Emanu-El, Weekly Paper (September 15, 1899)
ZIONISM.
The views that may appear in this column are not necessarily the views of the Editor of Emanu-El. All communications should be addressed to “ Zionist.” this office.
It is at the moment of writing impossible to weigh in the balance the proceedings of the third Zionist Congress. Full reports of the proceedings can only be published in a few weeks and therefore we must postpone judgment of the Congress till then. The Congress has, however, taken place; it is the third of its kind, and it marks yet another milestone in the history of the Jewish exile. The Jew of the Transvaal and the Jew of Northern Russia, each possessed of the culture created by his environment, cannot meet without imparting to each other some wave of thought that we may hope results in mutual improvement. When the various elements, however, meet in greater numbers and for a set purpose, it must be admitted that the Jews are the better for such an assemblage. The interchange of thought is the first aid to the reestablishment of the brotherhood of Israel. Year by year this exchange of ideas grow, a new development is created; therefore when it is said the Congress has taken place the phrase covers facts of importance.
The gathering at Basle has, however, borne testimony to matters of immense importance and bearing direct on the future of the movement. Zionism has politically not, as far as is publicly known, leapt forward many strides since Dr. Herzl delivered his momentous speech in London in June last; but in his official deliverance at Basle he has emphasized many of the points to which we drew attention in commenting on his London utterances. He is fully cognizant of the impressions created by his words, and the committee, which we may term the conscience of the movement, would not have supported him in his observations if they were not borne out by facts which political necessities do not permit to be announced from the mountain tops of a world congress. It sufficed the Congress, composed of the active representatives of the movement in all parts of the world, that, politically, satisfactory progress could be reported. Diplomacy never progresses like a swift current; to be successful it must proceed in the even tenor of a placid stream, overcoming obstacles one by one, making its position secure anew as each new point is gained. This is the meaning of the satisfactory progress which was reported at the Congress.
A most interesting point of the opening day’s speeches was the making clear of the position of the movement. Dr. Herzl made it clear that the movement declines to flirt or to compromise with those who endeavor to recolonize Palestine by sending there small batches of Jews. The principle that the movement is averse to colonization by infiltration was laid down at the first Congress, but it was not harshly applied. It seems at the first blush fanatical to urge "the movement or nothing,” but on second thoughts it will be seen that it is the correct attitude to adopt. Zionism has passed throught many trials, and now when it is beginning to be respected even by those who oppose it, it is all the more necessary to make clear that the aim of the movement is too great to allow the work to be deflected from an attempt to release the masses of the Jews from bondage to an effort to help small and isolated groups at disproportionate cost. There is from now, as there really was in the immediate past, only one meaning to the term Zionism, and that is that the movement is an endeavor to solve the Jewish problem in all its complex phases by re-establishing the Jewish people in Palestine on a self-governing basis. Naturally this includes colonization and all other activities by which a country is re-settled, but the methods remain subservient to the principle.
Zionism, thus cleared of its side issues, makes through the third Congress a bold and definite appeal for the support of the Jewish people. The attaining of success depends quite as much upon personal support as upon the action of the leaders in removing diplomatic difficulties that still embarass them. Though that support has come slowly in Western Europe and amongst certain classes in England, yet we are sure that sooner or later the simple issue which Zionism makes of our complex troubles will be understood by every Jew and will receive his hearty approbation. The movement has gone forward —that is the first fruit of the third Congress —and it is upon this that the leaders laid the great stress. They appealed to the highest ideal in the Jewish people, and the people have answered in the affirmative. This is the first proved result of the Congress.
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Max Nordau’s great speech at the Congress cannot be printed here in full, but we subjoin a few telling sentences:
Our faults and mistakes are the faults and mistakes of all human beings who are living under the same social and historical conditions. But, besides these faults, which we do not deny, we might boast of some good qualities which do not pertain to any other nation to the same extent. From all this we have drawn the conclusion that we are hated and persecuted because we form a minority easily to be recognized ; because we are burdened by fanatical traditions coming from dark times of the Middle Ages ; because our lot is that of any recognizable minority without power or prestige; that there are only three ways to alter this condition of things; first, a fundamental change of the human nature as it is witnessed every day in the attitude of a great majority towards a helpless minority. You are able to judge whether such a modification is probable in the near future. Secondly, the disguising of the minority means in our case depriving ourselves of all our characteristics, our faith, our customs, our traditions, even the formation of our features. You may judge whether this is possible, and if so, whether it is desirable. Thirdly, uniting the Jew on the historical soil of their original country in sufficient numbers in order to be there no longer a minority, merely tolerated, but a human majority with full exercise of its civil rights.
You have already judged that this last-named third way is the only worthy one, the only one which promises any success, and we have voiced our Zionism in a last effort to apply a remedy for the sufferings of the Jewish nation. The picture of the situation of the Jewish nation has been sketched already. The minor incidents of everyday life are insufficient to effect any material change, and, therefore, are of no importance. They are too insignificant even to make us weep or whine. One day some workmen devastate Jewish shops in a Bohemian manufacturing town ; the next day our brethren are plundered and stoned at Jassy ; then our brethren are cruelly ill-treated at Nicolaieff, and, again, some poor Jewish hawkers are maltreated at Chicago. What do these excesses prove? Merely that we are hated everywhere, and only shielded by a thin wall of police protection from the passions of the mob, which are ever on the point of breaking loose against us. We know it well enough without citing incidents to prove it, and even if they were missing for a whole year it would be without any influence upon our judgment with regard to the general conditions of the Jewish people. That is practically what distinguishes us Zionists from the childish pedants of our race, who are living from hand to mouth, not thinking of the next day, and incapable of any far-seeing, far-reaching, economic policy. It some months pass without Jews having been robbed and illtreated, these senile children in their self-satisfaction rub their hands and, gratefully turning their eyes, they jubilate, and in a poor, tremulous voice, thank God that now the Jews are doing alright; now there is an end to all their sufferings. If, however, here and there, in a great centre of civilization, or in a far distant village, windows are clattering under stones, Jewish bones are being broken, then there is a wringing of hands, then these peculiar people, with eyes of moles and brains of sparrows, are quite astonished, as if something entirely unexpected had happened which it was not possible to foresee. They wring their hands and cry to Heaven : “Can such barbarism be imagined in our country!” We Zionists think otherwise. We do not delude ourselves with the blissful hope that because one year has passed without active persecution therefore our sorrows have reached an end. Nor, on the other hand, do we express surprise if our brethren in various parts of the world are subjected to cruelty. The suffering of our race affects us all, even though we do not cry out with pain. When persecution and intolerance are rife we recognize that they are the necessary sequence of our situation and that it is a point upon which the survey of the general situation of the Jewish nation must always touch.
We must not leave anything unattempted in order to reach the masses of the Jewish nation who have not yet heard of Zionism. If our natural fellow-workers, the Rabbis, leave us in the lurch, well, we must do without them. Our aim must be to attain the adhesion of the immense majority of the Jewish nation to Zionist sentiments; to bring them to proclaim before the whole world their desire to again become a nation. To that end, Zionists should always and everywhere remember their mission. Passive, comtemplative Zionists, must not exist. We have continually to preach, to instruct, and to enlist. The signal which we should hoist over our devoted band of workers is similar to that which Nelson gave at Trafalgar: “Israel expects everyman to do his duty.” O. I. W.