Early in 1899, he was again in London, superintending the founding of the Jewish Colonial Trust and in the course of this visit delivered his answer to the critics by relating a story of the Arab, his ass, and the pack, with which each passerby dealt in a different way. Here, too, he brought an audience to its feet by describing the endlessness of his ideal.
(To be continued)
The Future of Zionism
GREAT prince in Israel has fallen! What shall those do who have so long looked to him as their natural leader?
Certainly, it is not meet for them to weep, to mourn, to despond. If his movement for national restoration has not yet struck so deep a root in the hearts of his people during the seven years of his active leadership, that the work can now go forward without his further active help, then, indeed, he has lived in vain; then, indeed, he was not the man we all considered him; then he will only live in the rarely-read history of the Jews as one of the dreamers, who longed to be buried and were buried in sacred ground along with Zion's poet, Jahudah Hallevi, and with Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, the great-hearted.
The news of Dr. Herzl's death, instead of being an occasion for bowed heads, for a craven flight from his ideals, for a break-up in the Zionist camp, should sound as a trumpet call to redoubled efforts to a closer union, to harder work. Let us form new societies; let us bring new members into the old ones; let us buy shares in the Colonial Trust,
and make our neighbors buy shares; let us remove all causes of quarrel and dissension, not only among Zionists, but among Jews in general; let us be worthy of restoration—and we will be restored to our ancient greatness.
But meanwhile we must look around for another leader; one who is to go out before us, and come in before us, lest the people of the Lord be like unto a flock that hath no shepherd. There is no Crown Prince at hand; no Vice-President to step into the vacant place. No Congress has been called to meet this summer. Perhaps it might be best for the Actions Comite to convoke a Congress to meet within this year for the express purpose of letting the representatives of all Zionistic Jews consult together with a view of choosing their new leader. There can be no more important question to be brought before a Zionist Congress. Or let the Executive Committee (as we would name the Actions Comite in good English) make its temporary choice, but make even this with earnest deliberation. Should the temporary leader prove himself a man of force and of high purpose, the Congress of 1905 will cheerfully con-