German Jewry Inwardly Strengthened by Trials Liberal Organ Declares

The Jewish community in Germany has been much strengthened inwardly by the really difficult and historically fateful events of these days, the Juedische-liberal Zeitung, organ of the Federation of Liberal Jews in Germany, writes in the editorial in its current issue, urging the abandonment of the general pessimism about the Jewish situation in Germany.

“We all feel now,” it says, “that each of us depends upon the other. With the result that the Jewish community and the Jewish organizations are finding that people who had hitherto stood aloof are offering their services, proud of the fact that they have never exploited their Judaism. There are also many who were baptized, or are the offsprings of mixed marriages, who, whether the fault was their own, or that of their parents, stood altogether outside, and now by no wish of their own, very often against their own wish, are being counted as part of us. Now, when they can find no admission to any other community, they feel themselves compelled to stand together with our Jewish community, and they are becoming active participants in our work. These are all gains which we could not have foreseen.

“We are being badly buffetted spiritually and materially, but we are not cowed, and we are not lost and we must not abandon hope. We are not without hope. The situation is not without hope.

“This is not merely facile optimism. There is no room nowadays for merely facile optimism. Our situation is unspeakably hard, and a solution of the newly-constituted Jewish question is at the moment not in sight.

“It is true that we are now stronger in numbers, it is true that our common lot has brought us more closely together, but we still do not know what to do to assure our future in a more practical way. There is the danger that if we seek new means of livelihood, we shall find ourselves again concentrated in one or in a few occupations, and that there will again be the outcry against the over-plus of Jewish elements. And what will happen to those who will not be able to make any further use of their previous training?

“We are beset by difficulties and hardships, and there are many trials still in store for us, but we have learnt that things turn out in the long run differently than reason can foresee. History’s solution cannot be arranged, but it will come. Jewish fate has always been solved, and the trials, the measures that appeared to be leading straight to Jewish annihilation turned out in the end to be the instruments and the means for Jewish preservation. We are sure that this will happen also in the present instance. From this we derive our hope, and this conviction will make it possible for us, both individuals and the leaders of the community, to go on with our work, confident that we shall achieve fruitful results.”