The Maccabaean

THE MACCABAEAN MAGAZINE

A CALL TO THE ZIONISTS OF AMERICA

On the hazardous and depressing status of a majority of our people even in the so-called "era of peace," words need not now be wasted. With the outbreak of the World-War, however, whose dimensions it is as yet impossible to foresee, new calamities and tragedies confront our people.

The large majority of the Jewish people are involved in the conflict. About 400,000 Jewish soldiers have been recruited in the fight involving the issue of Pan-Slavism and Teutonism. Our Jewish youth are fighting in the ranks of the various opposing armies, brother against brother.

The War has struck the Zionist organization most severely.. The ranks of Zionism are recruited for the most part of the young generation, and they have now been called out to military service.. The Zinoist Central Bureau at Berlin, established upon an international basis, is utterly destroyed. The organization inEurope is shattered. The work halts; the working force is completely paralyzed, and all communication with our institutions in Palestine has been interrupted.

A double duty falls upon us. We must attack the problem of alleviating, if possible, the general situation of the Jews in the Diaspora. It is also our duty, our first and most holy duty, to hold and maintain, in this critical moment, the Zionist organization and especially the positions we have won with great self-sacrifice and struggle in Palestine.

We in America now have the good fortune to show our manhood in this emergency, and it is our duty to meet it with earnestness, willingness, and optimism. No sacrifice of time or energy or means should appear to us too heavy to make. Upon us, and our handling of the situation depends, perhaps, the future of our organization, for which we have struggled these many years.

We rely upon you, and count with certainty upon your whole-hearted co-operation.