On the other hand, Zionism is the effect of two impulses which came
from without,--first, the principle of nationality, which for half a
century ruled thought and feeling in Europe, and governed the politics
of the world; secondly, Anti-Semitism, from which the Jews of all
countries have more or less to suffer.

The principle of nationality has awakened self-consciousness in all
the peoples; it teaches them to regard their peculiarities as
qualities, and gives them a passionate desire for independence. It
could not, therefore, pass over the educated Jews without leaving a
trace. It induced them to remember who and what they are; to feel
themselves, what they had unlearned, a people apart; and to demand for
themselves a normal national destiny. This slow and painful work of
the recovery of their national individuality was rendered easier by
the attitude of the peoples, who eliminated them from among themselves
as a foreign element, and put stress, without consideration or
courtesy, on the real and imaginary contrasts, or at least
differences, between themselves and the Jews.

The principle of nationality has, in its exaggerations, led to
excesses. It has been led astray into Chauvinism, abased to idiotic
hatred of the foreigner, degraded to grotesque self-worship. From this
caricature of itself the Jewish nationalism is safe. The Jewish
nationalist does not suffer from self-inflation; he feels, on the
contrary, that he must make tireless efforts to render the name of Jew
a title of honor. He modestly recognizes the good qualities of other
nations, and seeks diligently to acquire them in so far as they
harmonize with his natural capacities. He knows what terrible harm
centuries of slavery or disability have done to his originally proud
and upright character, and seeks to cure it by means of intense
self-training. If, however, nationalism is on its guard against all
illusions as to itself, this is a natural phase in the process of
development from barbaric selfish individualism to free humanism and
altruism,--a phase the justification and necessity of which can only
be denied by him who has no comprehension whatever of the laws of
organic evolution, and is totally lacking in the historical sense.

Anti-Semitism has also taught many educated Jews the way back to their
people. It has had the effect of a sharp trial which the weak cannot
stand, but from which the strong emerge stronger or more confident in
themselves.