Zionist Work for Women
THE modern woman to-day demands equal rights with her male fellow-citizen in all spheres of social life. Great movements and powerful organizations have arisen in all countries for the purpose of securing the complete emancipation of woman. The Jewish woman is also fighting bravely at the side of her comrades of other faiths to obtain equal rights for them and for herself. But our women fall into the same error that is so often committed by our people: they are fighting merely for the attainment of women's rights in general and overlook the fact that they have long been in possession of these rights among their own people. The right for which the fiercest struggle is being waged, namely the suffrage, has been given to them years ago by the Jewish political movement. But, as is often the case, we find that no particular concern is shown for what has already been achieved. How many of our woman-Zionists exercise their right? How many of them are even conscious of the fact that it is in their power to raise themselves from the inferior position they have hitherto occupied in the political concerns of their people to one of complete equality? Only a very small number indeed. We can, therefore, understand how it is that the Jewish woman plays hardly any part at all in Jewish public life, that no women-Zionists as a body do not yet enjoy the position which is their due in view of their numbers, their intelligence, and their self-sacrifice. Women-Zionists have never yet sent to our Congresses and Conferences delegates who have dealt with questions of the Zionist movement from the point of view of the Jewish woman; they have never tried to elect a member of their sex to represent them in the governing council of the Organization, the Greater Actions Committee, which consists of sixty men. It is high time that our women at length roused themselves from their lethargy and showed their sisters throughout the world what services women, when given the full-
est liberty, can render to the regeneration of the Jewish people.
In order that this desirable situation may be brought about it is necessary that the women-Zionists in every country shall combine among themselves and pursue a uniform programme of activity. The four main points of this programme may be set out as follows:
1. The union of all Women's Zionist Societies or societies of Jewish national tendency in each country. 2. The winning over of all Jewish women in circles which hold aloof at present. 3. Practical work in the lands of the Diaspora. 4. Work in Palestine. a). There are already a number of Jewish women's societies in Germany, Austria, England, America and other countries. These societies, comprising many active and intellectual members, are often limited in their possibilities of achievement by their scanty memberships, their equally scanty resources, and the narrow local limits of their sphere of activity. These individual societies suffer a great deal from the total lack of intercommunication, which renders impossible the exchange of opinions, the employment in common of particularly able members, and the application of accumulated experiences. But it is just these things that naturally constitute the life of a society, which, if left in isolation, naturally becomes one-sided and monotonous. b). The Central Office of Women Zionists shall establish regular communication with the governing body of the general Zionist Organization and with the various women's societies; it shall constantly communicate any new suggestions which it receives to all individual societies, so as to serve the common good, and it shall issue advice and instructions to societies when necessary. Its immediate duty, therefore, will be the creation of a uniform programme for these societies. The pro-