To mark the death date of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, which falls this year, as it did 84 years ago, on the convergence of the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars—the 29th of Tammuz and Aug. 4—it would be appropriate to allow some of his thoughts be remembered. There is no need to recall his roles and activities, as they were of the past. What is proper at this occasion is to remember his analyses, his predictions and his instructions since they are relevant at this time.
I have selected from some of his lesser-known articles to illustrate the breadth and depth of his thinking that can affect our approaches to today’s events.
From “Two Tablets: One Torah,” 1934:
“I did not learn my Zionism from Ahad Ha’am or even from Herzl and Nordau: I learned it from non-Jews. I spent the best years of my youth in Rome and managed to take a good look at Italy. A lovely and free country … liberal, peaceful, without a shadow of chauvinism. … No one bothers anyone, no one oppresses anyone. This is how, it seemed, every nation should live, and we Jews too.
“Now they sometimes say that the ‘non-Jewish school’ of Zionism gave a bad education, that Zionism should be studied from Jewish sources, from a catechism with various paragraphs, with arguments for and against. I believe that this is not so. In Zionism there is no place for pilpul, commentaries or arguments for and against. Zionism is as clear and simple as air and water, as a mountain and a valley. Just as it is enough to look at God’s world to understand its wisdom, so Zionism can be understood without any special intellectual approaches. A piece of God’s land, whether it is called Italy, France, England or something else; it does not matter …
“ … Forgive me for being wary of the category of ideas that make up the complex of spiritual Zionism in my Zionist youth. At that time, it sounded like an attempt to instill in Zionism the dangerous features of ghetto psychology: political passivity, admiration for the East, its quietism and patriarchy—a kind of pacifism that boils down to Eretz-Yisrael being conquered for us by strangers. … Spirit can also be ‘imperialist’ and can annex everything—from the right and from the left. Spirit demands both banks of the Jordan, and state independence, and the gathering of millions of the dispersed. Spirit believes in the West, in Europe and America, in technical progress and in women’s suffrage. Spirit is not afraid of the Jewish legion. Spirit is not only a university with a technical school and a commercial academy and even a military academy (until the prophet Isaiah’s dream of disarmament comes true). Herzl, Nordau, Ahad Ha’am—they had disagreements in life, but today we know their common truth: two tablets, one Torah. Spirit is building a kingdom for itself on earth.”
From “The Fates of Jewry,” 1933
“The German crusade against the Jews is the most important and serious thing that has happened in our national life for a number of generations. It is so important and so significant for our world future that the positions of various trends in Jewish public opinion will probably change, and above all a change will occur in the Zionist movement. We all sense—some of us still unconsciously—how insignificant our various problems now seem, which only a month ago were at the center of the discussion and could have taken first place at the next Zionist congress. Everything is now pushed into the background by events in Germany …
“ … I now learn from the newspapers that several respectable German Jews have gone to London on a special mission to ‘calm down’ the Jews, and that the London Jews are now in chaos, so they do not know how to connect this peacemaking mission with the authentic news from Germany that the Jews are being systematically ousted from all economic and social positions. This delegation should have answered with the greatest politeness: ‘Alright, we take note of everything you say and our assurances that you are satisfied. But it is about us, and we are very dissatisfied, and we will act in accordance with our position. Tell Hitler that we are not defending you, but ourselves!’
“The historical significance of the chapter of our history, the ‘events in Germany,’ goes much further than our self-defense against the new world ghetto. The essence of these events lies in the role they will reflect in the history of Zionism.”
From “An Appeal to Youth,” 1926
“What is youth? Youth is not a concept of age, just as one cannot say that spring is not yet ripe summer. Youth is something else: a special fire, a special electricity. … Youth is the spring of the lever, designed to set in motion the mechanism of a society that is on the eve of a crisis in a state of stagnation.
“This definition is also true for society. Let’s assume that society is faced with a choice between two paths of its development. There is the old path, the bad one, but on the other hand, people come who propose to pave a new path, explain its essence, the value of its ideals. This path looks dangerous, but it is precisely this path that must be followed. … The ‘mechanism’ of society is at a ‘dead point.’ What will the mechanic do in such a situation? He will fix the problems and bring the machine out of the ‘dead point’—and the fire burns, steam comes out, pressure is formed … and the machine works.
“The spring of the mechanism in the life of society is youth … as one of those who ignites the spirit of the youth in Eretz Israel, for which I work and will work for the rest of my life, I turn to the young Jews and Jewish women right here in Tel Aviv and ask, ‘Do you have this fire? Are you young?’ I don’t need to hear your answer in the form of applause. You will answer it with your whole life, and the next generation will see whether you have answered it or not. You must answer.”
From “On the Wrong Track,” 1912
“I understand perfectly well that an ‘assimilator’ is, most often, a product of assimilation, and at a certain age, he can no longer remake himself. He is accustomed to living by [a] culture while another is inaccessible to him, and he has nowhere to go. You can’t condemn yourself to spiritual hunger. I understand that. You can’t demand personal sacrifices from each individual, especially such long-term ones, for a lifetime. We are not talking about the personal behavior of this or that Jewish intellectual. We are talking about political orientation. We not only live personally, but we also lay out lines for the future. “If we have reached a dead end and a certain part of our generation no longer has a way out, then there remains a duty to direct tomorrow’s generations along a different track. The creation of a national culture, the struggle for its hegemony in the Jewish soul is a task also for those of us who are no longer destined to drink from its springs. Let him build for his son, let him draw a plan of life for those who are happier. And most importantly, let him loudly admit that his path was a false path, and stand aside from the threshold of the trap into which he himself fell—not letting others in.”
