vidual treats a ready made suit: if it happens to be too long, he shortens it, if it be too narrow he lets it out. The Jewish relation was not bought ready-made. She is the fullest expression of the national spirit, and for this reason she is, in her purest shape and form, bound up in the strictest intimacy with the Jewish national soul.
But if the national element is withdrawn from the Jewish religion, the resultant is no more than an abstract system of philosophy. If, as most assimilators do, one takes from the religion its national characteristic, and hangs it ever so richly in the holiest place in the Synagogue, the religion ceases to be a living religion, ever-growing, fructifying, inspiriting. She becomes no more than a dessicated mummy. . . .
Of recent times a fashion has arisen to abstract the caffeine from coffee, the nicotine from tobacco, the alcohol from wine. The celebrated Waldeier wrote on this subject. and made merry over it. The piequancy of coffee lies in the caffine, that of the tobacco in the nicotine, that of the wine in the alcohol. If you fear these three things, then do not drink and do not smoke. But do not fool the world, and, above all, do not fool yourself. Waldeier epigramatized the habit as “castrated joys.” The epigram does not lend itself to paraphrases. One might render it by “emasculated pleasures.”
Truth to tell Waldeier's article left me cold. I could not appreciate the anger and resentment of the savant. After
all, there is no harm done if a person sips a brownish-colored liquid and assures himself that it is coffee, or smokes grass and insists that it is tobacco, or drinks grape-juice and believes that it is wine. But when I see men take the holiest possession of a nation and abstract its living attributes, when I see men take historic Judaism and wring it dry of its elements—then I feel my resentment rising. And when men take up the Prophets, and seek to make of them colorless cosmopolitans, I become still angrier, and when they seek to deprive Jewry of its hope of an independent and individual future, then I lose my temper altogether.
And with these blunt weapons, by these unhistorical and ignorant means do they attempt to battle with an idea which is shot through the very warp and woof of our history. With a few sentences torn out of their context, and translated sentences at that, do they seek to kill the Jewish National ideal. This no longer war on the merely Jewish party, it is war on the whole modern interpretation of the national problem. The national problem is not a Zionist discovery, nor yet a Jewish discovery. It is perhaps the most important problem which the nineteenth century has brought to the fore. Unhappy mankind tortures itself to hear and interpret aright the divine message of history, that it might work out for itself some great and consistent future: and here come men at this urgent hour with their ery—withered sermons.
We have no time and patience for their lifeless casuitries. We are intent on the living message of the ages.
THE ZIONIST RELIEF WORK IN PALESTINE
The Provisional Zionist Committee announces that it has received from Dr. Arthur Ruppin a letter dated Jaffa January 24th, containing a report on the relief work. A copy of the letter follows:
“I beg to report to you that the sum now at my disposal for general relief is $17,434.62, representing remittances made by you, one in September, two in October and one in November 1914. Out of this sum I intend to distribute $14,000, roughly equivalent to 70,000 francs. as follows:
$3,434.62 is to remain, as a reserve fund for special emergencies. "Complying with your wishes, a new committee has been constituted at Jerusalem, where the undersigned has spent last week; the committee consists of: The 10 gentlemen named in your letter to me dated 23rd of October (with the exception of Mr. Valero, who has resigned and in whose place Mr. Meiuchas has been elected by the Sephardic-Community) and the Rabbis Nachum Gedalja Broder and Nachum Joffe as representatives of the Waad Hakali, (Central Committee Knesseth Israel). If necessary this committee will be increased later on by other members.
The Committee has already held several sittings, and it was decided that the above amount of: frs. 32900, is to be distributed as follows in Jerusalem:
(a) frs. 7000, for procuring of Mazzoth for Passover, (b) frs. 3000, for a Loan Office against securities, (c) frs. 3000, for a Loan Office against deposits of goods, (d) frs. 8000, for the support of Institutions of Charity, (e) frs. 11900, for the distribution of flour and other provisions.
“(a) Maszoth: A special subcommittee, consisting of Messrs. Elijashar, Joffe, Riwlin and Soloweitshik has been appointed to take from now all preparatory steps, as wheat and flour are getting scarce, and therefore would remain without Mazzoth; these will probably be partly sold, and partly distributed gratuitously.”
"(b) The Loan Office: against securities will work under
the supervision of Messrs. Riwlin, Chagis, and Eljashar; it is intended to give loans of frs. 10.—to frs. 40.—to private people against good securities."
"(c) The Loan Office: against deposit of goods will work under the supervision of Messrs. Gordon, Schocher and Levy and will afford loans to merchants and artisans against goods.
"(c) Support of Institutions of Charity: the special subcommittee appointed consists of Messrs. Yellin, Mejuchas Epstein, and Joffe has at its first sitting taken the decision to distribute the frs. 8000. at its disposal in the following manner:
(e) Distribution of Flour and other Provisions: the sub-committee consisting of Messrs. Epstein, Yoffe, Schoche, Yellin, Riwlin Eliaschar is at work, to organize the distribution of frs. 11900., in the different quarters of the town; the sum is very small as we have to deal with about 14000 destitutes; in order to make it reach as long as possible, we cannot afford to distribute more than frs. 2000 per week, which is out of proportion to the number of the needy.