Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-07
CANNOT BE ZIONIsTs.
Rabbi Stern's Views of the Jewish
State in Palestine.

views OF Vnc JeW1Sn
State I'm Palestine.
In his address last night at All Souls
Church. where he participated in the dis
cussion of Twentieth Century Religion,
Rabbi Stern referred to the so-called Zion
istic movement among the Jews. In the
course of his comment upon other topics,
he said:
This logically leads me to speak to you
Of the so-called Zionistic movement and our
attitude to the same 1t is an organized
effort Of recent origin to devise means for
the satisfactory solution of the Jewish
question: chiefly by the establishment of a
Jewish state in Palestine. In the face of
the continued oppression Of the Russian
and Armenian Jews, and the so-called anti
Semitism that even in some modern Euro
pean countries will not down. the Zion
lists no hope for Judaism except in the
accomplishment of that scheme.
The reform Jews. with but few excep-
lions, are opposed to it because
of the insurmOuntable obstacles in it's way
and the bewildering complication it would
involve: our opposition is based on higher
grounds. We believe the hope of the Jew
does not lie in that direction. For hun
dreds of years the Jew has been a citizen
in various lands of his birth adoption.
Although frequently denied him, his claim
to the privilege of his citizenship is as just
and indsputable as that of any of his
neighbors. Collectively, We are simply a
people of common faith, a common his
tory and tradition. Strictly speaking, we
cannot be said even to be pure race ow-
ing to the Introduction of non-Jewish blood
by frequent intermarrages and numerous
voluntary conversions throughout the ages.
We certainly are no longer nationality
the Jewish nation having ceased to exist
with the fall of Jerusalem, more than 800
years ago.
1T is curious to note the childlike ignor-
ance of many people concerning these
things. To some every Jew landing here
sort Of living curiosity or anachronism I'M
tnncied by time in its flight; unchanged in
language, manner and custom since the
days of Moses, and the prophets and apos
ties. Some good people cannot understand
that the Jew-like any other man-is a child
Of the age he lives in. closely identified with
his respective country; German in Ger
many. a Frenchman in France, as he is an
American citizen in the United States.
THE Zionists have evidently lost hope in
the eventual disappearance of the preju-
dices, animosities and persecution to which
the Jew still is subject. We cannot agree
with him. We are hopeful. because we are
Jews; for Judaism is religion of purest
optimism, of hope and faith in humanity.
Amidst the direst calamities, however dark
the outlook. the prophets of old looked
hopefully into the future, bespeaking the
coming of a period OF peace and good will,
of human love and human brotherhood.
This is our hope still. To admit that the
Ztonists are right and we wrong-that the
Jew must continue to suffer or seek refuge
in a distant eastern land-not led there by
the mercy of God, but cast out by the
cruelty Of man, would be an admission that
the hopes of Israels prophets were de-
fusion and a snare and Christian love and
charity pious fraud. Therefore we cam
not be ZioniStS'