THE MACCABAEAN
were sponsored by men and women equally ardent and capable, but rather to a set of external circumstances outside of their control.
The enormous momentum which has been developed by the Zionist organization in America with the formation of the Provisional Committee and the quickening of every branch of nationalist activities called forth again all the latent energy of the Hebraists' camp. The same form which brought about this reconstruction of the Zionist machinery—the great war—is also responsible for the presence in our midst today of several of the finest of our intellectuals from Palestine and Europe; and it was inevitable that such men as Dr. Schmarya Levin, Dr. Mossinsohn, Mr. Leon Mozkin and Mr. Eliezer Ben Yehudah, acknowledged leaders in Zionist ranks and at the same time pillars of the Hebrew Renaissance, should influence greatly the foremost workers of American Zionism. There has resulted a distinct rapprochement between "East" and "West," between the Hebrew speaking and Hebrew thinking immigrant Zionists on the one hand, and the English speaking, thoroughly Americanized Zionists on the other. Both were the gainers. The "Westerners" began to acquire a new and perhaps clearer view of Jewish nationalism. Their conception of Zionism assumed greater intensity and depth. They drank of the philosophy of Achad Ha'am and his school, of the poetry of Bialik and his brother poets, of the social-economic-ethical doctrines of the Palestinean poalim (laborers)—and their mental life grew richer thereby. Many of them, borne on the crest of a mighty enthusiasm, took with avidity to the study of Hebrew as a living tongue.
The Hebraist element profited no less. They began to feel a new confidence in their own powers; their view broadened; and they began to think, to plan, and to execute along the lines of American methods and American efficiency.
Besides the two causes already mentioned: the tremendous impetus recently given to Zionism as a whole, and the presence of leading intellectuals from abroad, there is a third factor, more normal in origin and gradual in growth, which is just beginning to contribute to the development of Hebraic culture in America. Up to the present, as I have pointed out, the standard-bearers of Hebrew have been exclusively immigrants handicapped in many ways. American Hebraists were merely European Hebraists who had crossed the Atlantic. They still thought and lived as they had in their old countries. Their cultured center was still Eastern Europe. The source of their spiritual strength was still Wilna or Odessa. The very books they used were printed in foreign countries, and the whole movement—if one may dignify it with such a name—was exotic. Such a condition was unnatural, artificial, and incapable of becoming the groundwork of a permanent structure.
Gradually, however, the work of the earliest pioneers began to yield a much deserved harvest. Out of the
Hebrew schools and Talmud Torahs founded years ago there has begun to emerge a new type of American Jew, whose presence in our midst is rich with golden promise for the future. This new type is that of the young man or woman, born and bred in America, yet master of the Hebrew language, devoted to the Hebrew Revival, and spiritually the disciple of the great masters in Europe and Palestine. He is nevertheless thoroughly American in speech, in manners, in standards, and in methods. He has assimilated the practical spirit and best civic and social ideals of our republic. He unites in his person the finest qualities of East and West. He is a nationalist to the core, an ardent lover of Palestine, a thorough devotee of Hebrew, strong in character and convictions, educated in the best of American schools and colleges, and, as a rule, an observant Jew. True, he is still a rarity, modestly working in his own little corner; but he is bound to forge to the front.
As was to be expected from the auspicious circumstances, the first convention of the Histadruth showed signs of strength and vitality which are new to the Hebrew movement in this country. That does not imply that the old faults have been eradicated. In many important respects the convention was mismanaged. The arrangements were poor, the publicity was not quite effective, the program was not quite well balanced, and a hundred little details were overlooked. The common principles of parliamentary procedure were, as usual, frequently cast to the winds by the young enthusiasts. Hours were spent in arguing the question of whether a resolution should or should not be discussed. The last session opened after midnight and did not adjourn until the blowing of the factory whistle in the morning!
If one were inclined to be cynical or even hypercritical, the convention could offer many a fair target for the shafts of ridicule. Yet, viewed as a whole, this remarkable gathering was nothing short of splendid. Nothing can exceed the deep earnestness, the soul-stirring appeal, the moral exaltation of the delegates whenever questions of vital moment to Judaism were raised on the floor of the convention. The murky atmosphere of the East Side ghetto, with its squalor, its filth and sordid realities—all melted away before the white heat of the moment.
The Histadruth is now headed by an able executive committee and excellent officers. It has also the sympathy and confidence of a large part of the forward looking Jews of this country. What it lacks most is money. With sufficient means at its disposal it could at this particularly auspicious moment work a revolution in Jewish life. It could make Hebrew a powerful instrument toward revitalizing and galvanizing into national life the withered limbs of our body politic. With the price of a Y. M. H. A. building, or a hospital, or a home for aged and infirm, the spirit of our young generation can be kindled with the old-new fire of Hebraism!