His eloquence was that of an orator who convinced by the earnestness and deliberation of his words and the sincerity which pervaded his entire manner. His hearers were inspired with confidence from the moment he rose to speak. His voice was strong and sympathetic. His entire manner was such that all who met him were charmed, and it is not too much to say that there has been in modern times no man so beloved by the Jewish people.
His death leaves a wide breach in the Zionist movement, which no living man can fill—and yet let no enemy rejoice,
nor any follower fear that his death will impede the progress of the movement. The forces which he called into life are stronger far than he himself was. The structure he built will not fall or totter now that his guiding hand has dropped. He has built up a strong and widespread organization; he has set in motion a great machinery; he has inspired thousands of followers; and Zionists the world over, roused, encouraged, determined and hopeful, with his noble example before them, will push onward and onward until the ancient promise is again fulfilled.
The Practical Idealist
“HE Lord comfort you in the midst of the other mourners for Zion and Jerusalem!”—the Jew is wont to say to his bereaved fellow. National grief should in a measure soften private grief. What comfort, then, is left for us who mourn anew for Zion in these days “between the bounds” filled to overflowing from of old with mourning for Zion? Both we and Zion are bereaved. Our private grief goes to swell the sum of the national sorrow. He who had charged himself with the task of removing the sting from the season between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Ab has gone from us, his work only begun, his disciples but half-taught the secret of his magic power.
Yet the Lord doth comfort us. He comforts us through our dead leader, and in the spirit of the old formula.
Herzl’s greatest trait was not the charm of his personality, the royal dignity of his presence, his capacity for devotion, his gift of harmonizing opposite
views and parties, his statesman’s insight and comprehensive outlook. Greater and rarer than all these was the subordination of his personality to the idea. His inner world developed with the idea he fought for. That he with his non-Jewish education and environment should have conceived the idea of political Zionism was a flash of inspiration, a manifestation of race atavism perhaps. That he grew Jewish, engaged the support of Jewish Jews, modified his first plan in obedience to the centuries old Jewish ideal, learnt day by day to read life and its problems in Hebrew fashion—therein lies his genius and our comfort.
A man of smaller stature, a mere practical man would never have gone beyond his own Judenstaat. What power he had would have have used itself up in devising the means for the realization of his plan. The passing of a leader of such calibre would have left us comfortless, indeed. The idea would have perished with him, and we had remained