The present Zionist movement in America, as compared with the earlier one, is of course much stronger and healthier, but it is interesting to observe that the movement in America is not one that sprang up only recently.
During the present war American Zionism has come providentially to the succour of Palestine with an enthusiasm and a generosity unequalled in history, and it is undoubtedly qualified and destined to play a prominent part in the Zionist solution of the Palestinian problem.
6. Germany
The geographical position of Germany—its proximity to Russia and Austria—the numerical strength of its Jewish population, and their long tradition of Jewish learning and Jewish activity, have combined to make that country favourable soil for the growth of Zionism. Nor must the prevalent anti-Semitism be left out of account as a factor making in the same direction. Whereas, for instance, the Jewish University student in England is welcomed in the various students’ associations and clubs, the Jewish students at a German University are practically compelled to form an organization of their own. This is one of the causes of the remarkable growth of the Zionist Students’ movement in Germany—a movement which, while it is not free from the besetting sin of over-organization, has undoubtedly done a great deal to transform the spirit of German Jewry. But from the earliest years, even before the growth of the Students’ movement, Zionism has always been in Germany a serious intellectual movement, contending for supremacy with the “Reform” theory of Judaism, and never failing to hold its own. The first official paper of the movement was Die Welt, and the Jüdischer Verlag in Berlin was for long the most important Zionist publishing concern; while in the extent of its Zionist literary and artistic output Germany is probably second to no other country. Yet it is characteristic that a Zionist Congress has only once (Hamburg, 1911) been held in Germany, though the headquarters of the movement were for a time at Cologne and afterwards at Berlin, and though Germany has been the home of such distinguished Zionists as Dr. Max Bodenheimer, for many years at the head of the Jewish National Fund, Dr. Franz Oppenheimer, the expert in co-operative colonization, and Julius Simon, to say nothing of members of the Inner Actions Committee like Wolffsohn, Hantke and Warburg.
7. Smaller European Countries
Holland gave to the movement one of its earliest leaders, Heer Jacobus Kann, who was associated with Wolffsohn in the administration after Herzl’s death. It has now a well-organized and active Zionist Organization, to which a great impetus was given by the Eighth Congress at the Hague, 1909. Dutch Zionists take a very active part in the general organization work and in that of the Jewish National Fund, the headquarters of which are at present at the Hague. The Dutch Zionist Federation has an excellent weekly paper, De Joodsche Wachter, which has appeared regularly for several years. Zionism in Holland has had for several years a University Movement. In connection with Holland, a place of honour in Zionist history belongs to Belgium, and particularly to Antwerp, which has been for several years an important Zionist centre. M. Jean Fischer, most noteworthy of the Antwerp group from the point of view of the organization, is a member of the Actions Committee and of the great financial institutions of Zionism. He and his friends have taken an important part in colonization undertakings in Palestine. Switzerland, the land of Zionist Congresses, has a good organization with many zealous and able workers. In Denmark and Sweden the Zionist organization has lately developed great activity, owing to the Zionist Office which has been established at Copenhagen. Rumania (which was almost equal to Russia in the Chovevé Zion movement) and Bulgaria are still more important as centres of Zionist activity.
LXXXII.
The Institutions of Zionism
The Zionist institutions—A. General: 1. The Congress—2. The Actions Committee—3. The Annual Conference—4. The Federations in various countries—5. The English Zionist Federation—6. The Order of Ancient Maccabeans—7. The Palestine Society.—8. The Poale Zion—9. The Mizrachi—10. Women Zionist Societies—B. Financial: 1. The Jewish Colonial Trust—2. The Anglo-Palestine Company—3. The Anglo-Levantine Company—4. The Jewish National Fund—5. The Palestine Land Development Company—6. The Kedem Company—7. The First London Achuzah Company—8. The Maccabean Land Company—C. Institutions in Palestine—D. Miscellaneous Institutions.