FREE JEWS vs. JEWISH FREEDOM
F the Jewish spiritual leaders who () on the recent occasion of Pesach. have held forth on the glories of Jewish freedom perhaps only a few will take part in the proceedings of the next convention of the Federation of American Zionists; but it is safe to assume that the majority of the Jews in every part of the country will take an interest in the reports of the deliberations at Pittsburg. for fortunately for the moral and spiritual in- tegrıty of the Jewish people the majority of the Jews are strongly embued with the ideals of Israel, and the transactions ot the Zionist convention are of especial significance to the new striving for freedom of the Jewish race.
This is not saying that most of the Jews in America are Zionists, but that consciously or unconsciously the higher strivings in Jewry to day are strongly bound up with the fate of Zionism. The work of the Zionist Convention will also be watched with much concern by the Jews in the Old World, especially those who dwell in lands of persecution and oppression, and who look forward to our projects as the means of their relief.
Dr. Max Nordau wrote to the Fifth Annual Convention, which was held in Boston, that American Zionism is the most unselfish and altruistic, for it seeks only the welfare of others, the less fortunate in Israel; and those who still walk in darkness and are as yet denied the elementary rights of human beings look to their brethren who live in freedom for help. But after all we are not so disinterested.
The Jews here live in freedom; they are
free American citizens. Are they free Jews? That is the concern of Zionism. The freedom of the Jew, the freedom of his spiritual identity and his religious independence, the freedom of his devotion to the ancient heritages of his people—that, first and foremost, is the message of Zion- ı1em.
I have indicated that there are two classes of Jews, one of which is more and the other of which is less interested in Zionism. To the first Zionism is an immediate concern and. to the other it only has a distant interest; in this latter non-Zionist class you will even find those who have no interest in the matter at all. It is, of course, wrong to indict a whole class of people, but evidence is not lacking which shows that this class is largely made up of those who are not particularly interested in Jewish or any other spiritual strivings. Excepting one element of the class which has been sincerely following a policy of reforming Judaism and trimming and adopting our Jewishness to our surroundings, the whole class is largely made up of doubters, persons who hesitate and are ever uncertain in regard to their allegiance to Israel; persons who are now professing their Jewishness and then either denying or, at least, subduing it, thus eternally vacillating between a sneaking pride of race and a desire to avoid the disadvantages accruing from being a Jew; persons: who are in a state of mind which is forever morbidiy questioning what others, the non-Jews, are thinking and saying about them; persons who are forever under the influence of non-Jewish opinion and who are forever