a local Jewish-national future would become possible for the Jews of Turkey and for all other Jews who cared to join them there. An international Zionism is impossible. But a national Judaism on Ottoman soil would be as much in order as an Ottoman Hellenism and as it would not demand a preponderance of Jews in any particular region, since all other nationalities would be similarly scattered,
it could organize itself without delay. Such a sober and mutilated Zionism remains indeed the one possibility of that ambitious movement. But even this, I repeat, would only become possible if Turkey returns to its old tolerance of nationalities and abandons its homogeneous utopia, for the new order which was hailed as the salvation of Zionism is really its destruction."
Dr. Lewin's Reply to Mr. Zangwill's Advice
The following reply by Dr. Schmarya Levin appeared in The American Hebrew of December 30th.
From time to time, the leader of the world-renowned Jewish Territorial Organization springs forward and makes an assault upon his political opponents. He does not wish to enlighten, nor does he seek to convert them; he desires simply to annihilate them. At the same time, he attempts to play the role of Samson, but with this difference: that while Samson tied fire-bands to the tails of the three hundred jackals and set them, to run loose through the fields of the Philistines, Mr. Zangwill endeavors to destroy the entire army of his opponents with burning counsel which he offers to the Turkish Jews. He warns the Turkish Jews not to enter into any serious relations with the Zionists, the Hilsverein der Deutschen Juden, nor even with the Alliance Israelite Universelle, for all these three organizations are, in the first place, too weak to accomplish anything; in the second place, they do not exist, and in the third place, they may do much harm.
But in one respect, Mr. Zangwill does remind one of Samson: both have lost their vision through an unhappy love— Samson through love of Delilah, and Zangwill through the territorialist idea with which he unfortunately fell in love at the Sixth Zionist Congress at Basle. But the Zionists are not like the Philistines—they will not (Heaven be thanked!) seek to avenge themselves on Mr. Zangwill.
When I say that Mr. Zangwill has lost his vision, I was speaking metaphorically, and merely meant to say that he has been blinded by his territorialism and forgotten the rules of strict logic. The first simile,
however, must stand, for Zangwill's love for territorialism cannot otherwise be described than as unhappy.
At the Sixth Congress, when the Uganda project was first brought up, there was no real Territorialism actually in existence. Zionists were divided into two camps,—followers of the Palestinian idea, and advocates of Uganda; and each division of the movement had its chosen country, and dreamed of its world to come, its future State. It was only after the Seventh Congress, when it was shown by the report of the investigation commission that whatever was suitable for settlement in Uganda was not being offered by England, and _ that whatever England was offering was not suitable for settlement—only then did the Ugandists create a separate organization and call themselves “Territorialists,” which meant that they adopted the fundamental conception, the abstract idea of Ziomsm— the idea of a land—and declared themselves to be the true heirs to the Herzlian philosophy. It was a clever move, an ingenious idea. Whatever it was first conceived by Mr. Zangwill or someone else, I do not know. Be that as it may, the idea itself was certainly ingenious, for, in truth, Territorialism is nothing less than Zionism without a specific land; and in this circumstance lies the ingenuity of the conception, for every land of no particular description or geography, every abstract country possesses all the virtures and is free from all the faults which may be attributed to a specific land. Let us imagine that the Territorialists had succeeded in obtaining a country. There are no full-blown para- dises on earth to be had for the asking. It would require many decades, and even longer periods, and persistent toil that would tax all human endurance to build