Louis D. Brandeis: “The Jewish Problem: How to Solve It”

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The modern Zionist movement, devoted to securing a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, began with the work of the European journalist Theodore Herzl in the late 1890s. The movement spread rapidly among European Jews but was relatively weak and disorganized in the United States. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the World Zionist Organization was suddenly thrown into chaos; some Zionist leaders were active in England, Russia, and France, while others could be found on the opposite side of the battle lines in Germany and Austria. In this situation, communication was nearly impossible, and support was precarious for the dozens of small Jewish settlements already located in Palestine. In this crisis, a group of American Zionists met in New York City and formed a “provisional” executive committee for Zionist affairs. They chose Brandeis to be their leader.

He was in several respects an odd choice for this role. In the first place, the Brandeis family was made up of westernized Jews, cultured and German speaking; the overwhelming majority of Zionists were poor Eastern European Jews and Yiddish speakers. In addition, Brandeis was a complete stranger to Judaism. There is no record that he ever attended a Jewish religious service or observed Jewish holidays or customs. Many rank-and-file Zionists, by contrast, were deeply religious Jews, and a large number were strictly Orthodox. It was clear that Brandeis was chosen to head the organization because of his stature in American secular society—he was easily the best-known Jew in the United States in 1914—and because it was thought that his friendship with President Woodrow Wilson might prove useful. Undoubtedly, it was assumed that Brandeis would serve as a figurehead leader, not as a Zionist activist in any major way.

To the surprise of many veteran American Zionists, Brandeis seized immediate control of the movement. With his usual attention to facts, he made himself a master both of Zionist organizational politics and financial affairs and of conditions in Palestine. He single-handedly transformed the New York office into an efficient headquarters, spearheaded enormous fund-raising and membership drives, and shaped the movement into an effective voice for Zionism. In pursuit of these objectives, he wrote hundreds of letters to his lieutenants, demanded daily reports of progress, and worked ceaselessly to increase numbers and finances. He remained intensely active in the movement (while at the same time actively pursuing numerous social reform initiatives in Washington, D.C.) until his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1916. From 1916 until 1921 Brandeis was a behind-the-scenes policy maker and counselor to the movement he had so invigorated. In 1921 the Brandeis faction of the movement was ousted by Eastern European Jews, who followed the leadership of the English Zionist Chaim Weizmann. Then, in 1931, when the organization was once again suffering from disorganization and low morale, Brandeis's followers were recalled to leadership, and Justice Brandeis, by then in his late seventies, resumed a diminished role as an adviser to the movement and a serious student of Palestinian affairs.

This document is a speech that Brandeis delivered to the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis in 1915; it was quickly reprinted and very widely distributed. In the speech Brandeis articulates his personal vision of the mission of Zionism and its role not only for Jews but also for the betterment of civilization. His main purpose is to convince his audience that there is absolutely no contradiction between loyalty to America and an allegiance to the Zionist purpose—indeed, that the two loyalties reinforced each other and could never be in conflict. Reform Jews, in particular, tended to resist Zionism, contending that America, not Palestine, was the “promised land” and that Zionism might arouse suspicions among other Americans that Jews were not fully committed citizens of the United States. Brandeis, whose brand of Zionism owed a great deal to his commitment to and experience in American progressive social reform, reflects these concerns in this document. His heavy emphasis on democracy and freedom and his apparent indifference to Zionism as a religious cause indicate his own views; his words are calculated to appeal to both relatively secular and thoroughly Americanized Jews.