The Maccabaean

THE veil of the Jewish tragedy was torn away at the first Congress at Basle. Hitherto, the Jewish problem, it had been said, was a disease and no amount of protests and gnashing of teeth could be of any avail against a disease; it must be cured—eradicated. It is generally agreed that there was not much wisdom in postponing difficulties and ignoring obstacles; they must be faced. The thousand rings of the golus serpent when revealed and on the other hand the way to redemption, freedom—Palestine! At Basle the new Zionism was created, the banner of the Jewish people was raised. Nothing was apparently achieved. A fact, however, was stated. What the Zionists wanted was a piece of land for the wanderers who were shuffling from one place to another; who were unable or unwilling to become a mixture of the assimilating hash; a piece of land for those that yearned for a new life. And the freedom they desired was not in the form of charity. They wanted to work for it with their energy, to obtain it through honest labor. They loved the piece of land they asked for it with a love that no waters could quench and no streams deluge, a love that was mightier than all material obstacles. They wanted a peaceful corner on God's earth for the development of their future, for the salvation of their children who were drifting. They wanted to shatter their golus chains, to obliterate the badge of shame, the mark of their servility. They wanted real human rights. That was the Zionist demand for itself from the outer world. I do not speak about the light-hearted irresponsibles, the self-satisfied stomach philosophers without inherent weight, nor of the cynics who discovered new opportunities to jest and scoff with that perverted golus humor characteristic of self-debasement. But even the serious, the distinguished and honest, but, alas! obstinate and short-sighted, congealed Judaism-preachers, kind-hearted conventional communal leaders, philosophers of mankind, but cut off from the people—these will-o’-the-wisp men came forward with their paternal advice, even with the wisdom of civilization, to annihi- ate what they termed the “chimera,” the “deception,” the “chauvinism,” “reaction,” “Sabathei-Zevism,” and all the rest of the names by which Zionism had been designated. They were told that the Jews must remain scattered to act as God’s missionaries, must teach everywhere social justice, and the brotherhood of men; they were told that Jews must be a memory in the history of the world. The reply was: “We

want to live. Jews do not want to abdicate; they do not want to remain like a broken vessel the liquid of which had run out; they do not desire to become lost like a wandering star that sheds forth light through space in the universe and then disappears into the abyss. Our star has not yet gone out. Our ambition is not so high as that of our opponents, but much more practical. We want to be the rule rather than the exception. With a centre of our own we can develop, and the world may profit by the lessons we can teach. But to tramp about, to be the butt of everyone, the scapegoat of all, while continuing losing our own, and persuade ourselves that thereby we are doing our part in teaching others—to such a high pedestal we certainly have not reached. We refuse to be in the position of the goose that was asked whether it preferred to be roasted, fried or cooked. Nor do we want that kind of sym- SEE Re pathy that is commonly given to NY the aged by those who feel that : DA the old folk will not much longer . RN disturb the living. Yes, we are old but we are also experienced. 3 A From Pharoah to the Berlin Auf- klarungs-Salons we have been u Mi K € invited like the fly in the spider’s " J web! No more! No settlement 4 A can be found under more roman- ae ©) Zu tic conditions than that in Pales- N tıne, L @ According to legend, Rome was n suckled by a she-wolf; Palestine, ef the new old land—so legend would 3 say—had a dovelike origin—love, loyalty, generosity and brother- RU) hood. Not wild beasts, but angels EX % stood at its cradle; muses and Ex Lg geniuses had adorned and crowned ZZ he Morning Star of its noble 8» aın3 childhood ;— Jewish thinkers and poets—a Leo Pinsker, a Peretz Smolenskin, a David Gordon, an “Achad Ha’am,” a Moses Lilienblum, the pioneers of the “Bilu,” and a kind of Jewish Puritan Pioneer, a Jew with the spirit of a Nehemiah, the heart of Hillel, and the liberality of Kolbo Shevua—that uncrowned king of the Jewish settlement,—Baron Edmond de Rothschild. These have built the colonies before our greatest and immortal leader had formed the New Zionism, created an organization, formulated a programme, giving the Movement form and method. The Zionist Movement has become a living stream, a guide, foundation to a new strong building. I warn my readers not to count the efforts. Some things cannot be reckoned in numbers, they are too great to be measured by ordinary standards. But if accounts are insisted upon, it must not be forgotten that the work was done only by a small fraction of the people. And now we come before them again after eighteen years. We come to them in the midst of a hellish fire. The old Jewish nation has lived to see the greatest war in history; we live to-day in the most critical epoch in the histery of the world. It is decreed that the Tews should not be merely the specta-