The Maccabaean

accomplishment of the hearts' desire" of the Jews; Governor Allen of Kansas expresses a keen satisfaction that the Jews have been recognized internationally as a people with a country; Hon. Newton D. Baker, United States Secretary of War, rejoices in "the creation of a state which will command the attention and respect of the whole world"; Governor Smith felicitates "the Jews of all the world to Palestine now being their homeland"; Senator McCormack wires, "God prosper the new state."

But amidst this plentitude of new and valuable friendship, the memory of our departed co-workers was not forgotten. To an audience risen to their feet in honor of our dead, Mr. Louis Lipsky read the long roster of names endeared to the nation under respectful silence. (The necrology is printed elsewhere in this issue.)

Dr. Stephen J. Wise thereupon, amidst thounderous applause, delivered the following address:

We are met not to celebrate the San Remo decision, but to dedicate ourselves to the tasks it places before us. The hour is too solemn for joy; it is met for the renewal of our self-consecration.

The redemption is come about at the appointed hour and in ways that befit the occasion. The doors of Palestine are opened not by the fist of an Eastern potentate, but by the free peoples of earth acting in concert at the behest of freedom. The great democracies of earth liberated the Jewish land—democracies which have drawn their nurture in freedom and worship of freedom's God from the life and spirit of Israel—first among earth's free peoples though last to be reborn.

If our own loved land has not technically participated in the historic proceedings of San Remo, we know that the moral influence of these United States has been potent in the councils which framed the Balfour Declaration and have now made it the law of the world. The great consummation was not reached without the help of America, speaking and acting through its leader, wise, far-seeing, unafraid, whose name will forever be enshrined in the ark of Jewish memories and Jewish gratitude, the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

The dreamers of the Ghetto must become builders now. We have cried unto the world and it has answered us. We have demanded the restoration of Eretz Yisrael and to us it has been restored. What will we do with it? Nothing or everything. We shall either nobly triumph or ignobly fail; and noble triumph will wait upon us only if we are to be equal to the greatest of tasks—a task so great as to crush any people save the strongest, and that task to fit the land to the needs of the present, to make a people worthy of its great past and equal to its greater future.

Whether in ten or twenty or fifty years one or two or three millions of the Jewish people shall have taken up their name in Zion, the task of restoring the land and of rebuilding its people rests upon fifteen million Jews. No Jew of honor may hold aloof.

Paradox people that we are, we are to pioneer not amid the dark recesses of an unseen wilderness but in the light of day and in the sight of all men. We are not to pioneer and reap in plenty but for years and years to toil and till for scant reward. And they who pioneer are not to enrich themselves but to make life richer for all.

This is the task and the burden of my people never been done before in ways never marked out before and to ends hitherto undreamed of. What Jew can stand apart or remain unthrilled by the hope peoples of the earth and building up an order of life that shall be just and righteous altogether.

The Jewish land can be rebuilt by the Jewish people with nothing less than the full measure of Jewish devotion and capacity for self-sacrifice, with nothing less than the strength of a people dedicated to the highest ends of life and the faith of a people in the Guardian of Israel, who slumbers not nor sleepeth.

Twenty-two years ago at the Zionist Convention at Basle, Switzerland, after an all-night struggle in which of those present only the Executive Secretary of the Organization and I had part, Theodore Noral arose to speak, worn in body but unbowed of spirit. He pleaded for unity and pointed to the healing, cleansing power of the Holy Land. As he lifted his hand toward the East, the early morning breaking through the darkness lighted up his noble face and form, and he stood revealed, a living symbol of the light that would once again shine upon Israel out of Mizrach.

Millions of our brothers here sat in darkness through which it seemed no light could shine. Lo and behold, they see a great light. It shineth out of the East, which has lighted up the way of the world. And then hear again the voice of the Phophet: Peace, peace be to him that is far and to him that is near, and I will heal him. Whether Jews have stood near to the center of the life of their people or have wandered far from it, I will heal them. Zion purifies, Zion forgives, Zion unites the scattered and dispersed of the House of Israel. So that no Jew shall ever again be homeless—Zion to be refuge for the weary and to be rebuilt by the strong; its spirit to

lift up the people of Israel whether they have found peace without or within Zion.

For two thousand years, in time of joy and in season of sorrow, we have renewed the vow: If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning; if I set thee not above my chiefest joy, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Now is the time come to put aside that vow, for it has been fulfilled. Jerusalem stands unforgotten and shall stand; and the sons and daughters of Israel take upon themselves the burden of another vow: If I serve thee not, O Jerusalem, may I be unworthy of a place in the household of my people. Again shalt thou become the joy of Israel and in thee, O Jerusalem, and thy people shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

May God answer our prayer.

Again, O Jerusalem, shalt thou become the joy of Israel and in thee, in thee, Jerusalem, in thee, O Zion, shall Israel and all the families of the earth be blessed. A young poet of our people has placed in my hands these lines, which I will read to you as I close:

Rejoice, rejoice, O Israel, to-day,The hours of doubt and darkness now are o'erRejoice, rejoice that we may sing and say,The land of light and hope is ours once more.The hour has struck when our unconquered faith,Cherished through time of doubt and hopeless years,Shall rise triumphant over pain and death,For we have met and fought and conquered fears.

Rejoice to-day, our banners are unfurled,Our fathers' fathers' land is ours at length,And as we stand and face the watching worldThis be our prayer: God grant thy people strength.

Judge Mack then announced some of the more important gifts that had been pouring in ever since Mr. Strauss, in the afternoon session, set a splendid standard for emulation. Among these donations, the announcement of which was hailed with loud and long-continued applause, were the following:

Mr. Charles Rosenblum, of Pittsburgh, for the Hebrew University, $25,000; Judge Moses, of Baltimore, in honor of his wife, $5,000 for the University; Mrs. Guggenheimer, of Virginia, $5,000 to the General Restoration Fund; Mr. Louis Feldman, $2,000 for the University; Dr. Joseph Krimsky, $1,000 for the Tiberias Hospital; Mr. Peter Schweizer, Mrs. Rudy, Judge and Mrs. Mack, and Mr. and Mrs. Lindheim, $1,000 each as a thankoffering.

This impressive list of large donations, stimulated by an address of Joseph Barondess, was followed by an endless string of smaller ones, ranging from $500 to $25. Mr. Solomon Lamport, in memory of his father, Rabbi Lamport, gave another $2,000 to the University. A new standard for district gift was set by the Zionists of New Britain, who gave $1,000 in addition to the quota already raised. Mr. de Haas, $100, “in honor of the memory of Th&dor Herzl”— whereupon Mr. Joseph Barondess announced his own contribution of $250. Both Mr. Barondess and Dr. Wise-received a tangible compliment from Mr. Morris Stein, who, moved, as he declared, by their eloquence, pledged an additional $1,000 for the University—in his own name and in the name of Mrs. Stern. To all this was added a $10,000 thankoffering of Mrs. Joseph Fels.