A Letter from a Political Zionist
Your April number contains an editorial on Dr. Mossinsohn's American tour. I would appreciate it very much if you, in connection therewith, would print the following lines in your next issue:
It can not be denied that the principal purpose of Dr. Mossinsohn's tour has been to collect money so as to be able to keep the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jaffa alive and that the furtherance of the influence of Palestine into certain circles was only a secondary purpose. That he succeeded to do both seems to be a fact which you regard as being gratifying. However, I believe that neither of these two facts are really of such significance as they seem to be regarded by you, and the following lines serve to explain to the American Zionists another point of view.
As a Zionist, I feel ashamed, deeply ashamed, to be forced to read that Dr. Mossinsohn, director of the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jaffa, is obliged to make a begging tour through the U. S. asking money from people holding nothing in common with the Zionists. He has to ask that money so as to keep his Gymnasium alive, an institution which if not wholly Zionistic, is still founded under Zionistic influences and is one of the first and principal consequences of the Zionist work in Palestine.
Either we found a school in Palestine and secure at the same time its means of support, or we just go out through our different countries, propagate the Zionistic ideas, and teach the Jews Zionism, so as afterwards to be able to support schools and other public institutions which we will found in Palestine when time and circumstances permit us to do so.
It is very little trouble to found a school after the money is given for its foundation, but what is the use of doing so when the solid basis for a regular development fails and when there is no chance of securing a continuous current of money, either from the relatives of the pupils or
from the Zionists themselves? When there is no such solid basis present, we have no right to found a school like this and the good educational and cultural work which it surely will do, will be overshadowed by the feeling of helplessness which will go through our ranks and which will be apparent to all.
On the other hand, it is very doubtful if "Dr. Mossinsohn's success in extending the influence of Palestine into circles that have hitherto refused to recognize that as Jews they are vitally concerned in its upbuilding as a Jewish centre." is really so gratifying a fact from the Zionistic point of view. If Dr. Mossinsohn had succeeded in extending the Zionistic influence in these circles, he surely would have done a good and useful work, by taking, however, part of the movement and presenting that as the movement to its full extent, he did more damage to the whole than perhaps is noticeable to the superficial critic.
The work done by the Zionists in Palestine is only a small part of the work we have to do and all of us, who have had to propagate Zionism, know that this part is the easiest material to propagate with. We are able to show some results and to tell our audiences of the schools and other institutions. It is, however, so very, very difficult to tell a Jewish audience that they are Jews, that they are one race and that they have to act as such so as to be able to gain the esteem of the others. It is difficult to propagate Herzl's words, "the return to Judaism before the return to the Jewish country."
By propagating in the first way we may perhaps think we make Zionists, but in fact we only make Palestine friends, propagating in the second way gives us perhaps less in number, but those we get will be true Zionists, and only with a vast crowd of the last ones we will be able to reach our goal.
I am perfectly aware of the fact that I am bringing here before you the same old question again which you thought perhaps finished last year in Bazel, but I think it