The Jews

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THE JEWS

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BY THE SAME AUTHOR:

EUROPE AND THE FAITH

"Mr. Belloc has developed a side of history which is a wholesome antidote to self-satisfied Anglicanism; and he has produced a brilliant and burningly sincere historical essay which sweeps his reader along. It is certainly the best book he has written."--The Church Times.

THE OLD ROAD

With Illustrations by William Hyde, a Map and Route Guides. New Edition.

THE STANE STREET

A Monograph. With Illustrations by William Hyde, and Maps.

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THE JEWS

by

HILAIRE BELLOC

[Illustration: Hebrew text]

Constable & Company, Limited London Bombay Sydney

First Published 1922 Second Impression 1922

To

MISS RUBY GOLDSMITH

MY SECRETARY FOR MANY YEARS AT KING'S LAND AND THE BEST AND MOST INTIMATE OF OUR JEWISH FRIENDS, TO WHOM MY FAMILY AND I WILL ALWAYS OWE A DEEP DEBT OF GRATITUDE

PREFACE

The object of this book is more modest, I fear, than that of much which has appeared upon that vital political matter, the relation between the Jews and the nations around them.

It does not propose any detailed, still less, any positive legal solution to what has become a pressing problem, nor does it pretend to any complete solution of it. It is no more than a suggestion that any attempt to solve this problem ought to follow certain general lines which are essentially different from those attempted in Western Europe during the time immediately preceding our own. I suggest that, if the present generation in both parties to the discussion, the Jews and ourselves, will drop convention and make a principle of discussing the problem in terms of reality, we shall automatically approach a right solution.

We have but to tell the truth in the place of the falsehoods of the last generation. Therefore, of the three principles upon which this essay reposes, the principle that concealment must come to an end seems to me more important than the principle of mutual recognition, or even the principle of mutual respect. For it may well be that my judgment is at fault in the matter of Jewish national consciousness; it may well be that I exaggerate it, and it is certain that one party to a debate cannot be possessed of the full knowledge required for its settlement; the other side must be heard. But neither my judgment nor the judgment of any man can be at fault on the value of truth and the ultimate evil consequences of trying to build upon a lie.

The English reader (less, I think, the American) will often find in my sentences a note that will seem to him fantastic. The quarrel is already acute here in London, but it has not here approached the limits which it has reached long ago elsewhere; and a man accustomed to the quieter air in which all public affairs have, until recently, been debated in this country, may smile at what will seem to him odd and exaggerated fears. To this I would reply that the book has been written not only in the light of English, but of a general, experience. I will bargain that were it put into the hands of a jury chosen from the various nationalities of Europe and the United States it would be found too moderate in its estimate of the peril it postulates. I would further ask the reader, who may not have appreciated how rapidly the peril approaches, to consider the distance traversed in the last few years. It is not very long since a mere discussion of the Jewish question in England was impossible. It is but a few years since the mere admission of it appeared abnormal. The truth is that this question is not one which we open or close at will in any European nation. It is imposed successively upon one nation after another by the force of things. It is this force of things, this necessity for national well-being, and for the warding off of disorder, which has thrust the Jewish question to-day upon a society still reluctant to consider it and still hoping it may return to its old neglect. It cannot so return.