THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Blumberg's suggestion that Jews can be Free- thinkers or even Christians is surely nonsense. Let him ask the Zionist Organisation what it thinks of the Rev. Leyertoff's efforts to " identify himself with the fate of the Jewish people." Or recall the storm when Herzl's son (who continued to be my dear friend) was baptised. And the indignation with Israel Zangwill's remark at the time, that "the Zionism now prevailing in Palestine being merely racial it cannot exclude Christians any more than it excludes Freethinkers." Zangwill was " not content to accept the Jew as .a phenomenon purely biological." And I am not, either. I have made that quite clear, and there is no discrepancy, such as he supposes, between my " two selves." I have placed myself unreservedly with Maimonides, wit) laid it down that " everyone who acknowledges the Unity of God as it is written in the Torah is a disciple of our Father Abraham and a member of his household." Judaism .depends on some- thing within, and is not imposed from without, not even by Hitler,
Also, I never suggested " an Australia populated by Jews." I:suggested populating a certain number of Jews in Australia, but Australia must be Australian, not Jewish. As for the cheerful shapes, they are not mine, but Walt Whitman's, and though Mr. Blumberg is good enough to flatter me that I write better than those I quote, I am sure he did not mean to include Whitman.—Yours sincerely, JOSEPH LEFTWICH.'
24 Shepherd's Hill, Highgate, London, N.6.
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