Part 16 (1/2)
That is a commentary on the decree of denunciation. It also throws a very strong light on the pressure which is brought against many Jews who would cry out against the anti-social ideas of their people, but who dare not because of the penalties it would bring.
This denunciation, as Protocol Seventeen orders, is to be made against anyone who is ”known to be opposed to the Kahal” or ancient Soviet system of the Jews.
After the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans, the Jews maintained a center in the Patriarch; and after the dispersion of the Jews out of Palestine this center of nationality was preserved in the Prince of the Exile, or Exilarch, an office which is believed to persist to the present time, and which some believe to be held now by an American Jew. In spite of all a.s.sertions to the contrary, the Jews have never ceased to be ”a people”; that is, a consciously united racial group, different from all others, and with purposes and ideals which are strictly of the Jews, by the Jews, and for the Jews in distinction from the rest of the world. That they const.i.tute a nation within the nations, the most responsible Jewish thinkers not only declare but insist upon.
And this is wholly in accord with the facts as observed. The Jew not only desires to live apart from other people, but he works with his own people as against others, and he desires as much as possible to live under his own laws. In the city of New York today, the Jews have succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng their own court for the settlement of their own questions according to their own laws. And that is precisely the principle of the Soviet-Kahal.
From the first century forward, as any reader can see by consulting the Jewish Encyclopedia, the ”community,” ”a.s.sembly” or ”Kahal” has been the center of Jewish life. It was so earlier, in the time of the Babylonian captivity. And the last official appearance of it was at the Peace Conference, where the Jews, in accordance with their World Program, the only program that pa.s.sed successfully and unchanged through the Peace Conference, secured for themselves the right to the Kahal for administrative and cultural purposes in addition to many other privileges in countries where their activities had been a matter of protest. The Polish question is purely a Jewish question, and Paderewski's failure as a statesmen was entirely due to his domination by Jewish influences. The Rumanian question is likewise a Jewish question, and all Rumanians speak of the United States as ”The Jews'
Country” because they know through their statesmen the terrific pressure which was exerted by American Jews against their country, a pressure extending to the very necessities of life, and which compelled Rumania to sign agreements which are as humiliating as those that Austria asked of Serbia, out of which the World War grew. The Jewish Question is written all over the forces that provoked the war, and over all the hindrances to peace which the world has since seen.
Under the Kahal or ancient Soviet, the Jews lived by themselves and governed themselves, doing business with the government solely through their representatives. It was communism in a more drastic form than has been seen anywhere in the world outside Russia. Education, health, taxes, domestic affairs, all were under the absolute control of a few men who const.i.tuted the ruling board. This board, as the present-day Jewish hierarchy is supposed to be, was self-perpetuating, the office often pa.s.sing in an unbroken line of hereditary succession through many generations. All property was in common, which however did not prevent the leaders becoming rich. These Kahals or Soviets existed in Rome, France, Holland, Germany, Austria, Russia, Denmark, Italy, Rumania, Turkey and England. In the United States the idea has developed around the synagogue and around national and international secret societies of Jews, of which more will be said in succeeding articles.
The Kahal is the traditional Jewish political inst.i.tution during the dispersal of the race among the nations. Its international aspect is to be seen in the higher councils. These councils enlarged as the Jews spread over the world. The Jewish Encyclopedia cites the Council of Three Lands, the Council of Four Lands, and the Council of Five Lands, showing an international relations.h.i.+p in earlier years. But like all such records, public view of them is not easily accessible so far as they relate to modern times. The recent Zionist Congress in London, where doubtless much business was done that pertained to the Jewish people throughout the world, though not in public halls by any means, may be called the Council of Thirty-Seven Lands, for the delegates to that congress came from all parts of the world, from points remote as Lapland and South Africa, Persia and New Zealand. The purpose of these World Councils was the unification of the Jews, and the records of their a.s.semblages run back through the centuries.
It is therefore no new thing that has arisen in Russia. It is the imposition by the Jewish revolutionists upon Gentile Russia of a form of control in which Judaism has been schooled from the earliest times of its contact with the world. Soviet Russia could not have been possible had not 90 per cent of the commissars been Jewish. Soviet Hungary could not have been possible had not Bela Kun, the chief Red, been a Jew, and had not 18 of his 24 commissars been Jews. The Jews are the only group schooled in the erection and administration of the Kahal.
An a.s.sociated Press dispatch under date of August 12 throws a light on the congeniality of the Soviet system and the Jewish mind. Speaking of the Polish towns and villages occupied by Bolshevik forces in their recent drive, the dispatch says:
”The local Jewish parish populations already are said to be setting up Soviet and Communist governments.”
Of course. Yet this is in strange contrast with what we are constantly told through the press of the sufferings of the Jews under the Soviet form and of their abhorrence of the Reds. However, most of what we read concerning this in the public press is Jewish propaganda, pure and simple, and the reports of men on the spot contradict it all. One relief worker testifies that relief work in Poland is frequently ”hung up because some Jew landlord asks an exorbitant rent for his premises,”
while another testifies that though railroad fares in the supposedly famine-stricken districts have gone up 1,000 per cent, the best and highest-fare trains are ”exclusively occupied by Jews.” He adds, of his trip through Hungary, ”The Hungarians have no money any more, but the Jews have.”
”But American Jews abhor Trotsky and Sovietism” is the plea sometimes made.
Do they?
On page 9 of the American Jewish World, of July 30, a letter signed ”Mrs. Samuel Rush” appears. It is headed: ”Are We Really Ashamed of Trotsky?” Read a few excerpts from it:
”I have read of late several laments from editors of Jewish publications that the Jew is now libeled as a radical.
”It is true that many Jews are radicals. It is also true that some of the radical leaders are Jews.
”But before weeping over the downfall of the race, let's think a bit.
”Trotsky himself has never been represented as anything but a cultured man, a student of world economics, a powerful and efficient leader and thinker who will surely go down in history as one of the great men our race has given the world.
”* * * Very few of us doubt any longer that behind the absurdities written about Russia is the great truth that Russia is in that unsettled state which attends reconstruction. There is a plan behind this seeming disorder, and out of the upheaval will come order. It will not be utopia, but as good a government as the undoubtedly high-minded practical idealists who are building for Russia can build with the necessarily imperfect materials--human beings--with which they must work.
”And one of the leaders is Leon Trotsky!
”Are we really ashamed of Trotsky?”
The lady is evidently not ashamed of Trotsky, or Mr. Braunstein, as his real name is.
Or take Judge Harry Fisher, of Chicago. While drawing a salary for work in the court, Judge Fisher went abroad on Jewish relief work. His plans were changed somewhat after his departure and he landed in Russia. He a.s.serts in several interviews that he was permitted to arrive in Russia on condition that he leave political matters alone. There has been no such restriction placed upon him since his return to the United States, for he appears as an open advocate of full trade relations with the Soviet Government of Russia.
The Chicago Tribune thus quotes him:
”'We must leave Russia alone' he said in summarizing his views. 'We should resume trade with the Soviet. The Bolshevist Government is permanent. * * * While there are only 700,000 members of the Communist party, the peasants, who represent almost 100,000,000 people, are solidly back of the Lenin regime.'”
Among the Soviet devices which the 100,000,000 peasants of Russia are said to be ”solidly back of,” is the following (it is particularly interesting in view of the fact that Judge Fisher is judge of the Morals Court of Chicago):