The Maccabaean

2. The Executive considers that the achievements of the Committee of Jewish Delegations, especially in connection with the treaties with Poland, Rumania, Czecho-Slovakia, and Jugo-Slavia, and the declaration of the Lithuanian Government, mark a considerable step forward towards the obtaining of equal rights by the Jews of the Diaspora.

3. The Executive notes with satisfaction that the Committee of Jewish Delegations accepted the demands of the Zionist Organization respecting Palestine, and presented them to the Peace Conference.

4. The Executive Committee asks the Zionist Federations to support the Vaad Haarazath, and to further the propaganda and the organization of this body. The Executive considers that the body must be democratically elected, and must voice the desire of the Jewish masses for the safeguarding of the national work in the Diaspora.

5. The Zionist Executive welcomes the idea of convening a universal Jewish Conference on Relief.

Herzliah: A Movement for Zionist Culture

lf anyone were asked, “What is the second most pressing task of the Zionist Organization of America?” he could only make one answer. The most pressing emergency task is the raising of the Palestine Restoration Fund. That is the rock foundation of the immediate work that must be accomplished. But the foundation of the Restoration Fund itself, the foundation of all future Zionist efforts, is the effective support of everyone who has ever signed a membership card in the Zionist Organization. That effective support depends on the continuous interest, the steady, intelligent activity that can only come from group effort. We are not seeking the salvation of individuals. we work for the rebuildine of a nation.

The Golus will not end at the moment when a mandate is issued to Great Britain to act as trustee of a Jewish Palestine. For many years support of the Jewish settlement must come from the comparatively prosperous Jews of Hutz La Aretz, especially from us in America upon whom Zion’s financial burdens largely rest. Now it needs no discussion of the merits of Cultural Zionism to make plain that the simple facts of the situation require a large minimum of Zionist intellectual and social activity.

How can the average Jew be made to suffer gladly repeated requests for support—either as gifts or as a loan? Quite as important, whence will come the alert and vigorous workers to serve in the active battalions in our future campaigns? The task would normally be harder each year, even if our demands remained stationary, but each year our work expands, and each year the demands are heavier.

It is evident that we must balance our books, discover our human assets, or we shall run the risk of a deficit. In this bookkeeping we find that the district plan has tremendously added to the number of registered Zionists and to the amount of Zionist funds. But in all frankness, it has made by no means proportionate additions to the number of working Zionists, of men and women who will carry the daily burden of Zionist activity, who will with energy and enthusiasm give not only money, but their hearts and their time to the cause. Moreover, the younger generation is not coming to us to fill the depletions caused by time. We are conserving our strength with two years ago. Can we honestly feel that our strength will tide us over the strenuous days that are to come?

One attempt at a solution is immediately possible. We can add to the present numerical strength and geographical unity of the district, a number of bonds and interests, that can most easily be classified as social and literary. The thousand or more members of a district may never attend a district meeting, but a large number of them can be induced to participate in special groups which appeal to their particular interests. A judicious rearrangement into clubs of people of similar tastes will wonderfully strengthen the ties that bind the individual to the movement. The program of study

or entertainment may then be made directly to fit a known demand instead of failing because too inclusive. The district may then call upon the members of these literary societies for work, as it cannot today call upon the passive Zionist. For the passive Zionist does not answer and never will answer a summons to duty until we change him into an active Zionist. This change from passive Zionism to active Zionism it is the purpose of the literary society to foster.

We have spoken so far in general terms. But a definite movement is now functioning. The existing literary societies are in large numbers co-operating in what has come to be known as HERZLIAH. As more and more societies come into HERZLIAH and as new ones are organized the possibilities become more and more promising. New York is already forming a committee of HERZLIAH groups and other cities will follow. The results will be worth watching.

Our "Silent Mass"

[From an Editorial in "Zionist Education"]

By far the gravest problem confronting the Zionist Organization of America, as such, is that of our great "silent mass"—our one hundred and fifty-six thousand enrolled members.

We have been proud—and justly so—of our achievement in securing their enrollment. It was a difficult task splendidly performed—nevertheless, these new additions to our ranks now constitute a problem.

The question is: Are all these new members an asset or a liability? Actually do they represent a force —a well-organized and well-disciplined army in the cause of Zion—or merely a loose aggregate of individuals, a huge crowd very kindly disposed, but incapable of efficient, purposeful action?

To put it more bluntly: Our membership has increased by about six hundred per cent. But has our fighting strength increased in the same proportion? Have we today six times as many workers as formerly, or, are we deluding ourselves unwittingly? Are we allowing ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by imposing houres?

The condition which confronts us is the natural result of the fact that we have grown too rapidly. We have swallowed, but have not digested. We have had a large immigration without naturalization. We have enlisted recruits, but failed to train them.

This diagnosis, if it be correct, suggests the remedy. If we are to retain our huge membership and convert it into a powerful, efficient weapon—then we must proceed at once to penetrate this inert mass by every means at our disposal, to impregnate it with our philosophy, to leaven it with our emotion, to assimilate it to ourselves, to energize it, to Zionize it.

Lectures, public celebrations, literary evenings, reading rooms, dramatic clubs, and cultural societies and groups of every kind—these are some of the activities that suggest themselves at once. Others must be added to them.

Whatever may have been the faults of the old "society" system, which was discarded at Pittsburgh—and its faults were many—it doubtless had one great advantage, in that it provided a ready method for holding together groups of individuals through their social, intellectual, and cultural interests. On the other hand, whatever may be the advantages of the District system—and they are many—it has, at the present time, one great weakness, in that it has tended to concentrate all Zionist activity in an alarmingly small proportion of the total membership. The District is a pyramid, with hundreds of thousands of members as its base, and the District Committee as the apex. We have set this pyramid on its apex, and expect it, miraculously, to stand.

We must change that. If necessary, we should establish throughout the country a chain of Zionist literary societies, operating within the Districts, in order that we may establish points of contact for an increasingly larger proportion of our membership. The road for most of them lies through the Zionist literary society. It is the old Derach Ha-Ruach, of which Achad Ha’am speaks so eloauently.