s of the Jewish population.

The spirit of our ancestor, Abraham, has come to life again. Like
Abraham, when Jehovah commanded him to go in quest of the promised land,
the Jewish Nationalists make themselves and others believe that they
long for the moment, when with wife and child and all possessions, they
will migrate to that spot on earth, which will represent the Jewish
State, where Jewish traits will have a chance to develop in idyllic
peace.

Natural science calls retrogression of species, which shows signs of a
former state already overcome, atavism. The same term may be applied to
the advanced section of the Jewish population, which has listened to the
call of the Nationalists. They have retrogressed from a universal view
of things to a philosophy fenced in by boundary lines; from the glorious
conception that "the world is my country" to the conception of
exclusiveness. They have abridged their wide vision and have made it
narrow and superficial.

The Zionism of Max Nordau and his followers never was more than a
sentimental sport for the well-to-do in the ranks of the Jews. The
latter-day Nationalists, however, are bent on reaching those circles of
the Jewish race that have so far followed the banner of Internationalism
and Revolution; and this at a moment when revolutionists of all
nationalities and races are most in need of unity and solidarity.
Nothing could be more injurious to the Russian revolution, nothing prove
a lack of confidence in its success, so much as the present
nationalistic agitation.

The most encouraging and glorious feature of revolutions is that they
purify the atmosphere from the thick, poisonous vapors of prejudices and
superstition.

From time immemorial revolutions have been the only hope and refuge of
all the oppressed from national and social yokes. The radical
nationalistic elements seem to have forgotten that all their enthusiasm,
their faith and hope in the power of a great social change, now falters
before the question: Will it give us our own territory where we can
surround ourselves with walls and watch-towers? Yes, the very people,
who once spoke with a divine fire of the beauty of the solidarity of all
individuals and all peoples, now indulge in the shallow phrases that the
Jew is powerless, that he is nowhere at home, and that he owns no place
on earth, where he can do justice to his nature, and that he must first
obtain national rights, like all nations, ere he can go