The Order Sons of Zion
Seven years ago a number of men prominent and influential in the Zionist Movement in America assembled for the purpose of organizing a Zionist Insurance Order. The circumstances that led to this meeting were the unsatisfactory experiences that the leaders of the Zionist Movement encountered since that Movement was organized by Theodore Herzl. They realized that the idea of Zionism had conquered the largest and best portion of Jewry. \Whierever the news was announced that the time had at last arrived when the Jews in all the lands of dispersion were ready to break the chains which the long Goluth had imposed upon them; that the renaissance, the awakening which had aroused the dormant forces of all oppressed nations to struggle for their regeneration, had at last made its impress upon the Jewish People; and that the hour had at last struck when the great call of Jewish freedom was to assemble the persecuted and dispersed children of the Jewish People ;—wherever this news arrived it created a profound impression. From all sides the masses of the Jewish people streamed to Zionist rallies in order to hear the word of ZION. That the will for the achievement of Zionism was present among the Jews was clear to all, but when it became a question of practical work, when it was necessary to muster the army, to call the roll, the ranks. were found to be sparse; enthusiasm disappeared like a wraith of smoke before the wind. Especially painful was this experience when it was realized that the young generation that used to enflame all hearts with its enthusiasm for Zionism and its devotion to the Ideal was abandonino the
Zionist standard, and that the list of deserters was growing from day to day.
“Why are we unable to crystallize the Zionist sentiment into a great and mighty movement. Why does the young generation, without which our movement cannot succeed, abandon our ranks?” These questions always occupied and disturbed the minds of those who stood at the helm of the organized Zionist Movement. But after these questions had been placed on the program, their answer was not hard to find. It came to be realized that although the Zionist movement contained a sufficient measure of idealism, of spiritual food, it could not, nevertheless, satisfy the needs of social intercourse, of mutual aid, sick benefit, insurance, etc. The young generation especially found itself in need of such institutions, and because the Zionist organization did not possess them, they departed a long distance into very strange territories in order to find them. One portion found its way into the Christian Orders; another portion into the old Jewish Orders. In both cases, however, the new connections and circumstances brought it about that the new “lodge-brothers” who were still fresh from Zionism became increasingly cooler toward it until they were completely lost to the Movement.
It sounds strange that the Zionist Ideal, which kept warm the heartof the Jewish people close to three thousand years, should have foundno favorable soil in the midst of theJewish Orders. But whoever is moreor less acquainted with the essenceof the fraternal order will not be surprised because he knows that thesoil of the Jewish fraternal orders