Why Are We Jews and Why Do We Wish to Remain Jews?
A lecture by Dr. Ludwig Hollaender at the Synagogue
Source: C.V Zeitung 16 December 1932
The materialistic spirit, should it be as dominant as it has been in the past decades, presents a threat to everything Jewish. It has never been convenient to be a Jew, especially not in such materialistic times as the pre-war years. At that time, many felt that being Jewish was the only barrier between them and the world. Many parents therefore felt that they would ease their children's path by having them join the majority religion. The parents' intentions proved to be counter-productive, because the children often did not grow to be happy, satisfied people, but turned into torn, desolate persons. However, even people who had not chosen to leave Judaism had in many ways lost the meaning and inner bonds to the unique value of being a Jew.
The devaluation of material assets has brought about a change.… It is a blessing for a person's inner wealth if, when he loses material assets, he finds a new source of strength in religious feelings…
If we admit that there is a new readiness for religion, we have to answer why for us this entails turning towards Judaism. To answer this question we must examine the essence of being Jewish. Judaism is more than a grandiose religious structure. It is a phenomenon, erected on a foundation of religious cognition and essence, based on a community which shares a common fate, a common origin and an old national kinship. This sociological group's great spiritual strength is also being determined by everything that is today being called mneme in the biological sense of the term. The literal translation of mneme is Memory. The corpus of memories and the process of past generations' evolution is harbored in every man. The foundation of a Jew's life is the long history of Judaism, the experiences and fate of a long line of generations, of which he is the most recent link. …We can find the large fundamental challenges of our life manifested in Judaism: The personal ideal, the ideal of family, the social-ethnic ideal, the ideal of purpose and of education and the ideal of peace. …All along its history of suffering and tears Judaism has defended its ideals against the world. We were in the past - and still are - a community of people whose ideals are: in the first place truth, then justice and finally peace. The struggle of German Jews, the hope of all Jews today, is that truth, justice and peace will soon once again be the foundation for the productive cooperation of all parts of the German people to secure a better future…
