The Maccabaean

Zionistic Reminiscences

Fourth Paper*

IN my last I penned some of my recollections of the first important visit of Dr. Herzl to London. There followed immediately, through the summer and autumn of 1896, an attempt at Zionist endeavor. Remarkable mathematical plans were evolved for the purpose of strengthening the cause. Secret societies were projected, and much else that was pardonable in the first blush of enthusiasm. However, the Bnai Zion continued to work and to make propaganda for the cause, and gradually news reached London of minute restorations of the old spirit in provincial cities. We had, however, no press at our command, from the news point of view. No one knew very much what was being done elsewhere; and such information as filtered through from Russia and Vienna helped but little to the realization of what was about to follow. All my letters to Dr. Herzl at this period simply ended up, "What is the latest news " For all kinds of things were being told us by all manner of men.

His Parisian visit had not been a success. I cannot venture to relate all that was said and done then, since the men concerned may still one day want to take a hand in the cause; but it is apparent now, as it was then, that the few Jews in Paris interested in Palestine had but a very small notion of what should be done; and there was a belief in the French capital that Palestine should still be, as it always had been, a dumping ground for paupers. This expression, forcibly put to him, led by Dr. Herzl as much as anything to help effect the sharp cleavage between the Zionists and the Chovevi Zion that speedily followed.

My own share of the work, as far as America was concerned, was the writing of polemical letters to the press and how far they aroused attention I do not know. Anyway, we were satisfied in spreading a knowledge of the movement in London, and patiently gathering our forces by any and every means. We were not very particular as to the character and qualities of the individuals who joined us, but we did make certain of one thing: That whoever entered our circle should be imbued with national feeling and practical understanding of the issue, that his Zionism would stand all kinds of shocks and endure wherever he might go, for we had in view two things at the onset: that if we were not prepared to lose we had no right to win, and that each and every one of us should become propagandists of the cause.

Toward the end of the year, when we were beginning to make some headway, I was invited from Vienna to use my pen for writing up the question of holding a national Jewish congress. I did this, but got no further than suggesting the theoretical problems that might be discussed at such a congress, but as soon as it was seen that this aroused some interest, there came to me nothing less than a copy of the programme of a projected congress, which should discuss practical