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LOUIS BRANDEIS, Arthurf BALFOUR and a DECLARATION THAT MADE HISTORY

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LOUIS BRANDEIS, Arthurf BALFOUR and a DECLARATION THAT MADE HISTORY An enduring mystery in the story of giant combines of capital and indus­ LOUIS America and the Holy Land is why try. In his private life he was the typi­ Louis Dembitz Brandeis became a Zi­ cal assimilated Jew, totally unlettered BRANDEIS, onist. It was a strangely impulsive step in the Talmud or any formal religious for him, well into middle age, on the instruction. He never attended syna­ ARTHUrf eve of World War I. Given the times gogue; his relatives had married Gen­ and his reputation, Zionism was not tiles without inhibition. As he later BALFOUR AND the sort of cause that would come nat­ told British Foreign Secretary Lord urally to him. Doubts about his mo­ Balfour during one of their long and tives were raised from the start and mellow conversations, his entire life A DECLARATION have lingered on, half a century after "had been free from Jewish contacts his death. But whatever his motiva­ or traditions." Brandeis 's speeches THAT MADE tion, Brandeis 's act was to transform were full of literary allusions, but they the Jewish national cause in the rarely came from the Bible and those HISTORY American mind. that did were as likely to be from the The story of how a New Testament as from the Old. His Brandeis was born in Louisville, brother-in-law was Felix Adler, chance encounter Kentucky, in 1856. Both mother and founder of the Society for Ethical Cul­ on Cape Cod led to father, natives of Prague, came from ture, but even that offshoot of emanci­ dignified and emancipated families; pated Judaism held no interest for one of the most they transplanted the cultivated air of him. their upbringing, and their new home It is in the influence of another rela­ consequential in America remained a place where tive that may be found the first clue to documents of the learning was respected. As a teen­ Brandeis 's belated interest in the Jew­ ager, Brandeis went to Europe for two ish destiny. His maternal uncle Lewis 20th century years of rigorous study at Dresden's Dembitz, an eminent legal scholar and Annen Realschule, then made his way an abolitionist in the Kentucky bor­ at the age of 18 to Harvard Law School derland, conveyed the sense of the without even earning an undergrad­ world to his nephew. The young Bran­ uate degree. deis called him "a living university"; The intellectual intensity of Cam­ he took up the legal profession under bridge was captivating. Instead of his uncle's influence and formally returning to Kentucky, Brandeis changed his middle name from David founded a Boston law firm with a to Dembitz. That this awesome uncle classmate of the most proper New happened to be a devout Jewish na­ England lineage. This was in 1879. tionalist, long before the cause had Their practice flourished. By the age gained any prominence, could hardly of 34 Brandeis had achieved financial have been overlooked. independence and was free to devote Whatever talk may have passed be­ the bulk of his energies to causes that tween mentor and protégé on the pros­ genuinely stirred his interest. pect of Jewish restoration, the subject Brandeis was the prototype of the never affected Brandeis 's early career. public interest lawyer, known in his As late as 1905, he was a prophet of day as the "people's advocate," cham­ the melting-pot vision for America, pion of the minimum wage and the dismissing any role for the "hyphen­ rights of the workingman against the ated American"—the Protestant- American, the Catholic-American, Peter Grose is Senior Fellow and Di­ the Jewish-American. Then, in 1907, rector of Middle Eastern Studies at the Dembitz died. Within three years, Council on Foreign Relations. He was still feeling his loss, Brandeis found a New York Times foreign correspon­ himself enmeshed in the affairs of a dent and editorial writer for many type of Jew quite new to him, the years, and spent a year on the Policy working-class immigrants from East­ Planning Staff of the State Depart­ ern Europe, so different in so many ment. His article "Truman and Is­ ways from the upper-class German- rael" appeared in MOMENT in June Jewish society of Boston and Uptown 1983. Copyright ©1983 by Peter New York. A garment workers' strike Grose. From Israel In the Mind of in 1910 brought Brandeis to New York America, to be published this month as an arbitrator. The experience seems by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. to have had a profound effect. "I am Moroni/27 inclined to think there is more to hope the first time, was a sign of the enthu­ for in the Russian Jews than from the siasm that could lead a man into a Bavarian and other Germans," he cause; significantly, it was not a point wrote his father. of ideology or traditional European Zi­ Brandeis's task was to mediate be­ onist principle that caught his interest, tween nouveau riche garment manu­ but a practical, pragmatic project al­ facturers, who were Jewish, and their ready underway. Ever the foe of "big­ workers, also Jewish. "What struck ness" in social and economic affairs, me most was that each side had a great touched already by a belief in the Jew­ capacity for placing themselves in the ish capacity for self-government, other fellow's shoes," he recalled Brandeis was drawn by the prospect long afterward. "Each side was will­ of a small, dynamic, progressive ing to admit the reality of the other Jewish community in the land of fellow's predicament." It occurred to Palestine. Brandeis that in the Jewish character might lie some special genius for The sequence of what happened next democratic self-government. is important for an understanding of In December 1910, Brandeis was the controversy that later developed interviewed by a Jewish newspaper over Brandeis's "conversion." A editor named Jacob De Haas. A dec­ foray into national politics reached a ade before, De Haas had been a close dead end in the spring of 1912 when aide of Herzl, and the founder of po­ Brandeis's favorite, the Progressive litical Zionism had sent him to Amer­ Robert La Follette, failed in his drive ica to mobilize the Jews to the cause. for the Republican presidential nomi­ De Haas made little headway at first nation. During the summer Brandeis and drifted into pursuits more lucra­ met the Democratic candidate, Wood- tive than grass-roots political action, row Wilson, and decided to throw but he never overlooked an opportu­ himself into Wilson's campaign nity to carry out Herzl's mission. instead. As Brandeis recited his melting-pot On Cape Cod, where Brandeis philosophy, De Haas asked about Zi­ spent almost every August of his adult onism. "I have a great deal of sympa­ life, who should arrive to talk about thy for the movement and am deeply Democratic Party fund raising but the interested in the outcome," Brandeis eager journalist De Haas. Their osten­ replied casually. "These so-called sible business completed, Brandeis dreamers are entitled to the respect was driving his visitor to the train sta­ and appreciation of the entire Jewish tion when De Haas casually referred people." De Haas grabbed at his to the late Lewis Dembitz. "He was a chance and put the headline in the noble Jew," De Haas remembers say­ Boston Jewish Advocate: BRANDEIS ing, and the remark caught Brandeis SYMPATHIZES WITH ZIONISM. Brandeis's up short—what did he mean by that? remarks reflected his warm feelings And what was the man Herzl like, toward the cause of his late uncle and whom De Haas had served in his his own attitudes toward the Eastern younger days? Brandeis turned the car European Jewish communities where around, urged De Haas back home for Zionism was making such headway. lunch and more talk. From this con­ But what he actually said in that inter­ versation, August 13, 1912, is tradi­ view hardly justifies the headline's de­ tionally dated Brandeis's finitive tone. For months to come, "conversion" to Zionism. Brandeis had little contact with Nothing could be done immediately Zionism. Top: Lewis Dembiti (courtesy American Jewish Historical Society; Watt ham. Mass., in the heat of a presidential campaign. Early in 1912, he found himself in a Bottom: Jacob De Haas (Zionist Archives and Library} Brandeis figured high on the list of casual dinner-table conversation potential Cabinet members after Wil­ about an agricultural experiment sta­ son's election, first for the post of At­ tion in Palestine. "The talk was the torney General, then Secretary of most thrillingly interesting I have ever Commerce; Wilson was eager to have heard," Brandeis wrote to his brother, this brilliant mind at his side. But he "showing the possibilities of scientific took the political precaution of agriculture and utilization of arid or sounding out the Jewish community, supposedly exhausted land. " Here, for as he knew it, for its reaction to the 267 Moment possible appointment. From Jacob long letter giving the story as he had set out to obtain proper Jewish cre­ Schiff and the magnates of the Ameri­ heard it from one of his sympathetic dentials after his rejection for the Wil­ can Jewish Committee came back the contacts in the American Jewish son Cabinet, he would hardly have word that Brandeis, whatever else he Committee. espoused a cause which had virtually might be in American life, was not a Brandeis, Taft declared, no standing, was even considered re­ "representative Jew. " This was a code pugnant, among the influential Jews phrase.
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