Now, the public statement of purpose on the part of these Jewish bodies has just been shown. It is seen that the protection of Jewish rights is the osten¬ sible program—against which no one can say a word. Perhaps the term “Jewish rights” is unfortunately chosen. If Jewish rights coincide with American rights, then more than the Jews are protecting them— the whole American nation is engaged in that work.
But it is not true that “Jewish rights” are the same as “American rights.” Unfortunately the Jews have adopted an attitude which could only have sprung from the belief that it is a “Jewish right” to Judaize the United States.
THE JEWISH DEMAND FOR “RIGHTS” IN AMERICA 153 This is one of the dangerous doctrines being preached today, and most assiduously by Jews and those who have been influenced by Jewish thought, namely, that the United States is not any definite thing as yet, but that it is yet to be made, and it is still the prey of whatever power can seize it and mold it to its liking. It is a favorite Jewish view that the United States is a great unshapen mass of potentiality, of no particular character which is yet to be given its defi¬ nite form. It is in the light of this view that Jewish activity must be interpreted.
That doctrine with which so large a mass of Amer¬ icans are inoculated is making havoc with the whole Americanization program today. It is “broadening” America out of all semblance to its distinctive self and blurring those determining ideals and ideas on which American institutions are based. The attempt, first to give the people to understand that the United States is “nothing particular” as yet, and second to make it something different spiritually from what it has always been, is peculiarly agreeable to the phil¬ osophy which sways the internationally-minded He¬ brew. We are not making Americans; we are per¬ mitting foreigners to be educated in the theory that America is a free-for-all, the prize of whatever fan¬ tastic foreign political theory may seize it.