TO THE ZIONISTS OF AMERICA
The war in Europe has brought a crisis upon the Zionist organization. The members of our Actions Comite are scattered. Our Central Bureau at Berlin is crippled. The Federations of England, Germany and Austria are partially or wholly disabled. The Zionists of these countries and of Russia are forced to take thought for themselves alone, and Palestine, which they have hitherto aided in amplest measure, is bereft of their support.
The achievements of a generation are imperilled. The young Jewish Renaissance in the Holy Land, the child of pain and sacrifice, faces death from starvation.
In this unprecedented emergency, the Zionists of America are called upon to take energetic measures, lest Zionist work in Europe and in Palestine suffer interruption and irreparable harm. At an Extraordinary Conference of American Zionists held at New York on August 30, 1914, a Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs was formed, to act until such time when the Actions Comite shall reassemble.
The Provisional Executive Committee is fortunate to have the co-operation and advice of one member of the Actions Comite, Doctor Schmarya Levin. It has put itself into touch with the other members of the Actions Comite and with the Federations here and in all neutral countries. It has inaugurated the work of administration. It has made plans for the maintenance of the institutions of Zionism in Palestine—its schools, its colonizing enterprises, all the manifold social and cultural interests that have been originated and fostered by our movement. It is in communication with our pioneers in the land of the fathers, and they have received the assurance that we shall not fail them in this catastrophe. It has entered into relations with other bodies of Jews, in the hope that a united American Jewish community may be ready to act at the opportune moment.
Fellow Zionists, the work of safeguarding the continuity of our movement is begun. Upon you depends the successful issue. Grave as