The Maccabaean

I have returned from Russia a convinced supporter of the Zionist movement for the repatriation of those Jews of Russia and other countries who are willing to return to the parent land of their race. It is absolutely hopeless ever to expect the Russian people or government to admit the Jews to the rights of nationality or citizenship. The negro of the South will be welcomed much sooner on a level of equal social equality to the dining-rooms of the ex-slave States.

The average Russian fears the Jew more than he hates him. He is infinitely more resourceful in all the business and civil walks of life than the land-owning or land-working Russian, while in intellectual equipment he possesses a decided advantage over men of the ruling race. These facts will not be denied even by educated Russians. One of these, a noble of distinction and a man of broad views, said to me when discussing the problem of the Russian Jew: "What can we do with these people? I am opposed to their persecution and feel the shame which the Kishineff horrors have brought upon the name of Russia. But if we do what you urge, if we allow them to spread over the country and open up to them access to the offices of municipal and imperial administration, why, my dear sir, their racial ability and capacity would enable them to control all our departments within ten years."

This is the reflex of the Russian official mind. The same view pervades all the lower grades of civil employment; policemen, customs officers, post office and telegraph services, and so on. And when to this feeling is added the conviction which was expressed in every conversation I had with representative Russians from Odessa to Warsaw that Socialism was a Jewish importation; that young Jews are its most dangerous if not its only

effective propagandists within the Empire, it can at once be seen how futile will be the efforts which will seek to obtain equal rights or free citizenship removed from oppression for the Russian Jew, even within the pale of legal domicile.

The Zionist movement is a necessity of the situation. It boldly faces the terrible problem of the Russian Jew with a rational and courageous solution. He cannot hope ever to live safely and in peace in Russia without rights and protection which he will not in our day receive.

Other European countries or America cannot reasonably be expected to open wide the gates of immigration to one or two millions of poor Hebrew workers. Where, then, are they to go if their persecution is ever to cease?

The parent-land of Palestine offers them a shelter, and, perhaps, a limited autonomy under Turkish suzerainty, provided the combined influence of sympathetic public opinion and the intercession of the Great Powers could enable the plan of the Zionist movement to be put in operation. It ought to be with the present ruler of the Turkish Empire a question of money only, along with a concerted agreement between the leading European governments and, it is to be hoped, that of the United States. And, as the recent savage recrudescence of anti-Semitic feeling must necessarily awaken interest and sympathy for the victims of this barbarous spirit, the remedy advocated by the Zionist leaders must receive a wider attention than has yet been given to it in either Europe of America.

The press of the United States can render powerful help in this direction, and I most earnestly press the cause of the repatriation of the Russian Jew.