India and Israel Against Islamic Terror

dhiSL]pt:eir
The Awakening
The closing years of the 19th century are fraught with

achievements which equal almost the entire previous life of this

planet in all fields of human knowledge. The towering figures of

this period were Hegel, Schopenhauer, Mill, Darwin and Spencer.

Illustrious paintings of Goya, Turner, Renoir and Gauguin were

matched by the music of Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Wagner

and the literary works of Goethe, Keats, Balzac and Bernard

Shaw. With the invention of combustion engine, X-ray and

Pasteur’s theory science took gigantic strides in human

development. In this galaxy of the distinguished the contribution

of jews is of no mean magnitude. The names that spring to

mind are those of Marx, Freud, Bergson and Einstein in the field

of science, that of Pissarro, Soutine, Chagall and Modigliani in

painting, Mendelssohn, Offenbaach, Saint-Saens, Bizet and

Mahler in music, while Heine, Froust, Maurois and Remains

were the shining stars in the field of literature. Theoretical physics

termed as ”Judenphysik” was mainly the work of German Jews,

while in medicine, Wassermann, Ehrlich and Schick achieved

pre-eminence. The Jewish contribution was the largest in the

field of mathematics, biology and chemistry as evidenced by the

fact that more Nobel prizes in science were awarded to the Jews

than any other nationality. The Jewish viceroys, prime ministers,
CHAPTER 3
THE AWAKENING 77
generals and intellectuals shaped Europe and changed the course

of world history; all this despite the fact that they formed less

than half per cent of the populations of the entire west and

central Europe, fighting the ghetto with one hand and antiSemitism

with the other.
Although mention has been made earlier of Spinoza’s

thoughts and philosophy the essence of his thoughts and the

main strands of his philosophy still need a repetition. Not only

had he contributed to ethics, politics and religion, but had his

own well-reasoned principles for application to physics and

mathematics which he could not apply as the cruel hands of

death cut short his life at the age of 44. Influenced by Talmud

and Kabala, he emphasised the need for piety, a passion for

freedom and justice, a rational order of thought and a vision, of

an all encompassing science of the universe. His last unfinished

task was left to the four great modern Jewish thinkers: Leopold

Zunz, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein. Spinoza’s

combination of a rational piety with the science of faith had farreaching

influence on Jewish thoughts and life in the days to

come. Zunz (1794-1886) on whom fell the task of consumating

the embryonic Spinoza’s thoughts successfully emancipated the

Jew from his Ghetto .psyche, into the new ”Science of Judaism”.

He changed the Christian concept of the Jewish stereotype of a

stagnant medieval individual to a scientific and intellectual human

being who could not only defend his faith but also advance

intellectual frontiers of mankind. His ”Reform Judaism” was

further enriched by the efforts of the remaining trinity. While

Marx who died in 1883 introduced economics as the foundation

of politics and human destiny, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the

Austrian Jew, revolutionized human understanding of the effect

of libido and sexual impulses on human behaviour. He opened

the field of psychiatry with his theory of psychoanalysis which

was to play a major role in later day medical science. The last

in the Spinozian quartet Albert Einstein (1879-1955) a product

of German-Jewish enlightenment, not only gave the modern

theory of relativity, ideas of Brownian motion and photoelectric
78 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER 3
effect but also a synthetic view of time and space, and the

nature of universe. He mentioned that ”the logic of a theory

must stem from an inner coherence, not because external

evidence makes it the most logical over other theories.” A Nobel

prize winner, Einstein was an embodiment of all that is noble in

man and his surrounding universe.
Before the Jews were driven out of Germany under Hitler’s

dictat of the superior Nordic Aryans to be purged of the impure

Semitism, the jews had contributed in the largest measure to the

science of micro-organism as the cause of contagious diseases

and had laid the foundation of modern heart therapy,

bacteriology and clinical pathology, besides the discovery of

chemical processes within cells causing glandular activity, suggesting

serum immunity and pioneered chemistry of muscles, blood

transfusion through discovery of blood types, treatment for

venereal diseases through gonococcus and salvarsan. In the field

of astronomy the work of Sir William Herschel needs no

introduction. The development of German chemical and dye

industry was entirely the work of the Jews. The list is endless

including as it does the potash industry, vapor density, expansion

of gases, theory of valencies, molecular theory and organic

compounds.
In physics, the list is even longer. But to mention just a few,

Hertzian photoelectric phenomena, gamma rays, isotopes and

electron kinetics, revealed the secret of the atom. The future of

the entire school of relativity led by Albert Einstein, paved the

way for nuclear fission, which enabled Enrico Fermi and Leo

Szilard along with Niels Bohr, to develop the first chain reaction

system resulting into the atom bomb. All these Jews along with

Meitner migrated to the U.S.A. giving them their first nuclear

bomb. In arts and humanities the Jews were equally prominent.

They performed concerts, conducted orchestras, staged great

dramas and introduced new art forms, in addition to capturing

headlines in the music world. Politics, finance and.industry were

the natural forte for the Jew, and where permitted he dominated

the financial structure of the country of his citizenship. He
CHAPTER 3 THE AWAKENING
79
Innovated in all financial fields and gave international finance

and banking a new look. How did the Jew, handicapped, deprived

and disenfranchised achieve such marvels on the world stage,

baffles logic. The answer is not simple. But there could be three

main reasons. First, the survival of education, in spite of centuries

of pogroms and ghettos; second, he had to work twice as hard

as his Christian competitor to be taken seriously, no matter how

hopeless the task before; he studied every profession and

devoured voraciously all knowledge of science, industry and

commerce; and lastly an awareness of the destiny that awaited

him. He stuck steadfastly to his religion, culture and heritage

that respected learning and the value of natural justice.
The common concept of American law based upon the

Roman system, is not entirely correct, since Roman laws

themselves evolved from the Jewish jurisprudence of the Biblical

days. It is not a mere coincidence that around the fourth century

B.C. the Jewish legal system was based on equality before law

and dignity of man. Law was conceived to be a vehicle for

justice without which they were considered immoral. While the

Jews at that time did not have a jury system, the trials and

indictments of the accused were similar to those in present day

American courts. Presumed to be innocent, till proved guilty, the

accused had the right to counsel and of fair trial. He could call

witnesses to rebut accusers and testify for him. He had the right

not to testify against himself, immunity from jeopardy and permit

to appeal on appearance of new evidence.
Eastern Europe
Before we commence a study of the modern Jewish history after

the creation of the state of Palestine in 1917, under the Balfour

Declaration, let us pause and take stock of the cultural and

civilizational development of the Jews on the threshold of the

twentieth century. The European Jewish culture was sharply

divided into two streams, the West and the East. The Western

culture had a strong scientific content based on knowledge and

a technology driven enlightenment. But in Eastern Europe, the

Un-emancipated jews created a culture based on Haskala,

eP’tomismg the basic Jewish values. It did not produce great
80 INDIA AND ISRACL CHAPTER 3
scientists, musicians or painters which were decoratively studded

in the edifice of the Christian achievements of the West. The

Eastern humanistic culture based on Hebrew and Yiddish was of

far more value to the Jewish survival in the difficult days to

come. Despite Western Enlightenment, Haskala like the Freudian

libido coursed through the veins of Judaism, synchronizing the

old Jewish values with the new, Anchored as it was on Hebrew

and Yiddish language it created a new culture. This core culture

acting as an adhesive to the Jewish religion created Jewish

existentialism and later gave birth to Zionism fusing Eastern and

Western Jews including those in the United States in the creation

of the new state of Israel. However Talmudic studies and

Hasidistic thoughts forever ran like parallel strands in the history

of Judaism. What, is the historical perspective on this vexing saga

of the Jewish survival? Is it a mere accident or a destiny shaped

by deterministic forces? Did materialism play a part in Jewish

history? or their deep adherence to the prophetic writings, a

product of centuries of repression, or the sustaining force of

Torah and Talmud, Karaism and Kabala, Hasidism and Zionism?

Can Toynbee’s ”challenge and response” theory fully explain

the Jewish phenomenon, or was it divine intervention? The most

appropriate answer to these puzzling questions perhaps lies in a

synthesis of two ’metahistorians’ of the Twentieth century the

”fatalistic” or ”nonfree-will” theory of Spengler and the ”freewill”

theory of Toynbee.
The Jews have answered these mute questions of history for

four millennia, defying all cut and dry theories. Since they did

not fit into the customary definition of a civilization, envisaged

by Spengler and Toynbee, they called Judaism an ”arrested

civilization”. However, this so-called ”arrested civilization”

successfully responded to the challenges of history and therein

lies the secret of Jewish survival. This can be better understood

if we define Judaism as a ”culture” and not a ”civilization”. To

quote Amaury de Riencourt from his book The Coming Caesars

,” Culture predominates in young societies awakening to life...

and represents a new world outlook. It implies original creation
CHAPTER 3
THE AWAKENING 81
f new values, or new religious symbols and artistic styles, of

nevv intellectual and spiritual structures, new sciences, new

legislation, new moral codes. It emphasizes the individual rather

than the society, original creation rather than preservation and

duplication, prototypes rather than mass production, an aesthetic

outlook on the life rather than an ethical one. Culture is essentially

trail-blazing. ”Civilization, on the other hand, represents the

crystallization on a gigantic scale of the preceding Culture’s deepest

and greatest thoughts and styles, living on the petrified stock

forms created by the parent Culture, basically uncreative, culturally

sterile, but efficient in its mass organization, practical and ethical,

spreading over large surfaces on the globe, finally ending in a

universal state...Civilization aims at the gradual standardization

of increasingly large masses of men within a rigidly mechanical

framework-masses of ’common men’ who think alike, feel alike,

thrive on conformism, are willing to bow to vast bureaucratic

structures, and in whom the social instinct predominates over

that of the creative individual.”
Each successive blow to the Jewish existence brought forth

a new energy for survival. The exile from Egypt resulted in the

formation of a state in Canaan. Babylonian captivity invigorated

the emerging civilization. The war with Rome dissociated them

from the destiny of that declining civilization, as they dispersed

into the Diaspora. Thus exiled to freedom into Diaspora, they

carried their highly developed culture of prophets, saints and

scholars. The Jews went down under and came up again with

°ne civilization after another. This bred in the Jewish blood

resilience of character, the tensile strength of mind and body.

The firm belief that they were Cod’s Chosen People, forever

kindled the fire of survival. Jews would bend but could not

break. The Diaspora in a sense was a blessing in disguise, shielding

them as it did from the fate of other civilizations which rose and

’ell with time. The Diaspora remains the universal soul of Judaism,

’he question before history is - ”Are the Jews like the Hindus,

a divinely chosen people to fulfill a divine mission?” Does it

follow the prophecy of Isaiah or the sages of Vedas and
82 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAPTER ;3
Upanishads to create a brotherhood of man ”Vasudhaijy

Kutumbakam” and having fulfilled their pre-ordained missiotn

disappear from the pages of history. The answer is a resounding

”No”. Jews like the Hindus have too much of a past, a potemt

culture and civilisation to give them an anchor in any deluge cof

future history. The Hindus like the Jews have suffered persecutionri

through ages and still retain their faith and identity.
Down the lane of history, the trinity of Jehovah, Torah anod

Prophets by design or accident, evolved the laws not only tco

preserve the Jews as Jews but to preserve mankind as a wholee.

The Hindu sages in the past did the same. It will be a veryy

faithful reproduction of the teachings of Hindu sages, Vedas anod

Upanishads as one views Jewish achievements not merely irin

material terms of a tiny people in a tiny land but their overalill

spiritual achievements. Removing the blinkers of prejudice anod

viewing the world not as a ”thing” but as an ”idea”, the reaal

truth shall reveal itself as two thirds of the civilized world is rulecd

by the ideas of Jews and their teachers like Moses, Jesus, Paulil,

Spinoza, Marx, Freud, Einstein along with Hindu sages whosee

words of wisdom lie scattered in un-discovered manuscriptss.

Will the world in the next two millennia imbibe the morality oof

Judaism and Hinduism? If so, Isaiah’s words ”Peace peace, tcto

him that is far off and to him that is near” shall come true.
At the start of the modern age, prior, during and soon afteer

the World War I, Jews were divided into two distinct groupss:

those belonging to the Western democracy under liveable!?

conditions and the other half in the Eastern Europe and Russia

in just the opposite. After the defeat of Russia, the World Waer

I and the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution, the radicals werffe

faced once again with the ”Jewish question”. Slavofile gave hisis

description on this question as ”one third conversion, one thircrd

migrants and one third starvation”. These pogroms initiated as a a

diversion for the masses from the miseries, were later adoptectd

in the whole of Russia despite world protests. This led to a a

Diaspora of Jews into various lands, leaving a miserable few inin

the Russian heartland. Then one day the worm turned. Havingig
«• -.„ -i THE AWAKENING 83
CHAPTER J
ved away from politics for long, and tired of the train of

wish funerals, the young Jews threw caution to the winds,

bandoned the policy of appeasement and demanded their

lace under the sun, ready to fight for it, if necessary. Instead

of begging, they now demanded liberties, entered politics and

underground movements. Some Jewish liberals even joined the

Red Army organised by Leon Trotsky to fight the invaders assisted

by White Russians. The Eastern Jews even fought the Western

lews in German uniform not only on the battlefield but also in

the battles between the Left and the Right in the fields of idea

and theology. Thus modern Jewish history begins with an

impatient Jew knocking on the closing doors of the eighteenth

century for admission to full citizenship. Little did the Jews realise

that there was even more savage racism waiting for them in the

West. The word ’anti-Semitism’ first came in the historical lexicon

around 1879, coined by a German, and defined a new pattern

of Jewish-Christian relationship. With the development of scientific

age at the beginning of the nineteenth century and World War

I, the Jews like their gentile counterparts became extroverts and

developed a utilitarian and scientific temper. But the East European

Jews remained introvert clinging to their Jewish past to seek

affirmation in the future. As the two poles of civilization while

the Western Jew acquired modern, Western culture, the Jew in

the East adhered to his old and true Jewish culture. A scholar

of history has said:
”An unhistoric people is acted upon by events. A historic

people acts upon events. The Jews have remained a historic

people through the centuries because they have always been

active agents instead of passive bystanders. The Modern Age

was no exception. The Jews were not only acted upon by

historical forces but they themselves also acted upon history”.
^