The Allied Countries and the Jews

Published during the final year of the First World War, this small study is intent to set forth, as well as to support, an optimistic vision of Jewish participation and contribution to world culture. In order, France, England, Russia, Italy, and America are taken up, but other than America and England, there was little that even the hopeful Rabbi E Enelow could find among the history of these nations which would suggest more than sporadic expressions of developing tolerance – a tolerance which all too often followed upon a dreadful persecution, such as the slaughter, in 1090, of all the Jews in York, England, and the subsequent expulsion, within a few years, of all Jews from England. This was not a unique event, but what the reason might be for this interminable persecution is never brought up by Enelow – which itself might be a sign of its continuance. Nevertheless, despite this painful history, the Rabbi remained assured of a happier future for his people, and to this end, he devoted a chapter to the hope of Palestinian homeland. Encouraged by the Balfour Decision, he envisioned Palestine to become more of a spiritual homeland rather than a political entity. Unlike Herzl, Enelow was a Reform Rabbi, more inclined to believe in Jewish cultural assimilation than political separation, and so, although he held that “Palestine and the Jews are inseparable” he yet rejected “political Zionism”. Unhappily, after the horrors of the Second World War, his optimism now seems sadly dated.