The Jew in the Turkish Revolution [Part 2]

Julius T. Loeb, “The Jew in the Turkish Revolution [Part 2],” Birmingham Age-Herald (Birmingham, AL), Sept. 12, 1909. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038485/1909-09-12/ed-1/seq-29/ 

THE JEW IN THE TURKISH REVOLUTION

By Rabbi Julius T. Loeb

    There are about 1,000,000 Jews in Turkey today. Not one-half of them, however, are Turkish citizens, as the majority of those who immigrated to Palestine in recent years had sought to protect themselves under the flag of any of the existing powers abroad, since the situation in Turkey was never safe. Yet even before the constitution was proclaimed the Jews throughout the empire had enjoyed their religious liberty in the broadest sense of the term, and in all things they were recognized as a religious national entity. There was never a “Jewish question” in Turkey, and to all likelihood there never will be one. If the Jews in the Ottoman empire had suffered in any degree it was never as Jews that they suffered, but merely as men, owing to economic depression and the misrule of government which involved all sections of the community.

    The only incident of a serious character recorded in the annals of the Jews in Turkey, like a solitary spot on a clear horizon, is the famous “blood accusation” of 1840. But even behind that particular tragedy was a European. It was instigated and carried on by the then well known Jew-baiter, Ratti Menton, the French consul in Damascus. And while the regrettable Damascan affair was merely an exceptional case, that most criminal falsehood on earth, the “blood accusation,” Mephisto-like, is still rampant amidst the Aryan peoples, European nations have never yet ceased to be agitated by the belief that the Jews employ Christian blood for ritual purposes; so even to this day the Passover season is too often made an occasion for Jewish massacres and outrages of all kinds. Thus started the horrors in Kishineff, and thus were brought about most all of the frightful brutalities perpetrated upon the Jews by “civilized barbarians” in Europe.

    The successful revolution in Turkey proves to be a revolution also in the life of the Jewish people all over the world. With the rehabilitation of the land of Israel the position of the wandering race must undergo a radical change. The Jew will now find a permanent home from whence none has a right to dislodge him; where the term “alien” shall not be thrust upon him; where he shall not be made a scapegoat in every political or economic irritation, and where his racial and religious distinction shall not become a hinderance upon the way of his advancement. In plain language it means that on mingling with the world the Jew shall no longer be looked upon as an inferior and degraded being, and shall no longer be a byword to all those who surround him. On receiving an appointment of some sort, on entering a college, or being assigned a professorship, or assuming a post of responsibility in any land, and in any of the branches of human activity, the Jew shall no longer be forced to hide away his origin and kindred race, as at present we find it in nine-cases out of 10. A Dr. Zamenhof (the Esperantist) shall no longer figure in the public press as merely a “Russian physician,” a John de Bloch (the true author of the Hague peace conference), shall no longer be hidden away under the stiff shoulders of Nicholas II; a Max Nordau shall not only be known as a French litterateur, but they shall also be proclaimed openly before the world as Jewish geniuses, Jewish patriots, as well as human benefactors in whom rests a truly Jewish soul filled with compassion and love for all that lives and moves on earth. So an Antokolsky, a Rubinstein, a Heine, a Disraeli, will no longer have cause to deny their faith, or belie their ancestry. Such a man as Professor Vamberi shall have no occasion to say that he did not know where his home was or his people or country. Only lately I happened to read in a newspaper an account of the life of Caruso, wherein it was stated that the famous opera singer is a son of Jewish parents, and if this be so, why does not any one know anything about his race or nationality, outside of his assumed name of Italian extraction?

    Yes, the position of the Jew was hitherto the most anomalous of all things within creation. The lack of a permanent home has made a bugbear out of the Jew; has robbed him of his own culture, his own personality, his own flesh and bodily form; and it has just left of him a hollow apparition—a mere “wandering Jew.”

    While the Jew has truly benefited all else by his untiring labors in all the walks of life, he has hardly ever benefited himself; for whatever he possesses of name and fame and human dignity, it is not his own; it is sold for the mere privilege of being permitted to live amongst his neighbors (most of whom are irreconcilably cruel, and they will always throw back to him his faults, whilst hiding all of his virtues from view). While he aided in securing the liberties and rights of practically all the states in civilization he himself is today as ever the man without a country. 

    It is a happy fact, however, that in the Turkish revolution, as in the previous struggles for liberty everywhere in the world, the Jew has acquitted himself honorably and the home which the Jew claims as his own was thus purchased by his own blood. There is every reason now to believe that the hour of Jewish emancipation has struck, and the land of Isreal is once more to become the legal possession of the children of Israel. Not only was the Jew necessary in Turkey during its recent political transformation, but he is still more necessary now for what remains yet to be accomplished in the way of enlivening and developing the land, in awakening the latent fertility of its soil, as well as in rousing up the masses of its inhabitants to labor and peaceful action.

    The newest phase in the development of Turkey is the introduction of American industry into the Palestinian shores. Oscar Straus, the new ambassador to Turkey, on leaving the United States recently carried with him special instructions from President Taft to negotiate with the Turkish government concerning plans of investing American capital in the various enterprises now being undertaken throughout the Ottoman empire. The Turkish government has already manifested its desire to grant all possible concessions to the Americans. This circumstance is viewed by many as a good omen, as a sign of progress and peaceful endeavor in the Holy Land. The Jews more than all else will hail with delight the advent of American activity and enterprise in Zion-land. The Jew, like the Mohommedans, will rather trust to the American square deal than to anything else. European capitalists always have striven to secure their concessions in Turkey with the intervention of their respective governments and by all coersive [sic] and forceful means; but the United States seeks to trade with Turkey in a perfectly friendly, legal and business-like manner. The United States means business, and nothing but business; whereas others are so conspicuous for their motives of aggression. The Holy Land, wherein the interests of all civilized mankind are centered, and at this particular period when it is to undergo its process of deevlopment [sic] and regeneration, it is essential that American methods and business interests be carried into the border thereof. The United States as a world power that is respected by all, and known for its just dealing toward all, must necessarily produce a wholesome influence over the newly formed commonwealth of the Orient, and will thus surely avert much of the evil arising from the petty prejudices amidst the various nationalities and diversified creeds in Palestine. The American government, directly or indirectly, will put a halt to every manner of encroachment by the powers upon this coveted land. As the American government was first to move its fleet from Chinese waters during the “Boxer” affair, and has in many other ways proven itself the peace-maker and benefactor of nations, so this government will doubtless make this first initiative step toward removing the constantly agitating political machinations in the Holy Land, which are always mixed with religious animosity. 

    The United States government could do no better act in this direction than that of selecting a Jew for the post of ambassador to new Turkey. An American and a Jew is a very apt combination that will prove acceptable to Turkey and will be most likely to bring about satisfactory results, as also to instill confidence in the minds of the Turkish government and people. Oscar Straus is certainly a man of worth and value, and well qualified for the office, as he had already filled a similar office on previous occasions; yet there can be no denying of the fact that President Taft selected him also on the ground that he was a Jew; as this position was previously tendered to Judge Sulzberger of Philadelphia, and, if I am not mistaken, also to Mr. Guggenheim of New York. By all means a Jew was apparently necessary to go to Turkey. It is well understood that in any dilemma and all the complicated questions in this direction it is best that there be a representative of government who is known to be fair and impartial in his political tendency as well as independent in his religious views.

    The Turkish government by itself is now about to embark in the difficult task of solving the question of the nationalities in Turkey. A special session is now being called for this serious problem. And it will be of interest to note that the announcement was made by Dr. Nazim Bey, chairman of the previous convention of the Young Turks at Salonica, that at the next assembly which is to take up the matter of the various nationalities in Turkey—not a Turk, but a Jew by the name of H. Witalis, will be called to preside. 

    Some weeks ago a spurious report found its way into several newspapers at Constantinople, which was to the effect that the Jews do not mean well with Turkey, and that the Zionist movement is a positive menace to the Turkish government. The answer given by the government was the appointment of an investigating committee, consisting of all the four Jewish members of parliament in conjunction with two Turkish deputies. The result of the committee’s findings may be learned from the fact that the Turkish government is now even more earnest in soliciting Jewish immigration, and more anxiously awaiting the spread of Jewish industries and activity in the land, while the Jewish nationalists are today more than ever sanguine in their hopes for a realization of the Zionist ideal.

    In reply to the perfidious charges and calumnies which put Zionism in such false light, the following declaration was issued also from Zionist headquarters, viz.: 1. The aims and purposes of Zionism are in perfect harmony with the idea of Turkey as a united commonwealth. 2. Turkey is today a constitutional government, and her will is expressed only through parliament, or the trusted ministers, not through sheer interviews published in newspapers. 3. The Jews are grateful and loyal to Turkey and ready to assist her. 4. The Liberal statesmen of the new Turkey cannot but recognize the vast advantages that Jews may bring to Turkey when settled in Palestine. 

    Zionism has nothing to hide of its plans and expectations. The Jewish people are ready to aid in the upbuilding and up lifting of new Turkey, and in guarding the interests and integrity of the land. In return they demand, what was already partially granted, the full rights of citizenship under the new Turkish commonwealth. Also the grant of a certain amount of home rule, whenever that might be possible without injury to the safety and stability of the land. Cable dispatches now bring the information that the “red passes,” which lay as a stumbling block in the way of Jewish immigration, are already abolished. 

    These passes were formerly handed to foreign Jews on their entering the Palestinian shores, as a reminder that their stay in Turkish territory could only last for three months, and no longer (American and British immigrants were the only exception). Now the gates of the Holy Land are wide open before the Jewish immigrants from every land and clime.

    A special cable dispatch to the Jewish Morning Journal recently says that the Turkish government has now issued orders to all of its officials at the Palestinian seaports that instead of the customary “red passes,” now out of existence, they are to offer naturalization papers to all of the Jewish immigrants who are desirous to settle in the land.

    Actions thus seem to speak louder than the words of those who did everything possible to confuse the situation; to throw dust in the eyes of the world; to besmirch the Jewish character, and bring into disfavor the conduct of the Young Turk leaders who are known to be so closely connected with their Jewish colleagues.

    At last the new Turkish government has spoken in unmistakable terms, and that by removing the difficulties from the path of Jewish immigration, and by offering the Jews the full rights of citizenship immediately upon their arrival.

    The time is near at hand when the Jew will play high role in the political and industrial life of the Turkish empire.