The Maccabaean

about what others might have done or should have done under the circumstances. We must become nationally conscious of the fact that upon us rests the burden of acting so that at every moment during the year we work to produce concrete results in Palestine. All our efforts at organization—all our devotion to educational processes—the collection of all our funds—all center and precipitate in action in Palestine. What the form of action is to take in Palestine cannot definitely and permanently be set up in the form of a schedule, so that every Zionist for the next year may peruse the schedule and know exactly what is being done. We know now what we have to do for the next few months befor the mandate is issued, and after the mandate is issued, and probably as we proceed in the work before the mandate is issued, there may be changes and alterations in the items on our program, but this is inevitable and no Zionist has any legitimate cause for complaint. If, today, we see our way clear to an investment in the anti-malarial campaign, we should pursue that object with a determined effort, but if sixty days from now that effort requires a larger investment, there should be no hesitation in overturning the budget in that respect, and taking up the larger burden ‚where we see a larger burden must be taken up by us in order to succeed. So in the Medical Unit. A year ago we said Medical Unit and meant several hundred thousand dollars. Today we say Medical Unit, meaning about $400,000, and we add to the Medical Unit item the item of sanitation. At the present time irrigation is an aspiration. Tomorrow it may become a practical project. Afforestation is an idea—tomorrow it may be an immediate necessity. The Hebrew University remains so far as its cornerstone is laid, but tomorrow such opportunities may be opened and such needs may be created as will require immediate attention to the establishment of the Hebrew University. What is clear to us—or should be clear to us—is that we are actually entering upon the period of building. The vista may not be so wide, but the work is there, and—who knows? — probably fortunately for us, the vista is not wide, because if all our opportunities were to crowd in upon us at once without end, we may find ourselves bankrupt in the face of conditions. Through the building that we will engage in now, we shall learn how to build on a larger scale when the opening is wider.

There is a great deal of loose talk about free and unrestricted immigration. One of the great Zionist personalities, Dr. Max Nordau, makes an impassioned plea for free entrance into Palestine.e No one disputes the principle of freedom of entrance into Palestine, but it is certainly a question whether with our limitations and with the need for preparing the ground, we ourselves, as against ourselves, should give ourselves this questionable luxury of standing for the principle which, if pursued, may mean a catastrophe for the whole Jewish people. Our interest is not in demonstrating our faith in the principle of freedom of immigration. Our interest is in the success of our endeavor to establish the Jewish people in Palestine. To mix up the two objects at this time is to sacrifice one for the other.

We should not deceive ourselves with beautiful ideas that have no direct relationship with practical action. The Zionist Organization has not in its possession Alladin's Lamp. The building that we are to erect must start from the foundation, and every brick and window and every door

must be put in by human hands. If we are to erect a building upon the soil which is to be prepared for the foundation, it is idle to think of the building until the soil has been prepared to receive the foundation. So that everything we do in Palestine must be conditioned by the hard material facts that exist in Palestine, and by the hard material facts that exist with regard to the character and ability of the Jewish EN 19

Any other consideration—sympathetic or romantic—theoretical or poetic—must give way before the material thing that confronts us and is waiting for our attention.

The Chicago Convention has re-won for the Zionist Organization the confidence of its constituency. It re-established democratic methods of procedure. It demanded that the Administration should not fear the results of sincerity of speech and truthfulness of utterance. And if it is the duty of the Zionist Administration to tell the truth to Zionists and to Jews with regard to the tremendous burden which now rests upon us all, and Zionists or Jews are dismayed by the truth, they reveal themselves as unfit material for the great work which has been placed in their hands. Not cowards or timid people or people of little faith or confidence are to be the builders of the New Zion, but those who, appreciating what the burden is, knowing the truth, push forward ready to sacrifice everything they have in order that the ideal for which they have been striving for so many years may be realized in their own time.

The Main Issue at the Convention

What it Was and What it Should Have Been

NO thoughtful person expected the Chicago Convention to be a momentous affair. A great forward stride cannot be made from ground which is not firmly fixed. In the midst of uncertainty and suspense, of anxiety and suspicion; in the midst of general world uneasiness and depression, of a situation which is a challenge to faith, what was to be expected from the Zionists of America? First and foremost: a re-affirmation of faith, a demonstration of determination and power. And this the Convention produced amply and unmistakably: and not so much by what it said and did as by what it was.

It was, from the point of view of the calibre of its human material, superior to any of the previous conventions. It was characterized by an unusual combination of independence and moderation. It refused to bow to authoritative suasion and it couldn't be wheedled by demagogic subtlety. It acted with freedom and responsibility. It proved that the Zionist movement in America was ripe not only for a responsible leadership—it has always had that—but for a responsive leadership, that is, for a leadership which reckons with the will of the Zionist masses. For, thank God, we now have Zionist masses. And these require from their leaders that continuous and intimate contact which alone can develop mutual understanding and mutual confidence. The Chicago Convention proved that the Zionist movement in America has come of age, that it has cut its wisdom tooth.

That, in fact, is the significance of the principal issue which was fought out at this Convention. The issue dealt