British East Africa and Zionism
THERE are now great, real and live issues before the Jewish people. Every Zionist must have an opinion on the relationship of Zionism to the offer of the British Government to permit of the formation of a Jewish national settlement in British East Africa. Every Jew, too, whatever his station, should form his opinion on a question that, one way or the other, will affect the future of the Jewish people.
We shall, therefore, give every possible space in forthcoming issues of THE MACCABÆAN to the publication of opinions on this question. We invite every Zionist to write us his or her opinion, and we ask them to urge their friends, too, to send us opinions on this matter.
Opinions, which should be expressed in not more than one hundred and fifty words, can be sent in English, Yiddish, Hebrew or German (Latin character); but must be legibly written on one side of the paper only, and must be authenticated with the name and address of the writer, and Zionist organization, if any. Envelopes should be clearly marked "Opinion," and addressed to the Editor of THE MACCABÆAN, 320 Broadway, New York.
Since ,we first issued this offer, we have collected the following opinions. Others will be quoted in ensuing issues.
[From an address delivered at the Cooper Union Mass Meeting, October 3, 1903.]
The Sixth Zionist Congress was different in several respects from the five others preceding it. In commencing a second half decade of these meetings, it marks perhaps a turning point, so that in a certain measure it was as important as was the first of the first half decade. At that time we were still uncertain as to the answer which would be given to the call to arms which had been sent out. We did not know whether a congress of Jews was at all possible; and our fellow Jews were the first and the loudest in their phrophecy of failure. Yet, under the benign guidance of Almighty God, and following the superb leadership of Dr. Herzl, with the aid of others whose names I need not rehearse, borne high upon the uplifting pinions of a great idea, we have been able to carry our ship above and beyond the surging billows. The waves have, at times, touched
us; adverse winds have blown against us, and storms have torn through our ranks. But we can with sume measure of justice say that we have already triumphed over many obstacles. Our congress is now an assured fact. It has come to stay; to represent in a tangible fashion the deep-lying feelings and hopes which stir the Jewish people; to interpret these feelings to the Jewish world first, and then to the world at large. A representative body, chosen from all places where Jews have found a resting place and grounded upon a broad democratic basis—in the best and widest sense of that term democratic—it can, with dignity and right, seek the suffrage of all Jews whatsoever their individual opinions may be. From a small handful of people it has grown steadily until it has become a large, representative body. One hundred and fifty attended the first gathering in August, 1897. In 1903 more than eleven hundred delegates had been elected, of whom nearly seven hundred found their way to the friendly city on the Rhine. In fact, so great