A Jewish Conservative German National Perspective - Hans Joachim Schoeps
A Jewish Conservative German National Perspective - From an Article by Hans Joachim Schoeps, a leader of the German Pioneer Corps
Source : Der Deutsche Vortrupp, Heft 1, October 1933
'The Jew in the New Germany'
...We conservative German Jews take exception to the liberals and the Zionists. We shall continue to feel an affiliation with them from the religious standpoint, as long as they, despite all the fallacies in their relations, continue to regard the synagogue as the setting through which the Jews are exalted vis-a-vis the rest of the world. However, from the political standpoint, both the Zionists and the Assimilationists are on the other side of the divide. In this stand-off with the Assimilationists and the Zionists, we constitute a third front in that we, the aware Jews, side with Germany unconditionally. Therefore, the reality of German Jewry, as conservatives understand it, is this: We are distinguished by our religion and our origins as Jews - not as non-Aryans - in a distinction that transcends mere biology. To be precise, we have no culture ( Kultur ) of our own, but only our own religion ( kultus ). We have no spoken language of our own, but merely a holy tongue. Apart from the religious aspect, we have no specifically Jewish desire but only a German one. It is for Germany that our hearts pound.... The slogan of our movement is: Come what may - Willing [to act] for Germany
