Die Welt

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No. 49. — Vienna, 7 December 1900. — Fourth Year.

On the occasion of the turn of the year our esteemed subscribers are requested to renew their subscriptions in good time, and, in order that no delay may occur in the delivery, their attention is again drawn to the fact that the publishing house Tuschijah in Warsaw is our agency for Russia.

☛ The next number of the "Welt" will appear as a Maccabean Festival Number.

The Shekel Day.

Our comrades in conviction in England belong to-day beyond all doubt to the most diligent and most practical agitators of Zionism. They do not, it is true, fight upon so hot a soil as the Zionists of other lands, and their work is on that account in many respects made easier for them. But many of their successes are none the less their own most personal merit and the reward of their industry, their energy, their keen political understanding. And there is more than one thing that we can learn from them.

The "Shekel Day" also, of which we wish to speak, bears the good mark: "Made in England".

After the brilliant success which the "English Zionist Federation" had won by its intervention on the occasion of the parliamentary elections, our English comrades in conviction set themselves with an admirable zeal to the work of agitation and organisation. Three things above all distinguish this extensive activity: systematic division of labour, strict orders on the part of the leadership, subordination and exact execution on the part of the several societies. And yet in this, we might almost say, soldierly manner of conducting the work, in spite of the brevity and the severe matter-of-factness of the giving of commands, which recalls the sparing style of military orders of the day, nothing is lost of that enthusiasm which is itself one of the preconditions of success.

The English Zionists have with good reason turned an increased attention to the collection of the shekel moneys. They rightly recognise in the shekel more than an annual tax. For that reason they have adopted the introduction of the "Shekel day".

The central office gives out the watchword that upon a fixed day the shekel is to be collected throughout the whole country. Scarcely is this word abroad when the fairest contest develops. Manchester will raise 1000 shekels, is the report sent to Leeds. Then we shall raise more than 1000, answer the men of Leeds. Down to the smallest communities this new ambition propagates itself with astonishing rapidity. Everywhere, throughout the whole land, meetings are held which prepare for the Shekel Day. The shekel has long ceased to be a coin; it becomes the symbol of fidelity of conviction, the gauge of the recruiting power of the Zionists in city and townlet. The Shekel Day is awaited with suspense. One quite forgets that it was introduced out of the practical consideration of bringing the collection of the shekel moneys into a system of time. Out of the "Shekel day" there has grown a day of peculiar consecration. And in noble emulation all forces are stirring to shape this day into a brilliant manifestation of Zionist strength of conviction.

The Zionists in the German Empire also have introduced the Shekel Day. But the institution is too good for it to be allowed to remain confined to England and Germany We believe that the Zionists of the other lands will joyfully follow the fair example.

Perhaps the next Congress will then, if the experiments shall everywhere have proved themselves, go yet a step further and fix one day of the year as Shekel Day for the Zionists in all the world.

"Whosoever is above twenty years old", it is said in the Book of Exodus, "shall render the shekel; the rich shall not give more than the poor." So have we held it. And it is said further in the Scripture: "When they are numbered, they shall give their shekel." This we will reverse: when they render their shekel, we will number them. The organised proletarians of all lands hold their review upon the 1st of May. The Zionists of all lands will hold this review upon the day of the shekel. Everywhere the day will be celebrated as a festal day, upon which the faithful of Zionism will be numbered, who are preparing the new Exodus of the oppressed.

B. F.