ualistic channel having dried up for him, he finds no other mode for the expression of Jewish allegiance, he loses all worth and dignity as a man. If he is not a hero, then he is a clown and, of course, a traitor to his people.
But now it will be asked be asked,—"What other mode for self-expression as Jews do you offer us, you who admit that we can no longer be held by ritual observances. It, is not enough to say that our position is ridiculous and traitorous, you must show us what to do!" On the answer to this question depends the life or death of the Jewish nation. The vitality, the powers of survival of every organism depend on its ability to adapt itself to a changed milieu, to shoot forth new organs with which to meet new problems. The Jewish national organism must meet the new conditions in a similar manner. And it has done so! and no more splendid and conclusive proof of the vitality of the Jewish nation can be found.
In the early eighties of the last century, Jewish students in the universities of Russia and Austria abandoned their books and lecture-halls and emigrated to Palestine to participate in the colonization of the land of their fathers. Most of them were physically unfit for their new calling and many succumbed to hardship and disease. They were among the pioneers of the present colonization movement, but, what is more significant, those students in whom the contact with the latest scientific thought had shattered their orthodoxy, had discovered a new bond which welded them to their people, had discovered a new outlet for the idealism of youth and the fervency of a struggling nation. They were thus saved from becoming mere intellectuals, without enthusiasm, pessimistic, blasé. And, later, when Theodor Herzl issued his call to the Jewish nation, the students in the universities of Russia and Austria and Switzerland were the first to respond. Thus a new organ for the activity of the Jewish spirit was evolved by virtue of the inherent vitality of the Jewish organism. And now, ye scientists and Darwinists, do you want more conclusive proof that the
Jewish nation is alive? And thus, the student, the scholar, the traditional Jewish hero, can still remain the hero, for the unbreakable tie that still binds him to his people is Jewish nationalism.
Nationalism however, is only an idea, a formula, and just as every religious idea or dogma must, if it is to satisfy the spiritual cravings of man, express itself in certain rites, so must every other idea lead to some appropriate action, else such an idea is sterile and meaningless. The pragmatic value of Jewish nationalism is Zionism. It is Zionist activity which gives to the idea its expression and affords a new channel for Jewish allegiance. In Zionist activity, therefore, must be the spiritual salvation of the Jewish scholar and student and only through such activity can he vindicate his historic position and meet the responsibilities which the Jewish struggle for national self-preservation has imposed on him.
In the galaxy of heroes which Carlyle has presented there could not be added a nobler and more inspiring type than the Jewish Scholar of the present day who has absorbed the cultures of all the nations, but who has built his edifice on the foundation of Hebraic moral grandeur, the Jew who, with an accurate sense of proportion has brought the flowery effusions of all the nations into proper relation with the roots and trunk of Jewish culture. It is true that the Jewish nation has long neglected the flowers for the sake of the roots, but who will dare say that they have not done well A plant can blossom only in a congenial soil, in a climate suitable to its species.. When transplanted amid uncongenial surroundings the plant must be nourished solely at the roots if it is to be kept alive at all. Zionism wishes to replant it on its own soil where it will blossom forth as of old, and in this task the Jewish Scholar and student should have the deepest interest and must therefore play the leading role. When the Jewish students will realize that history demands of them to be the heroes of their people, the ranks of the leaders of the Zionist movement will become full.