The Eternal Ideal of the Jewish People
By DR. HARRY FRIEDENWALD PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN ZIONISTS
IN these "Yomim neroim," these fearful days of strife and upheaval, we gather in the interest of Zion. We are not unmindful of these conditions, we are not lacking in serious concern because of the crisis, through which the world is passing. It is just because we know how full of change this period will be, how great the alterations of the world which will be fashioned by it, that our efforts have been increased. We do not ignore conditions, but those do who fail to understand the vast importance of the Zionist Movement, to the Jewish people and to the world. They have not realized that Zionism is the expression of the will of the Jewish people to continue its existence as a people, that it is the expression of the same motive force which has manifested itself in varied forms throughout the dispersion the hope of the restoration. During all the centuries of the diaspora, our people has prayed for the return to its land. Read our traditional liturgy and you will scarcely find a page which does not express this hope in solemn prayer. Read the inspired poetry of our medieval poets and see how their most fervent theme was their hope and their longing desire for the return of our people to its ancient soil. In modern times the form in which this hope is expressed has changed. We no longer only hope and pray, we are no longer satisfied with the poetry of medieval or modern poets, though they thrill us with their passionate longing a great movement has come into being to bring about the "Return," to obtain in Palestine a legally secured and publicly assured home for the Jewish people, where it can live its Jewish life and develop the best and the greatest that lies in it. This is the modern form in which are expressed the desire, and the will and the hope of the Jewish people for the restoration, for the continuance of the life of the people, or more definitely, for the continuance of Jewish life. This is called Zionism. This desire, this hope, and this will, has ever been and will continue throughout the years as enduring as the Jewish people!
The Jewish people has been one of the greatest factors in civilization. It has, therefore, not only the right, but it has the duty to continue its existence, the duty to live and to develop the best of which it is capable. It owes this to itself, it owes this to the world! It must forever strive to contribute its part to civilization as it did in our great past; it must forever strive to lift itself and lift humanity to higher
planes; for it must forever strive to bring about conditions of life in the human family in accord with the ideals of liberty and of justice, of right and of peace which our prophets proclaimed many centuries ago.
Such a striving of a people, such nationalistic aspirations have in them the elements of eternity. Time may alter their form, but neither time nor conditions can silence or destroy them. This will enable you to understand that Zionism does not depend upon the political conditions of one country or another. Were
the Jews granted freedom everywhere it would still be our desire, our purpose, our hope and our duty to acquire our home in Palestine. I am well aware that many have found their way to Zionism through anti-Semitism. But Zionism does not find its raison d'être in anti-Semitism, which has only been the means of awakening many and bringing them to a realization of the true conditions, the needs and the aspirations of our people. As long as the people lives, so long will these aspirations have life and meaning. For it is through them that it has its life and being. Without them it loses purpose and incentive. "Where there is no vision the people perish!"
The historic importance of nations is not measured by numbers. "Not by strength and not by might, but by the spirit" are the nations weighed, and the people of Israel has secured its honorable credentials. Noblesse oblige! The Jewish people wills to live, to live its Jewish life. Our people has never yielded this "will to live," this eternal striving.
Great nations have risen up before it, conquering nations, and they have disappeared before the eyes of our people—but it has willed to live on. It has suffered martyrdom such as the world has never seen elsewhere, it has suffered, sustained by this hope to live. And now in the greatest crisis of history, the Jewish people wills to live, to maintain its identity and to secure for itself its own life upon its own soil. The din and confusion of the world dare not and cannot mislead it, the titanic struggle of the giant nations cannot shake this resolute will!
If ever added incentive were needed, it is furnished now. The whole world has realized that this war must liberate the small and oppressed nationalities, must release them from the thraldom of empire nations, must permit them to live according to their own standards, no longer forced to live the life of their big brother nations. At this time when all small and oppressed nationalities are striving for liberty, our people, the