The Maccabaean

Summer Work for I. Z. A.

In the past, an almost insurmountable obstacle to the successful prosecution of Zionist activity in the colleges has been the fact that students, abandoning their books and, in many instances, their college towns during the months of the summer vacation, allow themselves to "go stale," as the slang of college athletics has it. The consequence is that, each Fall when the young men and women return to the colleges, herculean efforts requiring the expenditure of weeks and sometimes months must be made to reorganize the individual groups. Very often the personnel of the groups undergoes radical changes during the period of inactivity, and in very few cases is it possible to resume the work where it was left off the previous Spring. In a word, the glaring fault heretofore has been the lack of continuity in our efforts.

A glance at the list of activities we are anxious to have our groups engage in this summer: will suffice to show that there is enough work for everybody. For students who wish to do active Zionisf' work all summer, we shall make the necessary arrangements whereby they can work hand in hand with the bibliographical division of the Department of Education, in the cataloguing and indexing of Zionist literature of all kinds and in all languages. To make this work as thorough as possible, the libraries in the various American colleges and larger cities will have to be canvassed for material. Moreover, our members can be of signal service in assisting the committee that is now engaged in the task of collecting books and funds for the library of the University of Jerusalem and in cataloguing and indexing these books. In addition there will probably be considerable work of a literary nature—the translation of standard Zionist writings in other languages, the preparation of handbooks and syllabi for the use of collegiate Zionist groups, and so on—that could very well be executed by our members during the coming summer. Finally, we are eager to have all our members furnish whatever aid they can to their respective districts or in the Jewish summer centres where they may be staying, in such practical organization work as membership drives, distribution of literature and the like.

The most important concrete summer activity of the I. Z. A. is the establishment of the six weeks’ Agricultural Course at the National Farm School, Bucks County, Pa., from July 11th to August 22nd. This course aims, firstly, to give executives, educators, professional workers and senior students an opportunity todo directed farming during their vacation. It.is hoped that the course will give an extensive, impressionistic acquaintance with the many aspects of agriculture and land husbandry. It is intended to give suggestive, helpful ideas of the work and problems of farming as they present themselves on the average farm. The course will be of special value to those who intend to settle in Palestine—no matter what their walk of life may be. A. rudimentary knowledge of dairying, farm crops, animal husbandry, horticulture, poultry raising, farm economics, and rural sociology, will stimulate their interest in the problems of Palestinian colonization. A large part of the course will be devoted to ‘doing field work alongside the regular students and instructors of the school.. ‘The practical side of farming will be stressed, but provision has also been made for laboratory work and lectures on agricultural methods and developments. Arrangements are also being made for those interested in Hebrew and in Palestine to conduct a course in spoken Hebrew and literature, and to acquaint themselves with agricultural resources and problems in Palestine.

The dream of the I. Z. A. Fellowship in Palestine has also come true this summer and applications are already coming in from gradu-

ates and students. The Board of Awards hopes to make the appointment at the end of July or the beginning of August.

As little Alice's Duchess would say: "The moral of it all is" that there can be no vacation for collegiate Zionists at this crucial moment in the history of our movement. We have demonstrated the fact that we have earned our right to a distinct place in the Zionist Organization; we must now prove our right to keep that place by producing for the advancement of the cause all that is in us of theoretically acquired wisdom and of the genius practically to apply that wisdom.

Beyond Emergencies

The Intercollegiate Zionist Association lays no claim to an intellectual monopoly in the Zionist world. It could, however, without being pretentious or arrogantly ambitious make some attempt at an intellectual contribution; there must be something definitely its own which it could develop and share with the rest of the Zionist movement. The Zionist Organization is a political body whose efforts are spent in meeting emergencies. To meet these emergencies, it concentrates on raising large funds and on attaining an impressive membership list. It of necessity neglects anything that smacks of the theoretical, that demands leisure, or whose results are not immediately visible.

Now it is just in this respect that students and those who still are interested in the campus are conspicuous. They have leisure both for academic theory and for the collection of concrete facts, and not being continually stared in the face by political and financial emergencies, they can create an intellectual background that will influence anything they do. This will usually make them more active rather than less active in organization work—witness the Kadimah at the University of Vienna and the Bilu group which founded Rishon L'Zion. It ought to make them soberly—or even hotly—critical of the old and conservative Zionist leaders, and it probably will make their own program a radical one.

Is all this possible? Is there in the ranks of the collegiate Zionists the ability and the desire to be thoroughly informed about Zionism and Palestine, and to make the information the basis of critical and constructive planning? Is there enthusiasm and vision, or are we content to receive our collegiate subvention in bovine content and to return to the Zionist treasury the unquestioning, disciplined obedience or the sterile apathy which are otherwise the only alternatives?

NORMAN WINESTINE.

There are those who see in assimilation the solution of the Jewish question. But what is assimilation? It is not the more or less successful aping of speech, and not the trimming of the beard, nor the cut of the clothes, nor even the habits of daily life. Assimilation means to obtain the soil and the honor of a land. The Jews of the lands infested with anti-semitism sought to assimilate, but every effort at assimilation invoked the modern Anti-Semitism. If there are few Jews—the cry is assimilate; if they increase—their assimilation is regarded as a general danger. Zionism is the only remedy, because it strives to give the people without a land its own soil and its own honor.—THEODOR HERZL.