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No. 45. | Vienna, 7 November 1902 — 7 Marcheshvan 5663. | 6th Year

After the Annual Conference.

When, five years ago, a few daring men sent forth into the world the rallying-call to Basle, they awaited its effect with fear and trembling . . . for they did not know whether this call might not die away unheard. The English writer Carlyle likens every great idea, every great man, to a spark that illumines mankind; but if the spark is to flare up, the powder must be there in which it can kindle. The Zionist idea lay slumbering, more or less consciously, in thousands of Jewish hearts; the proclamation of Basle awakened them all and created the Zionist movement which to-day embraces the whole world. Every Congress was a grand review of an army in constant increase, a conspicuous refutation of the method of denial and disavowal employed against it by the opponents of Zionism. In the matter of agitation the Congresses have exercised a colossal effect. To-day Zionism is known and accredited throughout the whole world. Great assemblies, however, can at most analyse and criticise; creative work can be performed only by smaller committees. All parliaments prove this, and it has proved so at our Congresses as well. Inwardly, the Congresses had for us this further significance, that they brought to light the eminent forces at our disposal, who then served, as it were, as the officers of the movement. The ideas which filled the great assemblies of the representatives of our people, gathered together from all the world, had first to be cast into firm forms, and this the committees accomplished. Now at the Fifth Congress the motion was made, and raised to a resolution, that the Congress be convened only every two years, and that in the year in which no Congress takes place the Congress committees, as it were, should meet in its stead.

Those of our dear opponents who would see in this a sign of the decline of Zionism are greatly mistaken; it is rather a sign of our strength. We can already dispense with the propagandist effect of the Congresses and turn the cost and labour thereby saved to other account.

Thus the omission of the general Congress made possible the All-Russian Conference at Minsk, which signifies a success in every direction. The Annual Conference, however, was meant, in accordance with its statutory purpose, to display only a quiet activity. It was by no means to act as a recruiting and proclaiming body, as the Minsk Conference did. The task of the so-called Little Congress was merely the building-up of our institutions, the examination of the activity displayed in the past year and of the results achieved, and deliberation and decision upon the paths to be followed henceforth.

Whoever, therefore, expected grand proclamations and sensational revelations from the Annual Conference was mistaken from the outset. But those who proclaimed a liquidation of Zionism will fare no better, for the Conference was able to record with satisfaction the steady, tangible progress of Zionism throughout the whole world, and the growing respect and attention paid to it.

And even if individual steps and negotiations have not yet led to any positive results, the very fact that such negotiations were conducted is of high importance. For the rest, our movement in the five years of its organisation has advanced much further than the most earnest among us at first dared to hope. And if on our way we sometimes come upon obstacles we cannot surmount, then we must simply devise new means and ways of reaching our goal, and above all we must strive to grow strong, and ever stronger. In our strength, not least, will lie the secret of our successes.

A very gratifying result could be reported to us by our foundations: the distribution of a dividend by our Colonial Bank, and the thriving of the National Fund.

What has not been prophesied of our Bank, and what has it not been reproached with! It is putting all these evil prophets