The Maccabæan
EDITORIAL PAGES
THE 5th Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists will be held at Boston in the month of June. Affiliated societies are requested to observe the utmost regularity in the election of delegates. Delegates should be carefully instructed on questions which the societies would have brought before the convention. If changes in methods of administration are desired, let the delegates be given specific commission to work for that end. The effectiveness of the Federation is conditioned by the effectiveness of the organizations composing its membership. This truth needs repeated emphasis.
PEEVISH voices — are they truly Jewish voices?—come from the West, belittling every effort made by those who are seeking with enthusiasm and practical plans to solve the Jewish racial question. One voice bears the name Tobias Schanfarber, which we deplore. Whoever has studied the condition of the religion of Judaism in this country cannot but have noticed the lack of consistency and the true religious fervor among many of these congregations of which sort Mr. Schanfarber is a leader A more radical preacher of reform Judaism, Rev. Charles Fleischer, recently remarked : “What humilating mental pictures the very thought of reform Judaism brings up : of factions fighting over the question of wearing or doffing the hat in the synagogue ; of parties warring over the retention of this or that amount of Hebrew in the ritual; of congregational splitting on the rock of single or double observance of the traditional festivals.” If this be a true picture of reform Judaism, we may well ask leaders like Rabbi Schanfarber, what have you accomplished in the field of religion that you mock the efforts of a propaganda based on sincere enthusiasm, directed by unselfish leaders, and working for an ideal in which you yourself will eagerly profit when it is once reality. We hope to hear no more such peevish cries from shortsighted people.
STEPHEN GWYN, a well-known litterateur, an Irishman by birth, describes the effect of the old Gaelic literature upon him : "For the ordinary Irishman or Irishwoman, whom it is proposed to educate, or merely to delight, by the revival of these old tales, it will be found, I think, that the literature has a special appeal. I judge by myself; the memories that haunt the Irish mountains and shores from Ben Bulben to Ben Edair, waken my imagination with a more living touch than a!l that is told with greater art of an alien Thessaly, and Tara is more to me than Camelot. The value of a literature lies in its power to interest, and no literature and no history can be to any country what are the history of its own race or the literature that sprang from its soil. Few serious thinkers will deny that every civilized man should be familiar with the history of his own race, and it is at least doubtful whether that familiarity is possible without a knowledge of the racial tongue." If this be true of Gaelic literature, which represents a civilization that has lost its place in the life of the Irish people, how much more so of the Hebrew literature which at no time was without vigorous influence !
WE would advise friends of our cause, especially those living in provincial towns, to refrain from entrusting their momentary hopes or fears as to the success or failure of certain steps in the propaganda, to their local newspapers. The announcement of news with regard to official steps may be left to the direction of the officials who have that business in hand. The movement gains nothing by indiscriminate circularizing of inaccurate statements of immature hopes. The movement gains much, however, by dignified and authoritative statements from competent sources.
WE cannot agree with this statement : “The wealthy Hebrews pity the condition of the oppressed Jews.in Russia and Roumania . . . . They believe that the Jewish problem must be solved in the lands in which Jews now live.” (N. Y. “Sun,” March 30th). Neither of the above opinions is correct. If they were true, Mr. Behar’s Russian enlightening scheme would be endorsed by our wealthy brethren. If this were true, international organizations like the Alliance Universelle Israelite, the