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NATIONS & NATIONALISM
A Letter to Dr.Hellpach,
Minister of State
Albert Einstein
Written in response to an article by Professor Hellpach ,
which
appeared in the Vossische Zeitung in 1929.
Published in Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querido Verlag, 1934.
 "...The Jews are a community bound together by ties of
blood and tradition, and not of religion only: the attitude of the rest
of the world toward them is sufficient proof of this. When I , came to
Germany fifteen years ago I discovered for the first time that I was a
Jew, and I owe this discovery more to Gentiles than Jews... ..a communal purpose without which
we can neither live nor die in this
hostile world can always be called by that ugly word (nationalism). In any case it is a
nationalism whose aim is not power but
dignity and health. If we did not
have to live among intolerant,
narrow-minded, and violent people, I should be the first to throw
over all nationalism in favor of universal humanity. The objection that we
Jews cannot be proper citizens of the German state, for example, if we want
to be a 'nation' is based on a misunderstanding of the
nature of the state
which springs from the intolerance of national majorities.
Against that intolerance we shall never be safe, whether we call
ourselves a people (or nation) or not..."
Dear Dr.Mr.Hellpach,
I have read your article on Zionism and the Zurich Congress and feel, as a
strong devotee of the Zionist idea, that I must answer you, even if only
shortly.
The Jews are a community bound together by ties of blood and tradition, and
not of religion only: the attitude of the rest of the world toward them is
sufficient proof of this. When I , came to Germany fifteen years ago I
discovered for the first time that I was a Jew, and I owe this discovery
more to Gentiles than Jews.
The tragedy of the Jews is that they are people of a definite historical
type, who lack the support of a community to keep them together. The result
is a want of solid foundations in the individual which amounts in its
extremer forms to moral instability. I realized that salvation was only
possible for the race if every Jew in the world should become attached to a
living society to which he as an individual might rejoice to belong and
which might enable him to bear the hatred and the humiliations that he has
to put up with from the rest of the world.
I saw worthy Jews basely caricatured, and the sight made my heart bleed. I
saw how schools, comic papers, and innumerable other forces of the Gentile
majority undermined the confidence even of the best of my fellow-Jews, and
felt that this could not be allowed to continue.
Then I realized that only a common enterprise dear to the heart of Jews all
over the world could restore this people to health. It was a
great
achievement of Herzl's to have realized and proclaimed at the top of his
voice that, the traditional attitude of the Jews being what it was, the
establishment of a national home or, more accurately, a center in Palestine,
was a suitable object on which to concentrate our efforts.
All this you call nationalism, and there is something in the
accusation. But a communal purpose without which we can neither live nor
die in this hostile world can always be called by that ugly name. In any
case it is a nationalism whose aim is not power but dignity and health.
If we did not have to live among intolerant, narrow-minded, and violent
people, I should be the first to throw over all nationalism in
favor of universal humanity.
The objection that we Jews cannot be proper citizens of the German
state, for example, if we want to be a "nation," is based on a
misunderstanding of the nature of the state which springs from the
intolerance of national majorities. Against that intolerance we shall
never be safe, whether we call ourselves a people (or nation) or not.
I have put all this with brutal frankness for the sake of brevity, but I
know from your writings that you are a man who stands to the sense, not the
form.
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