Henry Ludwig Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett
(1898 – 1949)
The following is taken from the
editorial in The Jewish Western
Bulletin (Vancouver),
January 11th, 1934. The paper's editor
was then was a S. A. Goldston, a
Zionist.
"The formal re-union of Lord Melchett with Judaism has attracted wide-spread attention in the Press. ... But probably the wisest among us all will look askance at the inordinate publicity with which the occurance was invested, and which does not seem to have been officially discouraged. It gave an appearance of public exultation which is not flattering to Jewish self-respect and could have hardly been pleasing to his Lordship himself. Apparently we have a lot to learn in the art of managing such events. ...
Lord Melchett is a symbol of the remarkable things that are going on in Germany today. There we are told, under the shock of Nazi Storm Troopers, many former non-Zionists are suddenly seeing the beacon light of Palestine. In particular—and this is most significant—are young German Jews turning Zion-wards. Not only that, but the "religionslos" Jews are dropping the "los" and rejoining the old Faith. Children of mixed marriages no longer treat Judaism as the unregarded step-mother Faith, the "misfortune" rather than the religion Heine declared it to be. There is a great demand about books of Jewish history and other branches of Jewish knowledge. In a word, German Jews—not, of course, all of them—have rediscovered their Jewish bearings and, let us hope, repent of the foolish back-sliding of prosperous days. And so, just as Hitler, by his comic genealogical researches, has only succeeded in adding hundreds of thousand more "Jews" to the resurgent "third Reich", so his oppresive measures have only succeeded in making many other Jews more Jewish.
... let us not forget the re-awakening of German Jewry may have, probably has had, its echoes elsewhere. It is not only the German Jew who has been brought by Hitlerism sharp up against realities, and has found a new interest in the Jewish faith and the Jewish lot.
