The Conference had no great real success. In spite of the propaganda undertaken by the central committee the movement came to a standstill. Already, in 1887, a Conference was arranged at Drusgenik, Russia, whose practical result differed but little from that of Kattowitz. It was decided to support certain colonies, and an office was set up in Palestine from which the negotiations with the Turkish Government were to be conducted and the land purchases controlled. Though this Conference was followed by a certain increase of the propaganda, the undertaking on the whole was in such a bad way, partly on account of the distressing condition of the Palestine colonies, that Pinsker finally resigned. Not till the Conference at Wilna was a change brought about, and when, in 1890, in consequence of the endeavours of the tenacious and energetic friend of Zion—M. Zederbaum—the authorization of the Russian Government had been obtained, the first general meeting of the Odessa Committee, “The Society for Supporting Jewish Agriculturists in Syria and Palestine” (as it called itself), was held, and Pinsker assumed again the leadership of the movement. At this point begins the really extensive activity of Chovevé Zion, chiefly in Russia, although there were Chovevé Zion Unions in nearly every country, even in America. At the beginning of the last decade of the nineteenth century the organization had reached its culminating point of activity. But the formal foundation of this committee had taken place at Kattowitz.
The Kattowitz Conference was, as Pinsker said, only a small beginning. But still it was a beginning. It created a principle and a method which only prevailed later. The insignificant real importance of the Conference is not inconsistent with its great historic significance. Result did not follow immediately upon this event, but the historian must trace back all the recent development of the Zionist idea to that date, because for the first time in a Jewish assembly the new spirit assumed shape and expression. Thus in the end history must consider the Kattowitz Conference as the seed out of which first of all a tender plant grew, but which, after wearisome development, spread out into a tree beneath whose shade Israel will some day find repose.
XIII. (vol. i., p. 276)
In the year 1840, Luzzatto wrote to Jost: “... and when at last, oh, Jewish scholars of Germany will the Lord open your eyes? How long will you refuse to see how wrongly you act by following the crowd, extinguishing national pride, allowing the language of our forefathers to fall into oblivion and letting Hellenism (Atticism) grow up in our midst? As long as you allow your brethren to persevere in the delusion that the ideal of perfection is nothing else than imitation of neighbours and the consideration gained therefrom; as long as you will not have attained enough self-consciousness to instruct the people out of full zeal for God, truth and Jewish confraternity to uphold that the greatest good is not anything visible but that which is felt deep within the heart, that the happiness of our nation is not dependent on emancipation but on our love to one another, on our holding together in brotherly union, and that this feeling of correlation is gradually dwindling as a result of emancipation; as long as you maintain that emancipation countries are paradisaic countries for the Jews, the saying of the prophet Malachi will necessarily apply to you:
“‘Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.’”
In a letter of the year 1855, Luzzatto writes to one of his disciples: “Your Hebrew letter gave me real pleasure.... Honour be to you for wishing to accustom yourself to write and speak Hebrew. For the language of our ancestors is the bond which links together the sons of the Jewish nation who are scattered all over the world, and it is that which conjoins all generations, and brings us nearer our ancestors as well as the generations which will come after us.”
On another occasion Luzzatto expressed himself on the idea of a Jewish mission in the Diaspora: “These are indeed words which charm the ear flatteringly, but in fact they are just empty phrases. The Bible has already been propagated among peoples for many generations, and gains in diffusion from day to day without Jewish assistance. Now, if the propagation of the Bible within a space of time of eighteen hundred years has not brought humanity perceptibly nearer perfection, what can the Jews contribute thereto, especially those who do not believe in the divinity of the Thora? But apart from the fact that, as I have expounded, it is a delusion to believe that the only purpose of existence of Judaism is to lead humanity towards perfection, as the author (Philipsohn) and his adherents believe, it is also a vain delusion to think that humanity will ever reach the state of perfection which the author describes in his writings.”
When Luzzatto heard, in the year 1854, that Albert Cohn, of Paris, was going to Palestine, he wrote to him:—
“Only unthinking people can suggest that Jewish children should be sent from Asia to large European cities to be brought up there, and thus diffuse our culture among our brethren in Asia; that is heartless egoism and unbelief, fine outer forms and inward corruption.”
“Judaism must be relieved of foreign pressure. The Jews of the Holy Land must be provided with soil to till and means of exploitation. Care must also be taken that their crops are not robbed by the Pashas and Beduins. Then they will cultivate the soil as in the times of the Bible, Mishna and Talmud. This cannot succeed in Jerusalem, since, as a place of pilgrimage, it has become the abode of people who divest themselves of all worldly cares and true social duties. Judaism has never built cloisters for recluses and has never countenanced idleness. But is it to be wondered at that whilst all nations from far and wide went on pilgrimage to the Sepulchre, Jehuda Halevy, Nachmanides and other devout men, after a life of strenuous toil, should have wished to pay honour to the seat of holiness and to end their lives in saintly seclusion? Jerusalem will necessarily remain a sacred city for all peoples. Therefore, for the present, it cannot be regarded as a possible capital of the country. Otherwise all Palestine should be tilled and cultivated by the Jews, that it may flourish from an agricultural and industrial point of view and arise again in its old splendour. The main consideration is that no impediments should be placed by the Government in the way of the free development of Jewish industry. The Jews are known all over the world as particularly industrious and capable. Why, then, should they be loungers in Palestine? That they are so at present has two local reasons; the one, the pressure of neighbouring nations and the negligence of the administration, and the other the Indian as well as Mohammedan, but not at all Jewish, conception of the holiness of inactive life. The local pressure must be removed as far as possible. But we must rouse our brethren to useful activity, urge them onwards in every way, and breathe into them the spirit of a new life.”[¹]