The Maccabaean

I.

THE San Remo decision confirming the Balfour Declaration marks the beginning of a new and bright era in Jewish history. A wave of enthusiasm has swept over the whole of the Jewish people, and at this happy moment there is a strong manifestation of the Jewish national will to realize the great possibilities that have been opened through the international recognition of the Jewish right to a national home in Palestine.

More than two years were suffered to elapse between the Balfour Declaration and the San Remo decision, and during this period the facilities for inaugurating constructive work in Erez Israel have been extremely limited. It was impossible to start the eagerly awaited mass-immigration. The conditions prevailing under military occupation made it impracticable to proceed with constructive work of a more comprehensive character, work that might have served as a stepping stone towards a new social and political epoch in the country.

We were obliged to content ourselves with minor colonizing work, with preserving and strengthening as far as possible the existing settlement, and waiting until the Peace Conference should have settled the international situation.

At the time when we were forced to remain inactive and possess our souls in patience, powerless to open for the Jewish masses the gates of their national home—at that very time there was being enacted in the life of the Jewish people one of the most gruesome of tragedies. A terrible wave of murderous pogroms was let loose over the whole of Eastern Jewry. In the Ukraine tens of thousands of Jews were massacred, whole Jewish communities were utterly destroyed. The most terrible experiences the Jews went through in the middle ages fade into insignificance in comparison with the unheard-of tortures and massacres which are still being continued to this day before the eyes of the whole European civilized world. In the middle ages the harassed Jews had at least the opportunity to flee from their persecutors and to seek refuge and quiet in other lands. In the present age of European civilization the persecuted Jew is denied even that favor. All frontiers and countries are closed to him. Thus are millions of Jews—a whole nation—forced to remain in the inferno, looking on and waiting for the moment when the executioners will lay their savage hands on them—each one waiting for his turn to be massacred. In this way large masses of Jews are perishing from murder and torture, from hunger and want. The whole Jewish nation looks on at these savage scenes with grief and anguish, being powerless to save our unfortunate brothers and sisters. The Jewish people has indeed uttered cries of woe to the whole world. In New York, in London, and in other towns hundreds of thousands of Jews have given unanimous expression to their feelings at huge meetings and protest demonstrations. But these protests have had no influence whatever upon the authors of the massacres, whether they be Ukrainians or Russian volun-

teers. Jewish blood still continues to flow in torrents. One cry is heard from that inferno, and it is: "We want to flee!" Thus every report and rumor which seemed to open up a prospect of opportunities for emigrating to Erez Israel has caused among these unfortunate masses a tremor of joy and hope. This thought has become for them the only ray of light in their life's darkness, their one and only consolation which gives them the force to live through their present sufferings hoping for better times.

One thing is quite clear to all of us: we shall only be able to bring speedy help to our unfortunate Jewish masses when we have created the conditions for enabling hundreds of thousands of Jews to emigrate in the near future. It is therefore of material importance for us to know in which way Zionism can participate in the solution of that problem. There is no doubt that the Jewish masses expect help from Zionism. Zionism, it is true, cannot be applied as a first-aid in Jewish catastrophes, but it can and must create now a haven of refuge for that section of the Jewish people which sees in emigration the sole hope for its existence. The course before us is therefore clear. If we want to bring speedy help to the Jewish people and to realize their hopes for an assured future in their national home, then we must do everything possible in order to set on foot in the near future a mass-immigration into Palestine. We are standing now on the threshold of the realization of the Zionist ideal. The glad tidings of the decision of the Peace Conference to make Palestine the national home of the Jewish people brings us face to face with tremendous possibilities. Before long the country will be opened for a great stream of immigration. We shall be confronted by the pressing question of how to commence the realization of our plans, and thus bring about the deliverance of our nation and our land.

Now, when the Balfour Declaration has become part of the international Peace Treaty, when Erez Israel has been publicly and legally recognized as the national home of the Jewish people—now more than ever there rests upon us the duty of reminding our brethren that fundamentally our future depends on the creative and constructive forces which reside in ourselves. No official recognition will by itself build up our land if we ourselves do not mobilize all our forces and begin to work out our national salvation, regardless of the sacrifice involved. No outside power can restore and save a people unless that people itself utilizes to the full its moral and financial resources. We must put our shoulders to the wheel and not remain merely passive. The Jewish public must realize that it rests mainly with itself to turn the decision of the Peace Conference from a formula into an accomplished fact.

II.

Bearing this carefully in mind, we must boldly face the following facts: First, all projects for the reconstruction of Erez Israel by means of a gradual and very cautious immi-