Civilian Morale

This chapter discusses a wartime sermon by Joseph H. Hertz. The sermon predictably uses motifs from the Passover: the comparison with Pharaoh's oppression of the ancient Israelites, the homiletical application of phrases from the liturgy of the Haggadah (‘Next year may we all be free men’ to the conquered peoples of Europe, ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ specifically to the Jewish people). Several themes are perhaps more surprising. The first is the commitment to the integrity of the British empire and, consequently, the insistence on total victory not only in Europe but in the Near and Far East. There is also reference to failures on the ‘civilian front’, including Jewish connections with the black market, and the ringing assertion at the sermon's climactic conclusion of Zionist goals, despite their incompatibility with current British policy.