The Maccabaean

want the every-day-Jew who thinks and lives in the Jewish spirit and will bring up his children in that spirit. If we succeed in bringing this virtuous and thrifty element into Palestine, our national existence will be secured there. And this element the National Fund does bring in.

As we stand at the conclusion of fifteen years of National Fund activity and look at its slow but certain development, both in its increasing income and in its commendable achievements in Palestine, our hearts fill with pride and hope. In Judaea and Galilee stretch miles of green fields and thickly planted gardens, cultivated and nurtured by Jewish hands on publicly owned Jewish soil. These are conquests which encourage us to continue our efforts. The income of the Jewish National Fund increases with a steady pace. No financial institution, either Zionist or of a general Jewish character has met with such success as the Jewish National Fund. It is growing in favor and popularity among the masses and has united the people with the land. It has bridged the gap between our ancient home and the indestructible longing for that land. The strength of our movement can now be accurately measured. The register is the Jewish National Fund.

In the present grief-filled period the National Fund consoles and comforts us. Everthing is destroyed and ruined: our homes ransacked and put to flame; our sons maimed and butchered ; our sisters bereaved of husbands, famished and dejected; but the spirit of our people remains unbroken. The National Fund occupies a place of honor even among the ruins of our people; even there where famine and want stride about unchecked ; where infants thirst for a drop of milk and aged languish for a morsel of bread; even there pennies are laid aside with the greatest solicitude for the National Fund. These pennies are not of base material but each is a drop of life—a blood offering. These are the symbols of self-sacrifice peculiar to our nation, and therein lies the strength of an institution, the high aim of which is to build and create.

ONE of the most remarkable and pleasing phenomena in the development of the Zionist Movement in this country has been the growth of the National Fund, particularly since the organization of the National Fund Bureau for America, in 1910. It was at the request of the Federation of American Zionists that the Board of Directors of the head office of the National Fund in Cologne, Germany, whose president was then Dr. M. I. Bodenheimer, decided to establish a bureau in America. The latter, acting upon the request of the Federation of American Zionists, sent one of its representatives, Mr. Hugo Kaufman, to this country, in April. 1910, to organize the bureau, which organization was affected on May 24th, with David H. Lieberman (now dead) as chairman of the bureau and Mr. S. Abel and Rabbi Jos. Jasin as directors and Isaac H. Rubin as secretary

Here are a few interesting figures showing the remarkable progress of the National Fund in this country since the establishment of the Bureau. Prior to 1910, National Fund collections in this country never amounted to more than $8,000 and the number of cities where collections were made was not more than forty-seven. In 1911, one year after the formation of the Bureau, collections increased to the sum of $20,149.25 and the number of cities participating in the collection that year was one hundred fifty-six In the years following, collections, and the number of cities in which these were made, kept constantly increasing until this year when the National Fund income has been increased to $55,321.41, gathered in three hundred fifty-one cities in the Union.

National Fund activities in this country were particularly successful by its original undertakings, such as Flower Day and Flag Day. The first Flower Day instituted in May, 1914, yielded the sum of $54,062.33. Two years later, in May of this year, $16,650 was collected as the result of a Flower Day collection. The first Flag Day hold in February, 1915, yielded $7,587.03. The Flag Day collection in December of the same year, amounted to $13,200.71.

During the six years since the establishment of the National Fund Bureau for America, $39,135 insurance was taken out by three hundred and ninety-two members of the Order Sons of Zion for the benefit of the National Fund. Large amounts have also been bequeathed to the National Fund by a number of Zionists. It is estimated that insurance and bequests carried for the National Fund Bureau by individual Zionists amounts to over $100,000.

The present directorate of the National Fund Bureau for America consists of Mr. S. Abel, chairman; Louis Robison, treasurer; Isaac H. Rubin, secretary; and Mordecai Epstein, representative of the Mizrachi Bureau. Victor Schwarz, of the Order Sons of Zion, and Isidore Zar of the Poale Zion.

America is now the only country where, temporarily at least, National Fund work can be extensively carried on. It is highly proper, therefore, this country—where the fund has made such remarkable progress during the past few years, shall properly celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the National Fund which occurs this month.