The Maccabæan
EDITORIAL PAGES
W E believe that no apology is necessary for having given over our present issue to the Proceedings of the Fifth International Zionist Congress. The sessions of that Congress were devoted not only to practical measures; the Congress was the forum for the presentation of addresses which are extremely valuable to the Jewish people. We are of the opinion that in no magazine or journal will there be found so complete an account of the Congress as we are privileged to present to our readers In this number.
THE Maccabæan dislikes very much to stand in the position of collector for the Federation of American Zionists, but it is evident that public solicitation is about the only weapon that can be used to make an appeal for dues effective. The secretary of the Federation urges the early payment of the Federation tax. Needless to say, the Federation is in the hands of its constituent societies for the means to manage the New York office; should there be no funds in the treasury until the annual convention, as is usually the case, the societies can find no ground for just complaints if no important work is carried on to its conclusion.
L ACK of space, notwithstanding our increasedsize, compels us to omit our usual departments. We are especially sorry for this,as we have in our possession a number of excellent articles which are peculiarly timely thismonth. A book review by Dr. Louis Ginsburg,the erudite European scholar, is withheld for thesame reason. We hope, however, these articleswill lose very little by appearing somewhat laterthan we had originally intended.
THE beggar student so unmercifully described by Dr. Nordau at the recent Congress, does exist and without doubt must be reckoned with by the Zionist propaganda. This student is not only a Russian. He is bred
in our own country, sacrificing health, dignity,and moral superiority to attain that which he immediately cheapens as soon as he acquires a kindof proficiency. The assumption that intellectuality is the only refuge for talent, that it standsfor superiority, that the means used to obtain aneducation are of no consequence, though a manbe compelled to lower himself to the dust to obtain it, has created with us a class of men who,strong in that one quality so strenuously acquired, are deficient in all the other qualities that goto make the cultured person. It was time thatsome one remonstrated with these devotees ofknowledge, these voracious intellectual gour-mands. The Jewish people must take inventoryof their faults, and the Zionist movement, representative of the Jewish people, must face thetruth. The rabbis have been dwelling too longon the noble qualities of the past; they have forgotten the ugly things of the present, they havebeen holding up the mirror of history so longthat the Jews do not know themselves. Theynow resent the truth. But the Zionist movement will stand upon a true understanding of theelements that constitute the Jewish people, andtake whatever opposition there may develop asthe unavoidable accompaniments of truth-telling.
The Congress
IN this number of The Maccabæan there will be found reprinted some of the principal addresses delivered at the Fifth Zionist Congress held in Basle. Although some of them have already appeared in the press notices of the Congress, our readers will no doubt be glad to have them in this permanent form. Aside from their interest as a part of the proceedings of that Congress, they have an intrinsic worth as representing opinions and conclusions upon subjects of Jewish interest of men who have given to these subjects long and careful thought.
Because of his position as presiding officer of the Congress and as the leading spirit in the movement, Dr. Herzl's words must necessarily be more carefully worded and his utterances more guarded than those of his fellow speakers on such occasions as these. It is for this reason that Nordau's impassioned presentment of the economic position of the Jew to-day, and Mr. Zangwill's almost prophet-like arraignment of the policy pursued by the Jewish Colonization Association, have been reproduced in our secular Jewish press much more freely than