The Maccabaean

A résumé of the first representative Zionist gathering after the historical decision at San Remo

“The great opportunity has come to the Jewish people. We, as its representatives, have gathered here to consider and to determine how that opportunity may best be availed of. The labors of the great Herzl were concluded at San Remo. He lived and died for a publicly recognized Jewish Homeland in Palestine. That recognition the nations of the world have accorded. They can do no more. The rest lies anıth sc”

WITH these simple but forceful words, Justice Louis D. Brandeis took the chair of the Annual Zionist Conference, which convened in London, Wednesday, July 7. They represent the true keynote of this notable gathering and indicate fully the vast scope, as well as the gravity of the problems, which the representatives of the Zionist masses the world over were called upon to grapple with.

The words of Mr. Brandeis, as well as those of Dr. Weizmann and Mr. N. Sokolow who preceded him in the Opening Session, were calculated to impress the delegates with the necessity of attuning themselves to a new situation. The political labors of the Zionist Organization were, in the main and for the time being, ended. Politically, Palestine was decreed the Jewish National Homeland. The Jewish people, through the Zionist Organization, was now called upon to begin without delay the work of rebuilding the land and the Annual Zionist Conference was facing the gigantic responsibility of making the first momentous decisions leading to the immediate beginning of the work of reconstruction and rehabilitation.

THE COMPOSITION OF THE CONFERENCE

The Conference was of a truly representative character. Some of the veteran Zionists, who had been present at all the Zionist Congresses, claimed for it the distinction of a real Congress. Even the statutory limitations placed by the constitution on Annual Conferences, prohibiting them from electing the executive bodies of the Organization, were brushed aside by unanimous consent before the proceedings came to a close.

Fully forty Federations, operating in forty different countries, had sent their representatives to the Conference. The total number of mandates exceeded 300, while the number of those actually in attendance was 280. This number included also the members of the Greater and Smaller Actions Committees and the delegates of the right and left wings of the Zionist Movement. The Mizrachi was represented by thirty-nine delegates. Then came the Zeire Zion of Russia (5), Hapoel Hazair of Palestine (2), Poale Zion of America (3), Achduth Haawada of Palestine (3), Poali Zion of England (2), Histadruth Sephardim of Palestine (2), Histadruth Mashim of Palestine (2), Teachers’ Union of Palestine (1). The delegation of the Zionist Organization of America consisted of thirty-nine delegates and three members of the Greater Actions Committee (Professor

Frankfurter, Mr. de Haas and Mr. Lipsky), thus giving the American delegation a voting strength of forty-two.

THE OPENING SESSION

Wednesday, July 7, at 10:40, the Conference was formally opened in the assembly room of Memorial Hall, a venerable and somewhat sombre edifice, a stone's throw from Ludgate Circus. The opening was very simple; nothing of the pomp and circumstance, generally introduced for the purpose of creating atmosphere or Stimmung. Someone on the platform merely rose and requested the delegates to refrain from smoking and immediately following him was Mr. Nahum Sokolow delivering the opening address of the Conference.

Mr. Sokolow spoke in Hebrew. His first words were Hash-har ba! (The dawn has come). The decision at San Remo, he declared, should have been followed by the convocation of the regular Zionist Congress. As this was found impossible, owing to the unsettled conditions in Eastern Europe, the Annual Conference was convened instead. But to all intents and purposes this Conference was in reality a Congress and its significance springs from several distinct causes. In the first place, it assures a getting together, something that was impossible in the past seven years. Then great importance must be attached to the fact that the Conference takes place in London, the metropolis of Great Britain, and Zionists who had been present at the London Congress, twenty years ago, will readily visualize the progress made in these two decades. The third and most important reason is this, that this Conference is the first representative Zionist gathering after San Remo. He further points out that our future has now been placed in our own hands, national life and national death depends on our own efforts and the representatives at this Conference must issue a mighty call to all the communities of Irael to rise and build.

Dr. Chaim Weizmann receives a great ovation when he rises to speak. He delivers a carefully prepared address in English. He emphasizes right from the outset that the keynote of the deliberations at this Conference must be the future and not the past, and that the future does not mean some far-off day but the immediate future. A grave responsibility rests upon the Jewish people generally, and upon this Conference in particular, to use this hour rightly. The Balfour Declaration will mean as much or as little as we Jews will make of it by deeds and not by words. We are not to expect any financial assistance from the Mandatory Power for our operations in Palestine, neither in the form of a loan nor otherwise. We must do. the work ourselves and we must begin at once because of the time-limit that has been set up for us to achieve something in Palestine. This means that the next two years are the two most eritical years for the Jewish National Home. In his opinion the Conference must deal with the following tasks:

1. It must approve plans of operation in Palestine.2. It must devise ways and means to defray the cost of these operations.3. It must effect a reorganization of our administrative machinery to meet the new needs.

In further elaboration of his plan, Dr. Weizmann points out that thirty to fifty thousand Jews could be settled; in Palestine in the course of the first year. A large number of these would be set up as colonists in the sowth of Palestine (Negev), where lands, in large