History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)Sokolow, Nahum
History
History of Zionism, 1600-1918, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Sokolow, Nahum
Jews -- Restoration; Zionism -- History
All the great achievements of British peaceful conquests encouraged the
Zionist Movement with its trusts and funds. Cecil Rhodes, with only a
million pounds to start with, created Rhodesia with its 750, 000 square
miles. The British North Borneo Company has a capital of £800, 000 and
dominates over 31,000 square miles. The British East African Company,
which administered 200,000 square miles, began with the same amount as
the Jewish Colonial Trust, namely, £250,000.
It is true that the Zionist Palestinian scheme presented other
difficulties, but where was any great work undertaken which did not
present difficulties? Is not the whole history of the Jews a struggle
for existence amid the greatest of difficulties? The Jews in their
normal condition were an agricultural people. During the centuries
of depression and persecution they had to abandon their old vocation.
Dispersed throughout all countries, yet fugitives from every land, the
Jews, who could call no place their home, had to turn to commerce or
to handicraft for a means of livelihood, and were thus able to carry
about with them everywhere that kind of labour power that they knew to
be realizable everywhere. Yet, inexorable necessity as it was, it was
a breaking with the nation’s own self. And is the present situation
without its difficulties? Let those answer who know something of the
hardships, the privations, the squalor, the wretchedness amid which
three-quarters of the Jewish people live throughout their lives. And,
as to financial means, even under present circumstances it is necessary
for the continuance of the present misery, to collect millions and
millions, whereby indescribable energies are wasted――without any real
help being given.
Inspired by these ideas, and with this object in view, the propaganda
was continued when suddenly, in 1904, the Zionist Organization
sustained the greatest loss ever experienced by any Organization. Herzl
had worked too hard; his exertions, his experiences and his emotions
had been such as to exhaust the strength of this strongest of physical
and intellectual giants. It was too much for one human being to bear;
nature was unduly taxed and he broke down. On the 3rd of July, 1904,
Herzl breathed his last in the villa “Home, Sweet Home” at Reichenau,
on the Semmering Mountain, south of Vienna. His memory will be
cherished for ever by the Jewish people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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