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5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, November 11, 2009
This book contains more than 30 speeches given by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Louis D. Brandeis, dating from 1910 (six years before he was appointed) through 1939, the year he retired.
He spoke in 1913, for example, of his meeting with Aaron Aaronsohn, whose family had immigrated to Palestine in the 19th century, and who had discovered wild wheat, a variety long sought by U.S. and international botanists, for its ability to grow in arid regions. That particular speech also lauded the tenacity with which Jewish agricultural communities in Israel had cooperated for 32 years, with no known reports of a single crime. Brandeis attributed this just society to the Jewish community's genuine commitment to the common good.
In one of the most comprehensive, a 1915 New York City speech to the Council of Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis, Brandeis asked two fundamental questions that resound even now, as much of the world clamors to denounce and destroy the Jewish state of Israel, for which Brandeis fought to establish. How can Jews secure, "wherever they may live, the same rights and opportunities enjoyed by non-Jews?" How can the world secure "the contribution which Jews can make, if unhampered by artificial limitations?"
Brandeis spoke to both individual and group freedoms, given that individuals depend for their development and happiness largely on "the development of the group of which he forms a part."
As if answering in one breath, Hitler, Ahmadinejad, all anti-Semites and even Jewish self-haters, Brandeis insisted, since death doesn't solve the problems of living, successfully ending oppression against the Jewish people "necessarily involves the continued existence of the Jews as Jews."
Furthermore, he described liberty as an individual's right to life, acquisition of property, and pursuit of happiness to the extent that exercising each right does not infringe upon "the exercise of a like right by every other of our fellow citizens." Within a nation composed of many nationalities, Brandeis believed that this right must be applied to all nationalities.
During World War I, Brandeis observed that all other peoples were "striving for development by asserting its nationality." It was a war that clarified "the value of small nations." Thus he advised the Jewish people not to despair, but to also assert their "nationality striving for equal rights to life and self-expression."
Brandeis concurred with the British leader, Robert William Seton-Watson, who urged the Jewish people to "shake off the false shame" which had previously encouraged many among them to hide their identity. Seton-Watson proclaimed that Jews should stand up for their own nation: They ought as a people to realize that the tendency of closet Jews "to sail under false colors and conceal their true identity" only fostered anti-Semitic feelings among Gentiles.
In 1913, Brandeis cited the March 1891 petition of American Rev. William A. Blackstone to then-president Benjamin Harrison, sooner rather than later, to hold "an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claim to Palestine as their ancient home" and also to seek other "just and proper ways" to alleviate their suffering.
As Brandeis observed, Theodore Herzl himself did not present such an argument until five years after the good Rev. Blackstone. In the same speech, Brandeis said that Zionism is a movement to give the Jewish people more freedom, not less. "The longing" within the Jewish people to go home had been "ever present," and Jewish state's rebirth had begun in the mid 19th century, when Russian and Romanian emigrants joined the few Middle Eastern Jews who had migrated home again, or never left, to secure agriculture in a land "harassed by centuries of misrule," that was "treeless and apparently sterile;... and infested with malaria." He saw no inconsistency between loyalty to America and loyalty to the Jewish people. Being Jewish, as a product of the faith and Jewish experiences, Brandeis wrote, is both modern and American.
As Henry Wickham Steed observed in the Hapsburg Monarchy, Jewish laws sought "to make real the brotherhood of man" 2,500 years before America's fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution seeking the same. Steed also encouraged the Jewish people to be proud Zionists, to revere their people's pertinacity, traditions, triumphs, sufferings, and resistance to persecution. Moreover, the Jewish people should laud their "luxury of moral and intellectual honesty" of having given Christianity its "divinities," and having instructed the world in monotheism, with ideas that "permeated civilization" as had no other ideas of any previous people.
This is a particularly educational book, and would be most enlightening to people admittedly least likely to read it --- should they have courage to consider the reasons that the free and independent Jewish state of Israel is as important to the world as any other.
---Alyssa A. Lappen
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Rights for the Jewish people, November 10, 2009
This review is from: Brandeis on Zionism (The Rise of Jewish Nationalism and the Middle East Series) (Hardcover)
This book contains more than 30 speeches given by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Louis D. Brandeis, dating from 1910 (six years before he was appointed) through 1939, the year he retired.
He spoke in 1913, for example, of his meeting with Aaron Aaronsohn, whose family had immigrated to Palestine in the 19th century, and who had discovered wild wheat, a variety long sought by U.S. and international botanists, for its ability to grow in arid regions. That particular speech also lauded the tenacity with which Jewish agricultural communities in Israel had cooperated for 32 years, with no known reports of a single crime. Brandeis attributed this just society to the Jewish community's genuine commitment to the common good.
In one of the most comprehensive, a 1915 New York City speech to the Council of Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis, Brandeis asked two fundamental questions that resound even now, as much of the world clamors to denounce and destroy the Jewish state of Israel, for which Brandeis fought to establish. "How can we secure for Jews, wherever they may live, the same rights and opportunities enjoyed by non-Jews? How can we secure for the full world the contribution which Jews can make, if unhampered by artificial limitations?
Brandeis spoke to both individual and group freedoms, given that "the individual is dependent for his development (and his happiness) in large part upon the development of the group of which he forms a part."
As if answering in one breath, Hitler, Ahmadinejad, all anti-Semites and even Jewish self-haters, Brandeis insisted, "Since death is not a solution of the problem of life, the solution of the Jewish Problem necessarily involves the continued existence of the Jews as Jews."
Furthermore, he described liberty as being "the right to enjoy life, to acquire property, to pursue happiness in such manner and to such extent as the exercise of the right in each is consistent with the exercise of a like right by every other of our fellow citizens." And within a nation composed of many nationalities, this right must be applied to all nationalities.
During World War I, when "every other people is striving for development by asserting its nationality, and a great war is making clear the value of small nations,... Surely, this is no time for Jews to despair. Let us make clear... that we too are a nationality striving for equal rights to life and self-expression." Indeed, Brandeis concurred with the British leader, Robert William Seton-Watson, who had urged the Jewish people to "shake off the false shame" that had led them to hide their identity. Rather, Seton-Watson proclaimed, Jews should stand up for their own nation: "It is high time that the Jews should realize that few things do more to foster anti-Semitic feeling than [the] tendency [of closet Jews] to sail under false colors and conceal their true identity."
In 1913, Brandeis cited the March 1891 petition of American Rev. William A. Blackstone to then-president Benjamin Harrison"to secure the holding, at an early date, of an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claim to Palestine as their ancient home, and to promote in all other just and proper ways the alleviation of their suffering condition."
Theodore Herzl himself presented such an argument only five years after Rev. Blackstone.
Zionism, Brandeis said in the same speech, is a movement to give the Jewish people more, not less, freedom. "The longing" within the Jewish people to go home had been "ever present," and the rebirth of the Jewish state had begun in the mid 19th century, when Russian and Romanian emigrants joined the few Middle Eastern Jews who had migrated home again, or never left, to secure an agricultural base in a land "harassed by centuries of misrule," that was "treeless and apparently sterile;... and infested with malaria." Moreover, there is "no inconsistency between loyalty to America and loyalty to Jewry. The Jewish spirit, the product of our religion and experiences, is essentially modern and essentially American."
Jewish laws sought "to make real the brotherhood of man" 2,500 years before America established its Constitution seeking the same. Nor had British Christians been the only ones to encourage the Jewish people to stand proud of their heritage and faith in support of a Jewish state. In the Hapsburg Monarchy, Henry Wickham Steed wrote, that Zionism was to be Jewish and proud of it, "to glory in the ... pertinacity of the race, its traditions, its triumphs, its sufferings, its resistance to persecution; ... to enjoy the luxury or moral and intellectual honesty; to ... [belong] to the people that gave Christendom its divinities; that taught half the world monotheism, whose ideas have permeated civilization as never the ideas of a race before it...."
This is a particularly educational book, and would be most enlightening to people admittedly least likely to read it --- those arguing irrationally against the continuation of a free and independent state for the Jewish people in Israel.
---Alyssa A. Lappen
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