Long Ago a great poet wrote that “sufferance is the badge of all our tribe”, and it is only since 1840, when the Blood Accusation in Damascus shocked the western world that the Jews have become vocal in the protest of wrongs.
Moses Montefiore and Adolpe Crémieux instigated that initial protest, and since then we have become articulate. The crescendo has probably been reached in the anti-Hitler protests which are spontaneous and world-wide in character. Contrariness being a Jewish characteristic, Joseph Leftwich essays the role of a journalistic introvert, and suggests that we have an ample sufficiency of protests, and that they do no good.
The two suggestions are not corollaries. Dreyfus would have died on Devil’s Island, Kishineff would have passed unnoticed, and Mendel Beilis would have been convicted but for protests. Passfield would have been voted right and Luke would still be running Palestine but for protests. There is power in numbers. I once heard a great man facing the commander-in-chief of a great army, say quietly: “If I protest, sixteen million Jews will raise their voices with me.” It was the general who yielded.
PROTEST AGITATION INVALUABLE
Having been merely a keen observer at the Madison Square Garden mass meeting I can say with good grace that in my judgment the agitation which preceded it probably prevented the massacre expected on March 4th.
Newspaper customs being what they are it is the local aspect of a situation that arouses newspaperdom to the actuality of any situation anywhere. It is a pity it is so, but it is true that American newspaper men abroad only send long cables when the home folks are aroused and interested. American Jews having accepted the Soviet treatment of the Jews as a status quo, no one spends a nickel telling us how the millstones are grinding our fellow Jews to fine powder. Some people may think it desirable that the Jews in Germany should also be ground into dust by our adopting what in the war was called the “thunder of silence”; I do not.
Protest is the only weapon at the disposal of the masses, their only political tool, their only means for arousing public moral repulsion to wrong and injustice. It helps too in the search for remedies. For it is too sadly true that most of those who object to public protests fold their arms, give a little charity, and live in the belief that time heals all wounds, and rights all wrongs. And if not, then not.
Backstairs diplomacy has never served the Jewish cause. It merely flatters the interveners as to their ability to bask in the light of the great and the near-great. Nor is there reason for faith in the effort of accredited agencies in making diplomatic representations. Perhaps the formality must be gone through, but in reality it is a great game of make-believe.
LITTLE INCIDENTS THAT HELP
The pre-occupied public official, to whom even Hitler is an incident, has a subordinate censor the Jewish petition before it is received.
No one expects any country to make passive or active war on Germany, though a debate in Parliament or the refusal to invite a minister as Sir Marcus Samuel did, when Lord Mayor of London, to the Roumanian minister, gets under tough skin. That does not cure, but it helps a little—helps to bear the burden of the pain and disgrace of anti-Semitism. Every sane Jew knows that to no nation are the Jews a primary problem.
I recall the progress of events which led to the abrogation of the Russian treaty of 1832. “Don’t,” exclaimed the rich and the great and the powerful when two unknown persons, Nissim Behar and Henry Green organized that protest. The great, the rich and the powerful tool the honors when the agitation had passed the stopping point, and wa# on the high road to success—and
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.
