Page 2 — "Die ✡ Welt" — No. 29

To the Jewish People!

Brothers! Sisters!

Our great Leader has left us.

He had come to us to help us, with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might. For nine years he gave to the Jewish people, daily and hourly, everything that stood at his command, with a generosity to which only the love of so exalted and pure a soul as his can rise. An endless sacrifice upon the altar of his people, until he had offered up himself.

His tremendous strength, his precious time, all his thought and feeling belonged to his people. Selfless as he was, he not only reaped no advantage for himself, but gave away his goods and possessions as well, with a gladness that knew no limit and no calculation, with a gladness so delicate and unobtrusive that only those nearest to him could have any notion of the greatness of what he did.

Everything in him was absorbed in the love of his people: the interests of his family, the needs of the day, care for the future. Herzl lived for one aim alone: the national resurrection, the redemption of his people.

Only now does his luminous figure shine before our eyes in all its purity. We know, and we bear witness, that Herzl departed this world pure as he had lived, void of every selfish thought, void of every striving after personal advantage, pure as the dew upon the summit of Hermon.

All civilised nations are wont to honour their great men after their death by state funerals, splendid monuments, high pensions to the survivors, the education of the children at the public cost, and similar uncommon distinctions. The truly great mind of Herzl was averse to outward honours. Splendid ceremonies and monuments of bronze are therefore out of the question of themselves. But one thing is surely after his mind: that his children should know that they are ours, that they should be taught to embrace the Jewish people with the same glowing love as he himself did.

We therefore hold it our sacred duty, a duty of honour for the whole Jewish people, to give to the children what their father withheld from them for love of us and for our benefit.

Theodor Herzl's children shall receive a National Gift, so great that they may be brought up to be noble men and free Jews. They shall be the children of the whole Jewish people!

Let each of us give according to his means and to his love for the great dead! As he was our father and trained us to be a nation, so shall the nation now love and bring up his children!

We have therefore resolved to issue an appeal to all Jews, but above all to all Zionists, individuals and corporations, that they collect for the

National Gift for the Children of Dr. Herzl

A fund is to be created, which will be deposited in the Jewish Colonial Bank in London, the bank of the Jewish people. It is the wish of us all that not only the rich but all Jews should take part, so that it may become a true National Gift. No contribution, however small, may seem too slight to us, for it is a sacred duty of our people to honour its dead Leader, and in him itself.

We do not doubt that every Jew and every Jewess, wherever they may be, will heed our call, the imperious demand of honour, and that they will do their duty.