Download 2+10`ZZ ANS §_ 4

*c
iké?
\/I
‘;
JUDAISIJ AND
communsu
3nd. 2+10‘ZZ é9q~
ANS §_ 4- M.
The.1ost impofitant single Cact in the world today is, and has been
since 19MB, the Cold War, the conflict between East and West.
It is
partly a political conflict: a power rivalry between the two mightiest
As for that, we can only hope and
Inations the world has ever known.
pray that the present stalemate will continue long enough for the
establishment, under the United Nations, of a secure and enduring form
of peaceful co-existence.
But even if that were achieved, the conflict
For it is also an_ideologica1 conflict.
would continue at a deeper level.
And it is here that Judaism has a special duty: to make cléar its position
and, if possible, to exercise a reconciling influence.
Let he, then, examine the ideology of Communism in fhe light of
Jewish teaching.
consider
For this purpose we must EXHmIfiE Communism under three
headings: as a philosophical thebry, as a political programme, and as
q
:or.
Cal
3a—seenoméc ideal.
The philosophy of Communism, or Marxism, is maturialistic.
This
means, not indeed that matter is the only thing that exists, but that it
Free will is an illusion.
is the only thing that counts.
What man thinks
and does is determined by the material environnent in which he lives.
What he fieeds to be happy is nothing more than the sati faction of his
physical requirements: food, clothing and shelter.
Culture is a luxury.
Goodness, truth and beauty are not absolute, and the demand for them
is only 5 pretext employed by those who possess wealth and leisure to
obtain more wealth and leisure.
no ultimate validity.
Our standards of right and wrong have
They are a product of thc society in which we
live afid are used by those who wield power in that society to preserve
.
‘
_
V
..
A.“
‘.
u»
_ 2 _
the stayus quo.
the people,
a
Religion is, accordihg to Karl Marx, the opium of
device for creating an attitude of resignation and con-
tentment among the exploited and underprivileged.
The whole of human
history is determined by economic f1rces, and therefore by those who
exercise economic power.
At one time it was the slave—owners, then
the feudal lords, then the capbtali:ts.
last.
But capitalism, two, cannot
The rule of the wéalth—owner must give way to the rule of the
worker, to "a dictatorship of the proletariat";
And this, in its turn,
will he succeeded by thé Communist Utopia, when all economic conflicts
will cease, when true democracy will be established, and the State ;
which is an instrument of coercion — will become superfluous and
wither away.
It is not difficult to criticise this philosophy.
on unproven premises.
It is founded
It is a gross ovérsimplification of the facts.
It is even self-destructive.
For if all human theories are the product
of the environment, must that not apply to the theories of Karl Marx
himself?
Kfifix Does it not follow that Marx thought as he did because
he was a rebellious middle-clasé German of Jewish parentage who spent
the greater part of his life witnessing the effects of the Industrial
mudecnbL-whrq
Revolution inLEngland?
'
Marx, for all his greatness, was not a great
I
philosopher, apd if it had not given rise to a povcrful political
movement, his philosophy would not deserve much serious caneidcration..
The power of the human mind canhot be dismissed so easily.
behaviour is not so predicfable.
a simple pattern.
.H
man
Human history does not follow such
And though religion has often supported the existing
social order, it has also challenged it with the fervour of prephetic
inspiration.
- 3 _
At this level there is no pOS'ibility of reconcliliation beteen
Judaism and Communism.
Judaism insists on the power,.the almost unlimmted
power, of the human spirit, which is derived from God,
Goodness, truth
and beauty are real; they are the eternal attributes of God and the
spiritual sustenance of man, who does not live by bread alone.
The
course of human history is not inevitable; it is what man makes it by
the exercise of his free will.
He can rise above the c\nventi~ns of
society; he can break out of the vicfous circle of economic cause and
effect and submit himself voluntarily to the higher law Jictated by his
conscience and revealed by those who have had a vision of God.
We must next consider the political programme of Communism.
That programme is to further and hasten a prwcess'vhich is regarded as,
in any case, inevitable: the rewlacemont of capitalism by a new social
order in which power has been transferred from the bourgeoisie to the
proletariat.
According to Harx and Lenin this replac;ment can be ef“ected
only by »evolution, that is the seizure of pewer by the workers from the
owners of wealth.
That, hwwever, is only an interim phase which is to
cukminute in "the inauguration of a new social order wherein there shall
be neither classes nor private property".
Tris programme raises a very important question: Does the end
justify the neans, even if we assume that the end is a good one?
It is
not, I think, a Jewish view that the end Egggg justifies the means.
the means must certainly be taken into account.
But
According to Lenin, the
revolutionary phase is to ocamy"an entire historical epoch".
Therefore,
even apart from the suffering and bloodshed involved in the violcnt
overthrow of the existing sac'al order, whole generations of human btings
-uare to be deprived of freedom for the sake of the Utfipia of a classless
society which they will never experience!
We know very well what the
revolutionary phase means for those who are cowpe‘led to live in it.
It means the dictatorshin of a single polit=ca1 party which is prepared,
whenever necessary, to sacrifice the indididual': welfare f0“ the alleged
good of the State, which rigidly c‘ntrwls all farms of education and
propaganda, which punishes every deviation fhom party doctrine, which
tolerates re%$§}ous xpres:iqn ut doe: evorythi1g in its power to
{uvMMLL
undermine religious fuithL This is a heavy price to pay for an ideal
(
(
which, even if acceptable, may never be attained.
It is particularly
heavy from the religiwus point of View, 7hmch KERR believes in the
sanctity of the individual and therefore lays the greatest stress on
that freedom of thought, expres ion and activity which the individual
needs to fulfil him: If and to attain righteousness and truth.
It
night conceivably be necessary to pay so heavy a price for the
achievement of the Comiulist ideal, assuming that ideal to be a good one,
if it were the only way.
But it is 393 the only way.
thing a: peaceful evolution towards social justice.
There is such a
And in the demonstra-
tion that this is so, that sacial justice 233 be established by peaceful
means, lies the ;reatest hnpg of yankind. Communism is, from one point
of View, an optizistic faith, for it pfioclains the inevitabikity of the
ultimate establi'hment of a Utopian society.
view i“ is a counsel of despair.
But from another point of
It lacks faith in the
ability of man
to rise above his seifisnness and to establish jurtice of his nwn
Judaism £55 such faith. It declares that man has been
endowed by his Creator with a good inclination which will ult'nately
volition.
-5triunph over his evil inclination; that, inrpired by prophetic
idealism, the rich are capable of racv ficixg their WEolth and the
mighty thei' power, in order to secure justiXXce for the poor and
TLis Jewish faith fsrbids us to see in violence the only
path towards Utopia.
weak.
a social
It remains to cwnsider Cfimmunism as Xfixfifififififiifi ideal.
we are on different ground.
Here
The materialistic philOSJphy of Marx,
and the political programme of the Communist Party, we, as Jews, gust
reject.
But the social ideal is one which, to a large extent, we share.
Iédeed it is a curious fact that uarx, who denounced religion as a
teactionary force, was in all probability influenced, however
unconsciously, by the reforming zeal of Amos, Isaiah and Micah.
The real driving force behind his advmcacy of Communism was not
nineteenth—celtury German philosophy of British ec“nomic theory, but
indignation at the injustices he witnessed. It was the passion of
the Jewish prophets far social justice.
Tt is firue that the abolition of private pr perty is an ideal
which Judaism does not oblige us to accept.
There have been Jewish
sects, such 89 the Bssenes, who practised cwmmunism in this sense.
But the general trend of Judaism has been otherwise.
micah envisaged
that in the messianic Age every man would sit under his own vine and
under his own fig—tree, and none would make them afraid.
The Ten
Commandmgnts, and Rabbinic Law, enjoin respect for private property.
The general Jewish ideal is not that
ppePty
should be abolished
but that it should be fairly and humanely distributed.
-6But the more important social ideal of Communism is that of a
classless society.
And this ideal Judaism must surely share.
It follnws
from the whole Jewish conception of the unity of mankind and the sanctity
and equality of all men before God.
There must be no barriers in
society such as interfere with brvtherly relations between man and man
or deny to Egg indiviJual the raspect due to him as a being created in
God's image.
Moreover, this ig partly an economic matter. Gross
economic inequalities do create social barriers and undermine human
brotherhood.
At least we should all agree with the Communist Kggggg:
"From each according to his ability and tn each according to his need"..
But the establishment
oa brotherly
mainly, a matter of economics.
conduct between man and man.
It is a
It is
Society is not merely, or even
matfiér of the right attitude and
fundamentally
a
moral matter.
That
is what Communism, from its materialistic point of view, cannot see.
It is significant that the
Communist League replaced its slogan "All
men are brothers" with the slogan "proletarians of ail lands unite".
In so doing it abandoned a splendid ethical ideal fnr a dubious
political programme.
As Jews we must advocate, and labour for, the attailment of
social justice by peaceful and democratic methads.
The Hxxxxnxfifinx
process can, therefore, be only a gradual one. [How slow it has to be
in this country at the present time is a matter of diSnute between the
different political parties. and every Jew has the right to subscribe
to whichever party seems to him to wish to proceed at the right pace
and in the wisest manner.ilBut that the ideal can be attained, however
'
_ 7 _
gradually, is the great hope of Judaism.
That the ideal has not
always been pursued sincerely, and often not at all, is a fact to be
acknowledged.
From the days of ancient Israel tn our own time the
men of power and wealth have again and again succumbed to the temptation
of expmiting their power and wealth to oppress and subjugate the poor
and weak.
Indeed the social injustices which still exist in many lands
today, and the Consequent discontent of the underprivileged, have
supplied the Comflunists with their most powerful weapdn.
It would
the~efore be wrong, and even irreligious, to consider the phenomenon
of Communism without saying chatanu, we have sinned.
mankind as a whole
must plead guilty to the charge of having failed, thrnughout the ages,
to respond to the ancient demand of Judaism for justice and brstherly
But it is not too late.
love.
For a long time to come we shall live in an era of co-existence
with the Communists.
It is not too much tn say fihat the future of
huianity deyends on the use We make of tris breathing snace, of this
last chance, of these years of grace.
We must refute the fihi15 aphy
He must opnose the political programme of the
Communist Party and resist any attempt to impose it mm the world by
of Marxist materialism.
‘
But above all we in the West must demonstrate that we care fnf
force.
social justice as passiunately as any Communist thenretician, and that
we mean to attain it peacefully and without the abandonment of nur hard—
won freedom.
We must demnnstrate the truth of our faith: that the human
a
spirit is able to transcend the liwitations of environment and selfishness
establish on
that man, by voluntary submission to the will of God,
earth the Kingdom 66 God. Ee§—$%e.Kingn.afl439é—éa_ae$~$§e*fiitt§tunship
.
- 8 _
lThe Kingdom of God is npt the dictatorship of the prnletariat,
neither is it merely a classless society.
It is a
condition of humanity
which will be attained not only by the fair distribution of wealth, but
brotherliness between man and man.
It will
be characterised not only by
ecmnomic justice, but by freedom and peace and neighbourly love, and by
the satisfaction, not only of our physical needs, but also of our
spiritual hfinger.
51