CHAPTER XIIIA DIFFICULT ALTERNATIVE
The Jews’ Expulsion Bill had been passed through the House of Lords at last, but the Act would not be put into full force until the April of the next year. The fourteen months’ grace was given for charity’s sake, in order that those Jews who came under the ban might have time to settle up their affairs. This was certainly an improvement on the Expulsion of 1290, when the Jews were deprived of all they possessed, and cast adrift in such a manner that many of them succumbed before reaching the other side of the Channel. Nevertheless, Athelstan Moore and his party had taken care to impose certain restrictions, so that the interim would not be entirely a respite. The immigration of aliens from abroad, whetheren routefor other countries or not, was immediately stopped, no foreign Jew of whatever status being allowed to land. No Jew was allowed to rent or purchase any new property, and the money-lending business was brought to an abrupt standstill. Jewish marriages were forbidden, and all Jews holding civic positions were deprived of office. Besides all this, there were numerous rules and regulations of lesser importance, so that the Jew would find himself hedged in on every side. But there existed a loophole of escape available to all;it was nothing to the Government that it would be accepted only by the few.
This loophole consisted of a certificate of assimilation granted by every local magistrate on certain conditions. Any Jew or Jewess over the age of fifteen was eligible as a candidate, and children could be signed for by their parents. In order to obtain it, certain statements had to be declared on oath in the presence of a commissioner and three witnesses, and once the oath was taken, the penalty for breaking it would be extremely severe. The conditions were embodied in the following form of declaration:
“I ............ hereby declare that I am a Jew (or Jewess) by birth only, and not by religion; that I totally renounce Judaism, and everything connected therewith; that I will mix freely with Gentiles, and do my best to dispel all clannishness and cliquism of race.
“I further undertake to make the Christian Sunday my day of rest, and to celebrate socially the great Christian festivals; also to partake of ordinary Gentile food, and to cease to observe the Jewish dietary laws; to refrain from speaking or reading Hebrew, and from the use of Jewish idioms. I promise to abstain from every Jewish rite, to attend either a Christian, Theistic, or Unitarian place of worship, and to associate myself religiously and socially with either of these three bodies.
(If eligible for marriage.) “I undertake to marry one of Gentile birth only, and to bring up any children of the said union in the faith of their Gentile parent.
(If already married.) “I undertake to teach all my children, both now and in the future, the religion of the Church (Christian, Theistic, or Unitarian) I intend to make my own.
(Signed) .....................”
(Signed) .....................”
(Signed) .....................”
(Signed) .....................”
Here was to follow the full name address, anddescription of the candidate, with photograph attached.
This certificate was granted only to those who were already British subjects either by birth or by naturalisation of five years’ standing. No “greener” was therefore eligible, and foreign labour in Whitechapel was thereby done away with. The formula had been drawn up by Mr. Lawson Holmes, M.P., the ardent advocate of assimilation in its most thorough form. To him it seemed fair and just, and the only means of refining the Jewish element of the English nation to its due proportion. He considered that from the point of view of utilitarianism, mere sentiment must be put aside. He was not an anti-Semite, and he disagreed on many points with the Premier; he was undoubtedly a man of sound common sense.
As was to be expected, however, his formula evoked a storm of indignation in the Jewish press. Eloquent appeals to the patriotism of the race were issued and disseminated amongst the British Jews throughout the land, and meetings of protest were held despite the vigilance of the police. What People—were they ever so irresponsible—would renounce their race and religion, together with their ancient and illustrious past, at the mere word of command? The very thought of persecution was enough to make men cling to their cherished traditions with a new and greater strength. Such a result—the deepening of their peculiar unity—had been proved in the annals of history over and over again.
“I shall go and see Holmes to-night,” Montella said to his wife, as soon as he had received noticeof the formula. “I cannot rest until I have made him see the absurdity of the whole thing. He used to be a friend of mine.”
“Ask him what would be his answer if he were commanded to give up his birthright as a freeborn English Christian,” advised his mother, with heat.
“But don’t make matters worse by quarrelling with him, dear,” added Patricia gently.
Montella promised to use his discretion; he was not of a fiery temperament. He met Mr. Lawson Holmes in the lobby of the House of Commons, and adjourned with him to his club. His friend insisted on dining first before entering on the subject, and Lionel consented to partake of a vegetarian repast. It was when they lingered over their wine that the Cabinet Minister began his defence. He could not help being impressed in spite of himself by Lionel’s reproachful mien.
“Now, my dear fellow, let us survey the question from an economic standpoint,” he began, as he puffed away at a cigar. “I shall proceed to dissect you metaphorically, if you have no objection?”
“None at all, so long as you leave the ego—that which is my real self—intact,” Lionel replied.
“Very well, then, let us begin.” The Minister removed his cigar from his lips, and placed it between his fingers. “First of all, I take it that you are one of the units of which the English nation is composed: that you are by birth and education an Englishman, and a subject of the King?”
Montella acquiesced.
“That being so, then, your tastes are naturally British, and your interest is to a great degree monopolised by the country of your birth. This is provedby the mere fact of your being an ex-member of Parliament, in which capacity I know you desired to exercise your influence for the national good.”
“Certainly.”
“Yet when you are told that a certain legislation concerning the question of the Jews is for the national good, you steadfastly set your face against it, and resent its introduction. Being hemmed in by the narrowness of your creed, you are unable to get outside yourself, so to speak, and look at the matter from a rational and utilitarian point of view. That is the great difference between you and your parliamentary colleagues.”
“Exactly,” put in Montella eagerly. “I am a Jew.”
“A Jew, yes; but I wish to discover how much of the Jew there is in you—the real Jew, according to the Oriental sense of the term. That there is an element of Hebraism in your moral and intellectual nature I do not dispute; but there are other and Occidental elements which you have inherited to a greater degree. Do you think your forefathers, when they left Palestine and lived in the West, were not affected by the influences of Hellenism, of Chivalry, of the Renaissance, of the Reformation, and of the Christian ethics in general, with which they came into contact? My dear fellow, the Occidental Jew—such as yourself—is no more like the Hebrew of old than I am! Do you think that if you were forced to live in strict accordance with the Talmudic law, you would feel that you were fulfilling the obligations of your race? I assure you that you would feel nothing of the kind; you would know that you were returning to darkness, shutting out civilisation and light.”
“Perhaps so,” replied the young man thoughtfully, “but for all that, I am a Jew, and not all the Occidental influences in the world have been able to break the bond which unites me to my forefathers. Blood is thicker than water, Mr. Holmes; and when once the blood of an Israelite flows in a man’s veins, it is impossible for him to forget his heritage. He may renounce it as he likes, but by his looks, his temperament, his associations, his very tricks of gesture, he betrays it. That I have nothing in common with the typical Jew of tradition, and that I am a thorough Englishman at heart I am glad to admit; nevertheless there is a difference between myself and you, for instance. Small and indefinable though it may be, you know that it is there.”
He had drawn his chair back from the table in his ardour, and leant back with a flush on his brow. His dark eyes glowed with the intensity of feeling, and about the youthful, clean-shaven face, with its splendid forehead, sensitive nostrils, and firm, yet gentle mouth, there was a nobility which it was hard to resist. Holmes secretly considered Montella a perfect specimen of his race, but he was loath to believe that he had inherited a single good quality from his Hebrew ancestors.
“As long as you remain an idealist, my dear boy, you will never be able to take a dispassionate view of the matter,” he returned, with deliberation. “It is that sentimental clinging to tradition which is your people’s bane. My standpoint, however, is simply this: A Jewish element in a nation is a desirable and almost an essential thing to have, but as soon as that element preponderates—as now—it becomes a danger to the State. Therefore it must be kept withinbounds, and those Jews who refuse to conform to the customs of this country must be weeded out. The only way out of the present crisis, it seems to me, is absorption, for as long as you Jews remain separatists you have no right to the full privileges of the land of your adoption. Therefore the Government has thought fit to take stringent measures to bring about this result; and although I admit that those measures seem unnecessarily harsh, I know that they are for the benefit of the nation at large. Let those Jews who cherish the scriptural tradition and maintain their clannishness return to the land of their fathers. There must be either assimilation or a separate Jewish state.”
“And you think this justifies the persecution of two hundred and seventy thousand people, the majority of whom are loyal subjects of the King?”
The Minister frowned.
“I do not call it persecution when the alternative is such a reasonable one,” he replied. “It is not as if we were compelling you to become Christians. You can retain your religious belief in the Absolute Unity by declaring yourselves Theists or Monotheists instead of Jews; the change is only in the name.”
“But we are to give up our customs and our Sabbath, our fasts and our feasts, and everything which throughout the centuries has made Judaism the bond of union twixt Jew and Jew!” He sighed, knowing that they might argue till Doomsday, and yet remain as far asunder as the poles. Mr. Lawson Holmes was well informed concerning the Jews, and indeed possessed more knowledge than the average Gentile; but he was not capable of puttinghimself in the position of a Jew; he could not understand the racial claim.
In spite of all Jewish obligations and the condemnation of the press, however, the assimilation plan was not unanimously rejected by the Jews. Some were too deaf to the claims of race and faith to care to retain them; others were less insensible, but could not bear the thought of suffering; others, again, were prepared to sacrifice their personal feelings for the sake of the public good. It was one thing to cherish one’s old traditions, and look kindly on all things Jewish for old association’s sake; it was quite another thing to have to pay for the privilege of doing so by expulsion, physical discomfort, money, and loss of pride. It was found that the majority of those Jews who had long mixed with theéliteof English society, including some of the princes of finance, were quite willing to take the oath; but the number of faithful Jews increased as one descended the social scale. It is ever so when a religious or moral upheaval affects the heart of a people; for a passionate and public adherence to a religious or moral belief one has to look amongst the poor.
The Montellas were a notable exception amongst their prosperousconfrères. The loyal faith and inherent sense of duty possessed by Lady Montella were shared by her son, and to him the rest of their co-religionists looked for help. Young as he was, he possessed all the characteristics which conduce to the making of a good leader, and in his devotion to the cause he made a worthy protector of his people’s interests. It was good to know that amidst the trouble and confusion of this terrible crisis there was a man in Israel on whom one could depend—aman who possessed the power of wealth and influence as well as that of intellectual attainments, whose very personality inspired confidence in the souls of the depressed, whose heart was in truth a heart of gold. Encouraged by the resolute faith of his mother, and influenced by the beautiful disposition of his wife, his character expanded in breadth without losing its manliness. Difficulties which would have filled others with alarm, were to him as so many easily surmounted obstacles to be overcome. With a clearness of vision, granted only to the few, he was able to look onward in the future, seeing not the immediate distress of present circumstances, but only the coming glory of that Eastern Land.