The Maccabaean

During the present month we have had no reason to make the usual plaint of the dulness of the summer season. Whether Jewish life or general conditions are becoming more intensive and important or not, the fact remains that the Jew is growing to be a factor in the affairs of the world; he plays a prominent part in world politics. Who can say that this in great part, is not due to Zionism?

Kishineff My account must still continue with this name prominently in it. Resentment at the outrage has given way to a demand for reparation. Years ago, not so long since to speak truly, the spectacle of a Jewish Lord Mayor of London referring to an anti-Jewish outbreak at an indifferently impartial festival was something that could only be imagined. Still only a day ago, Sir Marcus Samuel at the Mansion House banquet to the officers of the American squadron in London, spoke of the Kishineff horror as one would speak among intimate friends of an accident that had befallen some dear relative.

Our own Government seems to be undecided about the Jewish petition to Russia. President Roosevelt at first promised to present it ofhcially to Russia and Hon. Simon Wolf, of Washington, went so far as to warn Ambassador Cassini, declaring that America’s traditional friendship for Russia would be replaced by a feeling of indignation at the outrages perpetrated on the Jews. The St. Petersburg Foreign Office formally issued a notice, however, that.the B’nai B’rith petition will be treated as the famous London

Guildhall memorial was. The Washington authorities discussed the situation in its various phases. For many a day the Jewish petition occupied the attention of the President and his Secretary of State to the exclusion of all other official business. A conference with Messrs. Oscar S. Straus and Leo N. Levi, of New York, and Simon Wolf, of Washington, was held by the President. The difficulties in the way of securing official acceptance of the petition were explained and a plan of presenting which would be at once efficacious and dignified was adopted. That the matter has been fraught with grave danger to America none can deny. A diplomatic set-back for our Government would lessen American prestige in Europe, and it is to be doubted if the United States would have resorted to measures of force for the sake of the American Jews. Unfortunately, in the last analysis, no country on the globe is willing to enter the lists in this tournament of human rights on behalf of the Jews. America has most assuredly gone to great lengths in the Kishineff affair and has expressed its sympathy with our Russian brethren in quite tangible form. Still, thinkers can draw their own conclusions from the matter. He who desires a working illustration of the course of anti-Semitism has it here, in its lights and shadows.

To leave the realms of theory and speculation. The St. Petersburg Kishineff Relief Committee has received the sum of 192,500 roubles ($98,175) from America and 363,700 roubles ($185,487) from Russia. The total receipts, at this writing, amount to 736,500 roubles ($375,615), and there has been ex-