The Maccabaean

IF we desire to arrive at the sum total of the work of the undoubtedly historic Pittsburgh Convention, we may say that about twenty per cent of its interest, time and labor was in connection with the outside world: demonstrations, receiving and sending greetings, etc.; about thirty per cent more was appropriated by organization questions; the entire second half was dedicated to Palestine problems in their various forms. This, in our opinion, is a natural and wholesome proportion, a favorable recommendation for a national group, which is beginning to lead a national-political existence.

Palestine work at this convention was conspicuous by its imposing form, its statesmanship, its lofty swing, its broad comprehensiveness, although nothing was said about various details which became merely corollaries of the principles accepted.

THE PARADE A PALESTINE DEMONSTRATION

Even the squad of Jewish Shomerim at the head of the parade lent to that imposing demonstration a Palestinian color; the white head-dress and costume, the manner of riding, the weapons, stirred the fancy and brought living greetings from the hills of Judaea, from Carmel and Tabor, from Shefelah and Sharon, where the fallen are reposing and the living are struggling.

In the first ranks of delegates were the men of the new Jewish aristocracy, the Palestinians; and before them, just behind the blue-white banner, the first of the first pioneers, Israel Belkind, the founder of the Bilu. "House of Jacob, Come, let us Go," they called thirty-six years ago to the Jewish people. And the echo of the call now reverberates in all the corners of the Jewish world. At the head of twelve young men at that time, he made his way stealthily into Palestine; now he walks at the head of more than twelve thousand, who celebrate and rejoice openly over the recognition of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.

THE WEIZMANN COMMISSION AND THE CONVENTION

At the convention itself, Palestine enters the stage with the message which was received from Dr. Weizmann. A portion of Palestine is already liberated and can openly greet their American brothers, who are co-operating so magnanimously in the building of a national home; the message is in the name of Liberated Jewish Judaea and of the official Zionist Commission there.

Zionist commissions have more than once visited Palestine. They were always the best of our workers and leaders, they were always of great importance to us, they used to bear with them our great hopes and strivings, and they were hardly able to make any progress there; the wide world in general was unable and unwilling to know them. Even when our great leader visited Palestine, he came there half incognito, and what made his visit noteworthy to the outer world and epoch-making for ourselves was the courteous "Good-Morning" and handshake of the Kaiser.

Now we are greeted by the representative of a Commission, which is officially recognized by the English Government and sent to rebuild and strengthen the Jewish positions in the occupied portion of Palestine, to organize and prepare the Jewish people there. The civil and military authorities receive our representatives with the attention and dignity accorded an Ambassador, introduce them to the local population as the future masters of the country.

And this "Ambassador" of ours now sends us from there greetings and informs us that our old campaigners, our pioneers, have stood firm in their positions, notwithstanding the greatest storms and upheavals; that our settlements have remained intact physically and morally; but that after so terrible and heroic a struggle, the forces are naturally weakened, that reserves and reinforcements must be sent over.

And just at that time a cablegram arrives that the first reserve force, the Zionist Medical Unit, has safely crossed the Atlantic on its way to Palestine. All the delegates recognize in this a fortunate omen for newly-revived Palestine. And now comes that evening, that festive, holy evening, in which were proclaimed from the Zionist platform for the first time the foundations of the future Constitution of the Jewish State in Palestine.

THE PITTSBURGH PROGRAM

It begins without any sentimentality. A well-known Professor of Law, at the same time also a scholar in Jewish literature and culture, treats scientifically and in "dry" manner the question as to what shall serve as basis of the law in the future Jewish State. Historic facts and logical deductions rise up like grand layers of granite one upon the other, and there rises up before us a wonderful architectural masterpiece in the realm of future Jewish legislation; we already have the assurance that in this respect the future Palestine will not need to be ashamed, either as against the outer world or its own magnificent past. And now comes the Executive Secretary (or Secretary of State) and reads the written Declaration of Principles, the document which will surely receive the name: "The Pittsburgh Program" and will, just like the Basle Program, in the course of many years, serve as a symbol, as a credo, in our Zionist activity. He is about to read; but a string of his memory has been touched and there is heard a deep trembling chord as from a distant holy temple: twenty-one years ago he, then still a young man, together with a group of young visionaries, under the leadership of that great visionary, Herzl, worked out the Basle Program. Now the Basle Program is recognized by great Powers; it is necessary to prepare for the work, to decide how to build the "publicly assured, legally secured Homeland" in Palestine.

Freedom for all, regardless of race, sex or faith; national ownership and control of land and of all public utilities; security for all against exploitation in any form whatever; free education in all its forms and stages, what less could