as far as possible. But we must rouse our brethren to useful activity, urge them onwards in every way, and breathe into them the spirit of a new life."1 XIV (vol. i., p. 280) The eloquent passion with which Bialik expresses the woe of the Jewish people runs like a red thread through all his national poems; but it reaches its climax in The Poems of Wrath-a series of these poems written on the occasion of the Kishineff massacre in 1903. This series above all other poems of his is the most terrible expression of the national grief, despair and rage accumulated during the centuries of persecution, and is a masterpiece of vigour and impetuosity. XV (vol. i., p. 280) Achad Ha'am's writings offer an abundance of instructive historiosophic thoughts, mostly propounded in fragmentary, aphoristic form, which point in their entirety to a common root and a uniform outlook and system of ideas on the part of this thinker, and show the way thereto to many a reader. The stimulus of his theories lies in the fact that they have nearly always had a background of actuality. Achad Ha'am is no historiosopher within the narrow meaning of the word; his aim is primarily directed towards present-day problems of Judaism, but he often seeks their solution in the past. Thence he traces the primordial causes of what occupies us at present. This trait alone makes him not only national, like nearly all authors of our present Hebraic Renaissance period, but even more, it invests him with the sanction of a learned Hebrew thinker and an inspired intellectual leader. His methodology is philosophic and somewhat attuned to the Hegelian dialectic of thought, and in this connection too, apart from the community of national fundamental conception, it brings him close to Nachman Krochmal. Evolution is the idea which chiefly directs him, and psychologyparticularly of human groups, parties and nations-appeals most to his refined mind. In all his endeavours he affirms 1 Prof. D. Kauffmann, Correspondence of Samuel David Luzzatto, Dr. J. Klausner. Haschiloach, April, 1901. the fluidity of the national character, and its adaptability under the pressure of historio-cultural factors. But it is just on this account that he is so firmly convinced of the necessity of Jewish individuality and its free development. He perceives the essence of this individuality in Jewish intellectual life, and he longs for a centre for it in Palestine. Achad Ha'am expounded the essential Zionist idea long before the Zionist Organization was established, but opposed some political methods proposed by the Zionist Organization. He rejected the kind of Zionism which had its adherents mostly in Western Europe, and is inspired merely by anti-Semitism and its outrages, and he advocated Zionism as an expression of Judaism, of Jewish feeling, of a revival of the people by virtue of a great Jewish national idea-with a spiritual centre in Palestine. XVI (vol. i., p. 313) Jews may have native countries, the Jewish nation has none, and this is its misfortune. The Jewish nation must again feel its own stretch of earth under its feet, and draw new material and moral forces from the native soil. But this must not be understood as if it were demanded that all Jews should leave their present homesteads in order to populate their chosen land. This is not what is meant. The Jewish idea of nationality does not aim at uniting the Jews in one country or at giving them a national status in their Dispersion, but at creating a national centre for Judaism. A considerable part of the nation, which will naturally be recruited first of all in the countries where Jewish oppression is heaviest, is to settle upon the soil which is intended to be the home of the Hebrew race. There it will win through agriculture that attachment to the soil which preserves a country to a nation, and it will find that bodily and moral welfare which must be the proper aim of all Jewish aspirations. The advantages of such an eventuality, also for those Jews remaining outside the national area and status, are self-evident. The foremost attainment would be that the Jewish population in the countries of European civilization would be constantly maintained as to numbers, through periodic eliminations, below that point of saturation, above which experience shows that the Jews are no longer welcome. Naturally this would also bring about a considerable relief to anti-Jewish tension, a decrease of the intensity of the struggle for life of the Jewish masses, and also, possibly, render easier the juridical equalization of the Jews in the countries of greatest pressure. In addition to these will come the effect of the development of the Jewish land upon the Jews of other countries. The consciousness of the existence of a living Jewish people possessing a country of its own, a field of cheerful activity for sons at home, a refuge for sons from afar, will also ennoble and elevate, fortify and temper the Jews of the Diaspora. The curse of exciting ridicule, which makes misfortune doubly hard to bear, will recede from them : their whole status among the nations will become normal and healthy. The relations between Jews and Gentiles which, for all assimilations and emancipations, and notwithstanding all goodwill on both sides-why not admit it ?—still retain so much of what is forced and painful, will only then become unconstrained and unaffected. Dislike of the Jews may possibly not cease; but, at any rate, it will lose all justification for existing in its peculiar shape and acuity. Should this dislike nevertheless prevail, the importance of a centre will become all the more apparent. The smallest national autonomous community has a seat and voice in the concert of nations. A nation without national worth is a nation outlawed. However pessimistic one may be with regard to the possibility of a small national centre to exert any material political influence in other countries, its moral authority is certain. XVII (vol. ii., p. 47) The interest of Mr. C. P. Scott, Mr. H. Sidebotham, also of The Manchester Guardian but now of The Times, and other non-Jewish friends in Manchester in the Zionist Movement led to the establishment in that city, in the autumn of 1916, of the British Palestine Committee, formed to further the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine, under British protection. In the words placed in the forefront of its programme: "The British Palestine Committee seeks to reset the ancient glories of the Jewish nation in the freedom of a new British dominion in Palestine." The activities of this Committee have displayed themselves for the most part through its press organ, Palestine, which, appearing weekly, supplies the influential public among which it circulates with valuable information on all matters relating to Palestine, and at the same time discusses all the phases of international politics which touch upon the Palestine question in any of its facets. In addition to Palestine the Committee is responsible for two publications, England and Palestine, by Mr. H. Sidebotham, in which the author puts the case for a British mandateship, and British Projects for the Restoration of the Jews, a pamphlet by Mr. Albert M. Hyamson, wherein he sketches the attitude of British statesmen and publicists towards the projected restoration of the Jews to Palestine during the century and more that preceded the outbreak of the European War of 1914. XVIII (vol. ii., p. 54) In the earlier part of the year 1917, about the date of the opening of the London Bureau of the Zionist Organization, the present writer, being the only member of the Inner Actions Committee in England, felt it desirable to give some definite status to those trusted supporters of the Zionist cause to whose advice Dr. Weizmann and he were continually informally having recourse. The constitution of the Organization did not permit of any definite responsibility being assigned to them. It was therefore possible to form only an Advisory Committee, without any executive authority. The Political Committee that Committee that came into existence at that time, and continued its existence until the arrival in England of a number of the members of the Greater Actions Committee enabled that constitutional Organization to resume its functions, was composed originally of Ahad Ha'am, Mr. Leopold Kessler, Mr. Joseph Cowen, Mr. Herbert Bentwich, Mr. Albert M. Hyamson, Mr. Simon Marks (who acted as Honorary Secretary), Mr. Harry Sacher, Mr. Israel Sieff, Mr. Leon Simon, two foreign Zionists— M. J. Ettinger, of the Jewish National Fund, and M. S. Tolkowsky, of Rechoboth, Palestine-who were temporarily resident in London, together with Dr. Weizmann and the present writer as chairman. CORRIGENDA VOLUME I Page xxvii. Six lines from the bottom. Line 9. Line 23. For "See the Chapter on Delete" Arthur," substitute" Albert." Delete " Moro," substitute Morot." Delete" Andre," substitute " André.” Five lines from the bottom. For" Frederick "substitute Frederic." The last three lines of the note contain the title of the Insert quotation marks (“) before It" at opening of Line 12. .מרא substitute מרה For Three lines from the end. For "Gebirol" substitute Last line. Line 2. For" Kalonymus "substitute" Kalonymos." After" Manuel "insert" Noah." Five lines from the end. Omit" de la Gironde." Line 9. Line 5. First note. " Transfer date (1835-1906) " to end of first line. For "Reschid " substitute" Reshid." Delete second sentence. Substitute "He Line 24, and second note. Delete "1918." Lord Morley The three lines from the end. For 1826-1887" Line 18. Line 3. alah." Line I. Line 13. For "Frederick " substitute "Frederic." |