In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

CHAPTER XVIII KATIO:\'.\LIS:\l AS A CULTURAL COXCEPT The Jews compelled to contribute to tbe revaluation of nationalism-!';ationalism as a cultural concept based on the will-to-civilizc-Cultural groupin1(s ineradicable and inviolable-The separation of rhurrh from ,tate essentially a concession to cultural hyphenism-The implications of cultural nationalism tor the status of tbe Jews. WE HAVE seen how the pre?ent enigmatic status of the Jews as a group would naturally impel them to txplore the creative potentialities of nationhood which is the only status they can henceforth occupy as a collective entity. Being more exposed than any other group to the effects of the widespread intensification of national consciousness in the world, they have a ready criterion for judging when it is a blessing and when a curse. If the national sen"timent is such as to furnish the majority population with reasons for discriminating against any minority element, whether racial, religious or cultural, then it is undoubtedly a menace not only to the particular groups that arc victimized but to civilization in general. Injustice and violence cannot flourish anywhere in the world today without poisoning the springs of human life everywhere. Any conception of nationalism which demands that Jews break with their past, and commit spiritual suicide by repudiating a three-thousand-yearold tradition and ancestry, undoubtedly harbors dangers for people other than Jews. On the other hand, if the national idea is translated into institutions which permit the Jews to maintain at least the most valuable elements of their group life, it is evidently of the type that makes for group cooperation and for the peaceful solution of the problems that arise from the conflict of group interests. Nationhood will never be purged of its glorified selfishness and its cruel propensities, unless the hitherto accepted doctrine expressed in the Spenglerian maxim "A people is only really such in relation to other peoples," be extirpated from the consciousness of mankind. Nationhood must henceforth be based on the principle that a people 242 NATIONALISM AS A CULTURAL CONCEPT 243 is mainly such in relation to its individual members. Its field of operation must be regarded as fundamentally the relationships among the individual members to one another and to the people as a whole. Only secondarily and under stress of attack should nationhood operate vis-a-vis other peoples. The inwardness and substance of national life shouW least of all be sought in the extrovert political forms and measures. Nationhood at its best is to be found in the cultural content which arises from the round of normal activities. Such social framework as is integral to Judaism as a civilization should be entirely introvert in its operation. The distribution of the Jews in various countries, and their integration into the political framework of the other nations, precludes their developing political machinery vis-a.-vis the other nations. Jews in the diaspora most emphatically renounce any kind of fighting allegiance to a central authority, whether it be in Palestine or elsewhere. The only bond of unity is to be that derived from the exercise of their civilization. International conferences called together ad hoc to solve specific problems or to meet specific emergencies will represent the maximum of political framework that Jews will call into being to meet their problems vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Even Palestine, where a political framework similar to that developed by other nations would have to be instituted, must be counted on as ultimately to be included in and subordinated to a World State. The main idea which Jews should stress with regard to nationhood is that it is a form of associated life in which the principal element of cohesion is culture or civilization. That is the element through which what would otherwise be a mere aggregate is molded into an organism. The successive generations are united to each other through the social heritage which the earlier generations accumulate and the later take over. Understood thus, nationhood begins to function in the life of the child from the moment of birth as the process whereby he is supplied with the basic layer of personality . Personality in the individual human being-the whole of that differentia by which the human is distinguished from the nonhuman being--can be mediated only through a social heritage. As an infant, the human being is only potentially human; the human differentia begins to emerge as he learns to speak. The first words that...

Share