AN APPEAL FOR THE ORDER SONS OF ZION
(A Letter Read at the Sixteenth Annual Convention)
I take the liberty of addressing you upon a matter in which I am vitally interested and in which I hope you are equally as much interested.
I want to bespeak your kind consideration for the Order Sons of Zion, which was organized under your auspices and which at its last convention, held at Hartford, Connecticut, honored me with the election to the office of Nasi.
Perhaps some of you know the circumstances under which I was elected, but I believe that it will not be amiss to say a word about it to those of you, who may not be fully acquainted with the situation.
I was not a candidate for the office and in order to preclude any possibility of my election, I made sure not to be a delegate to the convention. The Order insisted that I should come to Hartford to deliver an address, to which I reluctantly consented. When I came to the convention, I was elected delegate at large, without my being consulted about it. The rest was smooth and easy sailing for those who insisted that I must assume the duties of the office of Nasi or Grandmaster of the Order.
I hope you will understand me that I do not in the least undervalue the honor that the office of Nasi confers upon the one who is entrusted with it. The reason that I refused to be a candidate, was because I knew that I was both physically and financially unable to attend to the great duties that the office imposes upon the Nasi.
My public activities, as a member of the Board of Education and my Jewish activities in most of the organizations of the City of New York, have already placed on me a much heavier burden than I am able to carry and I was afraid that I may not be able to discharge the duties of my office in a satisfactory manner. Therefore, I refused to be a candidate to the very last minute; but the convention, actually against my will, elected me to the office and there was no alternative left for me in the matter. Now that I am elected, I intend to devote every vestige of my energy and whatever humble talent and influence I have at my command, for the welfare of the Order.
At the time the office was forced upon me, the Zionists who attended the convention assured me that every Zionist in the country will lend his aid and cooperation in the great work, in which we are engaged, for the upbuilding of a Zionist Order in America, that should serve as an example of loyalty and devotion to the ideal of Jewish nationalism and Zionism, and it seems to me that owing to that promise, I have a right to expect to