially under the hegemony of 
 that Germany which we have hitherto re¬ 
 garded as the safeguard and foundation of 
 efficient and stable Protestantism in Europe. 
 So, on the other side, there is arrayed a con¬ 
 geries of religions, covering almost every¬ 
 thing from Ultramontane Roman Catholi¬ 
 cism to the varieties of religion in India and 
 Japan. Nothing could more clearly illus¬ 
 trate the fact that to-day religion and re¬ 
 ligious opinions have absolutely nothing to 
 do with foreign policy or the alliances of 
 nations. Yet there is not a statesman in 
 Europe, or America for that matter, who 
 can venture a single word on the subject of 
 domestic organized religion of any sort, who 
 would not at that moment endanger his in¬ 
 fluence or risk his political life. 
 
 That school of observers who have pro¬ 
 fessed to see a “deep religious awakening” 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 11 
 
 going on, will have to define their meaning 
 more clearly. If by “deep religious awak¬ 
 ening” they mean increasing seriousness in 
 the world, in the presence of facts of monu¬ 
 mental iniquity and stupidity, colossal 
 waste and slaughter, heartrending narra¬ 
 tives of misery, shame, and pain, then 
 indeed there has been a “religious” awaken¬ 
 ing. It would be a curious world that did 
 not become serious in the presence of what 
 we have witnessed in the last three years. 
 But if they mean that any distinction of 
 creed or belief has become clearer, more de¬ 
 cisive, and more controlling and effective 
 morally, they are mistaken, with one possi¬ 
 ble exception. And the exception is that 
 one which has always impressed the world, 
 and which has made the Jew the barometer 
 of civilization at all times. Neither Prot¬ 
 estantism nor Catholicism has shown the 
 slightest power to control, or even direct, the 
 moral order of the world. Christianity not 
 only could not control the outbreak of the 
 war, but has not been able to do a single 
 thing toward mitigating its worst effects, 
 even the Red Cross having become now, in 
 
12 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 warring countries, a military adjunct of the 
 armies. 
 
 The possible exception has been the Jew. 
 For many years the Jewish national ideal 
 has been gaining in force and articulateness. 
 To-day it is within the region of practical 
 politics, and may become a reality at the 
 close of the war. Looked upon by many as 
 a silly or idle dream for years, there is now 
 something resembling a strong probability 
 that there will arise in Palestine a Jewish 
 state under the protectorate of the great 
 powers, or some of them, which will have a 
 significance to the world far beyond, prob¬ 
 ably, what even its most ardent advocates 
 dream. That it should fire the imagination 
 of every Jew who values his blood and tra¬ 
 ditions to see a future Land of Promise ac¬ 
 tually erected, with Jerusalem as its capital, 
 should go without saying. It is one of the 
 curious facts of the matter, however, that 
 there are large numbers of Jews who do 
 not feel the wonderful inspiration of the 
 theme. But, by and large, it may be said 
 that the Zionist movement is simply re¬ 
 garded by these Jews as a colonization 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 13 
 
 scheme, which decidedly it is not, though it 
 contemplates filling Palestine with Jews; 
 and they have not informed themselves about 
 the vast implications of the programme. But 
 the Jews of the world at large have gained in 
 national articulateness and cohesion, and 
 thereby in moral force and power, as have no 
 other religionists in the world. To be sure, 
 their local interests, like those of the rest of 
 the world, are bound up in the results of the 
 war. But, above and beyond those local 
 interests, distributed among the nations of 
 the world at war, they have erected into the 
 foreground of their consciousness another 
 hope and ideal, which has solidified, stimu¬ 
 lated, and animated them beyond anything 
 which has for generations stirred the Jew¬ 
 ish community throughout the world, name¬ 
 ly, the hope of seeing a Jewish state, free, 
 self-governing, and fulfilling an age-long 
 desire and dream of the race. 
 
 We may, for the present, leave to the 
 Zionists, and the Jews as a whole, the dis¬ 
 cussion of what the erection of such a state 
 may or may not mean to them. But there 
 is another significance to the foundation of 
 
14 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 such a state, which interests the rest of the 
 world, and in some respects hardly less than 
 the Jews themselves. Would it mean any¬ 
 thing, or nothing in particular, to the rest 
 of the world, to have a Jewish social state 
 called into being in Palestine? Would it be, 
 to the rest of the world, just one more “small 
 state” to dicker about, in the councils of the 
 great powers? Would it be just the realiza¬ 
 tion of the dream of a few Jewish enthusiasts 
 and fanatics, to be looked at with kindly 
 tolerance or patronizing friendly inter¬ 
 est? It is likely that the vast body of Chris¬ 
 tians have never thought about this matter 
 at all, considering it purely visionary, and 
 entirely outside the bounds of practical dis¬ 
 cussion. But, supposing it did come within 
 the sphere of practical disposition,—and the 
 present writer believes that it has,—then 
 what is the significance to the non-Jewish 
 world of such a state, and what would its es¬ 
 tablishment mean to Christianity and Chris¬ 
 tian ideas and ideals? These are questions 
 which have for the Gentile world both a polit¬ 
 ical, sentimental, and religious significance. 
 If such a state is established, it will be a 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 15 
 
 unique commonwealth,—one which admits of 
 political possibilities far beyond anything of 
 which the world has hitherto dreamed, and 
 which may become the political instructor of 
 the entire world. It will be socialized by its 
 very constitution to a degree which would 
 not be possible in any other state. The world 
 will not be able to ignore the results which 
 must ultimately flow from this community, 
 if it develops normally and according to nat¬ 
 ural expectation. Then again, it will be in 
 custody and control of the land and places 
 out of which the entire Christian religion has 
 emerged. It can hardly fail to have at least 
 a deep sentimental interest to the Christian 
 world that this is the case. The entire Chris¬ 
 tian church, in its variety of branches, as it 
 teaches its own history and origins, will be 
 compelled, side by side with this instruction, 
 to teach the history and development of the 
 nascent Jewish state. No commonwealth on 
 earth will start with such a propaganda for 
 its exploitation in world thought, or with 
 such eager and minute scrutiny, by millions 
 of people, of its slightest detail. The value 
 of this to such a state can only be conjee- 
 
16 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 tured. But that it will give impetus to it, 
 that it will aid it and upbuild it, goes without 
 saying. Think what it would mean to any 
 enterprise to have the millions of Sunday- 
 school children studying about it every Sun¬ 
 day in the year! To have its ideas and ideals 
 expounded in thousands of Christian pul¬ 
 pits, to have its aims and practices discussed 
 from a thousand different angles! Think of 
 the possibilities of religious instruction con¬ 
 tained in such an opportunity! If this 
 House of Israel is reestablished in Pales¬ 
 tine again, it will begin with an opportunity 
 of world instruction in the religion of Israel 
 which has never been vouchsafed to any 
 other cult in the history of mankind! One 
 of the very first and important results of all 
 this will be, that the religion of Israel will 
 be understood—and what may not that mean 
 both for Israel and for Christendom—and 
 therein lies a possibility of modification of 
 the religion of the whole world! If no sin¬ 
 gle other result were to be looked for, this 
 itself would be a sufficient reason for the en¬ 
 listment of all Christendom in the work of 
 securing Palestine for the Jews, and the 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 17 
 
 building up therein, on a secure foundation, 
 a Jewish state. But this is but a mere 
 glimpse of the vast possibilities contained in 
 this matter. Enough, however, has been in¬ 
 dicated to outline the discussion which fol¬ 
 lows. 
 
I 
 
 Let us then, first, ask ourselves what the 
 political significance of a Jewish state will 
 be. Those who have not made the matter 
 one of special study, do not realize the eco¬ 
 nomic resources for self-dependence of Pal¬ 
 estine; and it is not the purpose to discuss 
 that phase of the matter here, except to state 
 that those resources are there, and that, once 
 established, there is no reason to fear that 
 there will not be an inflow of Jewish settlers 
 who will make the fullest use of those pos¬ 
 sibilities. In addition to this, it is unthink¬ 
 able that the vast resources of the Jews 
 throughout the world will not supply all the 
 necessary credits and assistance, to supply 
 all initial needs, till the period of stable and 
 self-sustaining strength is reached. For, be 
 it understood, the Zionist movement does not 
 contemplate that every Jew everywhere will 
 immediately pick up and leave his present 
 interests and occupation, and hasten to the 
 
 18 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 19 
 
 Holy Land! But the fact is that there are 
 vast numbers to whom such a change of base 
 will be an economic advantage of sufficient 
 promise and possibility to make it reason¬ 
 ably sure that population will not be want¬ 
 ing. And for the needs of that population, 
 in the early stages of its expansion and 
 growth, the economic resources of the Jews 
 of the world will undoubtedly be ready. 
 That matter may safely be left where the 
 burden will rest. 
 
 But when we turn to the political possi¬ 
 bilities, especially to the remainder of the 
 world, we have a vista opening to us which 
 ought to awaken the greatest enthusiasm 
 throughout the Christian world. Let us sup¬ 
 pose that the end of the war will leave the 
 world much freer than it has ever been be¬ 
 fore, and that all militarists, of every type 
 and shade, will for a long period be relegated 
 to the rear. The poverty of nations, and 
 their great debts, and their war-weariness 
 may well have that result, and the world will 
 be safer for democracy, whether considered 
 as a result of peace negotiations, or merely 
 as an economic result of the great disaster. 
 
20 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 But there will still remain one vast con¬ 
 trast, full of consequences to the world, which 
 apparently this war is not appreciably touch¬ 
 ing ; and that is the contrast and competition 
 between the Asiatic and the European 
 civilization. J apan, as the most ad¬ 
 vanced of Asiatic nations, will emerge from 
 the present war stronger than she has ever 
 been. That she will endeavor to strengthen 
 that hegemony, may be laid down as one of 
 the truisms of political developments in the 
 future. It need not be assumed that such 
 an ambition on the part of Japan is neces¬ 
 sarily hostile to the Western world. But it 
 would ignore the tides of nature, or the am¬ 
 bitions of nations, or the fundamental facts 
 of national growth and extension, to over¬ 
 look this fact. That the militarists will not 
 permit us to overlook it may be taken for 
 granted. But the lovers of world peace 
 should not overlook it either. A powerful 
 Japan, grown rich, not weakened in the 
 present war, having done little or nothing 
 on the side of her allies, and looking stead¬ 
 ily, serenely, and almost solely on her own 
 interests and advancement, will endeavor to 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 21 
 
 extend her influence on the continent. Ko¬ 
 rea is already gone. Manchuria is a rich 
 prize, almost ready to fall into her lap; the 
 “peaceful penetration” of China, almost as 
 certain, and given powerful impulse lately 
 by the heedless concession, over the protest 
 of China herself, on the part of our own 
 government, that she had “special inter¬ 
 ests” there. What do all these things por¬ 
 tend? At their worst, an ultimate conflict 
 between the Asiatic and the European: at 
 their best, the necessity for the rest of the 
 world to see to it that Japan is kept in order, 
 by some peaceful influence. This is not 
 an exploitation of the Asiatic peril: it is 
 merely a recognition of the fundamental 
 facts of national development, as these are 
 outlined to us by population growth, by eco¬ 
 nomic necessity, and by national ambition. 
 We need not attribute the worst motives to 
 the Japanese. The result is substantially the 
 same, if we attribute to them only those na¬ 
 tional aspirations which hitherto we have re¬ 
 garded as perfectly justifiable in all the 
 nations of the world. But when the full recu¬ 
 peration of the world has taken place this 
 
22 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 is what we shall see: another economically 
 powerful and self-sufficient Asiatic Ger¬ 
 many aspiring to control all Asia and pro¬ 
 posing Asiatic union, with Japan at its head! 
 
 Let us even imagine China, free and 
 strong and grown powerful through inter¬ 
 nal improvement and development. She will 
 still be an Asiatic power, and insofar her in¬ 
 terests will be identical with those of J apan 
 in the contrast between Asiatic and Euro¬ 
 pean. Dominated by Japan, she will per¬ 
 haps present us such a spectacle as is seen 
 in the German domination of the Austro- 
 Hungarian Empire. But, whether inde¬ 
 pendently strong, or allied with Japan, the 
 interest of both nations will be Asiatic. The 
 movement for an independent India grows 
 apace, although its utterance is suppressed. 
 Those who imagine that the movement for 
 national utterance and existence in India is 
 simply a feeble desire of a few idealists, do 
 not know its real strength. Military occu¬ 
 pation and domination by England may con¬ 
 tinue many generations still; but it may 
 safely be said that, with the safeguarding 
 of the rights of small nations, and the growth 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 28 
 
 of the principle of nationality, it is nothing 
 less than foolish to leave out of the reckon¬ 
 ing the movement for independence in India. 
 Indeed, why should not India aspire to such 
 independence? There is not a rational rea¬ 
 son why this may not be hoped for as among 
 the fruits of the great war for the democra¬ 
 tizing of the world. But an independent In¬ 
 dia will also be an Asiatic power. It also 
 may be dominated by Japanese hegemony. 
 But whether it is, or is not, its interests will 
 be Asiatic and insofar again they will be 
 the same as those of Japan. The smallei 
 states, Persia and the rest, may likewise be 
 included in this category; in a word, the or¬ 
 ganization of the Asiatic world with Japan, 
 friendly or hostile, at the head. If this seems 
 like a dream, all one needs to do is to study 
 the results in this present war of the edu¬ 
 cation of the East, partly by participation, 
 partly by observation of the methods of the 
 Western world. To imagine that the silent 
 East is not observing, with great intentness, 
 and with a view to its own emergence, the 
 astounding phenomena of the last three 
 years, is to suppose foolishness, like the fool- 
 
24 j the world significance 
 
 ishness that used to prevail about Japan, in 
 days gone by. Let it never be forgotten 
 that, within the memory of men not yet old, 
 Japan was a weak and hardly considered na¬ 
 tion alternately bullied and patronized. No¬ 
 body bullies or patronizes Japan to-day. 
 
 Under these circumstances, what will the 
 world need most ? A mediator between East 
 and West! What will such mediation re¬ 
 quire? It will call for the qualities of both 
 East and West, understanding of both the 
 Asiatic and the European, and the ability to 
 coordinate the two in a conjugation which 
 will make for peace and mutuality. Just 
 let one reflect a moment, and it will appear 
 that there is no race in the world more ca¬ 
 pable for this task than is the Jewish race. 
 The Jew has become both Oriental and Oc¬ 
 cidental. His interests have been locally na¬ 
 tional in every country in the world. He 
 is found to-day in every army in the field! 
 He is found potentially at least in the cabi¬ 
 net of every nation at war! He is found in 
 the councils of state everywhere, and his 
 voice is heard in every economic interest 
 throughout the world! Give him a state, 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 25 
 
 through which he can speak that universal 
 interest, gifted as he is, by understanding 
 and capacity for interpretation of world in¬ 
 terests, through both the Asiatic and the 
 European media, and you have erected a 
 voice for the peace and order of the world 
 which will be more powerful than any 
 League of Nations, and more interpretive 
 than any alliance. Eor, be it understood 
 that alliances between Asiatic and European 
 nations are futile foolishness, no matter how 
 viewed—they can rest on no permanent in¬ 
 terest in the expansion of the Asiatic conti¬ 
 nent. Asia must expand, and must expand 
 without European domination and exploita¬ 
 tion. Japan is already free and powerful. 
 China must become free, and, if free, will be¬ 
 come powerful. India will become free, and, 
 if free, will become powerful. If dominated 
 by Japan, in the interest of Japanese im¬ 
 perialism, the combination will be fraught 
 with danger to the world; but, in any case, 
 Asia, free and developing, will present a prob¬ 
 lem for understanding and interpretation 
 for which special capacity and racial in¬ 
 tuitions will be a first necessity. That inter- 
 
26 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 pretation will have to come, to be persua¬ 
 sive, from a source which cannot be suspect¬ 
 ed of selfish interests. It can come from no 
 European power. It can come from no Asi¬ 
 atic power. It can come from a Euro-Asi¬ 
 atic state which has the understanding of 
 both, and which cannot be suspected of self¬ 
 ish interests. Such a state the Jewish State 
 of Palestine would undoubtedly be. 
 
 If it be suggested that this little corner 
 of the world would be too weak and unim¬ 
 portant to exercise such a vast place in world 
 history, the reply is, Look what a place in 
 the religion of the world that same little cor¬ 
 ner of the world has already. If a young 
 Jewish enthusiast who was martyred at the 
 age of thirty-three, could set on fire the im¬ 
 agination of the world, and make his name 
 the greatest name in history, and do it with¬ 
 out an army or a navy, or any of the acces¬ 
 sories of world power, and make by the 
 power of words, simple words, his name the 
 Name above every name, what may we not 
 reasonably expect of the nation which pro¬ 
 duced that world figure, restored to the land 
 of its dreams, fired again with its ancient 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 27 
 
 traditions, putting into active life and be¬ 
 ing again its ancient laws, and giving to the 
 world a working model of a social state free 
 from the entanglements of the sordid and 
 disgraceful game of diplomacy, and bring¬ 
 ing idealism again into the realm of world 
 politics, and by the force of religious devo¬ 
 tion, high mentality, and social unity, en¬ 
 forcing it upon the world! We are seeing a 
 little of this possibility, by the action of the 
 Russian dreamers who have upset imperial¬ 
 istic ideas in Europe! It is a hope and a vi¬ 
 sion, to stir the dullest blood in Christendom! 
 It is justified by the calmest survey of the 
 ' brutalized world at the present minute. It 
 is justified by the world failures of states¬ 
 manship in our present world disaster. A 
 Jewish state would be a “Hague” which 
 could, and which would, command the atten¬ 
 tion and govern the thought of the world. 
 
 Such a state would have instant allies in 
 the thought, the arts, the letters, and the lit¬ 
 erature of every nation in the world. The 
 Jew not in Palestine would be kept for the 
 high future of his race, by seeing in opera¬ 
 tion, even if he were not there himself, the 
 
28 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 ancient ideals of his fathers; and with the 
 renascence of the Jewish religion through¬ 
 out the world, visualized in a state exempli¬ 
 fying those ideals, there would be created a 
 body of opinion, instantly, throughout the 
 world, which might well bring in, and keep 
 forever, a universal peace! Who will be 
 bold enough to say that a new race of proph¬ 
 ets, like Amos, Hosea, and the rest, may 
 not lead the world to heights of thought and 
 action for world unity and happiness hith¬ 
 erto undreamed of? Why should all this 
 look chimerical, when we remember what has 
 already been hinted,—that, automatically, 
 the whole Christian as well as the whole Jew¬ 
 ish world would study minutely, every detail 
 of this state, as soon as it is established? 
 Of course, the Jew may fail. But why 
 should he fail? He never has failed, when 
 the world has given him a fair chance. And 
 with his rationality, and his prophetic tradi¬ 
 tion, he will set up before the world the pro¬ 
 phetic ideal of righteousness, in a state 
 dominated by his law and religion, and that 
 religion itself, at least, a part of the neces¬ 
 sary background of Christendom itself! The 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 29 
 
 political importance of such a state to the 
 world is almost impossible of exaggeration. 
 It is far from being the mere colonization 
 scheme that many persons imagine. In fact 
 it may be the new Messianic Kingdom itself, 
 appearing on the horizon of world politics 
 and betokening the time when the human 
 race shall indeed beat its swords into plough¬ 
 shares, and its spears into pruning hooks, 
 and learn war no more! One need not be a 
 Jew to welcome such a possibility. One only 
 needs to be broadly and sanely human, to 
 see here one of those new providences by 
 which, possibly, through seas of blood, we 
 have at length been led to the new world of 
 righteousness. 
 
 But Christendom, least of all, can doubt 
 such a possibility. To what end have we 
 read the prophets these many centuries ? To 
 what end have we admired and loved that 
 masterful group of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos 
 and Hosea, and the rest? For what purpose 
 have we embodied their superb ethical ideas 
 into the commonplaces of the Christian re¬ 
 ligion? Here they will become the realities 
 of a social state, full-blooded with the fire 
 
80 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 and glory of the race, that produced them. 
 Nothing so glorious has dawned for ages 
 upon the horizon of the practical politics of 
 the world. It does not need that we assume 
 that the Jewish state will be a community 
 of angels. We know it will not. It only as¬ 
 sumes that the Jewish life throughout the 
 world will approximate to its own religious 
 traditions. 
 
II 
 
 Nor can there be any doubt that the es¬ 
 tablishment of a Jewish state will have great 
 sentimental results, though this designation 
 hardly expresses what we have in mind. 
 Palestine is a land dear to the heart of the 
 whole world. The events which have taken 
 place there are of interest historically, so¬ 
 cially, and linguistically, to the world of 
 scholarship whether of history, romance, or 
 literature. One needs to pause but a mo¬ 
 ment and remember simply the list of bat¬ 
 tles fought on the Plains of Esdraelon, to 
 recall that the Assyrian, Babylonian, Per¬ 
 sian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman Empires 
 have all played a part on this historic soil. 
 One needs but to recall the Eastern Empire, 
 the Crusades, the Saracen, and follow all the 
 way down to Napoleon and even the present 
 moment to feel the immense historic sweep 
 which is gathered in this little fragment of 
 the earth’s surface. There is probably no 
 
 31 
 
32 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 equal area anywhere in which so much has 
 been enacted, which has a place in the 
 thought and literature of the world. No 
 place probably, upon which so much and 
 such varied scholarship has been expended, 
 and in which further results would arouse 
 world-wide interest and enthusiasm! Hith¬ 
 erto, and especially in the modern world, 
 Turkish control has stopped this develop¬ 
 ment, and held up a stream of natural evo¬ 
 lution, which once started to flowing again 
 would have the greatest sentimental, scholas¬ 
 tic, and ethical value to the world. 
 
 It is also entirely within the possibilities 
 that, when the first economic struggles are 
 over, and the first stages of organization and 
 readjustment have been passed,—for the or¬ 
 ganization and making of such a state, with 
 the diverse elements of which it necessarily 
 will be composed at the outset, will itself be 
 a work of great difficulty, and calling for the 
 greatest possible skill in statecraft, social 
 education, and leadership,—there will be a 
 revival of the classical Hebrew language and 
 literature since national development almost 
 always follows the lines of language. The 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 33 
 
 common denominator, linguistically, of the 
 various kinds of Jewish elements which will 
 be gathered, will be Hebrew, and a new blos¬ 
 soming of the Hebrew language will be a 
 great thing for the world, not only for its 
 own sake, and for the better interpretation 
 of the Hebrew scriptures, but hardly less for 
 the recovery of the lost elements of Semitic 
 civilization. We are, as the case now stands, 
 only on the brink of that vast lost world. 
 But the revival of Hebrew culture and lan¬ 
 guage, under the segis of a Hebrew state, 
 will unquestionably lead, not only to its 
 wider and more sympathetic and skilful 
 study, but contributions will unquestionably 
 be made which cannot but be full of impor¬ 
 tant results to scholarship everywhere. Here 
 again Christian and Hebrew interests will 
 coincide, and world interest will be sponta¬ 
 neous and enthusiastic. Moreover, such a 
 revival will have in it elements, which will 
 do more for the social unification of the 
 world than almost any other single interest, 
 except one still to be mentioned. 
 
 A Hebrew state must almost of necessity 
 be governed by its ancient law. That law, 
 
34 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 only vaguely understood, and of only very 
 limited application in world history, will 
 have then a full exposition and a thorough 
 working-out in terms of modern life. There 
 have been many of us, who for many years 
 have seen in the Hebrew laws the elements 
 of the social regeneration of the world. Cer¬ 
 tainly many of the laws relating to the ordi¬ 
 nary life and relations of mankind, as laid 
 down in the ancient Mosaic law, if applied 
 to a modern city block, would regenerate it, 
 root and branch. It would have command¬ 
 ing interest to the entire world, to see a state, 
 albeit a small one, work these problems 
 through, and especially a state which could, 
 and which would, call to its aid the finest 
 body, collectively, of intellectual force and 
 discrimination which the world knows. All 
 this is but repeating what the Christian 
 world has been saying about the culture of 
 the Hebrews, as revealed in their own sacred 
 writings for many centuries. A rationalized 
 Hebrew state, founded on Hebrew funda¬ 
 mental laws, ethical, social, sanitary, dietary, 
 and all the rest, would be a working labora¬ 
 tory of social regeneration which would ex- 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 35 
 
 cite breathless attention. And if, as may 
 reasonably be expected, such a state should 
 exhibit phenomena, in the conservation of 
 human life, in the development of human 
 genius and power, which we may also rea¬ 
 sonably expect from the known history of 
 the Jews, the effect upon civilization in gen¬ 
 eral would be something sublime. 
 
 Here, again, we shall probably be con¬ 
 fronted with the stale suggestion, that all 
 this is mere conjecture and fanciful dream¬ 
 ing. But why should it be? We need only 
 to sum up the achievements of the Jew, un¬ 
 der the untoward conditions of his life, as an 
 exotic in Christian civilization, persecuted 
 for a thousand years, and not beyond the 
 boundaries of anti-Semitic hatred and 
 pursuit even yet! Yet if his wonderful con¬ 
 tributions to literature, to science, to philol¬ 
 ogy, to music, to the arts, to diplomacy, be 
 only casually tabulated, there is created a 
 presumption, that even on the mere law of 
 averages, there is a fund of genius among 
 the Jews in the world, which has not been 
 uncovered, which will enrich the social and 
 spiritual life of the world immeasurably! 
 
86 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 And as stated already, one does not have to 
 be a Jew, to feel all this! One does not have 
 to be a Jew to realize and appreciate its 
 value. One needs only to understand, and 
 to give fair and just recognition to those 
 who have written in these various branches of 
 human endeavor such glorious pages in the 
 world’s story. 
 
 Take only the science of medicine. It 
 takes no violent stretch of the imagination 
 to see this modern Jewish state, the work¬ 
 ing model of the finest and highest physical 
 development—far surpassing that of the 
 Greeks in their prime, because that was 
 based only upon selfish considerations while 
 this will have to rest upon moral interests, 
 which make the least of the brethren a mem¬ 
 ber of the national family. Such a state 
 would be a world teacher, par excellence, 
 and one can imagine no finer or nobler hope, 
 for the most gifted members of the race, 
 than that they should cherish as a part of 
 their life-work a contribution of some sort, 
 personal or otherwise, to the realization of 
 this great ideal. We have seen what superb 
 results have been achieved socially by the 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 37 
 
 great foreign missionary movement of the 
 Christian church, starting as it did, with a 
 mass of impossible narrow theological con¬ 
 ceptions, and ending up as it is with an edu¬ 
 cational and social programme, which makes 
 it one of the amazing accomplishments of 
 humanity, much finer in temper and quality 
 than the work of theological Christianity in 
 the home lands. 
 
 But the Jews in a Palestinian state would 
 not be missionaries to the world, but mission¬ 
 aries to each other; builders of an ancient 
 national structure of ideas, laws, and pre¬ 
 cepts, which, made the basis of the national 
 life, would create new moral types for the 
 world’s instruction and advancement. That 
 it would result in the transformation of the 
 Jewish life throughout the entire world, is 
 almost certain, because the reaction from a 
 state which was distinctly the working model 
 of Jewish life and ideals upon the scattered 
 elements of the nation throughout the world, 
 would be both swift and decisive. This, 
 again, would have an equally swift and de¬ 
 cisive result in the nations wherein the Jews 
 are in considerable numbers, which is to say, 
 
38 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 almost every population-centre in the world. 
 We would thus see the entire scientific, artis¬ 
 tic, and social aims of the Jewish race cen¬ 
 tred for exemplification in the new Jewish 
 state, and the best of all there is in the world, 
 instantly transferred and made available 
 there. Here would be a state which, being 
 at once a social unit, and a racial unit, and a 
 religious unit, would be a field for laboratory 
 work, such as has never before existed! All 
 humanity would be perforce interested in the 
 result, and whatever was thus achieved, 
 would be made available for the enrichment 
 of the world’s life. 
 
 The Jew has shown himself so versatile in 
 collaboration with the particular nation with 
 which his lot has been thrown, that it is an 
 interesting look forward to conjecture what 
 his art will be, what his education will be, 
 what his science will be, when it is trans¬ 
 ferred to a field where he has every part of 
 it, filled with the sense of national coopera¬ 
 tion and national glory. That the contribu¬ 
 tion will be something distinctive, and 
 possibly something greater than the world 
 has yet seen is not unreasonable. The arrested 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 39 
 
 movement of Semitic civilization and cul¬ 
 ture may then proceed possibly to its full de¬ 
 velopment, only it will be the more glorious 
 for its deferred ripening, and will bring to 
 it elements of cosmopolitanism which were 
 not possible hitherto. What would we not 
 give to have undisturbed the glories of 
 Greece! But here we shall see one of the 
 oldest races of history literally born again. 
 The Gentile world cannot be indifferent to 
 such a chance to see a work, which will bring 
 glory to humanity and a possible release 
 from bondages which have hitherto kept us 
 in the eternal fear which even now drenches 
 the world with blood, and fills the hearts of 
 men with terror. The Greece of Pericles 
 restored on the Acropolis does not begin to 
 furnish the inspiration that is aroused by 
 the thought of Jerusalem restored and glo¬ 
 rious again, under the rule of her own sons 
 and resounding once more with the songs of 
 David, and the minstrels of the noblest re¬ 
 ligious poetry that ever filled the heart of 
 man. 
 
 Intimately connected with this vision are 
 certain facts which are peculiarly favorable 
 
40 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 for such a development as we have here de¬ 
 scribed. The purpose to build up a Jewish 
 state, on a model hitherto unknown, finds 
 special impetus, in the consideration that it 
 will have a fair, if not indeed a flying, start 
 toward a “social commonwealth,” quite un¬ 
 like anything yet attempted. Palestine has, 
 as yet, escaped that grasp of corporate and 
 exploiting interest, which makes social de¬ 
 velopment difficult and often impossible. 
 There are no vast corporations, no immense 
 “vested interests” to be placated or bought 
 off; there is the virgin undeveloped territory, 
 with railways yet to build, and connections 
 yet to establish with neighboring states and 
 lands, all of which form an unexampled 
 opportunity for experiments de novo in state 
 building. Concessions to intending build¬ 
 ers could be made on the national plan, and 
 automatically agreeing with the national 
 interest and the public welfare. The in¬ 
 dustrial expansion, therefore, could be 
 without those weary steps toward free¬ 
 dom which all other industrial civilizations 
 have had to undergo. Almost from the be¬ 
 ginning, land and industries, public re- 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 41 
 
 sources, mineral and otherwise, could be na¬ 
 tionally administered, and all this would 
 make a most novel and striking page in 
 statecraft. Once more, as a working model 
 for vast lands as yet undeveloped, in Africa 
 and Asia, the influence of such a state would 
 be very great. Moreover, working thus in 
 contrast to the land-grabbing policies of 
 hitherto unrestrained imperialism, this 
 would be a great service to the nations of the 
 East, as yet unborn. 
 
Ill 
 
 But important and interesting as all this 
 undoubtedly is, there is a phase of this mat¬ 
 ter which is farther-reaching in its world- 
 significance than any yet mentioned. This is 
 the matter of religion. Bishop Lightfoot 
 said that Christianity appeared “at the con¬ 
 fluence of three civilizations; the Roman 
 gave it law, the Greek gave it culture, and 
 the Jew gave it religion.” This is a true 
 statement of the case. And as the Jew’s 
 greatest contribution to humanity has been 
 a religious contribution, so his significance 
 to the world will always be chiefly religious. 
 If there is ever a synthesis of the religions of 
 the world, the Jew will be the maker of it, 
 and through his influence and work it will 
 become established! There is nothing about 
 him that does not smack of his religious his¬ 
 tory and his natural alliance with religious 
 ideas. Giving the world monotheism, as he 
 did, he has been the natural expounder of 
 
 42 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 43 
 
 fundamental religion, and through this, of 
 philosophy, and through philosophy an in¬ 
 evitable figure in literature and the arts. 
 His religious foundation made these things 
 as certain as the tides. 
 
 But one of the tragedies of the dispersion 
 of the Jews has been the loss to many of 
 them of their religious chart and compass. 
 Nobody can have anything against the lib¬ 
 eralizing of any race or nation, and its prop¬ 
 er coordination with the remainder of the 
 world’s life. But the loss of religion to the 
 Jew is an event of much greater importance 
 than the loss of religion to a descendant of 
 ancestors of the natural religions of the 
 North. Religious genius is a Jewish nation¬ 
 al characteristic, which even the loss of its 
 formal power and expression, in many cases, 
 has not been able to destroy. A Jew is a 
 symbol of religion, in this world of ours or 
 he is nothing! Because, being a Jew, he is 
 a religious symbol; failing that, he becomes 
 literally a floating fragment, a derelict men¬ 
 ace on the sea of humanity. It is this which 
 makes the establishment of a Jewish state 
 
44 
 
 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 an event of the greatest importance to all 
 the world beside. 
 
 One of the first results of the establish¬ 
 ment of a Jewish state will be the rehabilita¬ 
 tion of the religion of Israel throughout the 
 world. This is an end, desirable for the sake 
 of the Jews themselves, but hardly less de¬ 
 sirable for the rest of the world. A race so 
 fertile, so capable, so fine in its best devel¬ 
 opment, carries with it vast capacities for 
 the reverse of all these things, when shorn 
 of the source of its power. Samson, denuded 
 of his crown of power, a mighty giant wast¬ 
 ing in captivity, is not more pitiful than a 
 son of Israel, mighty in intellect, superb in 
 cultural skill and beauty, without the moral 
 force and attractiveness, which is his nat¬ 
 ural heritage. Yet the dispersion has 
 wrought this in many cases. Modern com¬ 
 mercialism has laid its heavy hand upon 
 many of its finest and best. Power without 
 moral responsibility, and without conscience 
 for the higher and nobler interests of 
 humanity, is a tragedy for any race, but par¬ 
 ticularly for one, naturally gifted religious¬ 
 ly, as the Jew is. And when to this is added 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 45 
 
 the fact that he cannot look about him, he 
 cannot utter his family names, he cannot eat 
 his food, take his bath, clothe himself, or 
 indeed move a step in the ordinary course of 
 his life, without facing statutes and princi¬ 
 ples which, whatever their present signifi¬ 
 cance may be, have been in the past the steps 
 of light and leading of his ancestors, his mor¬ 
 al and spiritual isolation is pitiable in the 
 extreme. The world has no home for him, 
 but his own home. He cannot turn to the 
 right or to the left without being faced with 
 the duties that should be his, and must either 
 feel the joys of their fulfilment or the' 
 qualms due to their nonfulfilment. 
 
 The Social Commonwealth of Israel will 
 change all this. Not in a moment, to be 
 sure, but steadily and surely. Israel will 
 find itself and that portion of it which has 
 lost the way will hear again the fresh utter¬ 
 ance of the ancient law, “Hear, O Israel, 
 will see before its eyes the blazing beacons 
 that point toward the solidarity and unity of 
 the ancient kindred. This will be a wonderful 
 thing for Israel, but it will be not less won¬ 
 derful for the rest of the world. Under the 
 
46 THE WORLD SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 influence of the religionizing of the Jew him¬ 
 self, there will also come an idealizing of his 
 purposes which will be one of the most serv¬ 
 iceable agencies for world happiness and cul¬ 
 ture imaginable. Under its influence the old 
 antagonisms will disappear, the old preju¬ 
 dices will perish, the Jew will change, and 
 the Gentile will see him once more in great¬ 
 ness and glory, as it views him through the 
 words and deeds of his greatest prophets. 
 The stupidity which, in one and the same 
 breath, reverences the mighty heroes of 
 righteousness of the Hebrew scriptures, and 
 then visits contumely, ostracism, and other 
 cruelties upon his kinsmen, will be manifest 
 to the whole world, and will disappear be¬ 
 cause the sons of Israel have found a locus 
 standi in the world, wherein without let or 
 hindrance they are able to display, in their 
 greatest beauty and radiance, those national 
 traditions and idealisms which have made the 
 politics of the Hebrew prophets an integral 
 part of the Christian religion. What will 
 not this mean for the moral and spiritual life 
 of this world, torn with antagonisms, and 
 hitherto without a sufficient moral cohesion 
 
OF A JEWISH STATE 
 
 47 
 
 or balance to keep from ruthless slaughter, 
 and the organization of nations for purposes 
 of death and destruction! In the State of 
 Palestine, Israel will become a prince once 
 more and his capital a moral centre second 
 to none on earth. Indeed, because of the ra¬ 
 tionalism of the Jew and his mental sanity, 
 his capital may well become the clearing 
 house of religious ideas, and “nations shall 
 come to his light and kings to the brightness 
 of his rising. His officers shall be Peace 
 and his exactors Righteousness. Violence 
 shall no more be heard in his land, desola¬ 
 tion or destruction within his borders. 5 ’ 
 What the prophet, thus with glowing vision 
 in the past, foresaw, that is now within the 
 region of practical political possibility if a 
 united religious impulse of the Jews of the 
 world seeks it. And not they alone will be 
 the beneficiaries of its realization. It shall 
 shed its glory abroad far from its own land 
 and Jerusalem is likely to become the Gold¬ 
 en, indeed, to which the nations of the world 
 may repair for wisdom and guidance in that 
 art of righteousness which Israel through 
 her most gifted sons has taught the world. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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