What Has Zionism Accomplished?
FROM the plexus of false aims that the Jews are holding in the present, from the many inconsistencies that the Jew is subject to by his environment, Zionism brings a unifying element, a clearly defined policy. We cannot overestimate the advantage that is gained by a clearly defined policy. A race that has no consensus of opinion as to its position loses its balance. Its work becomes null and void and does not deserve to be called a separate people. Widespread colonization, the spreading of our mission, have been the glittering hooks on which we have hung our faith. From the failures of these remedies and catches, Zionism speaks with the voice of truth, gained by past and modern experience. The Jews are in as great a peril to-day as they were in the Middle Ages. The cause then being religious is now social and economic. With genuine interest and sympathy for the Roumanian Jews, America asks that persecution cease. She declares at the same time that Roumanian immigrants are not wanted here.
The upshot of all this talk and discussion may lead to nothing. But, in the words of the American Israelite, it will lead to the strengthening of the Zionist's ground. Zionism has destroyed the optimism of those opposed to us. Zionism has brought the searchlight upon the status of the Jew. Jewish troubles are aggravated from year to year. The onus of the labor strife is thrown upon the Jew. Add to this the ignorance and prejudice of the masses, we see the Jew bowed to the earth with a Mt. Atlas of stone upon his shoulders. We cannot depend upon the open doors of free countries. We cannot depend upon the spreading of rationalism of thinking men. We must depend upon our own clear insight and foresight. We must see the condition of the Jews within their ranks and seeing his relation to his environment, be prepared for future emergencies. Therefore, the Zionist affirms that a people with a separate religion, customs and life must be separated. First, for safety, then for social and intellectual improvement.
Now, dare we, a spiritual race, look first for our safety? What will become of our mission? The demand of our friends is that we must be the sport and scapegoat of civilization because we must be a light and guide to the nations. It is an ideal for which even the Zionists would give up their hope, if we could, in fact, not in theory, be a guide to the world. But are we afraid to look the truth in the face. The Jews, as a separate race, are doing nothing to spread their mission. Negatively, they contribute to the commercial and moral progress of the world.
As a power by himself, the Jew loses himself in the retrogressive and progressive flux of modern affairs. The altruism of Judaism succumbs to the morale of the intellectual tendencies of the times. The Jewish mission will have substance when he will translate his religious mission into social and economic laws for the regulation of Jewish life. A nation progresses when it brings the fire of its religion in contact with its institutions. A nation expresses its mission through the civilization molded by its ideals. Jewish culture and ideals are lost because environment is the strongest molding power of life. An imperfect and shifting envi-