into the public schools, the agitation in favor of Bible instruction, etc., and is a serious menace to the interests of the Jews, who, if the present state of toleration and religious freedom is to be continued, must oppose without equivocation and directly every effort to divide the community on religious grounds.
CONFERENCE ON YIDDISH LANGUAGE.
—A CONFERENCE in the interests of the Yiddish language was to have opened on August 30, to end on September 3, in Chernowitz, Austria. The conference invitation is signed by a long list of Yiddish writers and Jewish publicists. The genial "Mendele" heads the list because he is the oldest Yiddish writer, and, more probably, because his name begins with the letter "A." The conference hopes to discuss the following subjects: the Yiddish Orthography; the Yiddish Grammar; Foreign and New Words; a Yiddish Dictionary; a Yiddish Translation of the Bible; the Jewish Youth and Yiddish; the Yiddish Press and Yiddish; the Yiddish Stage and Its Actors; the Economic Position of Yiddish Writers; the Economic Position of Yiddish Actors, etc.
The conference, it is said, is the result of the efforts of Chayim Schitlowsky and Nathan Birnbaum, the former a great adept in the use of Yiddish, the latter, however, only a great lover of Yiddish.
SUPPORT FROM OUTSIDERS.
— The directors of the Jewish community in Bulgaria have decided to give a certain percentage of their taxes to the Jewish National Fund. The Progressive Order of the West, at its recent annual convention, also endorsed the Zionist movement, and called upon its subordinate lodges to levy a tax upon their members in favor of Zionism. Some months ago, the Galician Federation in New York endorsed the Zionist movement and pledged its financial support. These are enheartening evidences of the spread of Zionist ideas in circles not officially connected with our movement. They may be taken by us as invitations to begin a campaign among all fraternal organizations and specific Jewish as-
sociations for the financial support of Zionism. Resolutions to that effect were adopted at the last convention of the Federation of American Zionists. These resolutions, if vitalized by action, will mean a great deal to us, not alone for the material results an agitation on these lines may produce, but also for the stimulus such assistance may have upon the enthusiasm of the workers in Zion, who will be made to feel that not only those who are enrolled as members of our societies are Zionists, but a large, uncounted mass of people, who, busied in other affairs, stand ready to assist us.
THE JEWISH FUTURE.
—Dr. Charles Wortsmann has issued the second number of his revived Juedische Zukunft, which ran a few months in Russia and was discontinued. Dr. Wortsmann hopes that in the United States, where there is no censorship, he will be able to maintain his magazine. The Zukunft has secured the co-operation of a number of good Yiddish writers, and it presents articles that should be of interest to Zionists. Dr. Wortsmann is an energetic man, and doubtless will scrape together funds to maintain his publication for some time, but if he is wise he will abandon the polemic and hair-splitting discussion of Jewish problems, and deal directly with Jewish life. There is no more bewildering phenomenon anywhere than the sort of thing to be found in the Yiddish magazine inspired by the nightmare which is called life in Russia.
THE NEW ZIONIST SECRETARY.
—MR. JOSEPH JASIN, the new secretary of the Federation of American Zionists, assumed charge of the Zionist office on August 18; and in an interview with the press said that in the propaganda of Zionism there is perhaps more to be done in explaining away misconceptions than in elucidating the idea itself. With misconceptions cleared away, Zionism, he said, becomes a straightforward and logical means of regenerating the Jewish people, of giving a home and freedom to the homeless and oppressed, and of strengthening the spiritual ideal of all Jews.