The Maccabaean

In gathering in annual convention for the ninth time, we Zionists of Canada do so witl uabated enthusiasm for our ideals, with undiminished zeal for our cause, with unimpaired faith in our policy, and with unshaken devotion to our organization. That in saying this I am indulging in no vain vaunting is abundantly shown by our past record, and I hope will be made yet more evident by our arhievements at this Convention.

But while we have proved by our deeds that our love for our Movement is deep and abiding, that the spirit of Hebrew Nationalism which animates us is unquenchable, that when Zion calls we have “the will to do and the soul to dare,” we must nevertheless guard against any tendency towards self-complacency, for we recognize that although striving to do our duty as best we can, our achievements, as yet, fall far short of that which we have set out to do. We are yet but in the early infancy of our great world-movement, and there are many stages of growth and development through which it must advance before reaching adolescence. Persistently, though, if slowly, we are inculcating our doctrines, and getting an ever-increasing number to perceive that if the Jew is once more to occupy the position which he should rightly occupy in the world, he must become again a leader, a teacher of his fellow-men, and not a colorless imitator and assimilator of the “Chukoth Haggoyim,” of the ways of other nations whose spirit and temperament and traditions differ so essentially from his own. Incessantly must we contend for the cultivation of the distinctive Jewish spirit, until it is brought to its highest development ; but we insist that this can never be fully attained in a nonJewish environment—that only when the Jew is placed in a.land of his own, in the land of his forefathers, will Jewish life and

character reach their best and noblest and truest form.

Let us glance for a moment at what has been done during the past year to advance our principles.

Since last we met, several events of more than ordinary importänce to our Movement’ have occurred. The Eighth Congress has held. its sessioris and established the Party Fund, and has launched us at last on a programme of practical work in Palestine.e Our leader, Herr Wolffsohn, has been accorded friendly audiences by the Government of Turkey, and" a constitutional regime has been established in that country. Our leader has also secüred, by personal interviews with the Russian Prime Minister, and with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the promise that in future the Government of the Czar will place no obstacles in the way of Zionist propaganda in Russia. These are all events whose significance cannot be disregarded. The stupendous change which has just taken place in the form of the Turkish Government must considerably affect the future of Palestine.e The friendly countenance now given to our Movement by the Czar’s chief advisors should have the effect of greatly increasing support for Zionism in Russia, and of healing the injury which our Movement suffered in that country in recent years, through the restrictive enactments which have been enforced against it. And the action of the Eighth Congress in pledging us to a policy of immediate practical work in Palestine is unquestionably one of the most important steps which has yet been taken by a Zionist Congress. It means that the first period of our Movement, the period when our efforts had necessarily to be limited to the preliminary work or organization and propaganda, has been passed, and we have now advanced to a more practical, and, therefore,