Antelman to eliminate the opiate vol1

name has earned far greater recognition than my feeble
successes deserve, and I may be hopeful that future literary
efforts on my part will yield additional fruit. Thank God, my
material circumstances have also taken a turn for the better
and my present position is an influential one.
However, there is still much that needs to be done even here
in the Fatherland, which is the center of this progress. Would I
not then be remiss in my duties if I were to leave here in order
to give of my energies to another country, where at present
only the after-effects of our own achievements can be felt?
Would it not be better that I remain here as before as the 'tail
of the lion"?
Would not my leaving here be gross ingratitude to my brethren
in my Fatherland ... and to the congregation here that labored
and struggled so mightily to have me belong to them? ... And I
might as well admit it—despite the fact that her authorities
reject me because I am a Jew, I still love Germany. Must love
have logical reasons? I feel my own being inextricably
interwoven with Germany's Wissenschaft, with the entirety of
its intellectual earnestness—and who could sever the nerve
fiber of his very being with impunity? Thus, though she, in
return for my own efforts and those of my brethren to enter
ever more completely into her life, genteelly excludes us. I
must remain in Germany. I must wage a dual fight, against the
reactionary elements among the Jews, on the one hand, and
against those privileged denominations who simply ignore all
things Jewish, on the other; and I must wait with hopeful
yearning for that day when that which has already been freely
given elsewhere shall be accorded to us here as the right to
which we are entitled ... (WG pp. 111-112)
When Geiger used the expression "tail of the lion," he was
referring to the Talmudic expression "it is better to be the tail of
a lion than to be the head of a fox." But the double meaning
had to do with the organizational goals of the lion, i.e., the
Bund. This letter was a death sentence to Lillienthal. The Bund
was most seriously agitated by the possibility of the impact of
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