American Zionists Urged to Widen Ranks During Organization Month

A call to American Zionists to set aside the month Iyar, April 15 to May 15, as Zionist Organization month during which time efforts are to be made to increase the membership of the Zionist Organization of America and to enroll at least 125,000 members was issued by the American Zionist Executive Committee of which Louis Lipsky is chairman.

The last issue of the “New Palestine,” the official organ of the Zionist Organization, of which Meyer W. Weisgal is the managing editor, was devoted to the Zionist Organization Month. The call was issued in conformity with a decision of the World Zionist Executive, urging all Zionist federations to observe this month. Action to this effect was taken in England, Germany, Holland, Poland and other countries.

In a message addressed to the American Zionists, Dr. Chaim Weizmann described the need for the Organization Month.

WEIZMANN’S MESSAGE

“It is well that from time to time we rehearse and restate our ideals lest in the absorption of our practical labors for Palestine we lose sight of those eternal truths which have given us the strength till now, and which with the help of God, will give us the continuing strength to crown our labor with success.” Dr. Weizmann declared. “It is this purpose which motivated the Executive to call upon the Zionists throughout the world to observe Organization Month during Iyar.

“In Zionism, we Jews have found the one possibility of a final solution to our problem which we present to the nations. It is the law of survival which has driven us to Zionism. We are Zionists because we want to live–and Zionism was the inevitable expression of the will to live. Zionism was not an accidental phenomenon in Jewish life. What to close and immediate observers looks like chance, and seems bound up with irrelevent events, is to the historian a part of the vast processes of human and national destiny. Zionism may appear to some to be the result of a fortuitous chain of circumstances; actually, it is part and parcel of the predistined evolution of the Jewish People. We are Zionists because we must be, because in Zionism we have found the channel of our continuity.

“Organization Month reminds us forcibly that the burden of reconstruction rests chiefly, if not entirely, upon Zionists and the Zionist Organization, and as this work dare not stop for one single moment, American Zionists together with their European brethren must patiently and faithfully carry the burden as nobly as they carried it Izitherto. The very guarantee for the upbuilding of Palestine rests only in one thing: in the sustained and continued effort of the Zionists to go on with the work. Iyar will give American Zionists the opportunity to demonstrate their strength,” Dr. Weizmann stated in his message.

“If we are to achieve the tremendously difficult task of creating a Jewish majority in the Jewish National Home, we must ensure our future; and this can be done only by turning back and engaging, even as in the earlier years, in the task of making Zionist idealism the predominant responsibility of larger circles of American Jews in order that, as our numbers increase, the distribution of obligation may not be so heavy upon each individual, and the sum total of the effort may be strong enough to overcome all obstacles and accomplish the aim of the movement. Our outstanding task is to deepen an understanding of the ideals of the Zionist movement, and to increase the number of enrolled members in the Zionist Organization to at least one hundred and twenty-five thousand,” Louis Lipsky declared.