the world as i see it 25

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To you all I say that the existence and destiny of our people depend less on external factors than on ourselves remaining faithful to the moral traditions which have enabled us to survive for thousands of years despite the heavy storms that have broken over our heads. In the service of life sacrifice becomes grace. Working Palestine Among Zionist organizations "Working Palestine" is the one whose work is of most direct benefit to the most valuable class of people living there--namely, those who are transforming deserts into flourishing settlements by the labour of their hands. These workers are a selection, made on a voluntary basis, from the whole Jewish nation, an élite composed of strong, confident, and unselfish people. They are not ignorant labourers who sell the labour of their hands to the highest bidder, but educated, intellectually vigorous, free men, from whose peaceful struggle with a neglected soil the whole Jewish nation are the gainers, directly and indirectly. By lightening their heavy lot as far as we can we shall be saving the most valuable sort of human life; for the first settlers' struggle on ground not yet made habitable is a difficult and dangerous business involving a heavy personal sacrifice. How true this is, only they can 1

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THE WORLD AS I SEE IT by Albert EinsteinPREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITIONOnly individuals have a sense of responsibility.

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To you all I say that the existence and destiny of our people depend less onexternal factors than on ourselves remaining faithful to the moral traditionswhich have enabled us to survive for thousands of years despite the heavystorms that have broken over our heads. In the service of life sacrificebecomes grace.Working PalestineAmong Zionist organizations "Working Palestine" is the one whose work is ofmost direct benefit to the most valuable class of people living there--namely,those who are transforming deserts into flourishing settlements by the labourof their hands. These workers are a selection, made on a voluntary basis,from the whole Jewish nation, an élite composed of strong, confident, andunselfish people. They are not ignorant labourers who sell the labour of theirhands to the highest bidder, but educated, intellectually vigorous, free men,from whose peaceful struggle with a neglected soil the whole Jewish nationare the gainers, directly and indirectly. By lightening their heavy lot as far aswe can we shall be saving the most valuable sort of human life; for the firstsettlers' struggle on ground not yet made habitable is a difficult and dangerousbusiness involving a heavy personal sacrifice. How true this is, only they canjudge who have seen it with their own eyes. Anyone who helps to improve theequipment of these men is helping on the good work at a crucial point.

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It is, moreover, this working class alone that has it in its power to establishhealthy relations with the Arabs, which is the most important political task ofZionism. Administrations come and go; but it is human relations that finallyturn the scale in the lives of nations. Therefore to support "Working Palestine"is at the same time to promote a humane and worthy policy in Palestine, andto oppose an effective resistance to those undercurrents of narrow nationalismfrom which the whole political world, and in a less degree the small politicalworld of Palestine affairs, is suffering.Jewish RecoveryI gladly accede to your paper's request that I should address an appeal to theJews of Hungary on behalf of Keren Hajessod.The greatest enemies of the national consciousness and honour of the Jewsare fatty degeneration--by which I mean the unconscionableness which comesfrom wealth and ease--and a kind of inner dependence on the surroundingGentile world which comes from the loosening of the fabric of Jewish society.The best in man can flourish only when he loses himself in a community.73Hence the moral danger of the Jew who has lost touch with his own peopleand is regarded as a foreigner by the people of his adoption. Only too often acontemptible and joyless egoism has resulted from such circumstances. Theweight of outward oppression on the Jewish people is particularly heavy at the

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moment. But this very bitterness has done us good. A revival of Jewishnational life, such as the last generation could never have dreamed of, hasbegun. Through the operation of a newly awakened sense of solidarity amongthe Jews, the scheme of colonizing Palestine launched by a handful of devotedand judicious leaders in the face of apparently insuperable difficulties, hasalready prospered so far that I feel no doubt about its permanent success.The value of this achievement for the Jews everywhere is very great. Palestinewill be a centre of culture for all Jews, a refuge for the most grievouslyoppressed, a field of action for the best among us, a unifying ideal, and ameans of attaining inward health for the Jews of the whole world.Anti-Semitism and Academic YouthSo long as we lived in the ghetto our Jewish nationality involved for usmaterial difficulties and sometimes physical danger, but no social orpsychological problems. With emancipation the position changed, particularlyfor those Jews who turned to the intellectual professions. In school and at theuniversity the young Jew is exposed to the influence of a society with a definitenational tinge, which he respects and admires, from which he receives hismental sustenance, to which he feels himself to belong, while it, on the otherhand, treats him, as one of an alien race, with a certain contempt and hostility.Driven by the suggestive influence of this psychological superiority rather than

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by utilitarian considerations, he turns his back on his people and his traditions,and considers himself as belonging entirely to the others while he tries in vainto conceal from himself and them the fact that the relation is not reciprocal.Hence that pathetic creature, the baptized Jewish Geheimrat of yesterdayand to-day. In most cases it is not pushfulness and lack of character that havemade him what he is, but, as I have said, the suggestive power of anenvironment superior in numbers and influence. He knows, of course, thatmany admirable sons of the Jewish people have made important contributionsto the glory of European civilization; but have they not all, with a fewexceptions, done much the same as he?In this case, as in many mental disorders, the cure lies in a clear knowledge ofone's condition and its causes. We must be conscious of our alien race anddraw the logical conclusions from it. It is no use trying to convince the othersof our spiritual and intellectual equality by arguments addressed to the reason,when their attitude does not originate in their intellects at all. Rather must weemancipate ourselves socially and supply our social needs, in the main,

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