Zionism and the War
NEVER before in all the history of our chequered career has the problem of our future as a people so engaged the anxious concern of our well-tried leaders as at the present critical time. Once again the dead members, the dry bones of our race, are stirring themselves into life and being. The call has gone forth for action, for immediate action. The crying problems of the poignant present clamor aloud for solution. A modus operandi, as well as a modus vivendi, is greatly needed.
On all hands the Orthodox Jew and Reformer, Zionist and Non-Zionist, Assimilant and Culturist, Philanthropist and Socialist, are busily applying themselves, each from their own point of view, to ameliorate the economic and political conditions of our war-stricken brethren.
Armageddon has drawn for us a new angle of vision. New battle cries resound; new weapons of construction are being forged. The narrow Shibbolets of a wrangling past have lost much of their exclusive meaning. The Zionist is not averse from demanding civic rights for Jews where these are denied to them, yes, and even the Reformer and Assimilant are ready to raise “he richt hand for Terusalem.”
Confronted by this novel situation in our communal politics, I hurriedly took the train for Angmering, the Sussex sea-side home of the great Jewish thinker, Israel Langwill, to consult him about the future policy of our race at this terrible crisis in the world's history.
I luckily found him in one of his few leisurely moments, sitting in the mild Spring air of his delightfully trimmed garden, playing a game of chess with his own son, Ayrton Israel, now a tall giant of nine years of age.
Just as I approached, Israel Zangwill, junior, floundered about on the board with a few remaining pawns, calling aloud in a strident voice, "Check!" while his other decimated pieces indifferently lay "dead" on the verdant grass of the freshly-cut lawn.
"The pawns in the game, like the small nationalities, stand very little chance against the bigger pieces," I ventured to remark. Quick as lightning, Israel Zangwill, junior, retorted:
"Look! He's slyly just making his Queen. And so, a pawn in the European game, by moving up, can also become a Queen."
Notwithstanding the absorbing interest of the game both Israel Zangwill, the greater, and Israel Zangwill, the lerser, mutually and good humoredly agreed to adjourn the game in deference to my visit. Having explained the nature of my errand to Israel Zangwill, the elder, he laughingly queried:
(Special interview with Israel Zangwill by M. J. Woddis.)
"An interview for The Maccabaean? But the Maccabaean is a Zionist magazine, and, as you know, I have long ago severed my official connections with Zionism; so how can you ask me to give you an interview for a Zionist paper?"
Naturally I then hastened to assure him that although he no longer regarded himself as an official Zionist, yet, he was always respected and admired by Zionists and Non-Zionists alike, in fact by Jewry in general, for his persistent and consistent championing of the Jewish Cause in and out of season, and what he more courage was needed for the true expression of one's own convictions.
"Many thanks!" he genially responded, "but I will only speak on condition of not being held responsible for the utterances you may attribute to me. This is no time for interviews, but for exact statements over one's own signature. Such a statement must be sought in my new book. In Germany my name has become trifa as a Pro-Russian, while in England I am abused as an Anti-Russian.
“My book, ‘The War for the World,’ which I have just sent to the Macmillan Company in America, and which will be published here by Heinemann will make my exact position clear— the position of a trustee of civilization, who desires, among many other things, that Russia should take her place among her Liberal Allies, as a Liberal State. I am as little Anti-Russian as those severe critics of Russia, viz, Miluikoff, Dubzinsky, Gorky, Andreyeff, and I am ready to forgive Russia, if she changes from being a land of pogroms to a land of progress.
"In the same way it is unfair and nonsensical to label me as an Anti-Palestinian, because I have honestly attempted to point out to Jews of the difficulties they would have to surmount in Palestine. Did an opportunity arise of acquiring Palestine, the ITO would be the first body to move toward its acquisition, since it is committed to every —and to no—territory."
Turning round in his desk-chair, he suddenly burst out.
"But tell me, how can Palestine be secured as a legally-assured home for the Jewish people, when the Jewish people does not exist. To expect the Jews to work at the present time as an international political body for Palestine is simply Meshuggas. In most of the belligerent countries the Zionist movement is like the Hoist in a state of suspended animation, as Zionists have been called away to the trenches. The Congress cannot be held, and the only meeting place for Zionists to-day is as enemies on the battlefield.
"And further, the sinews of Zionism, have been much