REFERENCE TO ZIONISM BY THE FOUNDER OF A NEW RELIGION
IN Acco, a short distance from Haifa, where the Jewish Polytechnicum is now in the course of erection, there lives Abbas Effendi, the prophet of a new religion, which many enthusiasts, among them highly educated Europeans and Americans, consider to be the religion of the future. In 1844 there arose in Persia a young man by the name of Mirza Ali Muhammed who claimed to be the Bab (literally “the Gate”), i.e. the precursor of a Greater One who was to come after him. He was executed in 1850, and his adherents, the Babis, were all over the Persian Empire subjected to unparalleled martyrdom which they accepted with unparalleled courage. One of Bab’s disciples, surnamed Bahaullah, “the Splendor of God,” declared in 1868 to be the one foretold by the Bab. He claimed and was by nearly all Babis admitted to be a Divine Manifestation and a reincarnation of the great founders of religion in whom, according to this doctrine, the Divine Power reveals itself in different periods, or cycles. Bahaullah, who undoubtedly was a man of great power and wisdom, raised Babism, which was now called after him Bahaism, to the height of a universal religion, declaring all other religions, as the periodic manifestations of the same Divine spirit, to be equally true and to be consummated in the sublime teachings of the new faith. In consequence of this broad universalistic spirit of Bahaism and the exemplary conduct of its devotees, the new religion has found adherents among the members of all possible religions and nationalities. In the West the adepts of Bahaism are especially numerous in America, where the new doctrine has attracted some highly intelligent men and women, and Bahai services are held weekly in the city of New York. The Bahais regard Abbas Effendi, the son of Bahaullah who died in 1892, as the prophet of the new religion and call him the Master. Many consider him a reincarnation of Christ. Acco wither Ba-
haullah and the Babis had been exiled in 1868, is the centre of the new religion and among those who come to listen to its prophet are many highly cultured English-speaking men and women. Some of these have recorded the utterances and discourses of “the Master,” which, it must be owned, are of a strange beauty and attraction, in interesting publications. In one of the discourses reproduced by Laura Clifford Barney in her book “Some answered Questions” (Philadelphia, 1908, p. 72), there is a noteworthy reference to the new Jewish movement in Palestine. Commenting on the passage in Isaiah, chap. ii. verse 1-10, in which the prophet predicts that “there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots,” and that universal peace and brotherhood shall descend on earth, Abbas Effendi declares that the fulfilment of this promise is taking place under the auspices of the manifestation of his father Bahaullah. Then the Master of Acco proceeds: “Reflect also that in the short time since Bahaullah has appeared, people from all countries, nations and races have entered under the shadow of this Cause. Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Persians all associate together with the greatest friendship and love.” “Universal peace and concord will be realized between all the nations, and that incomparable Branch will gather together all Israel: signifying that in this cycle (i.e. in the cycle of Bahaullah), Israel will be gathered in the Holy Land, and that the Jewish people who are scattered to the East and West, South and North, will be assembled together. Now see: these events did not take place in the Christian cycle; for the nations did not come under the One standard which is the Divine Branch. But in this cycle of the Lord of Hosts all the nations and peoples will enter under the shadow of this Flag. In the same way, Israel, scattered all over the world, was not reassembled in the Holy Land in the