What is Our Purpose?
MODERN or National Zionism has assumed a different aspect from that still held by some orthodox Jews: "That a Messiah, the son of David is to come and redecm Zion for us, and there on the Mount of Zion we will build our sacred temple and bring our sacrifices." This idea of Zionism has faded away. Our present conception of it is a practical one. Modern Zionism embraces the following vital questions:
ist. Shall the Jew be absorbed by the different nations of the world, or shall he maintainhis national and racial identity?
2nd. "What shall be done" to improve the economic and political condition of our oppressed brethren in European countries, and how can we avoid their total extermination?
I he contention of some of our opponents that we have ceased to be a nation, because we have a large admixture of foreign blood in our veins, is not substantiated by facts. These opponents should bear in mind that there is no nation in the world who can conscientiously say, "our blood is perfectly pure." And let them consult our anatomists, physiologists, and pathologists, and they will be informed that Jews have certain anatomical peculiarities in the formation of their skull and nose, also certain peculiar diseases to which they are predisposed, and others to which they are more or less comparatively immune, that prove them to be beyond all doubt a nation.
The Jew has been deprived of his social and political rights, but no power on earth can disarm him of his inherited properties, his natural qualifications, his strong intellectual power. It is folly to restrict his admission into scientific academies, for the vibration of the air will transmit into his acute auditory nerves the secrets of the natural laws, and scientific impressions are effectively made upon his sensitive nervous system. The walls that separate him from the universities are transparent to him, and by the process of osmosis, he absorbs intellectual food. He quickly comprehends, digests and assimilates ideas, and stores them up for future use.
Through years of prosecution and persecution, and wandering from one country to another, he has acquired a certain tolerance for the toxic substances produced by the anti-Semitic germs, the frequent injections of which have practically rendered him immune to the various diseases known as persecution, imprisonment, physical and mental torture. Every atom, every molecule in his body is saturated with the poisonous substances excreted by the anti-Semitic microbes, a sub-
stance which is detrimental to themselves, bu is a very valuable agent to increase the resisting power in the cells of his body. The cohesive and adhesive power of his tissues practically renders him impenetrable and indestructible.
The Jew's mode of life does not materially differ from that of the non-Jew. Our children acquire at our public schools all the ways and customs of the gentile, thus naturally making a deep impression upon their young bundle of nerves. There is absolutely nothing in his life to be impressed upon the young children as being characteristic of the Jewish race. Something must be done to make that impression on the younger generation or the result can easily be foreseen. Here are imbeded the secrets of Zionism; in it we find the curative remedy for those diseases, a "Reservation" to be established in Palestine, a specific place guaranteed against unjust attacks by anti-Semites. Zion will be the place where we will colonize the best of the Jewish nation. Such Jews who are not yet undermined, who are not yet physically disfigured, not yet mentally disintegrated, and are capable and willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of the Jewish nation, willing and capable to labor and produce for themselves, as well as for the community amongst whom they live, to have their home in their own country, and enjoy the privileges and rights of human beings; to lead a life of self-support, not as vagabonds, degraded, despised, and ridiculed; to live a Jewish life, to develope the Jewish spirit, to develope his mental faculties, to rid himself of the contaminated foul air, and once more to breathe fresh and pure air.
To us American Jews Zionism will serve as a moral support, as a spiritual adviser, as a central nervous system, as an intellectual orthopoedea. It will elevate our social and political standing in the eyes of our non-Jews neighbors, and we will be looked upon as a'nation, having a home, a history, a language, a literature and racial qualifications.
To recapitulate: Zionism is a prescription for a pharmaceutical preparation tending to remove the cause of our national disintegration; it will mitigate the suffering and alleviate the distress of our oppressed brethren in European countries; it will guarantee a future to the Jewish race, and will elevate the dignity of our race; it will gather the scattered, dispersed, wandering, maltreated, downtrodden Jew, and make a citizen of him.