No people, not even the Czechoslovaks themselves, will rejoice with more sincerity nor greet with greater homage and pleasure than the Jews the 80th birthday of Thomas Masaryk, president of Czechoslovakia, and the man who built from the ground up what became the present Czechoslovak Republic. In the hearts of world Jewry, Masaryk has a place comparable with such men as Lord Balfour and General Smuts. March 7 marks four score years since Masaryk first saw the light of day in a small village of Moravia, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Jews of the United States do well to recall the services of this noble statesman to world Jewry.
When yet a mere stripling, Masaryk learned a lesson with regard to the Jews that later shaped his entire attitude toward them. As a child he believed the common superstition that Jews used Christian blood in their religious ritual and he carefully crossed to the other side of the street whenever he passed a Jewish house. This atavistic belief was dissipated when he went to school and came in contact with a Jewish student. During a play session this lad disappeared and young Masaryk went to look for him. He found him behind a barn saying his noon day prayers. The incident made a lasting impression on the future father of his country. From then on he tried and succeeded in being eminently fair to the Jewish people.
In 1882 he became a professor of philosophy at the University of Prague. Here his liberalism and nobility attracted to him students from all parts of Europe. It was here, too, that he first came into public notice not merely as a friend of the Jews but as a staunch defender of their rights and as a protestant against accusing them of the hideous blood-ritual libel. In a small Bohemian town a girl had been murdered and police accused a poor Jewish vagabond, Leopold Hilsner, of having committed the crime. The blood-ritual libel was immediately raised and with the aid of the superstitious populace the hue and cry spread. With little or no semblance of fair play Hilsner was condemned to death.
Masaryk in the meantime had been watching the case closely. Immediately after the verdict, he published an article attacking the courts for a palpable miscarriage of justice, demonstrating beyond doubt the libellous nature of the blood ritual charge. Taking up the conduct of the case point by point, he showed with great care how prejudiced the testimony had been and how popular superstition had been utilized as evidence. Masaryk’s attacks attracted attention all over Europe and soon the Imperial government, wearying of criticism, called for a new trial and Hilsner was sentenced to prison.
But Masaryk was not through, or at least the powers that were not through with him. He was called a traitor to Christianity and the anti-Semitic press screamed that he had been subsidized by a world organization of Jews. In his own university a demonstration was organized against him. The most petty means were utilized to make life miserable for him. High church officials sought his dismissal from the university and when he ran for parliament re was denounced as a paid agent of the Jews. In his own district posters warned Christian parents against voting for a Jew-lover.
The interest taken by Masaryk in Hilsner did not end with the retrial. Only when Hilsner died, it was learned that in the ten years after he was pardoned Masaryk continually aided him financially. He had found it difficult to earn a living after having served 18 years in prison and Masaryk tried to rehabilitate the wretched fellow, even paying for a health cure at Carlsbad.
When the successful conclusion of the World War presaged the creation of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk led the fight at the Versailles conference for the recognition of the rights of the smaller nations. From this it was a short step to fighting for the rights of small nationalities, such as the Jews, who were without territories.
Ever since the Balfour Declaration was issued Masaryk has been one of the notable supporters of Zionism. He was among the first of European staesmen to recognize the significance of Zionism. Shortly before his 75th birthday he received Dr. Chaim Weizmann and assured him of his continues and active support of the Zionist work and the reconstruction of Palestine. Later, when he visited Palestine he declared that the work there was full of promise. So friendly was he to Zionism that his visit there later became a political issue in his native land where the Catholics claimed that he visited only the Jewish holy places and neglected those sacred to Catholics. It was at this time that his opponents dug up the old canard that Masaryk was an illegitimate son of a Bohemian Jew. As an indication of their respect and admiration for Masaryk and in appreciation of his support of Zionism, the Jews of Czechoslovakia are planning to plant a forest in his honor in Palestine to be named after the venerable leader.
It is largely due to the influence of President Masaryk that Czechoslovakia is one of the two or three countries of Eastern Europe where anti-Semitism does not flourish. While he is not known as a Philo-Semite he is merely a just, right-thinking, and liberty-loving man who cannot endure oppression or persecution of any sort. To such a man anti-Semitism is naturally anathema. His attitude of mere justice, devoid of sentimental expressions of friendship for the Jews has stood them in better stead than the more demonstrative behavior of other political leaders, who frequently content themselves with hyperbole. It is no accident that Czechoslovakia has no Jewish problem; nor was it unlike him to announce recently that all Jewish students barred from the universities of other East European countries by the epidemic of numerus clausus laws, would be welcomed in the Czechoslovakian universities where he tolerates no distinctions of race or creed.
It is no wonder then that the Jews of the world are in the van of those who greet with the greatest satisfaction the eightieth birthday of this great statesman, diplomat, liberal and lover of justice.
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.
