Eugene Girin writes for VDARE:
Jean Raspail`s novel The Camp of the Saints
was another major influence on Rabbi
Schiller. At the Manhattan meeting, the Rabbi talked about how Raspail`s book underlined the fact that we have a common European identity, which includes such things as "the sense of critical thought, romance, heroism, individual integrity, and the spirituality of life". All of
these were shaped by Greece and Rome, Judaism, Christianity, and the Norse lands.
Nowadays, the Rabbi commented, any sort of defense or even "public concern
with the fate of European civilization is open to attacks from the thought police".
Like Thomas Molnar, Rabbi Mayer Schiller believes that there is no hope for Western man because he "had his soul torn out" and "internalized the terror" to such a degree that he is not only afraid to speak in defense of his civilization, but is even afraid to think pro-Western, politically incorrect thoughts.
As for the nationalist parties in Europe, the Rabbi does not have much hope for two reasons.
First, as soon as a nationalist party will get above 10-15 % of the vote, the repressive apparatus of the EU will kick in and shut it down. (Indeed, this has already happened with Belgium`s Vlaams Blok and appears about to happen to the British National Party).
Second, nationalist movements are very susceptible to fragmentation and internal squabbles. This tragic fragmentation is due to the fact that movements that are out of power and have little hope of achieving it are forever substituting internal feuds for the reality of real power".
The Rabbi says witnessed this firsthand during the split of the National Front in Britain in the 1980s. He is still friends with former National Front leaders Patrick Harrington and David Kerr, whom he says have demonstrated a sense of sympathy towards the Jewish people.
On several occasions, the Rabbi visited Ulster where he attended the Twelfth Of July Unionist parade ("the last legitimate folk festival in the West and the only one without corporate sponsorship") and met with Reverend Ian Paisley. The Rabbi jokes that his affinity for both traditionalist Catholicism and Ulster unionism presents a big dilemma during Celtic-Rangers soccer games.
But all is not lost for the West. The Rabbi said that "the doctrine of multiculturalism and political correctness is so insane and against reality that it has to be enforced by terror". Therefore, the Rabbi asserted that, even when Western societies collapse after a long period of cultural and economic decline, there will still be remnants of religious Jews and Christians, as well as social traditionalists who will preserve Western civilization and values.
Rabbi Schiller urged the meeting to create "islands of sanity" similar to those envisioned by the French New Right, an important on influence on Rabbi Schiller`s thought, and carry the Western realm forth in our communities, homes, and hearts.
The last part of Rabbi Schiller`s speech dealt with the Jews and their relationship with the West. The Rabbi blames large-scale secular Jewish participation in the Left on the fact that when European Jews entered political life in the late 1800s, it was the Left that argued for emancipation. Therefore, secular Jews were trained for over a hundred years, to view those who had an "organic understanding and attachment to the Western realm" as a threat.
On the other hand, Orthodox Jews largely abide by a tribal morality. For most modern Orthodox Jews, this means that "it is all about Israel and support for Israel" and for most traditional Orthodox Jews, engagement with the outside world is only done to obtain benefits (government and otherwise) for their communities.
In conclusion, Rabbi Mayer Schiller outlined four ways that the Jews interact with the West.
- First, there is Zionism, which in its true and honest form means the severance of links with the gentile world and relocation to Israel.
Of course, this is not the disingenuous Zionism practiced by the American Jewish establishment and the neocons who reserve to the Jews the right to establish an ethnocentric state and promote their ethnic interests, but vilify white Christians for trying to do the same.
- Second, Jews can engage with the organic Western realm and become a part of it.
By fighting against the West`s internal and external enemies and taking part in the struggle for the survival of Western civilization, Jews are ensuring their own survival in the West. As I have previously argued, Jews are a part of the West and have to ally themselves with its defenders. Jews who embraced the option of "engagement with the Realm" include Rabbi Schiller, Bob Weissberg, and Paul Gottfried.
- Third, what Rabbi Schiller calls "the Amish
option"—total withdrawal from secular, gentile society into traditionalist close-knit enclaves.
Jews who follow this option include the Hassidic communities of Borough Park, Williamsburg, and Rockland County such as the Satmar, the Bobov, and Rabbi Schiller`s own Skver movements. The only engagement with outside society these communities have is for the purpose of obtaining benefits for themselves and their progeny. The outside world is viewed as being so corrupt, immoral, and vile that even the smallest degree of engagement with it will result in irreversible contamination.
Rabbi Schiller says that he has spent his adult life arguing against this narrow tribalism. But the moral and spiritual collapse of American society led him to think that maybe this option is, at this point, not so unrealistic after all.
- Fourth, and final: the choice tragically made by most secular American Jews—participation in universalism that led to the dissolution of both their own ethno-religious identity, through intermarriage and secularism, and also of the identity of white American Christians.
