The Maccabaean — November 1920 · p. 24

A Model District Headquarters

By MRS. N. R. LINDHEIM Chairman District No. 7

“ORGANIZATION is as essential to Jewish life as administering first aid to the injured. But of what consequence is your first aid .when you have no provision for your second, third and fourth?” Organization Zionists are at a loss; the district plan which was to mobilize the forces has not succeeded, and the blame has been tossed backward and fo resulted in so much confusion t become befogged, and a general is obvious,—there has been no p and fourth steps.

But there is a solution to this very serious problem, and the answer is now in concrete form. District No. 7, of New York, which was rescued from a state of complete disorganization in January of this year, has, by establishing a home for its activities at 132 West Seventy-second Street become a factor in the Jewish community, a radiating center of Jewish thought and education. It has provided a meeting place in which Jews of every variety and shade of belief can meet on a common ground.

Just as Palestine will dispense inspiration and hospitality to the world, so this little Zionist meeting house affects the district of which it is the center. It is beautiful; bare walls and ugly cellars have long enough housed the beauty of the Jewish ideal. The blue of Eretz Yisrael is on the walls, and the gold of the Eastern sun is at the windows. The art of the Jew is represented in painting and bronze, and the shelves are the treasures of Jewish literature. It is concrete; it needs no explanation. The visitor does not say,

CHARM OF PALESTINE TRANSPLANTED TO NEW YORKTHE UPPER PICTURE GIVES A GENERAL VIEW OF THE TWO LARGE ROOMS OF DISTRICT 7 HEADQUARTERS. CREATED THROUGH THE DESIRE OF ITS MEMBERS TO BREATHE IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF PALESTINE, THE HEADQUARTERS HAVE BECOME THE SCENE OF VARIOUS ZIONIST ACTIVITIES. MRS. NORVIN R. LINDHEIM (IN THE OVAL), CHAIRMAN OF THE DISTRICT, WHO PLANNED THE HEADQUARTERS, IS THE MOVING SPIRIT IN THIS ATTEMPT TO EMBODY THE BEAUTY OF THE EAST IN THE DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS, WHICH SHE HAS DONE WITH SO MUCH SKILL AND DEVOTION.

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“I am no Zionist.” He says, “If this is Zionism, then I have not understood.”

That is the message that the district organization has to give—the message of the great spiritual rebirth which has come to Israel, and the relation of this new force to the life of the Jewish group. Opportunity must be given for Jewish education, both for old and young. Jewish group expression must be provided with an outlet in work, in music, in art and celebration. Meetings must be held not only for the inevitable raising of funds, but for the social contact and exchange of ideas which is essential for real co-operation.

Zionism in America, as well as in Palestine, means the revivifying of Jewish life, of Jewish hope, of Jewish ideals, but these, to be effective, must be lived, not talked about; and so it becomes essential that there must be created centers of the Jewish group can find expression. These centers will be tangible as evidence to the community that it is as significant in the lives of those Jews who remain in the Diaspora as to those in Palestine.

The program which District No. 7 has offered to those who have come within the radius of its influence during the past year makes

November, 1920