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174 ON THE JEWISH PEOPLE
the country before the mandatory power, clear of the dust of
epbemeral politics.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
A speech delivered at the Savoy Hotel, London, October
29,1930. Published in Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querida
Verlag, 1934.
LADms AND GENTLEMEN:
It is no easy matter for me to overcome my natural inclination
to a life of quiet contemplation. But I could not remain deaf
to the appeal of the OR T and OZE societies"; for in responding
to it I am responding, as it were, to the appeal of our sorely
oppressed Jewish nation.
The position of our scattered Jewish community is a moral
barometer for the political world. For what surer index of political
morality and respect for justice can there be than the
attitude of the nations toward a defenseless minority. whose
peculiarity lies in their preservation of an ancient cultural tra·
dition?
Tbis barometer is low at the present moment, as we are
painfully aware from the way we are treated. But it is this
very lowness that confirms me in the conviction that it is our
duty to preserve and consolidate our community. Embedded
in the tradition of the Jewish people there is a love of justice
and reason which must continue to work for the good of all
nations now and in the future. In modem times this tradition
has produced Spinoza and Karl Marx.
Those who would preserve the spirit must also look after
the body to which it is attached. The OZE society literally looks
after the bodies of our people. In Eastern Europe it is working
day and night to help our people there. on whom the economic
depression has fallen particularly heavily. to keep body and soul
together; while the OR T society is trying to get rid of a severe
• Jewi5h charitable associations.