colonisation, however, lagged at the beginning, partly because the early settlers were endowed merely with zeal, but with little practical knowledge, and partly because of the obstacles inevitably associated with pioneer settlement; and it was not until Baron Edmond de Rothschild came to its aid with his munificent generosity that it made any appreciable progress. The "Lovers of Zion" were animated, it is true, by the national sentiment, but the general character of their activity was a blend of philanthropy and religious piety, whilst the aid contributed by Western Jews was also prompted mainly by charitable motives tinged with the racial consciousness. Not until the advent, in 1896, of Dr. Theodor Herzl was the Jewish national sentiment propounded as an idea whose expression should not limit itself to the creation of scattered colonies in the Holy Land, but which should expand into an organised endeavour of the Jewish people to work for its national regeneration. Hitherto the national idea had meant that Western Jews helped Eastern Jews to die in Palestine; henceforth it was to mean that Western Jews were to work together with their Eastern brethren in the upbuilding of a commonwealth in Palestine, in which all sections of Jewry might once again live their national life. The religio-philanthropic movement became a national political movement-"Chovevei" Zionism became. Political Zionism.

The man who wrought this tremendous transformation in Jewish life will, when the far-reaching bearings of his achievement are fully appreciated, come to be regarded as one of the great figures of history. Unknown until 1896 in the inner circle of Jewish communal life, the name of Theodor Herzl was uttered with solemn reverence by every Jew when he was cut down in his prime in the year 1904, for in those eight brief but crowded years he had roused the slumbering consciousness of world-wide Jewry to the necessity of working for its own salvation. By training and environment he seemed altogether unfit for the Herculean mission that he undertook, for he had grown up in a social circle that was out of touch with traditional Jewish aspirations, and he had drunk but little from the fount of Jewish literature. Born in 1860 in Budapest, the son of a middle-class merchant, he was educated at the Vienna University for the legal profession; but his natural talents led him to adopt the career of a journalist and playwright. And it was whilst acting in Paris as the correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse, in the days when France was overshadowed by the spectre of the Dreyfus scandal, that Herzl received the vision which he wrote down, in the last two months of 1895, in his memorable pamphlet, "The Jewish State."

This pamphlet was Herzl's first study of the Jewish question, for hitherto his pen had been occupied solely in recording the social changes and political events of the day and in fashioning light comedies for the stage. But although it was for him a novel. task, it was one which he regarded as of supreme importance, and to which he accordingly devoted his mind and soul. He laid bare the manifold and deep-seated evils from which the Jewish people were suffering the sinister powers of anti-Semitism, the canker of apostasy and intermarriage, and the hopeless struggle of Jewish life against the forces of disruption to which it was exposed— and he concluded that if the Jewish people was to be preserved it must live in a land of its own. He suggested the formation of a "Society of Jews" which should take up the preliminary work of scientific and political investigation, and proposed that the recommendations of this Society should be carried out by a "Jewish Company," with a capital of £50,000,000 and its centre in London, and organised on the basis of an English trading company. The outlines of his plan had a marked resemblance to those of his forerunner, Leon Pinsker, but at the time when Herzl wrote it he was ignorant not only of Pinsker, but of all other Jewish nationalists. In this initial yet epoch-making essay Herzl considered the Jewish problem only from the social, political, and economic sides, and was apparently indifferent whether the Argentine or Palestine became the national home of Jewry. But he had not come into contact long with representatives of the Jewish people before he acknowledged that the religious element, which was missing by reason of his own upbringing, must be included within the purview of any scheme of Jewish national restoration, and that Palestine alone could be the scene of its realisation.

"The Jewish State" is now only of historic importance, for it never became the programme of the Zionist movement which it ushered into being, and its detailed proposals were afterwards modified. But the causal connection between its publication and the creation of the Zionist movement is a fact of such surpassing importance that anti-Zionists have tried to make capital out of the circumstances in which the pamphlet was written. Herzl was undoubtedly led to compose it under the influence of the antiSemitism then prevalent in Paris, and hence opponents of Zionism are wont to disparage it as a product of anti-Semitism. By the same process of reasoning they should depreciate the magnitude and bravery of the British Army, which have been produced by the peril of Prussian militarism. For anti-Semitism is the sworn and implacable foe of the Jewish people, and the Zionist movement represents the patriotic and brave endeavour

of the latter not merely to repel attacks, but to build the foundations of a better future.

The publication of "The Jewish State," which took place in the spring of 1896, caused a tremendous ferment throughout the communities both of Eastern and Western Jewry. A friend to whom Herzl had shown the pamphlet in manuscript, and who. was well acquainted with the writer's tastes and sympathies, declared him to be mad. But the Jewish world in general found it to be composed so sanely that at once a widespread and vehement discussion began upon its merits. Herzl's scheme encountered bitter opposition in Western Europe and America, not merely on the part of influential laymen and the so-called communal leaders, but also on the part of a large majority of the Rabbis. The former declared that Herzl's ideas were subversive of local patriotism, a point that never occurred to non-Jews; the latter preached that his scheme was a violation of the "Mission of Israel" and a contradiction of the Messianic doctrine. Herzl originally had no intention of starting a movement: he wrote his pamphlet simply as a Jew deeply moved by the sufferings of his people and concerned about their future. But the enthusiasm that he aroused became too strong for him to resist, and he became the leader of the movement which set itself the task of the realisation of the Zionist ideal. Personally he was endowed with all the qualities requisite in a leader: for he was a man of majestic and magnetic presence, of unimpeachable sincerity, and of indefatigable industry. He was urged by a Jewish nationalist society in Vienna, the "Kadimah" (which means both "Eastward" and "Forward"), to found the "Society of Jews" sketched in his pamphlet, whereupon he resolved to convene a Jewish Congress. The city first selected as the scene of this proposed gathering was Munich, but, owing to the opposition of the leaders of the local Jewish community, the Bavarian capital was denied the honour.

The first Zionist Congress was opened at Basle on August 27th, 1897, in the "Stadt Casino," over which fluttered a blue-white banner-the Jewish national flag. It was not only the first Zionist Congress, but also the first international Jewish Congress, for it was the first time in Jewish history that representatives of the Jewish people, 206 in number, came together literally from the four corners of the earth to deliberate upon their nationar future. The magnet that drew them was the call of Herzl, but many of them, especially those of Eastern Europe, would perhaps have been less susceptible to his attraction had they not already been influenced by the teachings of Pinsker and Smolenskin. The Congress adopted as the programme of Zionism "the crea

tion of a home in Palestine for the Jewish people secured by public law." It laid the foundations of a world-wide organisation, the government of which was entrusted to a General Council (Greater Actions Committee) composed of representatives of different countries, and to a Central Executive (Smaller Actions Committee), the president of which was Dr. Herzl. Every Jew was declared to be a Zionist who acknowledged the Basle programme and who paid the annual tax of a shekel (one shilling) to provide the central administration with its working fund. The payment of the shekel conferred the right to vote for a delegate to Congress, which became the controlling organ of the movement, the ultimate arbiter upon all great and decisive measures undertaken on behalf of the organisation.

The first Congress was followed by energetic propaganda in all parts of the world. In almost every country in Europe in which Jews lived in considerable numbers, in North and South America, in South Africa, in Far Eastern Asia, and even in Australasia, societies were formed which registered their affiliation to the Zionist Organisation. The opposition of the anti-Zionists continued, but this merely stimulated the Jewish nationalists to redoubled energy. Zionism became the leading question throughout the Jewish world, and it has exercised such a profound and determining influence upon Jewish life that its creation may be said to constitute an even more significant landmark in Jewish history than the act of political emancipation in many a Western country. It infused new life into the communal organisations, with their policy of laissez-faire and their promotion of assimilation. It came as a redeeming angel to thousands of cultured Jews in the West who had lost their faith in the religion of their forefathers, and who were faced by the possibility of utter absorption into their environment, for it revived their national consciousness that had slumbered so long. It rekindled a love for Jewish literature and a guide in Jewish history; it caused the Hebrew language to be cultivated anew as a modern speech, capable of expressing all the thoughts and ideas of the cultured mind. It made Jewish thinkers take a deeper and more comprehensive view of the Jewish question; it exercised a stimulating influence upon Jewish art and music; and it attracted the increasing attention and consideration of the non-Jewish world. Its aspirations were expounded in countless newspapers in various languages, and Zionist meetings became a normal factor in the fabric of Jewish communal life. The progress of the movement may be gathered from the fact that its societies increased eightfold within the first year, and each succeeding Congress was able to record a growth of numbers or an extension into new and out

lying regions. Of the ten Congresses that followed six likewise took place in Basle, whilst the fourth was held in London (1900), the eighth at The Hague (1907), the ninth at Hamburg (1909), and the eleventh at Vienna (1913).

In the twenty years that have elapsed since its foundation the Zionist Organisation has not only acquired an ever wider and deeper footing in the Jewries all over the globe, but has also established a number of important institutions necessary for the execution of its plans and embarked upon systematic colonising activity in the Holy Land. Dr. Herzl regarded as his main task the securing of a Charter from the Sultan of Turkey for an autonomous Jewish settlement in Palestine. He therefore established. a bank under the name of the Jewish Colonial Trust, which should afford him the requisite aid in his endeavour. The Trust was registered as a Joint Stock Company in London in 1899, and is unique among the banks of the world, for its 100,000 shareholders and more are distributed all over the face of the earth. Despite these numbers, however, the capital of the bank, which was originally fixed at £2,000,000, does not exceed £260,000—a fact that affords the clearest indication of the attitude hitherto assumed by Jewish financiers towards the national ideal of their people. The Trust began its operations in 1901, and two years later it established an important offshoot, the Anglo-Palestine Company in Jaffa, which subsequently opened branches in Jerusalem, Beyrut, Haifa, Safed, Hebron, Tiberias, and Gaza. In order to acquire land in Palestine the Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 and registered as an English limited liability company, and although it derives its income solely from voluntary contributions, it has already accumulated a capital of £250,000. Part of this money has been devoted to the purchase of land which has been put under cultivation and to fostering agriculture, part has been applied to the betterment of housing accommodation in towns and rural settlements, and part has been used to support institutions of public utility, such as schools conducted on Jewish national principles.

Important and indispensable as these financial institutions were, the high aim which Zionism set itself also demanded diplomatic activity, and to this Herzl devoted himself with all the power of his persuasive and enthusiastic personality. He entered into negotiations with the Turkish Government, he tried to enlist the sympathy of the Great Powers, and he endeavoured to secure material support from Jewish financiers and wealthy charitable organisations. He had several interviews with the late Sultan (Abdul Hamid) between the years 1899 and 1902, and received cordial assurances of good will. But the Charter for an autonomous