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PERTH, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1942.
NiO.
B71188
SIXTY-NINTH YEAR.--
WALTER ZANDER, in "The Catholic Herald," says:
The Jewish Problem in its inmost nature is a . religious one .
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Persecution of Jewry Claimed to Be Linked With Attacks on Religious Fundamentals To-day, when Hitler has vowed the extermination of Jewry, and his armies are everywhere cruelly executing his plan, Jews the world over are united in a period of fast and supplication. Catholics will sympathise with this persecuted people, remembering their own tribulations and also the words of Pope Pius XL and Pope Pius XII. on the sin of anti-Semitism. The writer of this article, Mr. Walter Zander, is a practising Jew, who left Germany in 1937.
There are few problems more complicated by contradictory facts and the passions of friend and foe than the Jewish question; and yet few problems need a more careful study and a balanced judgment. As things have developed the Jewish question actually has become one of the issues of the war. Not only because Hitler has vowed the extermination of Jewry-and everywhere where the German armies have conquered he is cruelly executing his plan-but also For the perfor spiritual reasons. secutions of the Jews have been indissolubly connected with an attack on the fundamental principles of religion; and Martin Borman, the successor of Hess as leader of the Nazi party, has only recently justified the persecution of the Churches with remarkable bluntness by the very fact that "the teachings of Christianity in their essential points have been take over from Juda-
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This movement of Zionism has its roots in the ancient longing of the Jew to return one day to the country where his ancestors had made their greatest contribution to history, and which always had remained most intimately connected with his religious thought. As a political movement it started at the end of the nineteenth century and it has always been particularly strong in the eastern past of Europe. The hope of taking up again the severed threads of Jewish history, of
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Aspirations of Israel Assimilationists, Zionist and "Between the Loyalties" rebuilding their nation and of educate ing their children under normal conditions, of ending the unnatural stratification by return to a normal life and of reviving for daily use Hebrew, the holy language, gave inspiration to many; and when in the last war the Balfour Declaration proclaimed the en tablishanent of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, a great immigration began towards the Holy Land. Life as God Meant During the twenty years between the two world wars fundamental changes The Jewish have taken place there. population, which in 1918 amounted to 55,000, increased to about 500,000, out of which 100,000 live on the land in various agricultural settlements. Agriculture has been widely developMany excelled in social ser- ed; land which had been unarable for zenship. centuries has been drained, and importvice and tens of thousands full-heartedant industries have been founded. Tel lv gave their life fighting as soldiers fatherlands. Aviv, a large town with an entirely respective for their Jewish population of 170,000, has been Reunion in Palestan built up, and on the Mount Scopes The other group, whilst maintaining domiabove Jesusalem a Hebrew University loyalty to the countries of their has been opened. cile, aims at a final reunion of the But the greatest achievement is a Jewish people-wholly or at least par(Continued on Page 13.) tially-in Palestine.
ago. when the waft- of the ghettos were torn down during the period of en-
ism."
Strangers Everywhere. The issue, therefore, goes far beyond the Jewish question itself; and when in 1933 the Nazis demanded the abolition of the Old Testament, Cardinal Faulhaber rallied the Catholic population of Munich by a series of sermons under the motto: "Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law." To judge fairly the political and spiritual forces which have dominated Jewry in recent years one must keep in mind that the Jews have been wandering over the earth for centuries, and even to -day find themselves in a most abnormal condition of great dispersion.
everywhere, with fullest moral and -ipiritual dedication, two fundamental conceptions. Hope of a Haven. One group aims at the full integration of the Jews in the nations amongst Maintaining only which they live. their religion, they endeavour to assimilate themselves to the surrounding peoples and to merge in them. This movement, which has been particularly strong in Central Europe and the Western world, began about 150 years
M. MARITAIN. "Israel is a mystical body comparable with the Church.
CARDINAL FAULHABERresisted the Nazi attempt to abolish the Old Testament
It is difficult to imagine what a moral effort is needed to lead one's life without a fatherland, based only on the principles of the Spirit, being a stranger everywhere and without the benevolent influence which the human heart derives from an agdong uninterrupted tradition in one's own oatinery. To find a way out of this situation modern Jewry has developed nearly
lightenment. One must remember the restrictions under which the Jews had lived up till then-their stratification even to -day reflects to a certain extent their age long exclusion from agriculture and handicraft in many countries-in order to understand the intensity with which they threw themselves into Western civilisation; and many of them have outstanding contributions to its further development. But more essential than this extension of activities was the hope to find at last by integration a haven after their wandering and persecution. The best among them longed to undertake the moral responsibilities of their citi-
Guiltoyle's Hotel Australia Registered at the G.P.O., Perth, for transmission by post as a newspaper.
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