The Maccabaean

and when the war came there came with it a prohibition of exports. There came also a terrible loss to the Palestinians, being unable to market the product of their orange groves. We have tried in America when other markets, through the war, were closed to Palestine to sell some of their oranges here. You of Chicago know a little of that. But the prohibition of exports followed and the valuable orange crop was lost and the colonies were in need, not in need as persons ordinarily requiring bread, but in need of capital, capital to operate their plantations, capital to continue that life of self-support and self-respecting existence which had made them the admiration of the Jewish world wherever the facts concerning them became known. Then we in America, the Zionist Provisional Committee and others undertook to raise a loan for those planters, money that might be loaned them to be repaid when better conditions would enable them to market their products.

And later there came to Palestine besides the severe sufferingg incident to the war, sufferings incident to a locust plague. In the thirty-three years since the colonies were originally established there had been no locust plague in Palestine. This year, the year which has just past, following after the troubles of the war, came the horrible pest of the locust. If they had had a well ordered government, such as exists in Egypt, such as exists in some of the civilized countries it would have been possible to have put an end or to have prevented the locust pest, particularly as the general direction was under that distinguished Palestinian, Aron Aronson, who many of you in Chicago have had reason to know, of whom many of you have heard, and of whose distinguished services all nf you know about. If he had had the power of government behind him the locust pest might have been prevented, but he had not the power of government behind him, and so the colonies did suffer despite the tremendous fight which the colonies made. The locust came like an enemy, devastating the land. A fight was made. No permanent loss has come. The year’s crop in large part was lost. These planters need further help and the Provisional Committee is endeavoring to arrange another loan for this self-help for the colonies. That is the line of work we are doing.

But with all this work, remember that there is only one way in which it can be effectively carried on. It is through organization, through bringing behind the Jew, bringing behind the Zionist movement, the Zionist organization, the Provisional Committee and the great Actions Committee, which has so many years wisely conducted the affairs of the Zionist movement, to bring behind them the support of the Jews of America, the support, not of a few, but of the many because the cause that they are fighting is the cause of the whole people. They need the whole people behind them. They need it as your president the president of the Knights of Zion has said, in order that there might be financial support. Everyone should give, no matter how little, giving as much as he can; but besides that which he gives in money there must be the giving of the heart and of the head, the support before the American people and the support before the Jews of the world, that numbers give.

You will have the opportunity in a few minutes to listen to the address of one who understands the Zionist problem so thoroughly and who feels it so deeply that each and every one of you who has a drop of Jewish blood and a speck of the Jewish consciousness in you will be moved, I am sure. When Dr. Levin talks to you, you will feel more strongly than any of the rest can possibly convey what Zionism is, what the call is that it makes upon you; but don’t rest satisfied even with what he says. Learn, study, read what has happened in the Zionist world. There isn’t a thing that should be more interesting to a Jew to-day than the facts in relation to Zionism as they are Seele from week to week. Your papers here give you some information. The “Yiddishe Folk” and “The Maccabaean,” the two Zionist organs published by the American Zionist, will give you in- finitelv more. Read those Read them as they appear.

Learn about things Zionistic, and there will be no doubt as to your interest, no doubt about your desire to move others to follow your example and to become members of the Zionist organization. For each and every one of you here there is work to do. Let no one of you, if you be a true American, shirk your work.

DR. LEVIN: When Dr. Levin rose from his chair the applause began anew, but the speaker’s earnestness and the seriousness of his message reacted on the audience and they soon were in a mood to suit the occasion. Then Dr. Levin began his talk which he prefaced with the remark that he had been requested to speak German as a compromise between English and Yiddish. “But,” said the speaker, “I have already made my compromise my speaking Yiddish, for Yiddish is nothing more than a compromise between German and Hebrew, and I don’t care to make any further compromises.” This remark brought forth a laugh, but the speaker would not allow any light-heartednes. He was earnest, and he insisted on being taken earnestly. It was not necessary for him to reiterate on being taken earnestly. It was not necessary for him to reiterate his request again. His wonderfully graphic account of the present situation of the Jew all over the world, moved the hearts of all who heard it. In a masterly address Dr. Levin spoke of the Jewish losses in this war, he showed that the Jews lost approximately more men on the different battlefields than England did. “And yet,” continued the speaker, “when the time for inventory comes every nation will add up its losses and ours will be among them, but they will not be credited to us, but to them. Besides lives we have lost a great deal financially, probably three billions of dollars, for the foreign trade in Russia and a good deal of it in Germany was in Jewish hands and now it is all total loss. And with the men and money we have lost we have lost a good portion of our literature through the death and dispersion of numerous of our literary men, and through the discontinuance of our journals and magazines. The sum total of our losses is greater than that sustained by any other nation. Yet no one sees the extent of our loss because we have no country of our own, because we are not stationary, because we are always wandering, roaming, tossing about, and no one can get a good view of an object that is in constant motion. “There is a legend” said the speaker “to the effect that those who have died will go through Gilgul Mechilath, will roll beneath the earth, to reach their destination. This may be pelasant recreation for those who have lain for hundreds of years, but for a whole, a living nation, to go through Gileul Mechilath. that is a tradeev indeed.”

Speaking of the Jewish youth who are found in the front rank of every army, Dr. Levin said, that there are many reasons for it. The Jew knows that he must signal himself wherever he is. He puts himself out to show that he is a good patriot, a loyal subject of his monarch. Then he knows, too, that he must show more allegiance, a greater loyalty than his non-Jewish fellow soldier, if not his wife and children will be made to suffer for his shortcomings. In this, too, is he unlike his Christian neighbor, for no matter how young he is already married, and he leaves not only a father and mother, but a wife and little ones behind him to mourn his loss.

“The Goluth is not a Shir Hamalath (A song of Ascent), but a Shir Yeridah (A Song of Descent) and the longer we remain in our present position, the deeper we sink into the abyss of suffering. It is the greatest irony of fate to think that at the peace conference, Montenegro, with a population no larger than that of the Jews in East Broadway, will be represented, while the Jewish nation, with all its sacrifices and martvrdom. will find no vlace.”

Many a tear was shed at the recital of these tales of tragedy, but it was not in a mood of utter hopelessness that the speaker left his audience. He brought smiles, t0o0. He molded his audience at his will, and when he finished with a plea for their co-operation in the great work before the Jewish nation, every one was "ith him, and warm hearts Joined with strong voices in the singing of the Hatikvah that closed the eveninv’s nrorraım.