Anti-semitism May Completely Collapse After War. Says Dr. James Parkes

(By Air Mail)– An optimistic view of the possibilities of settling the Jewish problem after the war is expressed by Dr. James Parkes, the well-known authority on Jewish and Palestine questions, in a statement made public here this week.

Outlining the Jewish needs which will have to be satisfied in a future peace settlement and the contribution expected to be made by the Jews in shaping the post-war world, Dr. Parkes rejects the pessimism of those who consider the Jewish problem insoluble.

There are four primary Jewish needs for today and tomorrow, he declares. The first is the urgent need for a change of atmosphere in the relations between Gentiles and Jews. “I believe,” he says, “that we may, without undue optimism, hope that the very fact that the age-old anti-Semitism of Europe has received such artificial stimulation and imaginary form in Nazi propaganda may lead to a more complete collapse of the anti-Semitic movement after the war than most expect. In any case it is certain that no healthy solution is possible without a real change of atmosphere.”

The second need is that for new forms and organisms for the expression of the spiritual vitality born of the suffering of the past years. In the third place Dr. Parkes stresses the “overpowering material need of the Jewish people for homes in which they may feel secure.” This aspect of the Jewish question, he says, needs repetition in all political and economic discussions of the future. Finally, Dr. Parkes insists on the necessity of continuing the retraining of young Jews for more constructive livelihoods which, he says, was one of the most valuable activities of Jewish bodies before the war.

Speaking of Jewish contributions to a more stable and creative international order, Dr. Parkes mentions the “strong sense of social responsibility which is shown as much in the Jewish contribution to 19th century Europe as in the upbuilding of the National Home,” and the eradicable optimism which Judaism has created. He further declares that the dispersion of the Jews has enabled them to understand the lives and problems of different peoples and to acquire an unusual experience of the working of different financial and economic systems and an invaluable capacity for improvisation and innovation which will be particularly useful in a world in which “many things are bound to be new.”

In conclusion, Dr. Parkes says that “it is a foolish piece of pessimism to consider the Jewish problem insoluble. There will always be among men those who have a dislike of the unlike, but if the post-war world finds an adequate solution of Jewish needs, and is willing to share the Jewish contributions, then it is not beyond the bound of possibility that even men living today may be able to write of anti-Semitism as an inexplicable aberration of their ancestors.”