The World

Page 2. — "Die ✡ Welt" — No. 31.

How crushing this loss must have been to the generation that lived through it, we may gather from the words in which Jeremiah, who loved his people with a burning love, bewailed the fall of Jerusalem: "Destruction followeth upon destruction, the whole land is given over to devastation; suddenly are my tents torn down, in a moment my sheltering curtains. When I look upon the earth, I find it waste and void; when I gaze toward heaven, I find it darkened. I look upon the mountains, and they tremble, and all the hills are shaken. I look, and find no man, and all the birds of the air are fled. When I lift up mine eyes again, I find this fruitful field turned into a wilderness, and all its cities laid waste before the Eternal, before the heat of His wrath. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above it be darkened. For from Zion is heard the cry of lamentation: how wretched, how put to shame are we now; we must forsake our land, and our own dwellings have cast us out."

Recognising this calamity in all its magnitude and import, the teachers of our people instituted the Ninth of Ab as a day of remembrance, and our people consecrated this day to national mourning. And not only did this day ever unite the whole Jewish people in the binding sentiment of a common national grief; that common mourning also lent it the consoling strength not to despair of itself, and to raise up a new Judaism upon the ruins of its lost national life.

And in later times, too, in the Diaspora, this day turned the thoughts and the yearning gaze of the entire Jewish people toward the former centre of its national life. The common observance of this day caused it to see, in the many sufferings and strokes of fate of the two-thousand-year Golus, only the consequences of the first and second Tishah b'Ab, and so lent these sufferings the character of national sufferings, of national misfortune. The more violent and frequent these sufferings became in the sequel, the closer and stronger grew the bond of soul that embraced all Israel; and thus arose that feeling of solidarity of the Jewish people which has never been attained in the history of other nations.

If, then, the mourning of Ab united the scattered members of the Jewish people at a time when, through sameness of thought and feeling, it still formed a strong and compact power in spite of its dispersion, how much more does the Jewry of our own day stand in need of such uniting forces, fitted to hold together its members that tend to drift apart. The more intense the mourning for Zion and Jerushalayim, the more strongly must the sense of kinship revive; the more deeply felt the mourning for vanished greatness, the more strongly must the desire come forth to bring about a renaissance of the Jewish people.

Therefore the renaissance of the Jewish people now begun, Zionism, signifies no abandonment of the national mourning of the Ninth of Ab. On the contrary. Zionism, which holds up to the Jewish people its history, which cannot sufficiently commend the study of Jewish history and does indeed promote that study, only helps to make this mourning still more deeply felt, only helps to make it take hold also of those circles of Jewry which until now have stood wholly indifferent to the history of their people, as to its national mourning.

For this reason the mourning observance of the Ninth of Ab is of the greatest importance for the future of our people. The common mourning for the lost spiritual centre, the mourning for the lost political existence, the mourning for the many heroes and martyrs of our faith and of our history, causes us to reflect together upon our present situation. The uniting sentiment in view of our past can and must bring forth, with regard to our future also, a uniting sentiment, a uniting wish. And this uniting longing for the future is named: Zion and Jerushalayim.

Dr. Ph. Frankl.

The Sixth Congress.

(August 23–28.)

In the course of this week the last elections of delegates to the Congress will take place. But the reports already to hand permit the conclusion that the Congress will this time be more numerously attended than ever. Almost everywhere the gratifying fact could be recorded that no electoral group has forgone the exercise of its franchise, and in many cases double candidatures are also to be noted. All the election meetings were very well attended and bore at the same time the character of propaganda meetings. The proper activity of the societies, however, will only begin after the elections are fully concluded, and will culminate in the adoption of various motions and resolutions which are to be presented to the Congress as addresses.

*

Returning officers are hereby requested, once the voting has been completed, to send the entire record of the election immediately to the Congress Bureau. The successful candidates are likewise to be notified at once of their election.

*

Delegates' cards will be issued only in Basle.

*

All inquiries concerning lodging or board should be addressed to Herr Julius Meyer, Basle, Leimenstrasse 22, who presides over the Lodging and Reception Committee.

*

A branch post office and telephone station will be set up in the Congress building. Delegates should therefore have their letters addressed not poste restante, but to Basle, Filiale Stadtkasino.

*

The Congress medal of the sculptor Beer, so favourably known, is still obtainable in small numbers, at the price of 10 francs, in Basle.

*

The fares to Basle are as follows:

Vienna — Basle via Salzburg — Lindau Express, 1st class M. 83.90 " 2nd " " 56.— Vienna — Basle via Arlberg or Munich Express, 1st class Frcs. 102.25 " 2nd " " 68.55 Vienna — Basle — Vienna Express, 1st class Frcs. 166.20 " 2nd " " 110.95 Slow train, 3rd " " 51.70 Berlin — Frankfort — Basle — Frankfort — Berlin Express, 1st class K 142.— " 2nd " " 126.— " 3rd " " 95.60

*