Nietzsche to Buddha, from Samson to Isaiah.”
Judge Irving Lehman of the Court of Appeals, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, also addressed the meeting. He announced that the second graduation exercises at the Hebrew University, would be held on Thursday, December 22nd. He stated that Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, High Commissioner of Palestine, would make the chief address at the exercises, and that Dr. Nahum Sokolow, President of the World Zionist Organization, now on a visit to Palestine, would also deliver an address. Invitations for the graduation which will include the granting of M. A. degrees, to twelve students have been issued to visitors in Palestine for the winter season, including diplomatic representatives resident in Palestine and government departmental heads.
Dr. Rosenbach, bibliophile and book-collector of New York and Philadelphia, gave a dinner preceding the reception to Dr. Feuchtwanger, at his town house.
Dr. Feuchtwanger said in part:
“Plainly spoken, I am not in every respect a friend of Zionism and of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. You know that there are four main ideologies of nationalism, namely: the political regional theory, the theory of race, the ideology of the common sharing of historical experiences, and the theory of common language. I am convinced that all these four ideologies have only restricted application to Judaism, or none at all. I am convinced that Judaism is not a race, is not a common soil, is not a common way of life, is not a common language. I know, of course, that just that is the aim of Zionism, to give a common soil and a common language to the Jews. But it is just this last question which makes me, with all my sympathy, a little skeptical about the program of Zionism.
“It is curious and a little tragic that a nation so eminently literary as the Jews, lacks just this common bond. I understand, therefore, thoroughly the desires of the Zionists to fill this lack. I sincerely hope that they succeed, but I can’t imagine that they will.
“I follow, I repeat, with the greatest interest and with the warmest sympathy, the strivings of the Zionists today to make a living language of Hebrew. I know that already today many thousands speak Hebrew in daily life from childhood on. I have heard it spoken myself, and I like to hear it. I am touched when I read my books in Hebrew, but, frankly, I don’t believe that a language which for so long a time has been cut off from a living development can be artificially revitalized.
“But with this doubt of the endeavors of Zionism to create a new language, all my objections against Zionism are exhausted. I have stated: that Judaism is not race, not a common soil, not a common way of life, not a common language. You, ladies and gentlemen, probably will ask me, what then is Judaism?
“I think Judaism is a common mentality. It is a universal agreement, a consensus omnium about the most important questions.
“I am not a Utopian. I know even the most sublimated nationalism needs a concrete basis, and the natural center of all Jewish nationalism, be it what it may, is Jerusalem. Yes, why should I not confess it? I am bold enough to dream further than the most ardent Zionist, to dream, that Jerusalem would become the center not only of Judaism, but of the whole world. Yes, when I am quite bold, than I even dream that Jerusalem might become for the world what the founders of the League of Nations had dreamed Geneva would become for all mankind.
“The world rule of which I think, is very different from that of many Zionist. It is a spiritual rule, and only of the spirit. I conceive of Zionism as at
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
