its an incongruous combination that two men so patently different should somehow be connected inextricably to the Jewish people and a jewish homeland. On the one hand, Baron Edmond de Rothschild feared zionism, had an anathema for democracy, and became, almost by accident, a founder of modern Israel. Buber -whose birthday today makes him 133 years old- was the German-Jewish philosopher who stated, “the world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable, through the embrace of one being.. love powerfully”…and “all real life is encounter”. So both the socialist-anarchist and the aristocratic capitalist shared similar views on Palestine but for different reasons…
"Buber was critical of the excessive individualism of capitalist countries and the excessive authoritarianism of communist nations. Buber became a Zionist in 1898, believing that European anti-Semitism made it necessary for Jews to have their own homeland. He soon became disenchanted with Theodore Herzl's brand of nationalistic political Zionism. Instead, he favored the form of Zionism developed by Ahad Ha'am, based on the fundamental moral and spiritual values of Judaism. Zionism was to be no less than a Jewish path to bring about tikkun olam -- redemption of the world-- through establishment of truth and justice in all of the institutions and activities of the Jewish settlement in Palestine. In this way Zionism could contribute to human civilization as a whole and avoid self-centered nationalism. Thus, it becomes clear why Buber became an early advocate for Jewish-Arab cooperation. How could the Jewish people establish a state that did not provide justice and security for all of its inhabitants, Jews and non-Jews?" read more: http://www.kehillasynagogue.org/KehillaMEPeace/Document_II.html image: http://www.life.com/image/53058464
…martin buber extended his dialogical philosophy to the realm of political relationships between nation-states. from his libertarian-anarchist standpoint, buber was opposed to the program to establish a jewish state in the land of israel/palestine. buber supported the idea of a jewish national renaissance in the jewish people’s historic land, but that program did not entail the creation of a state. the jewish renaissance buber envisioned was going to be cultural and religious, not political (in the unique manner by which he interpreted the term ‘religious’). a jewish commonwealth in the land, in contrast to a jewish nation-state, would fulfill its hoped-for historic role by rejecting the statist project rather than by embarking in one. martin buber envisioned a world where human societies would no longer organize themselves as separate nation-states. as a socialist, buber did not believe that individuals or peoples, should have the right to lay claims of exclusive national ownership over segments of the earth. Read More: http://dialogicalecology.blogspot.com/ a
Steven Johnston: Nevertheless, this is a good time to rethink the idea of a bi-national state. The goal here, to borrow from Martin Buber, is to set a direction, and the direction is the goal of a single state in the land of historical Palestine that would be the state of all its citizens. Buber worked and argued for much of his life for a bi-national solution. He insisted that the conflict between Arab and Jew was not a tragic one, meaning that it was not irreconcilable. He never wavered in this conviction, thus performing the solution he sought. Buber blamed politics for framing issues in a way that divided and incited Arab and Jew. The greater interests and loves the two peoples shared for the land were obscured, even erased, in the process." read more: http://contemporarycondition.blogspot.com/2010/03/revisiting-israel-as-bi-national-state.html
Edmond de Rothschild was a quintessential Rothschild, for when he died in 1934, he had helped make history, not by espousing a public cause, but by pursuing a private hobby. A lifetime of fending off importunate strangers probably contributed to the mixture of arrogance and furtiveness which said the zionist leader Chaim Weitzmann, characterized Edmond de Rothschild”s personality. Although Edmond had little aptitude for banking, he took his place as a partner in the Paris bank and married his cousin. With his slender figure, fine, chiseled face, and fashionable Paris dress, Baron Edmond looked more like a French diplomat than anyone’s idea of an international Jewish banker.
Feldafing, Germany, Pupils and teachers on the anniversary of Joseph Trumpeldor's death, postwar... read more: http://collections.yadvashem.org/photosarchive/en-us/449_12313.html
The uneventful palace existence of baron Edmond was rudely and forever disrupted in 1882, when a persistent stranger with a stutter, neither rich nor famous nor fashionable, managed to gain the Baron’s well guarded ear. Since the visitor was a rabbi from Russia, the baron was prepared to hear him out. For months, the plight of Russia’s jews had claimed the attention of the civilized world: the pogroms and the anti-jewish legislation seemed to defy the century’s faith in a universal advance from barbarism to civilization. Victor Hugo had organized a relief organization and since the Rothschild’s headed it, Baron Edmond was prepared to make a charitable donation to the shabby figure in front of him.
Ron English art. Johnston: Assuming that life entails injustice, he could argue for the taking of Arab lands in the name of necessity. Still, Buber continued to pressure Israel after the founding, which he considered an ambiguous achievement and, more importantly, premature. Early in the 20th century, he had called for an organic process of settling the land. Buber, too, knew the importance of facts on the ground, but the ones he imagined were not devoted to irreversible, ever-expanding conquest. It was critical for two peoples to learn to trust one another. This could not be achieved by sudden influxes of immigrants without ties to the land, let alone by imposing a political solution. In fact, a declaration of independence and the creation of the state would prove self-subverting in the long run. read more: http://contemporarycondition.blogspot.com/2010/03/revisiting-israel-as-bi-national-state.html image: http://supertouchart.com.s39439.gridserver.com/2007/12/17/bethlehemswoon-ron-english-in-santas-ghetto/
The rabbi’s request was deceptively simple, but it would entangle the Baron for the rest of his exceedingly long life. Among the jews fleeing Russia- after reminding the Baron that Moses too, had a stutter- a small number had become enamored with the notion of settling in Palestine and farming its inhospitable soil. They had been there two months and were already starving. To save them was a simple act of charity, but when the baron offered a sizable sum, the rabbi shook his head. He wanted more than money from the baron; he wanted him to respond to the call of the nation to revive the ancient land by financing jewish farm colonies in Palestine. At that the baron hesitated, and thirty years and thirty million dollars later he was still hesitating, for the notion of a jewish return to the ancient homeland was, to the emancipated jews of Europe , like political dynamite.
"Toepfer retained his wartime profits and rapidly expanded his grain business, building a considerable fleet of ships for the purpose. From the late 1940s, he used his wealth to run a double life. On the surface, he was politically correct, announcing his conversion to the idea of a united Europe. He restarted his highly funded prizes, now taking care to include a smattering of Jews in the winners' roster. In 1951, the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber won the "Hanseatic Goethe Prize". Toepfer started to make awards to West German, Austrian, French and British politicians. French acting President Alain Poher and Georges Pompidou's Interior Minister, André Bord, were among them. " read more: http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/features-april-10-the-prize-lies-of-a-nazi-tycoon-alfred-toepfer-michael-pinto-duschinsky?page=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C4
“In 1939 Mohandas Gandhi published an article stating that it was wrong and inhumane to impose Jews on the Middle East, which belonged to the Arabs. He wrote that Jews should stay in Europe and do non-violent civil disobedience with Nazis! Buber believed Gandhi was totally off the mark. In a letter to Gandhi he wrote: “We considered it a fundamental point that in this case two vital claims are opposed to each other, two claims of a different nature and a different origin which cannot objectively be pitted against one another and between which no objective decision can be made as to which is just, which unjust. We considered and still consider it our duty to understand and to honor the claim which is opposed to us and to endeavor to reconcile both claims. We could not and cannot renounce the Jewish claim; something even higher than the life of our people is bound up with this land, namely its work, its divine mission. But we have been and are still convinced that it must be possible to find some compromise between this claim and the other, for we love th
and and we believe in its future; since such love and such faith are surely present on the other side as well, a union in the common service of the land must be within the range of possibility. Where there is faith and love, a solution may be found even to what appears to be a tragic opposition.”— Read More: http://www.kehillasynagogue.org/KehillaMEPeace/Document_II.html
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"Buber was still living in Germany in 1925 when a number of his followers in Palestine started an organization called Brit Shalom (A Covenant of Peace). The founders of Brit Shalom based their ideology on Buber's writings, advocating a democratic bi-national state in which Jews and Arabs would be completely equal. Buber became the leading Zionist leader in Germany in the 1930's. When Hitler came into power, Buber traveled to different Jewish communities and worked to strengthen the people's spirits. In 1938 he finally came to Palestine, where he became a professor at the Hebrew University. He and his comrades, including Rabbi Judah Magnes, worked with moderate Arabs to try to forge links between the two peoples. They tried to influence the direction of Zionism, but very unfortunately they never received a fair hearing. Had Buber's views been taken seriously, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might have been averted." Read More: http://www.kehillasynagogue.org/KehillaMEPeace/Document_II.html image: http://www.life.com/image/53041866
ADDENDUM:
”the principal idea in buber’s understanding of the spiritual life, is that the presence of god in us is always manifested as the presence of god between us. god is actualized in dialogue.” …Buber’s greatest innovation lies in the affirmation that there is no “direct” relationship to God, separate from the rest of ordinary life. The dialogue with God passes through a dialogue with the whole of being. There whole of being is Man, Nature and Mind, and God is not a separate category. At least not insofar as human relationship with God is concerned. In addition, the dialogue between man and his own mind-spirit is only one form of spirituality. Dialogue with man and with nature are also spiritualities and are also the gates to liberation. Within or inside are only words and depict no reality outside of them. Read More: http://martinbuberinstitute.org/index.html a
"We must put ourselves in the place of the other, Buber counseled, and not despite the war and violence but precisely because of them. What would we do if the roles were reversed? Nietzsche wrote in The Gay Science that “after a great victory,” the victor, now feeling rich, may be liberated from “the fear of defeat.” Defeat here might mean replacing one worthy ideal that has run its historical course without fulfilling its promise of justice with another democratic ideal that could realize the Zionist dream—which was always about two peoples and one land." read more: http://contemporarycondition.blogspot.com/2010/03/revisiting-israel-as-bi-national-state.html image: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/r2iIE9aH-y1FbLy5sGXKnQ
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