The Maccabaean

THE School of Zionism has weathered another year. In some respects this is our first year; we have launched on new ventures. Of our Experimental School it is the second year. But the Zionist School idea is much older than that, and the Hadassah School may be said to have begun its life three years ago with a group of six young girls, some of whom are now its chief workers and leaders.

This year we have felt our way in many directions, and wherever we have groped, we have found a wide path open to us, if only we had the strength and light wherewith to travel it. We are needed.

Knowledge is the only safe foundation for ideals, and everywhere there is a demand for knowledge and methods of imparting knowledge. Many Zionists wince before an illogical antagonism which, however, they have not the logic to answer. Many of our groups, organized for some piece of practical Zionist work, are in danger of falling apart for lack of a common intellectual interest. This is especially true of the young, the graduating groups of Young Judaea, who are no longer satisfied with their former childish activities, but can find no firm basis of thought for an ideal fellowship. All these groups are clamoring for leadership, and often the leaders themselves are vainly searching for it. American Zionism needs an Ahad Ha-am. No, every group oueht to have its Ahad-Ha-am.

In our public school systems we train teachers what success each one of us may judge create a method and material, above all, books. More and more we come to realize that the material itself must do most of the teaching. This is because teachers, like poets and prophets, are born, not made, and the teacher who does not need guidance is almost a miracle. Therefore a School of Zionism must offer material and a method if it is justly to bear that name. The organization of groups is only secondary, and where groups are already organized and waiting for guidance, it may be unnecessary, unwise, and even impossible to organize another Zionist group for purposes of study.

The correspondence school is not an original venture, and correspondence schools as such have not enjoyed a high reputation for efficiency. Nevertheless, we undertook to act as correspondents, to groups rather than to individuals. The response has been such as to prove that in principle we are right, and that we have discovered an actual need. We have had to adjust ourselves to a variety of demands. We are in no haste to grow, because we must learn as we teach. And yet, with a limited propaganda, the School has grown, during less than a year, from its small experimental group in New York City, to one hundred and fifty students in all parts of the country.

The Experimental School of the New York Chapter has carried thirty students through this second term, thirteen of whom entered the School in the first year. This shows how large a falling-off is to be expected, since there were twenty-eight students last year.

*This report was read at the sub-convention of Hadassah at Philadelphia. We are here publishing the entire report because of the interesting and suggestive ideas to which it gives expression.

The falling off, however, is not wholly to be regretted, as such an intensive course of study must prove a weeding process. It is hoped that even those who dropped out gained something. And there was a striking change for the better in the quality of the second year's students. The majority of them were college students or teachers, and the intellectual grade was very high.

In accordance with the principle that the School must develop its own workers, and also in order to free the director for the national work, the management of this School group was in the hands of a student from the previous year. The success of this year’s work in the group is due entirely to her efhicient management and the co-operation of the other students.

The Course in Zionism, which was evolved last year and which has been crystallized in the text-book, was repeated this year. The Director gave the first third of the Course, and the remainder was given by other Zionists. These speakers were invited and the unity of the course was maintained by the School manager, who also took charge of distribution of literature and assignments of Zionist work. On two occasions, when speakers disappointed, the class by its own initiative filled the gap with interesting and instructive material, continuing with the Course from the book itself. No session was lost. The book itself was the basis of the work, and the whole ground was covered in thirty sessions.

In Jewish history, efhicient teaching by an expert teacher who is also a good Zionist, carried the class from earliest times to the modern Jewish movements in twenty-sceven sessions. The latter part of the course had to be somewhat crowded, but it was decided that it would be better to finish the work in one year and let those who desired do more intensive study later. The students took notes, and the class work was supplemented by reading. No text book was used, and in this case the class was dependent entirely upon the teacher. So far, the School has not yet developed its own Course in Tewish History.

Besides these two evening classes open to beginners, there were somewhat informal meetings on Saturday afternoons of twelve of the advanced students with the director of the School. These meetings were devoted to Bible interpretation. Based on a reading of the first chapters of Genesis, they resolved themselves into discussions of the place of the Bible in Jewish life, institutions and national ideals. After the meeting the members sang Hebrew melodies.

During the first half of the term, that is, until February, a public speaking class was held from five to six o’clock on Saturdays. There were six students. The teacher was forced to discontinue the class, and as three of the students also had to leave, the others disbanded. Although the class had been of great value to all who participated in it, yet the conviction had grown that the School ought to develop a course in propaganda, organization and public speaking which could be offered to other groups and which would have the same definite character as the Course in Zionism. Such a class is therefore to be formed in the fall, one of whose meetings each month is to be an open propaganda meeting organized by one and led by another of the advanced students. Althoush the director will in-