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No. 38. Vienna, 19 September 1902. 6th Year

The All-Russian Zionist Conference at Minsk.

The first All-Russian Zionist Conference at Minsk, which held its last session on the 10th of this month, may well claim an eminent place for all time in the history of the Zionist movement and of the struggle to bring about the rebirth of the Jewish people. The many questions laid before the Congress for deliberation have brought to light a body of material concerning Zionism and our fellow-Jews which must silence the opponents of Zionism both within and without Jewry, while it must fill the friends of Zionism with confident hope in the success of the good cause.

The articles which the national-Russian journals have devoted to the proceedings of the Zionist Conference prove what mighty waves Zionism has raised everywhere, even among non-Jews, and how profoundly seriously it is taken even in national-Russian circles, where Zionism was not long ago described as a Utopia.

Journals of opposite tendencies and party positions, such as the "Novoye Vremya" and the "Novosti," the "Peterburgskiya Vyedomosti" and the "Odesskiya Novosti," are agreed that the Zionist Conference at Minsk has shown clearly, and in figures, the ever-growing intensity of the strength of Zionism.

A Russian journal characterises the work of the Minsk Conference as follows: "At the Zionist Conference at Minsk various questions were discussed which concern Jewry and Zionism alone. There was talk of the nationalisation of the Jewish school, of raising the economic level of the masses of the people, of the creation of societies for mutual aid, and of the organisation of the Zionists. The consequence of this deeply penetrating intellectual activity is that everyone must acknowledge the fact of the growth and the firmness of Zionism. Zionism has set itself tasks upon whose solution the future of the Jewish people depends, and one may therefore assert that the Zionist Conference at Minsk signified the triumph of Zionism, which has appeared before the eyes of all in full strength and pressing rapidly towards its goals. The number of the delegates, who represented thousands of Zionists, the influx of new funds and donations, and finally the great interest which Russian society showed towards the Conference — all this speaks plainly for it. This great success of Zionism is acknowledged without reserve even by the enemies of the movement."

And truly! The reports which were read at the Zionist Congress in Minsk furnish precious and incontestable material for a knowledge of the truly grandiose extent which Zionism has attained in Russia. From the report of the Information Bureau, which has not yet been able to work up all its data, one sees clearly how great is the network of Zionist societies that covers the whole of Russia, and how rapidly the number of these societies is increasing. In six districts alone, those of Warsaw, Jekaterinoslaw, Elisabethgrad, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Simferopol, the number of Zionist societies at the beginning of the year was 426, which in the last months has risen to 522, an increase, therefore, of more than 22 per cent. In the district of Bendery alone there are 60 Zionist societies, in that of Kieff 91. The data, too, which the Zionist Conference at Minsk brought to light concerning Shekel payments, the sale of shares of the Jewish Colonial Bank, and the collections on behalf of the National Fund, are irrefutable evidence of the rapid growth of the Zionist movement.

The debate on the cultural work of the Zionists was of great interest. It furnished proof that energetic work is being done in this field, and that a wealth of factors are working together in unity to bring about the nationalisation and the rebirth of the Jews by raising the cultural level of the Jewish people. Achad-Haam delivered an hour-long speech in which the necessity and the significance of nationalising the education of Jewish youth were set forth with wit and conviction.

And it seems to us that the question of the nationalisation of education holds within itself the success of our