In the above the Zionist policy has been sketched. Experience has by this time shown that in spite of the incredible difficulties of all kinds, Zionism has not only not lost its power, but has also actively developed its work.
The present war has not affected the unity of the Zionist idea nor has it affected the unity of the Zionist Organization. As the Organization was established on the federative principle, it was found possible to continue the essential work of the movement by utilising the separate organizations of the different countries. The work of propaganda and the collection of funds, so far from diminishing, actually made great progress. The societies already in existence continued their work very effectively, and a considerable number of new societies came into being. Die Welt, the central organ of the movement, had, however, to be suspended; but a series of new Zionist publications made their appearance. The Zionist press—in Russia particularly—made great headway. The Zionist weekly, Razswiet, which is published in the Russian language, increased its circulation threefold. Three new dailies, Ha’am in Hebrew, Das Togblatt and Der Telegraf in Yiddish, were established, and rapidly attained a circulation comparable to the great European daily papers. A crowd of new journalists and publicists accepting the Zionist platform, joined the old guard of writers and workers in the cause. The Yiddish Press in Poland, which numbers its readers by the hundred thousand, put themselves at the disposal of the Zionist movement. One in particular, which had hitherto been territorialist, and only lukewarm towards Zionism, declared openly its acceptance of the Zionist programme. In England Zionist activity in press and literature made remarkable progress, such as had scarcely been imagined possible in this country. It is worthy of note that, quite apart from the Zionist Press proper, the Jewish non-Zionist Press evinced a much keener interest in the movement. The world’s general Press, in all languages, devoted to Zionism an amount of space second only to the events of the war. The mere fact that at a time such as the present, when the world is in the throes of a universal struggle, and every nation is concerned for its own safety, and even existence, so much interest was directed to our movement throws a dazzling light upon the naïve absurdity of the anti-Zionist assertion, that the whole movement is nothing more than an Utopia.
The Zionists have long realized the need of public meetings and discussions. The Zionist movement is the only Jewish national and democratic movement to attach great importance to the free exchange of opinions and to break down the somewhat autocratic method of conducting Jewish affairs in favour with the Kehillah leaders. It was the first movement to replace the dry bones of bureaucracy by the introduction of universal Jewish suffrage as a means of dealing with Jewish public affairs. As the Zionist movement in pre-war times found full expression in conferences and public meetings, it was to be feared that the War, by reducing greatly the facilities of communication and intercourse, would seriously affect this form of activity. But this was not the case. The long record of the meetings and conferences held since the outbreak of the war, and which by no means exhausts the total number, gives some notion of the vast scope of this form of propaganda.
We will make a short survey of the most important dates in Zionist activity during the course of the war, in chronological order.
September, 1915.
Zionist Conference—Dordrecht—Holland.
Roumania. Annual Meeting of the Roumanian Zionist Federation, November 7th and 8th, held in Galatz. Country divided into four districts for Zionist work: Galatz, Bucharest, Jassy, Foscani.
Canada. General Jewish Conference held in Montreal, November 14th and 15th, together with the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Zionist Federation, presided over by Clarence de Sola.
December 5th, 1915.
West Austrian—Galician—and Bukowina Zionist Conferences (Adolf Stand in the chair). Resolutions:—
“The Assembly expects to see the Jewish problem discussed at the peace conference, and trusts that the Actions Committee will find suitable means and ways to create a united manifestation of the Jews of all countries for the demand of securing for the Jews their civil and political equality of rights all over the world, and in the nationality states also recognition of their national existence.
“The Actions Committee is asked to prepare everything in a suitable manner, in order that the interests of political Zionism may be secured before the Forum of the future Peace Congress.”
December 26th and 27th, 1915.
Holland. At Nymegen one hundred and twenty delegates attended.
December, 1915.
Manchester. Conference of English “Poalei Zion.” Delegates from all parts of the country attended.
January 1st, 1916.
England. Conference convened by E.Z.F. attended by Rabbis, delegates of Synagogues, Friendly Societies and Trade Unions.
January 5th, 1916.
America. Annual Conference of the Federation of “Knights of Zion,” at Chicago. The Federation has fifty-three active branches and three thousand members.
January, 1916.
Australia. Annual Conference of the Sydney Zionist Society.
February 6th, 1916.
America. Annual Convention of the Zionist Council of Greater New York.
February 13th, 1916.
England. Annual Conference of the English Zionist Federation at Manchester.
1916.
Mizrachi. The Annual Conference of the “Mizrachi” was held at Chicago, May 26th–30th. The “Mizrachi” of America comprises one hundred and three associate-societies and twenty-four synagogues. The membership is six thousand.
Some of the principal American Rabbis attended the Conference.
A special Palestine Bureau was created. A new union, called “Achi Samach,” was formed, for the encouragement of the sale of Palestinian products.
1916.
Bombay. A Meeting of the Magen David Congregation was held at Bombay. The proceedings were all in Hebrew. Sir Jacob Elias Sassoon, Bart. (1844–1916), was re-elected president.
May 28th and 29th, 1916.
Scandinavia. The Twelfth Annual Conference of Scandinavian Zionists was held at Copenhagen. Thirty-one delegates from all parts of the country were present. Various resolutions were passed, expressing confidence in the work of the Central Executive.
1916.
Switzerland. A Conference of the Swiss Zionist Federation was held at Berne on June 1st.
1916.
South Africa. The Annual Conference of the South African Zionist Federation was held at Johannesburg on April 30th. Over one hundred delegates were present.
1916.
Canada. “Poalei Zion” of Montreal had a series of Conferences on June 2nd–4th.
America. Conference of American Zionist Federation held at Philadelphia on July 2nd. Over five hundred delegates present.
July 8th, 1916.
Conference at New York of the “Young Judea.” The membership is three thousand five hundred.
September 13th–15th, 1916.
Poland. A Zionist Conference was held in Warsaw, attended by one hundred and twenty-five delegates from Warsaw and the Polish provincial cities.
The following resolution was passed:—
“1. That the Central Committee establish a special Palestine Office, to gather information and material with respect to the present situation in Palestine and with respect to the possibilities for work after the war.
“2. That it elaborate this material and spread it within wide circles. Further, it has to organize pioneer groups, who are willing to go to Palestine, as well as to work out a scheme for the preparation of these pioneers.”
September, 1916.
Russia. “Poalei Zion” Conference—the first since the outbreak of the war. Resolution passed:—
“That we agitate among the Jewish masses instructing them the only solution for the Jewish problem is the creation of a Jewish Home in Palestine.”
September 18th, 1916.
Conference of Zionist speakers, held at New York.
Bohemia. The Annual Conference of Bohemian Zionists was held at Prague on November 1st.
America. Zionist Students’ Organization of America held its Second Annual Conference, November, 1916.
November 14th–19th.
America. “Poalei Zion” Conference at Boston. Attended by one hundred and nine delegates from the United States and Canada.
(During the year two thousand new members had been enrolled. Juvenile Societies, with eighteen branches and over one thousand members, had been formed.)
1916.
England. On December 24th and 25th the Order of Ancient Maccabeans held their Annual Grand Beacon Meeting in Manchester. Resolution:—
“That this Grand Beacon Meeting reiterates its loyalty to the Zionist programme, as endorsed from Congress to Congress, and expresses the hope that the time may not be far distant when our brethren will be accorded full civil and political rights all over the world, and that the order co-operate with bodies that strive for the above objects.”
1916.
Holland. The Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Dutch Zionist Federation was held at the Hague on December 24th and 25th, 1916.
About one hundred and twenty delegates were present, including representatives of the “Poalei Zion” and the Belgian Zionist Federation.
The Dutch Federation comprises twenty-six societies, with a total membership of one thousand six hundred and sixty.
Collections: Palestine Fund, 11,453 fl.; Central Fund, 913 fl.; National Fund, 10,709 fl.
1917.
Poland. The Annual Meeting of the Warsaw Zionists, held on January 11th, attended by a thousand shekel payers.
1917.
America. In March, a Conference of Jewish Socialist Workers was held in New York, and attended by four hundred delegates. The Basle programme was adopted.
1917.
Mizrachi. Over two hundred delegates attended the “Mizrachi” Convention at Pittsburg, where the deliberations extended for over five days. Fifty of the most prominent orthodox Rabbis of the country attended. The “Mizrachi” has a hundred and nineteen branches in ninety-five cities spread over twenty-eight States.
1917.
America. “Knights of Zion” held their Twentieth Annual Convention at Minneapolis and St. Paul. The “Knights of Zion” had seventy-six societies with a membership of four thousand two hundred.
America. Hebraists Convention took place in New York on February 10th, 11th and 12th. Many Hebrew scholars from all parts of the country were present.
America. The Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Zionist Council of New York was held on February 16th, attended by eighty-eight delegates, representing thirty societies.
1917.
England. The Annual Conference of the E.Z.F. was held in February in London. About sixty delegates were present.
1917.
Switzerland. The Swiss Zionist Federation held a Conference at Berne on February 18th. Thirty-five delegates attended.
1917.
Russia. On March 28th–30th there was held a Conference of the Central Institutions of the Zionist Organization. About fifty delegates attended.
Conference of all Russian Zionist Organizations, held in Moscow, April 3rd. Dr. E. W. Tschlenow presided.
1917.
Greece. On April 9th a Mass Meeting, attended by over three thousand persons, was held at Salonica. After addresses delivered by several speakers, a resolution was passed urging the restoration of the oldest nation and its regeneration in Palestine.
1917.
Belgian Zionists. On April 29th the Belgian Zionist Federation held a Conference at Scheveningen, Holland.
1917.
Australia. Annual Meeting held at Sydney, March 18th.
1917.
England. Special Conference E.Z.F. in London, May 20th.
1917.
Russia-Turkestan. Early in May a Conference of Turkestan Zionists was held at Samarcand. The delegates were both Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Thirty delegates attended, besides delegates for the Bokhara Jews, and two hundred guests.
A Zionist Central Committee was formed for Turkestan.
1917.
Poland. June 3rd–5th. Conference of Zionist Central Committee for Poland, held in Warsaw.
1917.
Russia. On May 24th (O.S.) the Seventh Conference of Russian Zionists was held at Petrograd, and was attended by five hundred and fifty-two delegates, representing one hundred and forty thousand shekel payers, from six hundred and forty towns and villages. Eleven delegates came from Siberia. Bokhara and Mountain Jews were represented. Twenty-four delegates were soldiers coming by special permission of the Commander-in-Chief, who got free passes. Five hundred guests came from the country and one thousand guests from Petrograd were present. Ninety representatives of Russian papers were present. The Foreign Secretary, Teretschenko, sent greetings and best wishes for complete success.
Dr. E. W. Tschlenow’s speech was reprinted in half a million copies for the soldiers.
A meeting of Zionist Women was held in the hall of Kiew University in May. More than one thousand five hundred Jewish women attended.
1917.
In 1913 there were only twenty-six thousand shekel payers in Russia—now one hundred and forty thousand. Resolution passed:—
“The Seventh Zionist Russian Conference proclaims its firm conviction that the nations, in settling the bases of the new national and political life, shall be conscious of the clearly manifested will of the Jewish people to colonize Palestine again as their national centre, and that they shall create conditions enabling the unhindered evolutions and concentration of all Jewish forces, for the purpose of bringing about a regeneration of Palestine.”
A representative body of the Jewish people should be admitted to the approaching Peace Conference, which shall obtain attention for the historic and national rights of the Jewish people.
1917.
America. Independent Order “Brith Shalom” held their Thirteenth Annual Conference in Atlantic City on June 13th. Over six hundred delegates were present. The resolution passed commenced thus:—
“Whereas the Independent Order has adopted the Zionist platform in spirit and in fact, and has pledged itself to the furtherance of all principles it stands for, etc., etc.”
1917.
America. The Twentieth Conference of American Zionists opened at Baltimore on June 24th. Over a thousand delegates were present.
1917.
America. Twentieth Annual Convention of Progressive Order of the West was held at Detroit, Michigan. The Order has a membership of twenty thousand, and declared its allegiance to the Zionist cause.
1917.
America. Conference of “Young Judeans.” One hundred and twenty-five delegates present, representing five thousand members. The “Young Judeans” collected 3500 dollars for the Jewish National Fund.
1917.
England. Union of Jewish Friendly Societies, comprising fifty thousand members, adopt the Basle programme.
Conference of the Order of Ancient Maccabeans, held at Manchester, July 17th. Membership of the Order 2200.
1917.
Canada. The Fifteenth Annual Conference of Canadian Zionists took place at Winnipeg in July. Delegates from seventy-seven towns, of three hundred and fourteen Jewish organizations, attended.
The Governor of Manitoba came to the Conference, and expressed his sympathy with Zionism.
1917.
Russia. Poalei Zion. Conference in Kiew—September 8th. More than one hundred and sixty delegates attended.
1917.
Greece. Salonica. Great Meeting, attended by three thousand persons at Salonica, on 9th of Ab.
1917.
America. The “Mizrachi” in America celebrated in August the Six-hundred-and-fiftieth Anniversary of the First Settlement in Palestine by R’ Moses ben Nachman (Ramban). The “Mizrachi” started a Fund of 100,000 dollars, to aid Colonization and Industrial Development in Palestine.
1917.
Poland. The Third Delegates’ Conference of the Zionist Organization in Poland was opened in Warsaw on October 28th, 1917. More than three hundred and sixty delegates attended, representing forty thousand shekel payers.
1917.
Poland. Fifth Conference of the “Poalei Zion” of Poland, was held in Warsaw. Over forty-four delegates, representing twenty-six towns, participated in the Conference. The Organization had forty-six district groups, with a membership of eight thousand.
1917.
America. September 5th. Conference of Rabbis resolved to appeal to various powers, particularly President Wilson, asking them to give their consideration to the question of the Restoration of Palestine to the Jewish people.
1917.
England. In October, Zionist Demonstrations took place all over the country. In seventy-one synagogues, one hundred and twenty-three lodges and associations, and in fifty-four Zionist societies, resolutions were passed requesting the British Government to use its best endeavours to bring about a Restoration of Palestine as a National Home for the Jewish people.
1917.
Holland. Congress of Jews resident in the Netherlands, held in Amsterdam on November 18th, for considering emancipation of Jews, recognition of national rights in national States, and national concentration of the Jewish people in Palestine.
One of the most popular of Zionist funds is the Jewish National Fund. This Fund is outside the realm of discussion, and deals exclusively with hard facts, i.e., financial contributions from all parts of the world. The Jewish National Fund is in a very real sense an index of the people’s will. It would seem that the terrible misery of the Jewish masses occasioned by so many expulsions, evacuations, and loss of life and property would have had the effect of, if not entirely cutting off this source of revenue, at least, seriously reducing it. In point of fact, the reverse is shown by the figures.
The income of the Fund during the last few months of the year 1914 and during the year 1915, was about two-thirds of the previous years. But in the year 1916 the National Fund received about 1,000,000 francs, which equals the amount in 1913. During the first half of 1917 the average monthly contributions were doubled. The latest date up to which exact figures for the various countries are available is September 1st, 1917. During the eight months from January to September, 1917, more than 1,300,000 francs had been recorded. During the last four months of the year approximately the same amount was received, that is, the contributions were doubled once more in relation to the immediately preceding rate. At the present moment the contributions to the National Fund amount to about 150,000 francs per month.
The results attained by the National Fund must be attributed to the general growth of the Zionist movement as well as to the effective organization of its propaganda, to the popularity of its fundamental idea—the acquisition of land as National property—and the importance attached by Jewry at large to the rôle that the National Fund will have to discharge in the forthcoming colonization of Palestine.
Contributions to the Jewish National Fund from the different countries in the year 1917 were as follows: Russia, Rbl. 475,312; United States, $73,502; Holland, Fl. 28,767; England, £1396 1s. 10d.; Argentina, Pesos 13,378; Canada, $4056; South Africa, £639 8s. 4d.; Switzerland, Frs. 11,572; Belgium, Frs. 8,329; France (including Tunis), Frs. 6,978; Egypt, £255 11s. 4d.; Greece, Frs. 6,425; Sweden, Kr. 2,542; Denmark, Kr. 2,447. Various countries, about Frs. 600,000. The total amounts to Frs. 1,747,278. At the rate of exchange before the war it would be Frs. 2,730,011.
| Country. | 1914. | 1915. | 1916. |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 197,311 | 291,604 | 268,317 |
| Russia | 184,334 | 30,120 | 81,336 |
| Holland | 10,662 | 13,972 | 35,921 |
| Argentine | 4,196 | 4,334 | 22,807 |
| England | 24,655 | 12,061 | 20,766 |
| Roumania | 15,532 | 23,997 | 19,021 |
| South Africa | 27,511 | 21,905 | 15,001 |
| Scandinavia | 807 | 1,715 | 4,886 |
| Canada | 21,951 | 23,129 | 10,296 |
| Switzerland | 3,854 | 3,748 | 7,296 |
| Greece | 5,755 | 4,545 | 4,410 |
| Belgium | 10,472 | — | 4,161 |
| Egypt | 2,845 | 832 | 3,382 |
| France | 2,115 | 1,862 | 2,992 |
| Far East | 1,377 | 280 | 2,562 |
|
Australia and New Zealand |
3,305 | 1,080 | 1,915 |
| Italy | 1,630 | 2,641 | 1,312 |
| Portugal | — | 280 | 937 |
| Brazil | 1,430 | 1,082 | 125 |
| New Zealand | — | — | 522 |
| Other countries | 224,962 | 197,597 | 425,110 |
| 744,704 | 636,784 | 933,075 |
With regard to the Zionist Organization, it must be stated that some of its functions, particularly those which were centralized in the headquarters, such as the periodical meetings of the Greater Actions Committee and the permanent contact and co-operation between the members of the Inner Actions Committee, had to be suspended. The Zionist Congress, the chief organ of the movement, which elects the executive of all the officers of the movement, to decide all questions of policy, could not be held owing to the war, and as a result the position had to remain as settled by the Congress of 1913. As, however, the events of the war threw upon the Organization not less but very much more responsibility than previously, and confronted the existing executive with problems of the greatest urgency and importance, new instruments had necessarily to be created to meet the new situation and to carry on the work of the movement.
In America, where the movement began to spread with great rapidity, the American Provisional Committee for General Zionist Affairs was formed in 1914, very soon after the outbreak of the war, and conducted the affairs of the movement with great skill. Their efforts in connection with Palestine relief were beyond all praise, and constitute one of the brightest pages in the history of the movement.
In Copenhagen, also, a Bureau was opened, which rendered invaluable services to the cause.
The greater part of the practical work of the Zionist Organization consisted of Relief Work for Jewish sufferers from the war. The terrible catastrophe which fell upon Russian Poland, Galicia, Bukovina, Lithuania, Zamut and Courland, affected the Jews in a unique way. Hundreds of towns and villages, in which Jewish inhabitants had dwelt and woven into their lives the threads of their own characteristic customs for many generations, in which they had faithfully preserved their ancient spiritual treasures in spite of misery and poverty, which had been a perennial source of inspiration and a rich storehouse for the Judaism of the whole world, which had nourished and sustained almost the whole House of Israel in the Diaspora, suddenly became a field of slaughter and the arena of the grimmest struggle in the world’s history. Troops in numbers never seen before, with weapons of destruction, threatening to reduce the world to ashes, passed like angels of destruction to and fro over the battlefields, leaving not a stone intact, not a blade of grass, or a living man or beast. Thus far the wounds and misfortunes which befell the Jews were no different from the wounds and misfortunes of the other inhabitants. But there must be added the special Jewish affliction in these countries, the persecution and the fierce anti-Jewish feeling which were the special characteristics of the ancient regime in Russia, which was wont to take advantage of every opportunity of avenging itself on the Jews, attacking them and holding them up to scorn on every kind of pretext and false accusation. This made the war a specially terrible phenomenon for the Jews: it produced a war within a war.
The war called upon the Jews to make sacrifices in equal measure with all the other inhabitants of these countries; their youth and their strength were laid on the altar of the land of their birth; they also bore the burden of all the taxes and payments which the other inhabitants had to bear; they put forward tremendous efforts as tradesmen and workers, as doctors and nurses; they were active workers in all departments directly and indirectly connected with the war. Yet side by side with this they had to face an insufferable hatred, they had to wage a separate war with the powerful, who strove to reduce to nothingness the little remnant which the war itself could not utterly destroy.
That this impression became current among the Jews was inevitable, in consequence of an old phenomenon which appeared before them in a new guise. We refer to the curious mixture of expulsion and evacuation, of pogroms and slaughters, of which they were the victims. They were accustomed, from long and bitter experience, to expulsions from without the pale of settlement into the regions of the pale, from villages to towns, and to the suffering occasioned by the Russo-Turkish and Russo-Japanese wars; but these expulsions occurred when conditions in Russia itself were almost normal, and when the Jews who were left untouched by the decree of expulsion were able to render assistance to their unfortunate brethren. The combination of the two forms of trials, of war and of persecution by their fellow-citizens, was more than even a nation inured to suffering could bear. It was as though this nation, which had been a wanderer from time immemorial, had only just begun its wanderings. They were no ordinary wanderers—not merely expelled and outlawed; but they were taken and hurled as out of the middle of a sling from province to province and from district to district. Railway carriages were not enough to hold them, so they were transported in cattle-trucks, the doors of which were locked to prevent escape on the way. The cattle-trucks were not sufficient to cope with the numbers and horse-vans were impressed, and as the horse-vans were not sufficient, even though the Jews paid their last kopecks for places in them, they were sent on foot. Bands of wanderers—consisting of women, children, aged, weak, sick and infirm—were accordingly dragged, driven, knouted along every kind of road and over every kind of obstacle, not like cattle beneath the watchful eye of the herdsman, not even like animals led to the slaughter, on whom some mercy is taken because they can be used, but simply like wild beasts pursued by huntsmen; whoever fell by the way fell without attention, whoever fell sick was ruthlessly left behind. Families were split up, and that iron bond which unites parents and children was snapped; infants died of starvation pressed against their mothers’ shrivelled breasts; weary old greybeards grew faint and stumbled on the way and died without the last consolation of old age, without seeing around them their offspring whose souls were bound up with their own; tender infants were deserted without anyone to take pity on them, and the clamour went forth from one end of the earth to the other, “Where is my father?” “Where is my child?”
This tragedy was not included among the necessary tragedies of the war: it was a Jewish tragedy. When Belgium was ruined, her Jews too were ruined. Had the catastrophe to the Jews in Poland and Lithuania been of such a kind it would have found a place in the general history and not in the separate history of the Jews. When, however, bands of thousands of Jewish fugitives came to Warsaw from the inland towns, in rags and tatters, footsore, hungry and despairing, it was impossible to regard them simply as victims of the war, because it was only the Jews who came. They were not victims of the war, they were victims of the Galuth, these thousands and tens of thousands of Jews who were suddenly transplanted from the midst of their old homes in Lithuania. When whole congregations, including inmates of their Homes for the Aged, of their hospitals, and even of the asylums were evacuated, it was impossible to believe that this was military tactics or a measure of precaution, for it was only the Jewish congregations who were forcibly and suddenly removed in this extraordinarily cruel manner. In many places it happened that the expelled Jews before they left were able to see with their own eyes other people entering and taking possession of the shops which they had left behind them. There was no connection between these sufferings and the events of the universal war. These were incidents in the special campaign which had been waged against the Jews before the war. For centuries the Jews had been living in these places. Brest-Litovsk and Grodno were not only cities in which there were fortresses for the Czar’s army and his Tchinovniks. They were also centres of Jewish life, wherein the Torah dwelt, cities of the Jewish “Council of the Four Provinces,” cities which emanated intellectual light over all the Diaspora, cities with institutions of Jewish congregations, with Yeshiboth, with schools, with synagogues and houses of learning, with old cemeteries, whose tombstones recorded the happenings to Jews for many generations. All that was destroyed and all the Jews who lived and thrived in them have been uprooted and scattered, and that which they left behind them wiped out, and no one knows if these towns will ever be rebuilt, and even if they are rebuilt will the Jews and their communities, with their learning and their traditions, ever be restored?
Accordingly there was but one cry, one intense and bitter cry, which was heard from one end of the world of Jews to the other, a cry for help. “Save all who can yet be saved.”
The Jewish people had realized that it was unwise to depend upon governments or to rely on philanthropic effort in general. The needs of the Jews were great and peculiar, so that only Jews themselves could help their brethren. This help appeared to be necessary in two directions: immediate pressing help and permanent prevention. Immediate pressing assistance consisted in sending money, provisions and clothes to save Jewish lives from hunger, disease and want, to help them to find work and means of livelihood in the places to which they have been driven, as well as in the places in which they have remained. But at the same time, people began to realize more and more that the real help for the Jews would be to rescue them from the unnatural conditions which cause them to be the scapegoat for whatever punishment comes upon the world. A people which dwells in its own land is also wont to be smitten by the sword and the fortunes of war, but it is not accustomed to complete destruction. When a nation has its own land and its own soil beneath its feet, to which it is attached, all the winds of Heaven cannot move it from its place, no weapon can permanently destroy it. A whole nation cannot be driven by oppressors from its country, and even though for generations the hand of the oppressor lie heavy upon it, the day is sure to come in which its fetters fall away, and once again it can breathe freely. Not so with a nation which floats in the air: it cannot rise in time of trouble, for every passing wind carries it away like chaff and makes it turn like the wheel of a windmill. Every page of Jewish history teaches this lesson, and the present war has served but to emphasize it. Therefore if we wish to prevent this evil and to obviate such convulsions in the future, we must establish for the remnant of this people a firm foundation and a safe shelter in the land of their fathers. Thus once again the flame of war and the terrible sufferings of our brethren have revealed the truth of the Zionist idea in all its strength and clarity as being the only true solution of the Jewish problem, that problem whose consequences are written in the blood of myriads of our brethren.
History will relate that the present generation of Jews rose to the height of its responsibility in comprehending both these duties equally. Once again there was revealed the strength of the Jewish quality of mercy. The Jews of Russia and Poland did their duty. With their young ones and their elders they threw themselves into the work of relief: in many places it was the Zionists who were the most ardent in this work. The Zionist Organization had during the last generation become a school of discipline and communal work, from which came forth initiators and leaders. It is not our wish, however, to make in this respect any distinction between Zionists and non-Zionists. Many who stood far removed from the camp returned to their brethren: all sections of Jews united: the icy cloak of indifferentism was melted, the divisions between the observant and the Liberals were obliterated. The shadow of sectarian faction disappeared, and on the scene appeared one people. History will relate that American Jewry, that vigorous young branch of the Jewish tree, made a mighty superhuman effort and performed wonders surpassing the imagination. It was not charity, but greatness. Voluntary effort went as far as self-imposed taxation. The history of Jewish unity has never had a chapter more beautiful, more sublime, more uplifting. America was not alone—a similar spirit rested upon the Jews of every country, and not only with regard to relief work, but also in the more permanent work of prevention, which was Jewry’s second duty. The second duty was to watch over and safeguard the Jewish colonies in Palestine, the colonies from which will spring the National Home. It was necessary to provide the Palestinian Jews with food, and to support the colonization—this small heritage of ours, this child of our sorrow, conceived in anguish and in holiness. The difficulties were enormous. Palestine was cut off from the whole world, by the sea on the West and the desert on the East, without a government able or willing to help; the New colonization is a young plant needing tender care—the Old communities are poor and helpless. If in such circumstances Palestinian Jewry was not entirely wiped out, we must thank the Jewish nationalist heart, which was awakened in our brethren in every country, and especially in America.