found the needs of Palestine great, and he urges upon American Jews immediate granting of relief. Since the first $50,000 was sent, a second sum of an equal amount has been remitted, of which $42,000 was collected by the Provisional Committee, and another $45,000 was also sent by the same Committee for individuals, institutions, and Zionist relief. The American Jewish Relief Committee has also contributed $25,000. The situation is very grave.
The Shifting of the Organization Center.
The organization of our Provisional Committee, with Mr. Brandeis as its chairman, meant the assumption by American Zionists of responsibility for the immediate fate of Palestine. Russian Jewry is crippled, and Galician Jewry is involved in affairs of its own that will demand all its resources for some time to come. All the other countries will require years to heal the wounds inflicted by the war, and it is difficult to conceive of an organization like ours operating in any one of the
belligerent countries. As a result, Dr. Tschlenow and Nahum Sokolow are now on their way to this country, and together with Dr. Levin will reconstitute the Inner Actions Committee on the most neutral soil in the world, backed, as it will be, by a large Jewish Community, the second largest in the world. This may be a temporary arrangement. The Provisional Committee will continue to act as special guardian of Palestinian interests, but it will have the advice and co-operation of the members of the Inner Actions Comite resident in this country. We greet the entry of the Inner Actions Comite into our life. We bespeak for it the good-will and the respectful attention of that part of the Jewish world which has not as yet affiliated with our movement. There is no doubt that Messrs. Levin, Tschlenow and Sokolow will represent the international aspects of our movement in a dignified, authoritative manner, and that as a result of their activities many Jews now alien to us will soon find themselves in our ranks.
LET US NOT LOSE COURAGE
Since August 1st, 1914, the civilized world has fallen from its high estate. Old standards have been demolished. A new world is being created for us, out of shot and shell, by the hordes of fighting men in Flanders, East Prussia and Poland. War on a scale imagined only by fantastic fiction-writers or obsessed militarists has returned, and now occupies the throne. Lucifer stalks the earth, searing the tie of brotherhood, and in his wake are piled the dead hopes and ideals of two generations of progress.
The din of battle intrudes everywhere. The terrible effects of war are gradually effacing the recollections of peace. War streaks the page red and all other colors are being obliterated. It has banished the universal appeal to truth; it has made science sectional; it has unseated all movements and is tending to reduce life to the level of brutality, with man-slaying as the badge of renown, and pestilential hatreds as the
salt of life. We use to live in homes; now, it seems, we are living in trenches. Our interest zigzags from Flanders to Poland, to East Prussia, to Galicia. All other interests disappear like frightened pheasants before the heavy-footed fowler. Our eyes turn with the pegs the German or French strategist moves on his bleeding map.
In the face of this great world catastrophe what becomes of Zionism? Our sense of values has been affected. Our cause seems so small in comparison with the cause in which the destinies of European civilization are involved, and in which our own destiny seems so insignificant. Do we wish to establish another Belgium in Palestine? Do we dream of a nation with justice as its armor and peace as its sword? Our Zionist fire is a spark in the light of the glowing fire of war in which ten nations are now employed.
Like ants whose hill had been overturned, we scampered after the first