ence will be its modernness. It would be a sorry day for Israel if she returned to her native land with all the faults and weaknesses for which God allowed her to be scattered. But this is sure, that whatever the character of the kingdom, the Jewish people can still have a message of righteousness for the world. Not a message of how to faithfully observe an elaborate ritual, but a message of how to exemplify the righteousness of God.
My study of this subject has led me to
these conclusions, first, that the Jewish people has still great possibilities and great opportunities to do great things; second, that Palestine is still a land worth struggling for; third, that the union of this ancient people with their ancient land will be profitable and beneficial for them and the world. The prospects after the Jewish State is settled in Palestine are the best the Jewish people have, are well worth aiming at, and are attainable.
Zionism and American Ideals
ON the memorable occasion of his recent visit to our Hungarian compatriots, President Roosevelt, in his address, thus defined Americanism: "It is not a matter of birthplace, of education, or of creed," he said, "but it is a matter of the spirit that is in the man's soul." In the same manner, I should like to define Zionism. Zionism has been labelled with many titles—philanthropic, economic, political, racial, religious, national, and spiritual Zionism. Eight years ago Dr. Herzl formulated the program of our modern Zionism, as an effort to establish a legally assured home in Palestine. Zionism, therefore, may be all of these, but it is more than these. A name that can thus unite under one heading so many and such varied and even opposing ideals, must be more than each one of them, and more also than the sum total of all.
*Paper read before the Students Zionist League, New York, on April 15.
Zionism, like Americanism, is not a matter of cereed or custom or local “habitat.” The Zionist may remain in America, even as the American may be transplanted to the Philippines, or to Palestine, and yet remain an American. I do not know how many of you have been born in America, but once truly an American, always an American. We carry our flag with us, in our heart and our liberated spirit. Zionism, like Americanism, is “the spirit that is in the man’s soul.” Zionism is the soul, the spirit of the Jewish people to-day, coming into its own again, coming into self-consciousness, self-manifestation, self-realization, in a word, spiritval autonomy. Zionism is an ideal. Zionism is a reality, even though it should never takes shape along any of the lines thus far laid down for it; yes, even though the Holy Land, the Holy City, Jerusalem the visible, the “bodily,” should never be attained. For Zionism is an actual working, dynamie force