Die Welt

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No. 1. Vienna, 2 January 1903 — 3 Tebeth 5663. Seventh Year.

On the Threshold of the New Volume.

With this number there begins a new year of vexation for those Jews who still cling to the coat-tails of strangers and before whom we unceasingly hold up the fool's mirror; a year of vexation for the Jewish preachers of consolation with assured incomes, whose views and intentions we expose in all their nothingness; a year of joy, as we hope, for those Jews whose longing for home and freedom finds its herald in the "Welt."

We mean to make the name "Jewish paper" a name of honour — with this promise of its founders our journal came before the public. Mindful of that word, we invite criticism, to-day and at all times, to deal with us strictly. It is superfluous to dwell upon the commercial integrity of a Zionist institution. But did we ever, even in the smallest matter, have regard to our standing with the powerful when their doings called for censure? No advantage forfeited was ever a hindrance to our shaking the little thrones of Jewry, whose slumbering occupants received the disturber of their rest with ill grace. We made not the slightest compromise with any catchword of the day, nor have we, like other papers, warmly commended to our following Liberalism in former days and to-day the best thing to be had, the mildest Antisemitism. Rather, we sought to make of the Jewish petty burgher a citizen of the world, to lead his gaze beyond his own plot of ground. We sought to let the Jew grow with higher aims than a better or worse life of servitude among his host peoples. "In politics, to understand nothing is to hate bitterly." Political dullards banded together into barriers across our path. Many a merry hunt against us went through the forest of assimilationist papers. Nothing led us astray from our principle, which is truth, or from our watchword, which is the freedom of the people.

That is spirit of the spirit of Zionism, no special merit of its organ: to the Jewish people now coming into being we are subject, to it we are answerable, its representation gives us our direction. We hope that the knowledge of the fruit will cause the tree to appear noble.

With our old leading motives we enter upon the new volume. The old leading motives have, it seems, given satisfaction to many. The yellow numbers bearing the homeland of the Maccabees in the six-pointed star travel far across the seas, beyond the Equator, as letters of brothers who are coming to an understanding about the journey home. We mean to make these letters as full as possible. The Zionist's interest in all Jews will be provided for by us, and we shall offer echo and reflection from every quarter of the globe. The "Welt" shall be the burning-glass in which all Jewish life is reflected. It has been said more than once in this place: we have an editorial staff of many heads. Every Zionist who has anything Jewish to report should report it to his organ. Every society should publish its needs with us, put questions, ask for information. In our tribune the societies should enter into mutual intercourse, announce the progress they have achieved by their measures, state what economic advantages they have gained as societies; the local groups of the West, for example, should obtain Hebrew teachers from their Jewish brethren in the East, and these in turn should invoke the influence of the Western groups upon the German-Jewish relief societies on behalf of their home industries. The "Welt" will stand readily open to every call of Jewish life.

From to-day we come before our friends with something new. "For the Jewish Family" is the name of a new section of our paper, which enters the Sabbath parlour as a wooer for Zionism of the Jewish woman. It is in a light conversational tone that we shall tell the Jewish woman of Jewish life. But are not her delicate feeling, her deep disposition renowned? She, proud for herself and ready to help others, will draw as much from a hint as a rough man from a blunt word. We mean to seek the way to the hearts of men through the heart of woman.

The homage of the arts to the greatness of Judah will appear in word and picture within our pages