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No. 52. Vienna, 25 December 1903 — 6 Tebeth 5664. 7th Year.

The Attempt upon Dr. Max Nordau.

A friend who was an eye-witness of the attempt upon Nordau writes to us: "Yesterday evening (the letter is dated 20 December) Nordau received an instalment on the debt of gratitude which the Jewish people owes him for his selfless labour, in the shape of two revolver bullets which were meant for him, but which did not strike him. . . .

How unhappy is our people, that it can bring forth such deeds!"

That is the very least that can be said of the incident at the Maccabean festival in Paris. What a shameful, ugly, stupid deed has there been committed! One man alone, amid the horror that seized upon all present, preserved his composure. That man was Nordau himself. Scarcely had the would-be assassin been rendered harmless when Nordau was already giving medical aid to the wounded man, whose thigh had been pierced by the second bullet, with a calm and presence of mind as though he had just been summoned to a patient, and had not himself that moment escaped a mortal danger. We have called the deed shameful, ugly and stupid. Shameful, because the assailant fell treacherously upon an unarmed and unsuspecting man. No man who possesses even the faintest sense of the most elementary demands of personal courage and personal honour will treacherously assault an adversary, though he hate him from the depths of his soul. It is true that in Russia, precisely, theories have gained the mastery even in the circles of the educated classes, and there perhaps most of all, which in the sweep of their enthusiasm lightly pass over such trifles as personal honour and courage.

It is simply inconceivable why the fellow should have chosen Nordau as the target of his bullet. Or did the fool believe that he would strike terror into the leadership of the Zionist movement by treacherously attacking Nordau? Only in thoroughly warped minds can such ideas become obsessions which represent such "deeds" as heroic and necessary.

But the deed was not heroic; it was ugly, so ugly that we cannot believe that it was really committed by a Zionist. This Max Nordau, who hazarded a world-wide position in order to serve his people, who has always declined to hold any office of honour in the movement, for which he makes sacrifices daily, who has filled thousands upon thousands with fresh courage and inspired them to unceasing labour — this Nordau, one would think, should have been the very last man against whom even a criminal thought might dare to venture. From what abominable depth of human depravity was the hand of this murderous ruffian raised against the unselfish, highly deserving, self-sacrificing friend of his people? Ugly, revoltingly ugly is this ingratitude, and not to be excused even by the most short-sighted fanaticism.

And, what is just as bad, this deed was stupid. Of a revolting stupidity. The man who attacked Nordau evidently did not even know that the acquisition of East Africa was still far from being in question. The Sixth Congress had merely resolved to send out an expedition to explore the land that had been offered. That was surely the least that could be done in response to such an offer. Only the next Congress would have had to decide upon the