The Maccabaean

is momentum in the Zionist movement which forces concrete expression in Palestine, which it is difficult to resist. But if we are to remain an intelligent, farsighted movement, knowing our needs, that is exactly what we shall have to do. if policy requires it. And that is what nolicy dictates.

Everything we do in Palestine that is vital immediately creates additional obligations. It is utterly impossible to foresee the probable future budget of any undertaking. The Medical Unit had a budget at first of $100,000, which soon rose to $250,000 and, according to the last report, will be $450,000 per annum, exclusive of what additional duties will be imposed upon the Unit, some of which already become apparent. So our interest in the Jewish Legion. When the recruiting started, we thought of enlistment of the soldiers and comforts; but soon there arose new needs: the insurance of the soldiers, the care of their dependents, hospitality, and provisions for them from the moment they become recruits to the moment they landed in Palestine. And then the extension of interest to the Palestinian front; the Red Mogen David movement, nurses, medical supplies, labor units, and we see before us the prospect of being called upon—and the call dare not be denied—for sums mounting into a million more. The quota we were taxed for the Zionist Administrative Commission was at first $400,000. We thought that covered a number of activities, but soon we were disabused of our error, for it now appears that loans will have to be made to colonists and workmen, on a not strictly business basis, and that additional stock must be issued for the Jewish Colonial Trust for use in Palestine.

This is not said with any intention of questioning the good judgment of the leadership in Palestine and London. On the contrary, they are to be heartily commended for their eagerness to meet every emergency as it arises, trusting to the good sense and loyalty of the Zionists to rally to their support. It is cited merely to show that if we go ahead with any one project on the basis of our present resources, without making a serious attempt to strengthen our rear, we shall find ourselves committed to enterprises, taken up

in the name of the whole Jewish people, which we shall be unable to support adequately. We dare not make the Zionist organization a body whose chief duty becomes that of a debtor hurrying and scurrying to collect funds necessary to meet obligations assumed on behalf of the whole Jewish people. The Jewish people must, through the Zionist Organization, assume the responsibility, and prepare itself for the first time in its history to take full charge of its own destiny

-- BE From that point of view, the reorganization of the movement in America was of the highest political significance. It showed that the Zionist leadership had the moral courage to pause and to turn about for the strengthening of its position by inviting at once the whole Jewish people to enter into the possession of the Zionist Organization, the object clearly defined, the program clearly enunciated, at a moment when the whole Jewish people is unquestionably inspired by the Zionist ideal. Just now is the time. Just now, the Zionist leadership could have taken full control, refusing to share in the government of the movement with those who had stood aloof in the past. But instead of taking that road, the Zionists of America had the political sagacity, and the moral resolutions to attempt at once the complete transformation of the Zionist Organization. Hereafter the Zionist Organization of America is the organized Jewish people of America, working in co-operation, with clear-cut individual and group responsibilities, for the restoration of the Jewish national homeland.

To succeed, the Zionist movement must have the stuff of endurance. We have made a form of national organization which will make the Zionist movement in America endure. If large capital is required, if men and women are needed, they will be forthcoming upon the demand of the collective unity of the Jewish people as organized in the Zionist Organization of America. And the collective unity will be the democratic expression of the will and determination of every loyal Jewish man and woman.

THE emotional quality of a convention is as true a gauge of its permanent value as the text of its resolutions. For what actually matters is not so much a logical conclusion as a warm resolve. It is not alone the vote that leads to determined and successful activity, but the glowing intensity of the hours that precede the Vote and the burst of enthusiasm in the moment that follows. It is these emotional currents and counter currents, provided they finally converge and flow together, that serve to solidify the organization, to temper it in the white heat of passion, to inspire its constituent elements with the supreme determination that is born in the midst of combat.

Viewed from this angle alone, and shorn of all its magnificent achievements in the fields of statesmanship, organization and finance, the Twenty-first Annual Convention of American Zionists would still occupy a dominant position among all other Zionist gatherings in recent times, for it was rich in just such moments and productive of precisely the results suggested above. There was hardly a convention in the history of American Zionism, which began its

labors with such sharp divisions—one might almost say bitter antagonisms—as this one; and yet there has hardly been a convention that adjourned with such a feeling of solidarity, with such unanimity, with such a common, allembracing enthusiasm as this one.

A PRELIMINARY SKIRMISH

The outstanding issue of the convention which threatened from the very beginning to destroy all harmony and even disrupt the organization instead of unifying it, was the question of the consolidation of the Zionist central organizations and the adoption of the district plan of organization in the field. To this program, which the Administration favored, there was a persistent and organized opposition—an opposition which did not hesitate to use every means of swaying the Convention to its views. The friends of the Administration must have felt weary and discouraged to observe the bitter feeling which seemed to be engendered at the very opening of the Convention. Any one who