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Raisin, Jacob S.

"The Haskalah Movement in Russia"

As the Jewish problem is international, it can be solved only
by nationalism. He admits some of the charges brought against the Jews
by anti-Semites, but Jewish failings result from Christian intolerance.
In a land of their own they will develop into a Muster-nation, a model
people.
The wretches--cries he--they mock the eagle that once soared
sky-high, and saw divinity itself, because he can no longer fly
after his wings are broken! Give us but our independence, allow
us to take care of ourselves, grant us but a little strip of
land like that of the Servians and Rumanians, give us a chance
to lead a national existence, and then prate about our lacking
manly virtues. What we lack is not genius (Genialitaet) but
self-consciousness (Selbstgefuehl) and appreciation of our value
as men (Bewusstsein der Menschenwuerde), of which we were
deprived by you!
Of course, it requires many years and a great expenditure of money to
establish a nation on a firm basis. But in Pinsker's dictionary the word
"impossible" does not exist. "Far, very far," says he, "is the haven of
rest towards which our souls are turning.


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