The Maccabaean

despotic Minister of Interior of despotic Russia, favored Zionism for reasons of his own. The King of Italy, the German Emperor, the King of Bulgaria, many notable leaders of the French Republic, like Léon Bourgeois and others, were among the first to show interest in the Zionist movement. It may be said without exaggeration that if the Jewish people as a whole had responded to Herzl's call after it was issued and provided him with sufficient political and financial means, Zionism would today be a fact instead of an ideal. But the Jewish people did not at first respond because it had forgotten to think in terms of national politics. Two thousand years of Diaspora life killed the political sense and political intelligence of the Jew as a Jew and therefore the task of Herzl assumed uncreditably difficult dimensions. Before creating a Jewish Home in Palestine he first had to revive the Jewish political genius and thus practically recreate the Jewish people as a people.

The appearance of Herzl was first understood only by the selective forces among us. In the West the remnants of cosmopolitanism and undigested nationalism worked havoc among the Jews and clouded their political intelligence. In the East, where strong nationalistic Jewish feelings prevailed, the masses were not intellectually prepared for Zionism, for they at that time lived in a medieval atmosphere. Therefore, at first the appearance of Herzl made a much greater impression on the Gentiles, who were thinking in terms of the state, than on the Jews, who being a stateless people had forgotten how to think in terms of the state. Many Jewish leaders in the various countries, instead of coming to Herzl's aid to help him redeem his people, went on record as opponents of Zionism and lodged protests against it denouncing its adherents either as being irreligious or disloyal to the countries of their birth. The Jews of both religious camps, Reform and Orthodox, fearing a secularization of Judaism through Zionism, embarked on a policy of active opposition to Herzl and his followers. We still remember the inglorious days of the "Protest-Rabbiner" on the one hand, and of the venomous attacks against Zionism on the part of the ultra-Orthodox, on the other. But Zionism was too European and too humane, too sound and too Jewish a proposition to be killed by its opponents. If Herzl had not found the right formula for the tendencies and currents of the time, another man would. In short, if Zionism had not sprung up at that time, it would have had to be invented, for it was a historic necessity, and what objective historical forces created cannot be crushed by individuals. Zionism survived all its opponents from right and left, mainly

because it was a historical necessity and because, from the Jewish point of view, it was the ultimate tradition of Judaism. Of course, Zionist did not go the way Herzl thought of at first, because the Jews who had forgotten how to think in terms of the state were not prepared for Zionism when Herzl appeared; one shudders when one thinks what would have become of Zionism had it by chance been realized soon after Herzl's appearance, because there can be no Zionism if the Jews are not prepared for it.

Instead of creating a Jewish state in Palestine the Zionist Organization has within the last twenty years worked systematically for the revival of the Jewish political genius, at the same time doing its best to prepare Palestine as a Homeland for the Jews. No political party in the world ever faced such a tremendous problem as did the Zionist Movement. It had to do two things: prepare the people for the Land and the Land for the people. And to what an extent it has succeeded is best told by the constant outcries of our internal foes, who are now trembling because they see the last days of their glory drawing to a close, because they have reason to be afraid of the possibility of a speedy solution of the Zionist question. Their fear is not founded so much on the possibility that the leaders of the nations of the earth may ultimately recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist claims, as on the fact that the Jews to day are prepared for Zionism.

They know nothing in this world is stronger than the will of a people. And there is today a tremendous majority among the Jews whose attitude towards Zionism is a positive one. It is this will to live as a nation that our internal foes fear and it makes them resort to every means in their fight against Zionism. This conversion of the Jewish people to Zionism within twenty years is one of the greatest achievements, if not the achievement, of the Zionist movement and of the Zionist organization. And this achievement is by far greater than the ultimate aim of Zionism: the re-establishing of the Jewish nation in the Land of our Ancestors. Diplomacy alone cannot revive the political genius of the people, nor can it rebuild a people politically. Zionism has succeeded in eliminating the destructive forces of the Diaspora life on the Jewish mind; it has succeeded in reviving Jewish political intelligence and Jewish political genius. Now since the Jews can again think in terms of the state the realization of the ultimate aim of Zionism is only a matter of systematic work. This work will be done systematically and speedily.

Again the wanderer starts outTo alien battles; and we seeBeneath the welter and the routThe ancient, tragic irony.He goes, too dumbly to be grim,Down to the dead, the chosen ones,While nations that rejected himAccept his flesh to stop the guns.Plunged in a war he never sought Hurled at his brother's gaping lines—

Among the reforms promised in Germany, it is rumored that the Jewish soldier will not hereafter be debarred from attaining an officer's rank.—News Despatch.

Blinded, bewildered, scattered, caught—A sudden ray of promise shines.He stops—the guerdon seems too great:Then, with a deep and trembling breath,He goes to meet a thundering fate,And die, perhaps, a captain's death!Pariah, outcast—he delightsIn struggles that should drive him mad.He lives upon defeat, and fightsTo save a home he never had.(From "The Masses")