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Problems of Humanity - Chapter IV - The Problem of the Racial Minorities
The problem of the Jews goes deeply into the entire question of right human relations; it can only be solved on that inclusive basis. It concerns the interplay between people of different races but recognizing brotherhood in the human family; it evokes the whole problem of selfishness and unselfishness, of consideration and of justice, and these are factors which must condition all parties. The Jew needs to recognize his share in bringing about the dislike which hounds him everywhere; the Gentile must shoulder his responsibility for endless persecutions and pay the price of restitution. The Jew has evoked and still evokes dislike, and for this there is absolutely no need. To sum up, the Jew has set up an ancient pattern of living within other nations; as a citizen with all the rights of citizenship, he has built up a wall of taboos, of habits and of religious observances which separate him off from his environment and make him non-assimilable. These must go, and he must become a citizen not only in name but in fact. There is no other problem like it in the world today - an entire people of distinctive race, religion, goals, characteristics, culture and a uniquely ancient and most reactionary civilization, scattered as a minority in every nation, positing an international problem, possessed of great wealth and influence, claiming citizenship in every nation but retaining deliberately their racial identity, creating dissension among the nations, attempting in no way to meet harmoniously their complex problem on any large scale with due psychological understanding or consideration of the Gentile [104] environment to which they ceaselessly make appeal, proffering only material solutions and constant, almost abusive, demands for the Gentile to shoulder the entire blame and end the difficulty. Alongside of this, one must place the long and sorry story of the persecution of the Jews by the Gentiles - widespread in the Middle Ages (if one goes no further back), sporadic in more modern times, but culminating in the violent treatment of the Jews during the world war. It was, however, a treatment not uniquely theirs but meted out also to Poles, Greeks and the helpless of many nations. This is a point which the Jews today appear to forget. They have not been alone in their persecution. The Jews constituted only twenty per cent of the dispersed persons in Europe after the war. This same sorry story of Gentile cruelty includes also the growing anti-Semitism which can be seen even in countries which have been relatively free from it; there is a constant discrimination against the Jew in business circles; restricted areas are increasing everywhere; the plight of Jewish school children in the U.S.A., for instance, who are discriminated against, hooted at and abused, is shocking to contemplate. The situation also exists wherein no country anywhere wants to open its doors and offer the unwanted Jews asylum. No nation wants to admit them in their hundreds. Right thinking people in every nation are seeking and will continue to seek a solution, and one will be found. This problem child within the family of nations is a child of the one Father and spiritually identified with all men everywhere. People know that there is "neither Jew nor Gentile", as St. Paul expressed it (facing two thousand years ago the same sad problem), and men and women in both groups have constantly and increasingly proved the truth of this statement. [105] Such is the problem of the Jewish minority, given with a frankness which will evoke much criticism, but given in this way in the hope that because it is prompted by love, the Jews will shoulder their own responsibilities, will cease crying aloud to the Gentiles to solve the problem alone, and will begin to cooperate with a full sense of spiritual understanding and so aid the thousands of Gentiles who earnestly want to help. There has never been a time when the Gentile world has been more keen to do what is right by the Jew or more anxious to solve his problem and make restitution for all he has suffered. Changed inner attitudes are needed on both sides, but very largely on the side of the Jews; there is evidence that these new attitudes are germinating, even if the finding of the right solution may take much time. There are Jews who today are saying what is said here.
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