The Maccabaean

THE interest of the Zionists is not limited to Palestine. On the contrary, one of the very first implications of Zionism, in its real sense, is a strong interest in every phase of Jewish life, in everything that concerns the Jewish people, its fate, its vicissitudes, its problems and its troubles. For Zionism is in fact an outcome of a broad and sympathetic understanding of the entire Jewish situation; from that understanding derives the special Zionist point of view, and not to have that understanding is not to have this view. So that, like the humanist and the altruist who says: "Nihil humani a me alienus puto," the Zionist can well paraphrase: Nothing of Jewish concern is strange to me. Today, at this crucial moment of Jewish history, when side by side with the revival of glorious hopes and possibilities the most stupendous catastrophe in our golus career has befallen more than half of our race, it is doubtful whether any other element in Jewry understands so well and feels so keenly the dreadful condition of disfranchisement, abuse and pogroms in Eastern Europe as do the Zionists.

It is natural, therefore, to expect that when the representatives of the Zionists of practically the whole world will gather soon for the International Zionist Conference at London they will consider not only the problems related to the reconstruction of Palestine, but also problems somewhat outside of that realm, problems that appertain more specifically to the golus countries—e. g., the question of relief, of reconstructing the ruined Jewish communities in Eastern European countries, of securing definite recognition and enforcement of our national, civil and political rights in Poland. Rumania. etc.. etc.

But there is an additional reason at this time for the Jahreskonferenz to take up and discuss these vital questions. It is evident that the Jews of Eastern Europe are beginning to look to the Zionists as their redeemers and to regard Zionism as their only hope. For this the Zionists themselves are responsible in great measure. Only recently I heard one of the chief, and perhaps the most popular and best loved, leader of American Zionism arguing that in Zionism alone will our fellow-Jews in the pogrom-ridden lands find salvation, and I have heard other leaders say the same thing. What the Jewish peoples need beyond everything else, these leaders said, is a political status, and Zionism will secure that status for them—an old, old, though ever new theme. But I think that the Zionists should be more .careful in making these assertions just now. There is a danger in thundering such words into the ears of our afllicted fellow-Jews. What if they take our statements too literally? What if they forget that we have told them it will not be possible to transport more than a certain number of Jews to Palestine, at least for a long time to come? What if they fail to understand that a political “status” secured for the Jews of Palestine may not include the Jews of the Golus lands? To foster unqualified exaggerated expectations is to invite eventual reaction.

But on reflection it seems to me that it is too late to remedy the condition. The mistake has been committed,

and what is once done cannot be undone. Let us, therefore, consider the situation as it is and then draw the necessary inferences. There are the exaggerated expectations; they are a fact. Hence, in the light of those expectations, what is it, as a matter of actual probability, that Zionism in its progress during the next several years can bring to the Jews of Eastern Europe? As a Zionist I maintain that it can bring a great deal to them. It can, it will serve for the oppressed Jews as a spiritual recompense for all the untold sufferings which they endure to know that Zionism is, slowly but surely, reclaiming Eretz Israel, and to tens of thousands of our fellow-Jews who are stricken by the cruel hand of persecution Zionism will offer in Palestine redeemed a haven of refuge. This cannot be done away with by a wave of the hand; surely it will prove to be of incalculable significance. But—will this offering of Zionism be commensurate with the morbidly inflated hopes which have been kindled in the breasts of our afflicted fellow-Jews? Decidedly not. For they are expecting to find in Zionism something of a panacea for all their numerous ills, and when they find in time, as it is to be feared they will find, that the restoration of Palestine does not work miracles by way of diminishing pogroms and outrages and that the materialization of Zionism does not of itself secure the recognition of their political "status" in Poland, Rumania, Ukrainia, and the other countries, then, I am afraid, they will fall from one extreme of emotion into another, from unbounded hope into unbounded despair. In that event it is not unlikely that the Zionists will come to be considered as false messians.

Such a disastrous outcome can be averted only in one conceivable way: By helping the Jews of Eastern Europe in their efforts to secure better treatment for themselves and recognition of their rights as Jews and as men. The consequence of emancipation or even partial emancipation will be a more normal psychologic condition for the East European Jews; they will hope for what is possible and will not be disappointed when the unachievable remains unachieved; and, too, there will be no mad frenzied rushing for Palestine, a thing which the Zionists have never desired. So it seems but logical both from the point of practicality and self-interest and in justice to the millions of stricken Jews, the majority of whom will probably never be able to go to Palestine, for one reason or another, but whose Zionistic hopes have been fired to extreme proportions, that the Zionists should devote some of their thought and energy to the distressing Jewish problems in Eastern Europe.

I do not say the Zionist Movement can undertake new work outside of its chosen field; its present burdens are heavy enough. But the influence of the Zionist Organization can certainly be employed in some manner to strengthen and augment the movement for the emancipation of our fellow-Jews. Of course, there are diverse possible methods. But I do not intend to discuss the methods here. I wish to develop briefly on a prior phase of the question. Before there is a method there must be a principle, a point of view. And