f refugees became the chief work, in which the Alliance
received substantial aid from Baron de Rothschild. Meanwhile Baron de
Hirsch, another philanthropist of international proportions, dedicated
millions to the foundation of colonies in Argentine and Palestine. In
the latter place the Hirsch activities were incorporated under the
title of the Jewish Colonization Association ("IKA", 1891), working in
harmony of aim with the Alliance and with still a third movement--one
more of the people--styled Chovevei-Zion (Lovers of Zion). The only
activities of the Chovevei-Zion, a general term attached to small and
ardent semi-affiliated societies throughout Europe and America, with
which we are here concerned are the philanthropic; and their services
in this respect were haphazard and negligible.[27]
To cast up briefly the sum of practical work accomplished by 1898: 94
schools in Asia and Africa,[28] and 25 colonies in Palestine
supporting 5,000 Jews.[29] Such philanthropy is to be considered an
attempt, however valiant and noble, to empty the sea with a pail--with
a leaking pail.
Thus, upon a review of the situation, three alternatives present
themselves: (1) Maintenance of the _status quo_ with its dull round of
persecution and degradation on one hand, and the soul-destroying life
in the Fool's Paradise of Reform Judaism on the other; (2)
Amalgamation with the surrounding peoples--a grim race-suicide; (3)
Re-establishment of a national center where, perhaps not the entire
people, but a remnant can be saved.
(_To be concluded_)
_As Greece stands for art and Rome stands for law and
order, so Judaea stands for morality, and so it
occupies an exalted position in history. The Menorah
Society comes to the University with a challenge and
defies us to ignore at our peril that which Judaism
has contributed to civilization and which we have
derived from it. We have derived our own religion from
it, and that spirit of Puritanism which was so closely
connected with the settlement of the new
world._--_From an Address before the Cornell Menorah
Society by President Jacob Gould Schurman of Cornell
University._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Psalm_ 79.
[2] _Der Judenstaat_ (Vienna, 1906); English translation, edited by J.
de Haas.
[3] Theodor Herzl, "The Zionist Congress," _Contemporary Review_, v.
27, p. 587.
[4] I. Abrahams, _J
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