NAHUM SOKOLOW
For the first time in the history of our movement, we American Zionists are honored with a visit by one of our international officers. We once had hopes of seeing Herr David Wolffsohn among us, then Dr. Max Nordau was said to be considering a trip across the ocean, but neither of these expectations was realized.
Nahum Sokolow represents the type of Jew which combines the old Haskalah with modern national aspirations.. He contributed to the period of enlightenment, but did not linger in the chains of the old teaching very long. He has the temperament of a journalist, not of the scholar in the technical sense. He has always been open to popular influences, and being saturated with the Hebraic spirit, in a certain sense a cosmopolite, he naturally found his place in the Zionist movement, and since the first Congress, has been an active and even brilliant exponent of Hebraism in the variegated composite of which Zionism is now constituuted.
At the first Congress he was the jour-
nalist, in the Hebraic sense. He spoke from the platform, pleading for Hebrew culture. He was not then of the inner circle, but he soon forged to the front, and as Congress succeeded Congress, he was found closer and closer to the centre of the movement until to-day he is one of the group of men who are guiding the
destinies of our cause.
Herr Sokolow occupies a peculiar position in the movement. It is true, he belongs to the inner circle. But a man of his vast knowledge and varied experiences does not seem wholly to belong to Zionism alone. His roots are widely scattered. He has made part of the store of Hebrew literature the knowledge of a great deal of what is stirring the thought of the outer world. He is an international journalist who writes in Hebrew. He is also an international student of human affairs in all their ramifications. His linguistic ability is typical of the kind of mind he has. All that relates to humanity in its organized form interests him, and lan-