Volume XXVII No. 9 September, 1972 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOOAim Of MWBH RERKBS Ul OOAT BRITAHI Robert Weltsch advent would benefit; but what about all the others? Could not the Creator have simul­ taneously created all the generations of the past, the present and the future, so that all SfflFTING GENERATIONS would have an equal part in salvation? To that the Creator is made to respond that no womb Reflections on the Eve of the Holy Days could produce multitudes at once and the . On the threshold of a New Year of the Jew­ in the position of their ancestors. This is an earth could not bear all men at the same time; ish calendar the High Holy Days give us inexhaustible theme, upon which the distin­ they had to come successively, each at his hour leisure to reflect on the flow of time and all guished Cambridge historian,ProfessorHerbert of destiny. "•his implies for our human condition. We have Butterfie/d, enlarged in his ingenious Reith To this rather speculative discourse about Jo look back and forth at the happenings of Lecture.' Against the inclinations of the the messianic mission Professor Butterfield, the 'Changing world; but it is also enjoined young to draw hasty conclusions aibout the in a more sober and down-to-earth vein, re­ upon us to answer for our own conduct, as past Butterfield refers to Ranke's famous marks that if some people could have lived individuals and as a community. The begin- saying that "all the generations of the past but for a couple of centuries, the human race ^^^S of the Jewish year is not celebrated by were as real in themselves and as valid before might have achieved more wisdom. If, for noisy carouse (like Sylvester) but by facing Heaven as the one now alive". It means that instance, Bdsmarck had lived to see the long- ^3ys of judgement. It is not an occasion for we have to see each generation in its own term consequences of the seizure of Alsace- Self-praise and frivolity; what is demanded is context, and—Dr. Butterfield continues—"in Lorraine, he would have become a wiser man. *o be honest with ourselves, to repent our a certain sense to judge it on its own terms, This is an example which all of us could ven­ ^i^ngs and to seek the truth. at any rate not to condemn it by a too rapid ture to multiply from our own experience of U would go too far to attempt a review here cross-reference to twentieth-century stan­ the last generation or two. It could also lead ^ the world situation with all its initricacies. dards". This is a maxim formulated with regard us to meditation about potential consequences ''^^n have not excelled in mastering their to long^passed—i.e., pre-twentieth-'century— of acts perpetrated by atatesmen of our own P^'oblems. Yet we may feel some relief that events, but it is certainly also applicable to days. the fears, current a few years ago, about an happenings of a few decades ago. In the con­ As in the first paragraph of his lecture, "Eminent major conflagration and catastrophes text of recent German-Jewish history it should Butterfield also returns to the Jewish pattem ^ve not materialised. True, the world is far be a warning to some young people today in his conclusion, this time in order to under­ trom the real pea-ce that the Hebrew Prophets who are quick in advancing a now widespread line his plea for "the gradual growth of ^nvisaged. Many "local" wars and deadly con­ view, blamdng German Jews of 1933 that they reasonableness". Exposing the illusions of the tacts have plunged whole peoples into disaster, did not "revolt", i.e., stage an armed uprising young, who out of resentment to the contrast and one or two of them engendered world against the Nazis—a view completely disre­ between ideal and reality, are driven to ex­ Problems of vast dimensions, first of all Viet- garding the conditions under which that elder tremes, he points to the ""breathtaking" story ^11, which—quite apart from the human generation lived at that time. Such an opinion of the Jewish war against the Romans ^isery—not only shattered international rela- is often expressed, bona fide, by Israel-born (66-70 C.E.), which "brought history to one ?^*^ns, but had an unforeseen impact on the youngsters who naturally are worlds apart of its tragic moments". The cautioning speech Diental condition of a whole generation, first from the German Jews acting and suffering in put by Flavius Josephus into the mouth of ^ the United States and then almost every- the Uhdrties; it is also nourished by some Agrippa IP was intended to wam the Zealots nere, comparable only to the Spanish civil "new Left" extremists or ideologists who for not to ignore the power realities of the world ^^^ of the 'thirties. It also caused a moral the sake of their own political purposes con­ in which they had to Uve, otherwise they i'Pheaval and created guilt complexes with strue the absurd theory that the victims of would risk disaster. In the end, Agrippa was 3r-reaching consequences for the Western the Nazis were 'basically in the same category not heeded, and disasrter did follow. Yet, most "Orld. as their murderers. Jewish historiographers glorify not the man Twenty-seven years have passed since the The question of how the unfortunate break who warned but those fervent nationalists who ^d of the Second World War and since the between the generations could have been took the plunge—and lost. This led to the des­ ^sappearanoe of Hitler and the collapse of avoided occupied searching minds already two truction of the Temple, the end of all Jewish .•J^, immense—and for a long time seemingly thousand years ago. This as perhaps an expla­ autonomy, to exile and dispersion. ivincible—might he had gained. Nineteen nation of the strange passage in the ancient However, in our own times, a Jewish State ^^rs have passed since the death of Stalin apocalyptic Jewish Book called Fourth Book has again been created, favoured by certain RiH ^'^ api>ears as no less a monster than of Ezra^ to which Dr. Butterfield refers at the whims of history which will not recur.* This ^ler was. But for the present generation the opening of his lecture. The author of that work event has produced a completely new situation J^es of these men are hazy and waning (V, 41 ff.) quarrels with God because according for our generation. The State, too, has to ^waoQs of a remote age of which they have to the divine plan of salvation only those who reckon with the power Structure of our time ^e knowledge, often simplified or distorted, would be living at the time of the Messiah's in order not to endanger its existence. Over •"om history books or from older people's the gap of almost two thousand years the 1 Professor Sir Herbert Butterfield : The OitcontlnuHies Jewish people is again confronted with politi- ^*^. As alwa>^ happens with the advance between the Generations In History. Tfieir Effect on the Transmission of Political Experierree. Cambridge Univer­ time, their own conditions and problems sity Press. 34pp. 40p. 3 Josephus : The Jewish War. New English Translation "Weigh b>- far such memories of the past. 2 Esra IV, originally written in Hebrew, is known only by G. A. Wi'lliamson. The Penguin Classics pp 144 ft thanks lo its translation into many ancient Oriental lan­ 4 See Walter Laqueur: A HMory e( Zionism.' Weldenfsid y^Altiioygjj the older among us may wonder guages and hnto Latin, while the Hebrew amJ Greek and Nicolson. London. 1972. pp. 593. Thesis 5. texts have not been discovered. It is now generally thf *^^ horrors we Uved through forty or assumed that it was written about 100 C.E., after the Continued on page 2, column 1 nty years ago have not maintained their destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. A full German translation with introduction and precise philological and Jjeterring effect, and that, as the thoughtless ideological comments by the great German Biblical scholar j,^ of slogans shows, many have no clear Hermann Gunkel is included in the standard work : Die The Executive Committee of the Apoicryphsn und Pseudeplgraphen des Atten Testaments, ,j^ of the evil actually commitited under the herausg. E. Kautzsch, J.C.B. Mohr Tubingen 1900, Bd. 2 ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH ien ^^ idealistic phraseology, we cannot By an interesting coincidervce. the book is mentioned by Ernst Simon in his Introduction to the first volume of REFUGEES cea ^^ that this is the process going on un- Buber's Correspondence, Martin Bubar. Briefwechsel sus rf^gly while time takes its course. siaben Jahmhnten which is being published these days wishes all memt>ers a by Lambert Schneider Verlag Heidelberg. While Buber, jj.^t IS an old truism that people do not learn Simon points out, In a letter written in 1917, expressed VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR . m history, mostly because each generation agreement with the Messianic creed of Ezra IV, he dis­ has Its own mentality which makes it difficult sociated himseM from these views 37 years later. Ezra IV and thanks thom for their continuous Or has not been admitted into the Jewish Biblical Canofi, but support. ^ven impossible for them to put themselves has t>aen included In the Latin (Ohristlan) Vulgata. Page 2 AJR INFORMATION September, 1972 for centuries. As the High Holy-days are a SHIFTING GENERATIONS time of self-examination and confession we may also ponder over the sin of applying Continued from page 1 double standards of justice (see Deut.