-
CHAPTER II THE MODERN POLITICAL ORDER
- Jewish Publication Society
- Chapter
- Additional Information
A. THE FACTORS OF DISINTEGRATION CHAPTER II THE MODERN POLITICAL ORDER The place of the Jew in the modern political order undefined-The principles of the modem political order-The conftict between these principles and some of the traditional Jewish conceptions-The conftict between the principles of the modem state and traditional Jewish practice. THE change which has taken place in the status of the Jew within the last century and a half, from that of alien to that of citizen , has given rise to a host of problems for the solution of which the past offers no precedent. The occasional efforts which Jews made at various times to attain the status of equality with their nonJewish neighbors, belong to a political set-up which was radically different from the one which has obtained in the world since the American Revolution. The rights of Roman citizenship, for example , which the Jews enjoyed in Alexandria, did not imply their incorporation into the body-politic of the non-Jews, and was perfectly compatible with their considering Alexandria "a foreign city." The theory upon which political entities in ancient and in preemancipation days were organized, was essentially that of corporate rights. Not the individual human being as such was the ultimate political unit, but the "corporation," or legally recognized unit, like the guild, township or feudal order to which he belonged. It is for that reason that citizenship in a modern nation carries with it political implications which could not possibly have been foreseen, much less provided for, by those who molded Jewish life in the past. Hence the uncertainties and timidities which beset the task of defining the relation of the Jews to the other elements of the popUlation. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Jews as a group were reckoned with as a nation, and each local Jewry as a fragment of that nation. Neither tolerance nor persecution had any effect on the conception of their place in the political framework of human society. 19 20 JUDAISM AS A CIVILIZATION The very fact of their being Jews meant that they constituted a culturally autonomous group. It was generally taken for granted that the only way they could live as Jews was by being permitted to foster entirely all such institutions as are usually associated with national life. Whatever government was in power did not deal with the Jews individually, but through those who represented them as a group. Now, however, any such intimate connection between Judaism and complete cultural autonomy is precluded by the prevalent forms of civic life. Every modern nation expects all its citizens to identify themselves completely with it, to accept its cultural values and to further its social aims and ideals.' Is it possible to square this expectation with at least some measure of communal autonomy which the Jews must possess if they are to retain their Jewish individuality ? Assuming that it is possible, what constitutes the right measure of autonomy? These questions have never been thought out in detail. Among the first to plead the cause of Jewish emancipation was Christian Wilhelm Dohm,2 the Prussian councillor of state and contemporary of Mendelssohn. His arguments indicate that he advocated the granting of the rights of citizenship to the Jews from a purely humanitarian point of view. He went so far as to state that the Jews were entitled to group rights and to the exercise of communal authority. Those who called tht> modern state into being found themselves constrained by the logic of their position to grant the Jew freedom from all civic and political disabilities. They proceeded from the assumption that the state must be established upon the principle of human equality, and that ancestry and religion should not constitute either a privilege or a handicap. By the same token that Protestants were eligible for emancipation in France and Catholics in England, Jews were eligible in both countries. When the National Assembly of France in 1789 included among the Rights of Man the freedom of worship, Comte de Mirabeau and Abbe Gregoire were conspicuous among those who urged that similar freedom be extended to the Jews.' Yet neither the statesmen who fought most vigorously for the emancipation, nor the Jews who hailed it as the promised millennium, were fully aware of all that was involved in this change of status.· When, as in Holland, the [3.234.177.119] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 03:07 GMT) THE MODERN POLITICAL ORDER 21 issues centering about the...