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Problems of Jewish Life by Yoysef Solvey

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Problems of Jewish Life by Yoysef Solvey PROBLEMS OF JEWISH LIFE BY YOYSEF SOLVEY During the half century that the Kadimah has existed, the Jewish people went through the biggest transformation in its history. It was totally rebuilt and put together by the people, its structure and its geographical division; the content of the problems that stood and continue to stand to this day before us, also changed completely. 50 years ago, the problems of the Jewish individual stood in the first row. Yiddishkayt was at the very least external, not critical and did not give most Jews any separate worries. The major problem was the fight for Jewish emancipation and civil rights for the Jewish individual. In Czarist Russia, where more than half of the Jewish people lived, Jews were second rate citizens, almost without rights. In Romania, they were officially thought of as foreigners, etc. The major program was the fight for equal rights. A quite painful matter was the issue of Jewish poverty in Eastern Europe. These people were imprisoned in the Pale of Settlement. The big spaces of Russia proper were forbidden to Jews. The need to earn a living was the impulse that drove Jews to wander and so they created the third problem – the emigration. Emigration lessened the Jewish concentration in Eastern Europe and created new settlements, especially in the English‐speaking countries: North America, Canada, South Africa and Australia, as well as in Latin America. The stream went from what connected the Jewish mass, the Jewish people, so the situation at least on the surface was secure. Most of the people were still traditional‐religiously inclined. There still existed, almost a unity in language. 80% of the people spoke, or could speak with others in Yiddish. And if even in certain countries assimilation grabbed sections of the Jewish community, they were moderately small communities. The majority of Jews were strong in their belief or conviction. True, big thinkers saw the approaching danger in new problems. The worry for the future of Yiddishkayt came from the non religious, Yiddish‐speaking leaders, like for example, Achad HaAm and others. But, the individual Jew did not feel any future danger. This was all half a century ago. Today the situation has absolutely changed and the whole problematic took on an opposite character. The confusion changed and the problem stands with its head down. The reasons for the change are very well‐known and are not analysed here. Today’s problem is not the individual, but all of Israel. The individual has nothing to complain about. Today there is no country where Jews are officially oppressed and where the law contains anti‐Semitic laws. Even the countries that discriminate against Jews do this unofficially and feel insulted when their anti‐Semitism is shown up. There are few doors that are closed for Jews. The fight for official emancipation has almost ended. The economic situation is better than good. Jewish poverty does not play a big part in our problematic. There is almost no country where one can speak of Jewish poverty, like it was in the past in Poland. If the material standard of the industrialised or semi‐industrialised nations were lifted during the last fifty years, it is surely relevant to Jews. Almost in all countries, the average level of Jewish income is higher than that of the local population. What makes Jewish wanderings relevant has also changed the process. Instead of wandering from centre to periphery, Jews now wander from periphery to the centre. And this connects to emigration in general, for example to Israel from the Diaspora, and the emigration from small settlements to the big cities. Once upon a time, a Jew felt better when there were less Jews around him. Today it is the exact opposite, he feels better amongst Jews. There are self explanatory exceptions, but they don’t change the general picture. But, exactly like the individual’s situation had become better, the problem of Jewry became very, very difficult. Worries about the future of the Jewish people suddenly became a problem, with which many Jews occupy themselves and they occupy themselves seriously. First of all, there was a colossal weakening of religious life and of Jewish religious traditions. The Jewish life cycle becomes more emptied of traditional‐religious content. The percentage of Jews that think of religious tradition as irrelevant, without internal tension, grows from day to day. Not looking at the growing number of prayer houses and synagogues, the number of ‘believing’ Jews didn’t grow. The Jew of today is a ‘three day’ Jew. He only comes to synagogue for the Days of Awe. The general situation became even worse when the splitting of the religious groupings increased, and the antagonism between them increased. We already can’t speak about Yiddishkayt as an absolute monolithic belief, as we had thought of it earlier. Also, linguistic unity disappeared. Yiddish is no longer the language of the majority of Jews. It is used today only by a minority and this number of Yiddish‐speakers falls from day to day. The big uniting factor of Jewish life – the mother tongue – is disappearing. The time has come when Jews can no longer speak with one another. Today assimilation – our big enemy –threatens not just the individual, but the community at large. The basis of national existence is in danger because assimilation affects whole communities. The problem of assimilation became officially recognised and was dealt with by international Jewish forums, both by the World Jewish Congress and by the World Zionist Organization. It became an issue not just for individuals – big thinkers, but for the average Jew in almost all countries. But this is still not the whole picture. The simple scheme becomes complicated by the fact that some events were more shallow than deep, and the right picture is totally different. The Anti‐Semitism became weaker. But, did the objective reasons for anti‐Semitism change so cardinally? Did our abnormal structure in exile become normal in the Diaspora? It doesn’t even begin to be true. Exactly the opposite is true. The pyramid that now stands with its head down is even worse than before. As always, the Jews are in the middle of the social pyramid and have no base. Internationally, the middle class now consists in a big measure of professionals. The new society needs more technicians, doctors and professors. Jews went to the free professions. The percentage of Jews amongst the studying youth in the universities in America is three times bigger than that of Catholics and double that of Protestants. Indeed, the percentage of Jewish workers falls from day to day. We have already reached a level when a Jewish worker thinks of his employment as temporary – until he can become independent. The whole Jewish population in the Diaspora will quickly consist of just two social levels: merchants and professionals. This is surely not a healthy happening. One needs to note that before Hitler’s coming to power in Berlin, almost half of all local lawyers and doctors were Jews. At that time anti‐ Semitism was not fashionable because of a series of reasons. But, is this a guarantee against anti‐Jewish events? The example of Russia is a clear answer to this question. Officially, anti‐Semitism there was forbidden, but in fact, anti‐Semitic policies rule in Russia. They oppress and they don’t allow yelling. This is a reminder for those who believed that our emancipation was ensured for generations. On the other hand, today we need to evaluate assimilation differently. The assimilation of Jews is not just a process of mixing with the surrounding population, as was the case in the past. This is just one side of the coin. We are witnessing a general process. Today, the whole world is grabbed by an assimilation‐process. The differences between nations are becoming even smaller and we are becoming equalised by western culture. The difference in dress, building‐style, film, theatre, music, life cycle, is becoming smaller. One can fly thousands of miles on an aeroplane and land in exactly in the same surroundings as those where one took off. Only the language is different. Even racial differences are easily changed through this process. We Jews also take part in this levelling phenomenon and we must understand that. But, this all is just a part of the general picture because it does not include the major new element– the development of the State of Israel. Each attempt to analyse our problems without this factor is absolutely senseless. Opposing, taking into account the existence of the State is not so simple if one wants to make this objective, without any demographic goals, either positive or negative. There is no doubt that the rise of the State strengthened Jewish national feeling, independent of party membership, or relationship to Zionsim. Its influence, however, on our psychology is not yet noticeable. It will still take dozens of years until it will crystallise. It is hard to measure how much the feeling of homelessness has already disappeared. We do not yet know how it influences how we conceive of our environment, but one can already feel the beginning. Worries about the Jewish future are not relevant everywhere and are not always strengthened. There are meaningful levels of the nation that think of the founding of the State as insurance for Jewish existence, which frees them from worry about the future of Judaism. There is also no doubt that that State has already become the spiritual centre of the Jewish people, as one could foresee quite a few years ago.
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