LE PROBLEME JUIF MONDIAL - The World Jewish Problem, by Simon Marcovici-cleja, published by CENTRE DE RECHERCHES DE SOLUTIONS DU PROBLÈME JUIF (Research Center for Solutions to the Jewish Problem) Paris [1938] - numbered edition no. 742 out of 1000 copies published in total. French. The first publication of the research center for solutions to the Jewish problem in France, dealing with the problem of Jewish immigration on the eve of the outbreak of World War II - "Herzl's mistake", the absurdity of closing the gates of Eretz Israel to immigrants at the most difficult time, and an attempt to offer a quick solution to the dangerous situation of the Jews of Europe before it is too late.
In the opening remarks, the author outlines the grim situation of European Jews in 1938: "Judaism today finds itself in a tragic situation. If for many years the movement directed especially towards overseas countries could provide relief for the need for immigration caused by poverty among Eastern European Jews, the growing tendency of all countries to close their doors will soon prevent Jews from any possibility of rebuilding a normal existence elsewhere... What is the real danger threatening Judaism? Six million Jews sit in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Germany. In the last country, Nazism put an end to their possibility of existence. If they can still seem human, it is because they live from their reserves and from the aid funds that American, English and French Judaism puts at their disposal... The misery of the Jews in Poland is beyond anything we can imagine. They are literally dying of tuberculosis and hunger. Pogroms are the order of the day. The elimination of Jews from the few professions that still allow them to survive continues systematically. In order to please the antisemites, the government has renounced all means of protecting Jews... The day when, in Central and Eastern Europe, antisemitism becomes open and official, Western countries, if only as a simple means of protection against the massive immigration of persecuted Jews, may be forced to yield to antisemitic pressure. And to adopt an anti-Jewish policy... At the current pace of events, we can foresee the disaster threatening the Jews as near and coming". Moreover, he adds that Palestine, which was supposed to absorb the Jews, has its gates closed to them, and it does not seem that the Zionist movement is acting to change this in the foreseeable future.
The author calls on the world's religions and especially on Christianity to stand by the Jews and defend them against Nazi antisemitism, since it is also directed against the Christian Church. Also, since the fate of all democracies is endangered by the Nazi beast that threatens to spread and impose its way on them, part of the defense of the democracies themselves is the defense of the persecuted Jews. In one of the chapters called "Herzl's Mistake" the author writes that in founding the Zionist movement, Herzl did not take into account the fate of the millions of Jews who would not find their way to Palestine with the assistance of the Zionist movement. In the author's view, Herzl presented a practical solution for a small handful of Jews who would indeed succeed in reaching Eretz Israel, but abandoned most of the Jewish Diaspora for whom this was not possible, and he did not provide a practical solution to severe waves of antisemitism as they were expressed at the time of writing on the eve of the war, when the persecution of the Jews reached a peak that Herzl himself did not know. The author presents an attempt at a solution in the form of changing the Zionist purpose from external inward, to internal outward, and writes that the role of the Hebrew Yishuv in Palestine is to take care of foreign policy more than domestic policy, to invest resources, money, and propaganda, to assist world Jewry, more than it is focused on building Palestine. Only then will Zionism fulfill its true purpose, in his view.
This is the first work published by the Center for the Study of Solutions to the Jewish Problem in Paris in an attempt to develop creative ways to fight Nazism. The league also sought assistance from non-Jews, Zionists as well as "non-Zionists" out of the urgency of the hour. With the outbreak of World War II, it assisted the Jews of occupied France through cooperation with underground organizations to save Jews.
III, 77 [2] p. Very good condition.
