WHAT ZIONISM SAVES
FEw things are more foolish than to argue and counter-argue whether Zionism has progressed or retrograded during the past year, whether it seems nearer to or farther from the attainments of its object this year than it was last year, whether it is triumphing or breaking down; people who count by years or even decades when dealing with so vast a problem have no conception whatever of the slowness of historic processes, certainly not the faintest appreciation for the tenacious vitality and the irresistible march of things Jewish.
There must, of course, be men of action, practical, shrewd, quickwitted and resourceful, men who seize opportunities as they present themselves, organize the masses and hold the great goals before their eyes, who, so as to say, keep the spiritual army of the world's Judaism mobilized for the favorable juncture that might come at any moment. These men might be sneered at as politicians or diplomatists; their hard and delicate and assiduous work might be derided as yielding no tangible result; impatience and unfairness will always tug at the sleeves of leaders and insist on pulling up the tender sapling by the root, to see whether it is growing. I am, constitutionally, unfit to take my place by the side of these men; yet I am full of admiring gratitude for their unwearying energy, their undiscourageable patience; instead of expecting miracles from them, we should cheer them by our confidence and support them loyally to the best of our powers.
Meantime, if we ever feel that the cause of the legally safeguarded home is not one step farther than it was when the immortal Dr. Herzl espoused it, let us sim-
piy remember that no problem is ever settled until’ it is settled right, that we and our children must labor at the Jewish problem, no matter how many generations may have to work at it and that, no matter how sovereigns may be minded, no matter how indifferent. the millionaires, no matter how 'unfeeling the diplomats, no matter how blind the statesmen, tke solution of Zionism presents, is inescapable, and must, in the course of the world’s unfoldment, force itself upon reluctant Jewish minds and upon indifferent hearts of non-TJTews.'
Zionism is the one salvation:'of 'Fudaisın. In modern countries the first‘ "vietim of the merciless assimilating process "is our religon. We cannot kave :öur Sabbath while we are martyrized for observing it, having, then, only five days in: which to earn our: livelihood; we.:cannot, in' occidental "countries, observe the fourth commandment, so as to work six days, while we are coerced, by law, into resting on the first day. Our religion is oppressed in the schools where Christianity is permitted to celebrate Christmas, to permeate instruction in all sorts of insidious forms; it is placed at a disadvantage in commerce and in society where the tyranny of majorities entkrones Christianity in custom and practice, in public press and private intercourse; a religion which necessitates the constant exercise of heroic loyalty without the stimulus of the dramatic. without any evident appearance of persecution, puts human nature to a test such as it has never heretofore been able to endure. We must have our own. civilization, our spiritual, educational and social freedom, a toleration which is actual, not merely nominal, in order to preserve a living faith, still more, to unfold and advance