Now, when the English people realize what has actually taken place, I hope for a favorable solution of the painful Jewish problem in Russia and Poland, in harmony with the well understood interests of humanity and the Polish nation. I trust that I shall find helpful support from the enlightened opinion of England, which has always been a model of justice, liberty, and equality of right.
I cannot say that I am a military expert exactly. It would be very difficult for me to give specific details of what Jews have done at critical times to save important parts of the line, in the defence of forts, in dispatch riding, scouting and reconnoitering, in the field batteries, the cavalry, the infantry, in the transport corps, the medical corps, and aviation. The Jews have no separate units in the Russian army as you may have here; like the Poles and the Mohammedans, they are all mixed up together with the rest of the races and the creeds in Russia.
But this I can say: About 400,000 Jews are in the firing line with the Russian Army; many of them have fought with such distinction that they have received the well-coveted Order of St. George from the Tsar; many of them have actually been decorated on the field of battle; several Jewish doctors and nurses are with the Red Cross at the front; hundreds of thousands are connected with the popular movements for the relief of distress caused by the war; numberless masses are directly engaged in the manufacture of clothing, boots, hats, belts, and other equipment necessary for the Army, and indirectly in the making of munitions, of which Warsaw was the chief centre; many of them, on the evacuation of the city, removed their machinery and other plant into the interior. Some places, like Vilna, Bielostock, the districts of Kieff and Volhynia, play a leonine part, but there is considerable activity in every place.
The Russian and Polish Jew is a patriot and loyal subject for two reasons, viz., (1) psychological, (2) economic. Taking (1) first, the Russian and Polish Jew is a patriot because the Jew is a patriot in every country where he happens to secure his livelihood.
Now coming to (2) it is agreed on all hands that the Jewish problem has to be reformed; this has been declared by Russia’s leading intellectuals, men of eminence and renown in the fields of international law, philosophy, economics, literature, art, politics, science; and also by members of the Imperial Council. They are all agreed that the problem cannot remain as it is at present. Still, in the vast Empire of Russia, the Jew with his mobile activity and inventive mind, with his power of initiative and enterprise, could be a blessing to the whole of Russia, if obstacles were not put in the way of his taking up a more conspicuous position in the different parts of the country. All friends of Russia, who are interested in the welfare of that great country, should consider it their moral duty to give more strength to this movement of emancipation.
We have to defend the Jewish cause not against the Polish nation but against a certain social hostility which pretends to be a movement of self-defence but is practically anti-Semitism. This is not the time to dwell upon it. Some anti-Semites may propagate that outworn myth that there are in Poland, besides the real Polish Jews, some “Letvaks” or Nationalists, who would do harm to the Polish nationality by Russianizing them. All this is utter nonsense. \Ve Polish Jews, whose forefathers lived in Poland for many centuries, as well as the Lithuanian or Podolian Jews, who formerly belonged to old Poland, are the greatest friends
of the Polish nation. Those Jews who are adherents of the national idea for themselves cannot fail to appreciate the old struggle of the Poles for their existence as a nation. The Jews will be loyal to Polish autonomy and they will certainly contribute very much to the welfare of the country. They must have real rights and a chance to develop their cultural capacities in their own way. It is premature, however, to discuss any of these searching questions; the first thing is to accept the principle of equality. The great Jewish organizations in Western Europe and in America will have to occupy themselves very seriously with this problem. It is much more important than the Rumanian-Jewish problem which engaged a great deal of Jewish energies. It affects two millions of Jews. Now, the problem will have to be studied in connection with the people who are competent and who represent different sections of Polish Jewry.
Zionists, as all other Jews, are patriots in the different countries where they are living. In France and Italy many of the foreign Jews have volunteered (among them Zionists); the Foreign Legion of Paris has carried its Zionist banner of white and blue into the battlefield, the first time that our flag has been so used since the destruction of Jerusalem.
Since the war is regarded as a war for national free-
dom and of considerate treatment of the weaker nationalities, I believe that the Jews, as the oldest of these small nationalities, having the oldest claims to Palestine, may trustfully expect a realization of their aspirations in a form which would be in agreement with the interests of all the Great Powers and of civilization and the causes of humanity.
To sum up, the Zionist programme can be stated thus: (1) The obtaining of Palestine as a “Home” for the homeless people and as a spiritual home for the whole Jewish nation; (2) The securing of equal rights for Tews in the various countries of the Golus.
Zionism, as a world-wide organization, is in itself neutral, demanding of the members of the various countries of the belligerents that they shall be loyal to the cause of their countries. There is nothing in Zionism which would conflict with the interests of any country in the world. It is essentially a peaceful