Zionism is Either European or It Dies, Says German Professor

“Zionism is either a European movement or it is dead,” in the opinion of Professor Emanuel Radl, whose review of a recent book by Hans Kohn on Martin Buber’s philosophy of Judaism is quoted in a recent issue of the Prague Jewish “Selbstwehr.” Among other things Professor Radl says:

“Zionism needs the critical philosophy and the fighting spirit of the West. It must do away with mythology and with Talmudic quibbling, must free itself from Spinoza and throw overboard the race ideas of the anti-Semites. The philosophy of Buber points backwards; in its overthrow lies the future of Judaism.

“The East for Zionists is virtually identical with the Arab question, but it is by far not everything. It is a question of the spirit in which they wish to solve this difficult question. East and West are two different cultural worlds. The East is primitive, mystic, superstitious, passive, passionately uncritical. The East means astrology, spiritualism, Gandhi, the Fakirs and Nirvana. The West is full of the spirit of enterprise, critical, individualistic, relying on free will. The West is Christianity, knighthood, Plato and Aristotle, Descartes, Democracy, Science, Compromise. The Zionists say that they would become mediators between East and West. But from Kohn’s work I can’t find on the basis of which idea they measure East and West. When we read Buber’s mysticism we feel always the atmosphere of the Orient. I fear that the philosophy of Buber is more oriental than is healthy and that it puts Zionism in danger of losing its connection with European civilization.”

Commenting on Prof. Radl’s ideas, the “Selbstwehr” says that it is wrong to think that Judaism before Christ and Judaism after Christ are two entirely separate things. It also believes that the task of Judaism today is to remain true to the past, while adjusting itself to the progressive spirit of the present and the future.