a IE tan al et ch FERN enshen danı Ap Dezin cl An an EN FD 2% D..3 4 Although, T feel that it is not quite just on the part of those representing our Conference to accentuate in its name their opposition to Zionism, just as it would be decidedly wrong for Rabbi Heller as head of the conference, to inject his own Zionistic views into the platform of the organization. The membership of the Conference is an independent‘ body, each Rabbi having the liberty of his own views on any given question. It is only right that you should grant unto me the freedom which you ask for yourself. The term, “Reform” as you know is very elastic. Certainly one can be a Reform Jew and yet staunchly support Zionism. One thing, Reform surely is not: It is not a Mosiac ordinance from Sinai.
Russia Outlaws Zionism
The Zionist organizations in Russia are laboring under great disadvantages.. The government is now opposed to any nationalistic propaganda within the Russian em- pıre. The tacit approval the movement met with in its younger days in Govern- ınent spheres and the promises made by M. Plehve to Theodor Herzl no longer seem to guide the present rulers of the Empire. M. Stolypin has now extended to Zionism his previous antagonism to all other national movements in Russia. In a circular to the Governors the Premier instructed them to hinder the formation of national culture societies and to arrest the growth of such clubs. The circulaı describes such organizations as a danger to public order, and the ofhcials are exhorted carefully to enquire as to the real, apart from the stated, objects of every club or union which applies for the legalization of its statutes. If it is found that the society aims at the pursuit of “narrow objects,” then legalization is to be refused. NMoreover, societies already legalized are to be subjected to a fresh scrutiny. The Jews are specially mentioned in the circular, which is most explicit in its terms.
The Experiment Station in Palestine
A new American institute of research has been incorporated in New York under the title of the “Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station,” with a board of trustees composed of Mr. Julius Rosenwald (Chicago), president, Mr. Paul M. Warburg (New York), treasurer, Miss Henrietta Szold (New York), secretary and Dr. Cyrus Adler (Philadelphia), Mr, Sam S. Fels (Philadelphia), Judge Julius W, Mack (Chicago), Dr. J. L. Magnes, Mr. Louis Marshall, Dr. Morris Loeb, Mr. )J. B. Greenhut (New York) and Dr. Otto Warburg Berlin, Germany), members of the board.
The experiment station is to be located at the foot of Mt. Carmel in Palestine, seven miles from Haifa, and is the first agricultural institution of research supported by private American capital to be established in a foreign country. The funds for the station have been furnished by several philanthropic Jews. Messrs. Jacob H. Schiff of New York and Jul. Rosenwald, of Chicago, have furnished the first $20,000 necessary for the initial equipment. The minimum budget of $10,- 000 a year has been assured by Messrs. Schiff and Rosenwald, together with Mr. Paul M. Warburg (of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.) Mr. I. N. Seligman, Mr. Isidor Straus and others.
As an American institution in the Levant and carrying the American experiment station idea abroad, this newly incorporated institution can not fail to interest American experiment station workers, since its purposes are the scientific study and development of the agricultural resources of one of the oldest parts of the old world, as rich in latent wealth as it is in historical and religious interest.
The director of this new station, Mr. Aaron Aronsohn, is aready known to quite a circle of experiment station workers, having spent a number of months in