Assailing Jewish Nationalism, Jakob Wasserman Compares It with Chauvinism of Anti-semitic “voelkisch

In a letter to Dr. Woyda, publisher of the "Judische-Liberal Zeitung," in Berlin that appeared recently. Jakob Wassermann, the famous German-Jewish novelist, assails Jewish nationalism, comparing it with the chauvinism of the German anti-Semitic "Voelkische" party. Clarifying his attitude toward Zionism, which has recently been the subject of dispute in the German-Jewish press between Zionists and anti-Zionists, Wassermann says:

"My attitude toward Judaism has never suffered from ambiguity. More than thirty years ago, even before there was such a thing as a Zionist movement, I attempted in my play, "The Jews from Zirendorff," to present in a poetic manner the Messianic idea. When it was still customary for the German writer of Jewish origin to hide behind a mask, I, at the beginning of my career, refused to play this hide-and-seek game and took a realistic path. Thus it was natural that I should arrive at the attitude which I took in my autobiography that appeared in 1921, an attitude which many others have recognized and joined in. But the growing political spirit of our time has also carried its destructive poison into Judaism, and that Messianic-religious idea of which I have spoken above, is attempting to convert itself into a reality.

"I have found, and still find, that Judaism in the Diaspora, having been sanctified by two thousand years of martyrdom, is the last refuge of humanity against the advance of the new terrible barbarity that is called nationalism. A few days ago I read that a Jewish sport club refused to accept members who were not Zionists. Here you have the whole tragedy, the whole paltriness, the whole narrowness. What difference is there between this and the rabid phraseology of our ‘Voelkische’? None. By adding to the existing ninety-nine parties of war and hatred one more such party, we have ceased being different, we have ceased to be humanitarian, and if there is any reason for despair it is this.

"But anti-Zionists too shouldn’t fight at the point of the sword, but show an example by remaining different. I do not mean that this can be accomplished by argumentation, but it can be done through the example of ethical conduct and spiritual elevation. Only this can drag us out of the morass of hatred and misunderstanding that the war has created."

Answering Chayim Bloch, who in his book on Chasidism had criticized some hostile remarks about East-European Jews which Wassermann made a few years ago, the novelist in a letter to Bloch says:

"Your note about the Eastern Jews is in no way in accord with my real attitude. A few years ago I allowed myself to be carried away by impatience and was attacked by some Jewish nationalist propaganda sheets. Who knows better than I how much spirituality, depth and martyr strength there lies in this very part of the nation."