Die Welt

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No. 18.

Vienna, 29 April 1904 — 14 Iyar 5664.

8th Year.

Kindly Note!

We beg to draw the attention of our esteemed subscribers in Russia to the fact that as of 15 April of this year (new style) the postal money-order service between Austria and Russia has come into force. Sums of up to Rbl. 100.— (one hundred roubles) may thus be remitted by postal money order from Russia to Austria, or vice versa.

As this is the simplest, most convenient and speediest means of transmitting sums of money, we request our esteemed readers to make use of it when occasion arises.

The Administration.

A Contemptible Decree.

The Burgomaster and antisemite chieftain of Vienna draws upon himself the indignation of his opponents once every year. For when he appoints teachers, he binds them by oath and duty not only to their office but also to their—that is to say, his—convictions. Thereupon there is always a tumult fortissimo in the liberal press: indignant reproaches of coercion of conscience, of inducement to hypocrisy, etc. And rightly so. What a man has recognised as right, he may honestly strive for everywhere within the bounds of the law. So Liberalism categorically demands, and so, assuredly, do the heads of the Prague congregation as its representatives.

But only of Dr. Lueger. In their own case they find the method, if perhaps not handsome, at least wholesome, when one wishes to suppress unwelcome opinions. And so the congregation in question practises terror quite after the notorious pattern.

We have the proof of it in our hands. The document containing it reached us, on account of its confidential character, only some weeks after it was issued. A vanishing interval compared with the immortality which the said body has thereby secured for itself. For in it the body declares it a punishable offence if its teachers perform that for which they are paid: to bring up the children as Jews.

A general meeting of the Israelite Provincial Teachers' Association of Bohemia, namely, adopted a motion to put Zionism into practice in the school. This the Prague board calls an activity for the furtherance of a much-disputed idea touching upon the political sphere. It calls this activity unlawful, and by means of a circular threatens with disciplinary inquiry all teachers who take part in it.

The irresistible comedy of the decree cited lies in a comparison between the resolution passed by the Association and the aims and objects of the superior board as laid down in its statutes. These aims and objects are assuredly the preservation and furtherance of Judaism. Nothing else is signified by the adoption of the Zionist school programme by the Provincial Teachers' Association. Our school programme seeks to further and preserve the Judaism of the children by pedagogically irreproachable means. One must be very narrow-minded indeed to allege any unfavourable influence on our part upon the rising generation.

The council of the Prague congregation has therefore directed its contemptible threats not against a bad Jewish upbringing of the children entrusted to it, but against a good one. It does not want the proud, upright Jews, with common feeling and readiness for sacrifice, whom Zionism demands; rather it sets up as the aim of education the Prague German Casino Jews.

Thus it is the council that commits a disciplinary offence, not the teachers. It betrays the trust placed in it; it breaks through the binding letter of its statutes, which bid it support and strengthen Judaism. It does so by upholding its own traditions and drawing the children towards them—traditions the following of which means the gravest moral and material injury for the Jews of the district concerned.

To judge by their bearing, the Prague Casino Jews hold Germanism on lease. That is correct in the original sense of the expression. For they really do hold it only on lease—against heavy sums and under constant danger of notice to quit from the real owners, which, despite all resistance, is given often enough. How false has this idol Wotan proved towards his Jewish worshippers! He has drawn upon them the fanatical hatred of the Czech people and its press; merciless boycott always, and, for a change, merciless cudgels, tell the Jews of Bohemia emphatically of the political understanding of their spiritual leaders. These leaders call Zionism a much-disputed idea. Concerning their political ideas there has long been no dispute. They are unanimously rejected by all outsiders.