The Maccabaean

On the memorable occasion of his recent visit to our Hungarian compatriots, President Roosevelt, in his address, thus defined Americanism: "It is not a matter of birthplace, of education, or of creed," he said, "but it is a matter of the spirit that is in the man's soul." In the same manner, I should like to define Zionism. Zionism has been labeled with many titles —philanthropic, economic, political, racial, religious, national, and spiritual Zionism. Eight years ago Dr. Herzl formulated the program of our modern Zionism, as an effort to establish a legally assured home in Palestine. Zionism, therefore, may be all of these, but it is more than these. A name that can thus unite under one heading so many and such varied and even opposing ideals, must be more than each one of them, and more also than the sum total of all.

Zionism, like Americanism, is not a matter of creed or custom or local "habitat." The Zionist may remain in America, even as the American may be transplanted to the Philippines, or to Palestine, and yet remain an American. I do not know how many of you have been born in America, but once truly an American, always an American. We carry our flag with us, in our heart and our liberated spirit. Zionism, like Americanism, is "the spirit that is in the man's soul." Zionism is the soul, the spirit of the Jewish people to-day, coming into its own again, coming into self-consciousness, self-manifestation, self-realization, in a word, spiritual autonomy. Zionism is an ideal. Zionism is a reality, even though it should never take shape along any of the lines thus far laid down for it; yes, even though the Holy Land, the Holy City, Jerusalem the visible, the "bodily," should never be attained. For Zionism is an actual, working, dynamic force among us to-day, quickening long buried seeds, reaching out in every direction, upward, backward, forward, through every channel,

every life-spring of our race, for new forms of life and expression.

I do not need to remind you young men and women, students of Zionism, what Zionism has already accomplished during these short eight years of its active re vival and propaganda, You yourselves are the living proof and exemplars, the fruit of the living spirit, that new force which has been born in Israel, that new love, I may call it, which can no more be explained than any other love, any other life force can be explained. You must feel it yourselves. Otherwise you will not understand. You are the new Israel, no longer content to forage among the old bones of dessicated tradition, the dried husks of formalized observance or non-observance, and keeping of the outer platter clean; no longer willing to spend yourselves in that endless and futile warfare of the sects, orthodox and reform, that ceaseless wrangle of the schools which, no doubt, may have served their purpose in the past of clearing away the deadwood of obstruction from the ground, but which can only waste and weary the spirit now, and move in a barren and vicious circle, or out into barren empty space. You are the new life of Israel, asking for bread, not a stone, and in search of living waters, living ideals, work to be done to-day, in the living present, the world’s work which Zionism brings, because it puts us in touch, not only with our immediate surroundings, but also with social conditions in every part of the world; because it reaches out beyond our own favored boundaries, to our larger brotherhood, to those of us who still sit in chains and the shadow of darkness. Zionism is an answer to that world-old question: Who is my brother? Is it only or even chiefly my next-door and prosperous neighbor? My fortunate and successful fellow-American, born as I am under bright American skies, firmly planted on American soil, who has thrown off the