Without fearing the accusation of “self-righteousness” hurled at us by that historian, I may answer this question in the affirmative for most of our co-religionists. These obligations are fulfilled in Jewish circles to the same extent that they are among our Christian fellow citizens. But does this suffice? Is there not perhaps a grain of truth in some of the charges leveled against us in these writings, especially as they concern individual occurrences? In particular, I would consider the following: the frivolous and joking impulse, the advertising, the pushiness, the boasting, the usury, and the penchant for effortless earning.
Frivolity is something alien to the Jew by nature. Our lofty literature and history prove it. Only with the Frenchifying Enlightenment of the previous century was this inclination imported into semi-educated circles, both Jewish and Christian. The compulsion toward joking is not an originally Jewish trait. From the Talmud, that book which is more or less unknown to all of us, we are only familiar with the maxims of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot), which adorn every prayer book and are indeed among the most magnificent that aphoristic wisdom has ever produced in terms of profound ethics. It contains no trace of jokes or joking. This tendency developed only under the pressure of the ghetto. Jokes are the intellectual weapon of the persecuted. If the otherwise commendable Jewish chronicler, Professor Grätz, whom the aforementioned historian rightly accuses of sharp words against Germany (although this is understandable on account of persecution and discrimination) finds fault with the noblest and most outstanding of all German Jews, Gabriel Rießer, for not writing in a humorous style – then it is high time to emphasize that we do not claim humor as a Jewish characteristic, that we regard earnestness, truthfulness, and conviction as the most valuable qualities of all.
Usury, advertising, and effortless profiteering – these evils of the times are not rooted exclusively, let alone proportionately, in Jewish ground; adherents of all religions have contributed their share to them. Yet it is our obligation to admonish our co-religionists to avoid all that and to educate their children to pursue honorable and useful occupations. And in this respect, the Committee of the Congregation League has repeatedly done its duty.
Nevertheless, one will certainly continue to accuse us of representing – as that historian put it – a dual nationality. But that is simply untrue and unhistorical. The Jewish Germans are Germans just like the Christian Germans. With respect to Germanness, their Jewishness operates in the same manner as Freemasonry and the Protestant League. Freemasonry is spread all over the world, but no discerning person would call a German Freemason a bad German. On the contrary, anyone who knows Freemasonry, and anyone who knows Jewry, will say that the Germans who belong to them, provided that they follow their teachings, will be among the better Germans.
These days, at a time when pessimists and materialists are engaged in a bitter struggle against everything ideal, one should endeavor to recognize and incorporate the Jews, regardless of their religious branch, as comrades in the quest for the ideal, the religious, instead of turning them away.
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