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11 | A Basis for Jewish Consciousness René Hirschler rené hirschler, “Un fondement de la conscience Juive,” Revue Litteraire Juive 3 nos. 1–2 (1929): 6–14. though rené hirschler (1905–45) rose rapidly to become a figure of prominence in French Jewish religious and communal life, his murder in the holocaust at a young age probably prevented him from becoming a better known intellectual figure. most of what has been written about hirschler concerns his resistance and communal aid activities during the war. hirschler was born in marseille and graduated from the rabbinical school of Paris in 1928, and from there he became rabbi of mulhouse, in Alsace. At the age of thirty-four, just before the germans occupied France, hirschler was appointed chief rabbi of strasbourg and the Bas-rhin department. though he wrote few essays, hirschler was a prolific public orator and letter writer, and he published collections of his speeches and letters. when hirschler wrote the essay below, he was only twenty-four years old and a recently ordained rabbi. the Revue Litteraire Juive, edited by Pierre Paraf (1893–1989), served as a venue for intellectual debate about Zionism, Jewish nationalism , religion, acculturation, and—most explicitly—the creation of a Jewish renaissance. hirschler’s (limited) place in these debates appears to be as a figure whose nationalism was influenced by contemporary French Zionists such as Paraf and edmond Fleg (1874–1963), whose national concerns focused primarily on fostering Jewish unity and Jewish cultural and intellectual renaissance. hirschler chose not to center his own nationalism geographically or ideologically, and he called for a reinvigorated Jewish consciousness to unify all of the people of israel, both religious and secular. the essay below is a meditation on the unifying nature of the collective Jewish consciousness (in an almost Jungian sense), and though he couches his argument in religious terms, it is clear that the feeling of Jewish consciousness is rooted in the very minimal belief in the eternality of israel. if the feeling of Jewish consciousness—rather than religion, ideology, or even nationalism —formed the basis for a Jewish renaissance, people who had otherwise turned away from Judaism could be pulled back into the people of israel. in the essay, it is not clear whether hirschler is calling for an organizational “Union” for world Jewry or rather is speaking generally of a united Jewish conscious- “A Basis for Jewish Consciousness” | 183 ness, but in either case his unified israel transcended politics, religion, and national borders. Furthermore, hirschler did his utmost to put his ideals into practice in his own life. As chief rabbi of strasbourg before the german occupation, he assisted the American Joint distribution Committee in unifying all Jewish aid organizations in France (those for natives and those for refugees) in a single new organization, the Commission Centrale des organisations Juives d’Assistance, and he became its secretary. throughout the war, until his death, hirschler worked on behalf of foreign-born Jewish prisoners and, in 1942, became chaplain general for foreign Jews in the Free Zone internment camps. hirschler was arrested in december 1943 with his wife, simone, and most likely died in 1945 in the Austrian camp ebensee. Along with the rest of humanity, the Judaism of today has its concerns. It would be futile to deny it. Here is not the place to study the reasons for this rupture in the equilibrium—reasons that more often than not lie outside of us—it will suffice to note and observe that a new Jewish problem has come into existence, for the Jews themselves. The questions that divided Judaism until now were above all of a religious nature ,yetthesocialquestiontodayincreasinglymixesin,andtheproblemgrowsas political elements far from simplify it. Each formulation has its partisans—fierce ones—who treat as adversaries those who in good conscience cannot accept it as a dogma. We tear each other apart and we sometimes forget in the polemics that which should dominate the debate: the supreme interest of Judaism. Without doubt, these struggles are a demonstration of the intense vitality of our community and this may be a consolation for us. As for the men who live by them, they try to reason with their Judaism, and it would be neither just nor generous to doubt their good intentions. There is thus here a latent force consuming itself and spreading without great benefit to the common good. Indeed, each day we encounter a considerable number of Jews who are justly disgusted by this spectacle; and this is...

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