3 9 0 D O C U M E N T 3 9 4 D E C E M B E R 1 9 2 4
situation was the implementation of the Keren Hayessod
idea[3]
in the larger cen-
ters of the diaspora and the beginning of a somewhat regular influx of funds to cov-
er the operating budget. Not that the results were satisfactory or met the demands
to expand our work; but it is notable, nevertheless, that it is a start. And our foes
have also realized this fact, that we have now entered into a new stage. They sense
that we now have to be taken seriously. A few years ago they still believed they
could nip our efforts in the bud by claiming we have no public legal standing. Today
they recognize that even though they would not be able to pull that off, they could
hamper our work much more effectively through constant enmity, by constraining
our practical enterprises, by spreading sinister insinuations. The latest session of
the Mandate Committee of the League of Nations, at which Herbert Samuel was
questioned, was an interesting example of the effectiveness of this undermining
activity.[4]
The committee’s report, which you have probably seen in the newspa-
pers, does not openly speak out against us, but it contains not a word of recognition
and under the appearance of impartiality is so very permeated with all the argu-
ments opposing us that it much more effectively diminishes our cause in the eyes
of the world than if it had openly discounted the principle of the
mandate.[5]
Since
my return here, I feel the same forces at work on every occasion. I fear we are today
facing the most difficult period of our work. We are already strong enough that peo-
ple believe that we must be taken seriously, but we are still too weak to be able to
defend ourselves effectively. Our foes know that this is the decisive period, and they
are not going to leave anything untried. We are doing what we can to be informa-
tive; we are urging whomever we can to travel to Palestine, in secure awareness that
our practical work there is the best propaganda tool for our cause. But the crucial
point is that this work itself now really is growing into dimensions that expose prior
accomplishments as just a first preliminary step, and for the sole purpose of which
they were accomplished. If we manage to carry this conviction to the great majority
of the Jewish people, and if this response, which springs out of it, measures up to
the greatness of this goal, then I am firmly convinced that we need not be worried
about the future, despite all the machinations of our opponents. We are going to
have to work with much greater drive than before, and I hope that the work of the
coming winter months will bring us considerably further along. Over the course of
the next few weeks I myself am going to visit some of the large continental centers
and then, in the second half of this winter, travel to America, in order to bring to a
definitive conclusion the negotiations started last year to organize American Jewry
for our
endeavor.[6]
I shall tell you about all that has been touched upon here in
greater detail when I am in Berlin.
The actual motivation for this letter of mine today is a campaign that we are in
the process of conducting for the university and the technical
college[7]
on the Con-