Judaism - Is it a Culture or a Civilization?

A memoriam to the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust

By Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht
Beth Israel of Westport/Norwalk
Vice President Rabbinical Alliance of America
Founder Schneerson Center for Jewish Life, CT

“It was a denial of G-D. It was a denial of Man. It was the destruction of the World in miniature form.”
– Auschwitz survivor Hugo Gryn

Tuesday, April 25th will be observed as Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a day set aside for the world community to remember the souls of the six million kedoshim holy martyrs -- men woman and children -- who were “brutally and torturously murdered, gassed and cremated, or buried alive for the sanctification of G-Ds name.” (Prayer book Yizkor memorial prayer)

On January 30, 1933, Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Within six months, the Nazis displaced democracy as they instituted a national boycott of Jewish owned businesses. The downward spiral continued unabated with “paper violence” forcing the Jews out of the universities and professions. The racist “Nuremberg Laws” of 1935 set the stage for the infamous ‘Kristalnacht’ the Night of Broken Glass in November of ’39.

Culture Devoid of Civilized Behavior

Mass murder on a scale never seen before followed in the years of 1941 through March of 1945. The scope and scale of ingenuity employed by the Germans and their collaborators to murder so many in such a short interval gives one pause to reflect on how Germany immersed in high culture, music, medicine, theatre, philosophy and technology could become so debased as to be morally dead.

An Historic Debate

The noted British historian Arnold Toynbee best known for his 12-volume series A Study of History (1934-1961) wrote an article in the spring of 1946 that conjectured that the Jewish people are a culture and not a civilization. Toynbee’s article was translated and subsequently appeared in a widely read Yiddish periodical that served the culturally starved community of Holocaust survivors who were in Paris. Many of theses people were themselves accomplished writers, thinkers, journalists and artists who eagerly came together for book discussions and intellectual conversation and discussion even as they tried to normalize their shattered lives.

At the time, a young man with the name of Gershon Jacobson who had escaped the advancing German army was studying Talmud at a Yeshiva in a suburb of Paris. Upon reading Professor Toynbee’s opinion that the Jews are a culture but not necessarily a civilization, he wrote a letter to the editor disavowing Toynbee’s premise. The editor of the Yiddish Literary Review was impressed by the correspondence. Three months later he extended an invitation to the erudite and learned Dr. Jacobson to a debate that the historian had agreed to participate. To the surprise of all – the evening for the debate arrived with Toynbee present and the mysterious ‘Dr. Gershon Jacobson’ nowhere to be found.

Moments later as the barrette clad Gershon Jacobson introduced himself, the venerable organizer of the debate realized that the letter to the editor dissenter was an eighteen-year-old student of Talmud who spoke fluent French, Russian, Yiddish, and some English. He also realized that the young man was self-assured, intelligent and well read. With no other choice with Toynbee having already arrived into the packed hall, he relented and introduced the distinguished panelists to the assembled.

Toynbee sizing up the young Gershon Jacobson offered to have Jacobson speak first. Jacobson asked Toynbee to define the difference between ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’. After a measured pause, the noted historian asked what Jacobson thought on the subject.

For forty-five minutes, Jacobson captivated his listeners with an overview of world history. His point was clear, profound and resonated with truth.

Jacobson conceded that the Jewish peoples beginning with Abraham and Sarah were indeed humble. However, it was Abraham and Sarah who introduced the concept of a benevolent and infinite Creator, amongst the pagan idolaters of their day.

The ‘Ten Commandments’ revealed to the Jewish people by G-d in the midst of the Sinai dessert might not seem to be the most cultured location but it certainly established a solid and immutable foundation for modern day civilization to build upon. The commandments of ‘do not kill’ and ‘do not steal’ as well as the belief in an all knowing G-d gave the ancient Israelites a code of conduct way more progressive and meaningful well-beyond anything that existed amongst the surrounding nations who were involved in human sacrifices to their various cult deities.

The temple of Solomon in Jerusalem was indeed beautiful but the Israelite kingdom of the first Jewish commonwealth that lasted almost 900 years did not compete with the later technological advances of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires. Their philosophy, science, music, art and literature, as well as their aqueducts and especially their stadiums were colossal works of culture.

However, their mores and way of life were primitive and lacking in the most basic rudiment of civilization, which treats human life as a sacred bond. The crowds gathered in their centers of entertainment lusting to see the blood of both gladiator and beast is legendary in the history of Rome. The fetishes of body worship as well as all kinds of excesses of brutality were well represented in the cultures of Persia Greece and Rome. However, as far back as the days of Abraham and throughout the history of both the first and second Jewish commonwealth the lust for blood and human degradation was considered anathema to the Jews. If anything -- the young impassioned speaker concluded -- the Jewish people are the guardians of civilization and a beacon of enlightenment to the world.

The upshot of the debate was Toynbee’s response. “Young man you are correct and I stand corrected. Indeed the Jewish people are a pillar of modern and ancient Civilization."

As we observe Yom HaShoah let us recall the words of Winston Churchill concerning the Holocaust “there is no doubt …that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world.”

Let us hope that our world remembers not only to be cultured, but more importantly --to be and act civilized.

*I heard of this exchange first hand in an animated discussion with the late Gershon Jacobson; the well-known and respected Journalist and Editor in Chief of the Algemeiner Journal a national Yiddish-English language weekly with a devoted readership in the USA and abroad.