The Maccabaean

their belongings, on their way to Palestine. And the very serious problem has arisen to hold back these great numbers until Palestine is made ready to receive them. But it is like holding back the waves. The irresistible tide of events is sweeping them from their old moorings, toward a new haven of rest, for their present lot is longer unendurable.

A Homeland for the Jewish people is therefore not only a spiritual need but an immediate physical necessity. Most of those who fought bitterly the Zionist ideal now realize that a Jewish Palestine is the only vital prospect for a very considerable portion of the Jews of Eastern Europe.

The Peace Conference, from all assurances by those in a position to know, will shortly issue the Document that shall create the opportunity to make of Palestine a Jewish Land that hope which has filled the song and prayers of our people during two thousand years of exile. There are those who in their fancy imagined a Jewish Homeland as a gift to be received in finished form. That na ve concep tion must give way to a full realization of what lies before us. Palestine can and will become a Jewish land only through infinite labor, enterprise and sacrifice. Any other Palestine would not be worth having. Some have looked with discouragement upon the fact that Palestine is a denuded and a devastated land. But that is precisely the most favorable circumstance for the building of a truly Jewish country. As if by the hand of Providence this land of our ancestors has not wedded itself to any of the num berless races and tribes that have been in Palestine during the past twenty centuries. They have all come and passed through the land and left it undeveloped. The soil would not respond to alien hands. Not until the first Jewish pioneers, thirty-five years ago, came into Palestine and laid their fingers to the soil did it become fertile; for it felt again the tender touch of those who loved it and cherished it throughout the ages even while in distant lands. Be cause Palestine is uncultivated will it be possible for the Jews to build in such a manner as will lay the foundations for a truly Jewish life. It will not be necessary to unmake or to dislodge old institutions that have their root in the ground, nor to compel the withdrawal of those who have planted their traditions in the soil. It will be possible to fashion such a life as the Jews desire; to create those forms which are of the essence of the Jewish soul.

THE HOUR FOR SUPREME EFFORT

The Jewish people is now put to the test. For centuries it has proclaimed its demand for an opportunity to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness —as a people. The nations have at last recognized the justice of that demand and are bidding us to go forth and build. What we shall do with that opportunity will be of the greatest concern and consequence not only to those who are immediately in physical need of Palestine, but also to all Jews wherever they may live, and that for two reasons:

First. Should the Jews fail to create in Palestine, now that the opportunity is offered them, a regenerate life, they will be looked upon as parasites unable to build for themselves. The peoples of the world will look with contempt upon the Jews as incapable of creating for themselves but desiring to reap the benefit of what has been created by others. The world has little respect for those, be they individuals or nations, who fail to fashion for themselves a self-supporting existence. Should they fail, then more than ever will Jews assume the appearance of aliens, of members of a vagrant nationality.

Second. Unless there be established in Palestine a center for Jewish culture that shall act as a spiritual reservoir for the Jews outside of Palestine, modern forces must ultimately disintegrate Jewish life and compel its disappearance amid the overpowering influences of the majorities among which it struggles for existence.

A Jewish Palestine is therefore from all points of view a vital necessity. Its success will bring new hope, new life to a people staggering under intolerable burdens. Its failure will mean untold sorrow, spiritual slavery.

Our people has the genius, and the resources with which to create a Jewish Palestine. It only needs the will. Jews have contributed to the upbuilding of every land in which they live. Their vitality has been proven under every circumstance and condition.

The same qualities can be turned to achievement in the restoration of their own Land if they but unitedly will it.

It is the hour for supreme effort.

Let us be thrilled by the joy of creation.

Mother Rachel, I saw you Clothed in tatters and rags; You went to beg for a crust of bread In a long, long line of hags.

Your feet were bare and dustyAs you trod Jerusalem's stones,And your simple, kindly mother-wordsWere mixed with little groans.

Mother in rags, I love youWith a love that knows no rest.And all the pity I feel for youTears and eats at my breast.

Mother in rags, I fear you,As I stand by our ancient wall;As there on the long-remembering stones,I see your teardrops fall.

How shall I dare to face you,Mother, when you have died,And tell the tale of our victoryAnd the fullness of our pride?

How, in the storied futureThat turns to the storied past,Shall I keep your haggard mother-faceFrom questioning me at last?