The idea of emancipation was and still is sthe pivot of all German Jewish endeavor, Dr. Freidrich Brodnitz. head of the Federation of Jewish Youth Organizations in Germany and member of the presidium of the All-German Jewish Repressen tative Boday, declared in an article in the C. V. Zeitung. central organ of the Centeral Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith. ”Now, in the newly developed situation, the idea of group emancipaton has come up. We wo stand for group emancipaton, as sociate it with wthat previous generation knew as the ‘Klal’ (the community idea).
NO EVERLASTING SOLUTION
”There is no everlastin soulution of the Jewish question, that holds good always, but there elernal aims, to which all roads lead. The road of German Jewry has led into a changed contryside. The suronting would-has broken completely wth the nineteenth century. Istead of thinking in t4erms of individuals, it thinks in groups. We must reckon with the fact that the no-Jewish world regards us as a group, which is united not only by common acceptance of a place in it only as a group. The individual German Jew will not be permitted to solve his problem of adjustment in the German nation as an individual.
”The formation of a group does not necessarily denote the end of liberty. Free people can suurender a part of their personal liberty of movement, because they find it return to them inthe superior liberty of the group. We surrender nothing of the old principles of the Central Union if we seek to adjust ourselves into the German nation along the new nethod as a group.
LIBRTY FOR GROUP
”The German Jaws wish to at tain liberty and equlity for themselves as germans in the occupational, social and politcal fields. The cna now work towards this aim, however, only if the achive for their group, as a united body, a certain degree of liberty of action and of life. Only a united closed body of German Jewry under united leadeship can achieve an emancipation which holds out some effective prospect. In practice, it means that the Jewish community can no longer allow the individual Jewish community must have the right to put its own house in order. Only though the emanipation of the group will the individual be able to obtain membership in the community which links all the various groups into the naton. That is the very opposite of the ghetto idea.
”This is a decisive nour for German Jewry if it wishes to comtinue to go along the road of emancipaton. We cannot and we do not inted to surrender the valus which German culture and nature have given us. We cannot and we shall not abandom our claim to live and work for the German nation. But we recognize the claim of the German nation to decide, in conjunction with us, the group of German Jews, the limits and the extent of our scope of activity, the form adn the contents of our cooperation. We do not wish form of life we shall be more sure of success in our edeavors to obtain recognitin, more just in our chaims to the surrounding world, and richer, not poorer, as Jews, as Germans and as human beings,’ Dr. Brodnitz coneiuded.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
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.
