“Die Auserwältheit der Juden im Lichte der Biologie,” Zeitschrift für Demographie und Statistik der Juden 1, no. 3 (1905): 1–5.
Alfred Nossig (1864–1943) was born in Lemberg (Lvov), in Galicia. A writer, artist, and social scientist, he was also active in Zionist politics, first in Poland and then in Central Europe. He wrote poems, plays, and an opera libretto. He also received acclaim for his sculptures. Nossig was one of the earliest proponents and practioners of a Jewish social science. In 1902 he brought together individuals committed to the cultural wing of the Zionist movement in order to create a working group for a statistical study of the Jewish people. In 1904 this became the Bureau for Jewish Statistics in Berlin. Its journal, the Zeitschrift für Demographie und Statistik der Juden, became one of the main venues for the publication of articles dealing with Jews and race. See the entry in the Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition, 15:314.
The idea of the chosenness of the Jews and of its influence on their intellectual, moral, and physical development allows for a thoroughly different interpretation than that given it by Curt Michaelis in the previous issue of this journal.21 The subject is so comprehensive that I must confine myself to offering only highlights here.
First of all, let us review Michaelis’s major points. According to the Jewish view of the world (Weltanschauung), on which their moral account of history rests, the history of the Jews is the product of a divine will. Even someone like Isaiah still was of this opinion, and thus barred his own Volk from taking an active role in world history. Modern historiography, influenced by the natural sciences, explains the fate of peoples as the product of their particular abilities and demands, always under the influence of heredity and adaptation. In Jewish history, however, the influence of adaptation is nonexistent. For by virtue of the idea of chosenness—which, taken to this level of bizarre caricature, is an affliction particular to the Jews—their racial character has been condemned to eternal stagnation. Thus, the history of the Jews is only tradition, not progress. The idea of chosenness stems from the racial pride of the Jews. Emboldened by this concept, the racial pride of the Jews became biogenetically fatal. It brought about isolationism, strict laws of endogamy, and contempt, cruelty, and hate for all other peoples. For its practical realization, this relied on the primitive legal principle of “an eye for an eye.” Over the course of history, this principle was also applied to the one occupation open to the Jews—trade. The Jew became a haggler. This racial trait was passed on unalterably. This led to the confinement of the Jews in ghettos and is reflected in the low opinion that other nations have of the Jews.
In this succession of thoughts and deductions, there is hardly a point that does not contradict the true historical facts and relations, and that cannot easily be refuted. It is not worth going into the conclusions in detail here. They exemplify a popular, long since refuted, anti-Jewish distortion of history. Every non-Jewish child educated without prejudices today knows that the Jews did not become “hagglers” because their law commanded it, but—as Michaelis himself says—because they were locked out of every means of livelihood other than trade. They were not confined to ghettos because they hated every other nation or people. On the contrary, if they were filled with resentment toward other peoples, it was a result of being treated so barbarically—a resentment, by the way, that, immediately upon [Jewish] emancipation, was replaced by a feeling of love and a hopelessly optimistic sense of solidarity with these peoples.
But let us concern ourselves with the major points [of Michaelis’s argument]. Those researchers who wish to analyze the essence and the history of Jewry from a modern, ethnographically comparative, natural scientific or materialistic standpoint often make the mistake of believing that they do not need to delve deeper into the Jewish sources. They rely on the Bible and construct analogies with histories of other cultures or Völker. Applied in this way, modern science, which ought to illuminate our understanding, clouds it.
As is known, the Bible contains only the written teachings of Judaism directed at the public; alongside this exists the oral tradition, as explanation and complement of the written. Maimonides set down this oral, esoteric teaching in his writings. By reading the Bible, alongside the commentaries we have inherited from Maimonides and other Jewish thinkers, we can convince ourselves that the capricious, personal God whom the Bible employs for pedagogical reasons against the public is nothing but the highest abstraction of being, whose will is identical with the totality of the known natural laws.
The moral concept of history that the Jews have thus coincides with that of natural science. Their history is not the product of arbitrary divine will, but of their attitude toward natural laws. They in no way exclude themselves from the course of world history; on the contrary, their worldview makes them feel that they have a particular vocation to engage with it. And this leads us to the notion of chosenness.
Just like the idea of God as the highest abstraction of being, this idea [of chosenness], too, is obviously nothing more than the product of Jewish intellectual and moral ability, a result of the mental efforts of the Jewish Volk—and this despite the fact that the Bible presents it as divine revelation. Even in the Bible we can trace very precisely the development of this idea, from its primitive expression in the case of Abraham to its more idealistic form with Moses, how it was misinterpreted by the earlier prophets, and how only the later prophets taught it in its purest form.
One is completely led astray at the outset if this enormous idea is understood merely as a particularly robust expression of a general sort of racial pride evinced by all Völker. Rather, there is something here that fundamentally distinguishes the Jewish Volk and its history from others: the notion not to allow this Volk to be an unconscious plaything of its own desires and of historical events; the notion that it should be led consciously and on the basis of the higher insight or worldview it has gained toward a great developmental goal, which it will not be able to reach for millennia, or in any foreseeable future. Thereby a powerful ideological factor was introduced into the history of the Jews, one that makes those who construe the destiny of the Jews only through the one-sided prism of materialism appear to be thoroughly mistaken. We will be able to demonstrate, however, that this factor has in no way had a stagnating effect on Jewry, but on the contrary has inspired constant progressive development.
Of what does the chosenness of the Jews consist? Let us investigate this idea in its most definitive expression, which was given to it by Moses.
Moses makes Israel renew its covenant with God, to which the patriarchs had committed themselves. This was to reprise, out of a clear consciousness and strong will, the resolve to live an exemplary life. Yet he [Moses] expanded and perfected the great mission that for the Hebrews arises out of this “covenant with God.” He impressed on the descendants of his Volk that they were duty bound to strive to be above average in the pursuit of learning, justice, and purity; and to transmit an understanding of the highest human ideals to other nations, to lead them to strive for the same elevated ideals. This double mission of Israel’s—the ideal of self-perfection and the perfection of others—was articulated in these words given at Sinai: “You shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy people” (Exodus 19:6). Thus history bequeaths to the Hebrews the task of a great worldly existence: this is the meaning of their chosenness.
What Mosaism promises to the Hebrews as a certain result of this striving after holiness is the eternal continuity of their tribe (Stamm). It is a reward, but at the same time a duty—that of eternally testifying to the wisdom of God’s commandments, of being the eternal instructors of other nations: “The law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” [Isaiah 2:3]. Thus, the chosenness of Israel, which was originally based merely on one specific school of thought and on the careful preservation of redemptive teachings, became an active mission encompassing the entire realm of mankind and all of world history.
Chosenness thus was not conceived of in the sense of material power and military expansion. This is articulated clearly in the fifth book of Moses: “It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that the Lord set His heart on you and chose you—indeed, you are the smallest of peoples” (Deuteronomy 7:7). The Bible warns Israel constantly about seeking to become “like other Völker”; it prohibits “imperialism,” the pomp or glory of royalty, the policies of revanchism and expansion.
Nevertheless, the Mosaic law also encompasses all aspects of practical life and promises its followers, through adherence to its decrees, that they will blossom healthily within the unshakeable confines of a small community.
This notion of chosenness to which Moses had refined the Abrahamic conceptualization, making it the sole authoritative and binding interpretation for Israel, admittedly was not grasped at all times in its entirety by the Volk; indeed, even the prophets did not do justice to it in each and every era.
In the age of the sovereign existence of a Hebrew state, in particular during its early development and its heyday, an interpretation of the idea of chosenness along national lines prevailed, as it had among the Abrahamites. The interpretation [of the concept of chosenness] was often a materialistic one, even a militaristic one. Now and then, Moses’s intellectual and ethical genius, which was ahead of the developments of its time, was edged out by the primitive and brutal instincts of national politics.
The prophets, even with their chauvinism, never neglected to associate the triumph of Israel with its vocation—to promulgate the true faith. The Volk, however, completely disregarded the spiritually austere character of what had been imposed on it; it forgot its priestly mission while, at the same time, being nonetheless intoxicated by the idea of its own chosenness.
It was precisely then that Israel was most alienated from its true chosenness, shorn of any justification for having a special position within humanity. Inherited from generation to generation, passed along in flesh and blood, this national arrogance would undoubtedly become national misfortune; it, too, deserves blame for the downfall of the Hebrew state.
However, gradually the understanding of the true character of Israel’s chosenness emerged. “Second Isaiah appreciates the blessing of being called by God (Jahweh) but recognizes as well the obligations that are imposed. It is a highly elevated status to which He assigns His Volk. But the responsibility that this brings is in complete accordance with this elevated status. Israel is favored above other nations, yet also therefore destined to make them [the Jews] partake in what is best and has been received from Jahweh.”22
Arrogance, pride, and vanity stand, then, in direct opposition to Israel’s genuine calling, and to its spiritual and moral character as it was exemplified by the leaders as an ideal to the nation. Thus, the teachers of Judaism sought in later epochs to implant insight and modesty into the hearts and minds of the Volk.
Even though this educational work should in no way be thought of as finished and successful, even though the racial pride of the Jews blossoms forth until today out of some mistaken understanding of the responsibilities of chosenness, the idea of chosenness in the Mosaic sense of the word nevertheless has had an unmistakably positive influence on the history and organization of the Jewish people (Stamm).
The first and most striking biological result of this idea is the fact of the continuing survival of the Jews, and their exceptional vitality and reproductive power. The Mosaic concept of “an eternal people” appears to have been realized. This alone already demonstrates that the chosenness of the Jews is something other and deeper than the ordinary racial pride that could not prevent the decline of other, far more powerful peoples. It brought about the eternal existence of the Jewish Volk through the biological effects of its intellectual ideals and its moral law.
The obligation to live a pure and holy life yielded, in the physiological sense, a healthy and long-lasting life. As is well-known, Mosaism went to great lengths to take the necessary measures for this to happen, by enacting strict laws concerning diet and marriage—thus regulating in an exemplary way the two chief physiological functions of ingestion and reproduction. The same care has been applied to organizing the spiritual education of the Volk, as the Mosaic doctrine obliges all its adherents to study the Law. This, at the same time, nurtured the moral sense: for the study of the Law not only implants the commandments of familial and neighborly love within broad sections of society, but also produces a conscious awareness of Israel’s unique moral mission. And there is no doubt that, during the thousands of years of the Jewish Volk’s existence, despite periods of decline, this idea has exerted the highest degree of educational influence.
Numerous generations of thinkers and communal leaders have bred [gezüchtet] a [Jewish] Volk characterized by pure blood, not poisoned by venereal disease or alcohol; a Volk that has a marked sense of family, a deeply rooted habituation to the virtuous life, an unusual intellectual dexterity, and an ideal spirituality. Therefore, it was self-evidently necessary to establish strict guidelines to protect these foremost ethical treasures from annihilation through intermixture with less carefully bred races. The prohibition on intermarriage ensured that the primary component in racial formation, heredity, could operate at the height of its potential and power; not only did the positive qualities referred to above get passed on undiminished from generation to generation, but—thanks to endogamy, or inbreeding—they were constantly increased. That is what it took for the Volk that Ibsen called “the nobility of mankind” to emerge.
In no way, however, has the second factor—adaptation—been retarded through the complete actualization of heredity, nor was evolution (Entwicklung) prevented. The intended goal of the idea of chosenness—constant improvement [moving] toward perfection—involves evolution. Related and relevant to this above all else was Jewish teaching. This has been the foremost instrument of racial identity formation, so significant from the outset that any stagnation [in its interpretation] was guarded against, and its unending reinterpretation or reform to meet contemporary demands was put in place instead. It is the task of the spiritual leaders of each era to concern themselves with this endeavor (Deuteronomy 17:9–11).
On the other hand, the struggle for perpetual existence, which was a commandment of chosenness as well, engendered a selective breeding that is almost unequaled in human history. In the struggle for existence of the [Jewish] nation—convulsed as it has been to its core by fire and sword, by the severest economic and moral pressures, and by the constant allurement of desertion—only those individuals who were intellectually and spiritually the strongest and physically fittest survived and reproduced; those who, to the greatest degree, did not place the existence of the Jewish people in danger, but who possessed the art or skill of adaptation. And thus, up until today, the Jewish Volk is taken to be the most skilled at adaptation.
A brief glance at the history of the Jews is sufficient to convince us of their uninterrupted development by adapting to the succession of human cultures. Think of Babylonian and Alexandrian Jewry, Spanish and German Jewry. Consider the Jews of Eastern Europe and their reformation under the influences of American culture.
Without surrendering their essence, their carefully guarded inheritance from previous generations, the Jews have walked hand in hand with other peoples, in a constant advance toward the greatest goals of mankind. That they have done this with complete awareness, that they have not allowed themselves to be driven from history, but have sought to influence it—therein is the culmination of the idea of their chosenness, and it is from this point of view that the biological effects of this idea must be understood.
21. [Curt Michaelis, “Die jüdische Auserwählungsidee und ihre biologische Bedeutung,” Zeitschrift für Demographie und Statistik der Juden, vol. 1, no. 2, 1905, pp. 1–4. Michaelis was a German anthropologist and ethnologist, and a proponent of antisemitism.]
22. A. Kuenen, Volksreligion und Weltreligion, German edition, Berlin, 1883. [The page number is unreadable in the original.]