him almost to the execution at Calvary. Of course, Jesus was not a Jew; had he been a Jew, David would not have been afraid to let his father see him reading the man's life. Jesus was the wrath God had poured out upon the heather. David bared his shoulders to as much wrath as he could by reading the forbidden book. . . .
The candles spluttered. The clock struck one, two. . . . Then they flickered, spat, dipped—and the light was gone.
He lovingly replaced the book in his blouse, stretched himself, glanced at the Hagadas left open on the table and slowly crept to bed.*
The Lesson of the Preliminary Elections
Dr. Pasmanik had a trenchant criticism of the Russian Zionists in an article which appeared in Das Yiddische Volk after the preliminary elections:
The elections are not over as yet, but the preliminary elections in which the direct will of the people has expressed itself are at an end. We may therefore sum up the results.
The Zionists have shown that they are a real power notwithstanding the so-called Jewish National Group of St. Petersburg. assimilators who appealed to the lowest in- stinets of the masses, But at the same time the preliminary election has shown that the Zionists are poorly organızed.
The Helsingfors Congress was called together too late, the new Central Committee was organized only a few days before the election campaign and the Zionist masses are not yet accustomed to party discipline. All these causes have brought terrible confusion into the election work of the Zionists. Many of our Zionists have not yet become imbued with the new prin-
*Reprinted from the N. Y. Zionist Annual.
ciples adopted at the Helsingfors Congress, and therefore they did not work with sufficient energy against the slander agitation of the Jewish patriots, such as Vina- wer and Company. The idea of Zionism which must bind together our past with our present, the work in "Goluth" and the work in Palestine this idea was too new, and the Zionist army has not yet become conscious of it. This caused a certain disorder in our ranks. In some cities Zionists thought that they would succeed at the elections if their Zionism were covered by a mantle of nationalism, that is, if they would hide the Helsingfors program. Life has shown us that wherever we came out openly, we were victorious. In Kovno, where all the forces of anti-Zionists and the Bund came out against the Zionists, in many towns in Volhynia, Grodno, Minsk and Poltava we have won at those places in the preliminary elections. We lost in those places where our undisciplined comrades have covered up their Zionism with lukewarm nationalism.
Dr. Nordau to English Zionists
In a letter to the English Zionist Federation, Dr. Max Nordau wrote this month: "I am sure the flame of enthusiasm of our partisans in England need not be stirred up. Please transmit them my warmest greetings and remind them that they must not lose sight of the fundamental fact that our movement is a political one, and one intended not to benefit a few individuals, or a tiny group, but to modify the moral, political and economical status of all the Jews in the world, or at least, all those who claim themselves to be members of a Jewish nation. Latterly a cry has been raised for practical work in Palestine. By all means let us work practically there, but in the spirit of political Zionism, not of petty and obsolete Chovevi Zionism. To help a few desultory settlers to become aided agriculturists, in Palestine, is not and cannot be our task. Our efforts in Palestine must exclusively aim at the preparation of the country for future greater destinies."