The negation of the Diaspora should become the aim of the Zionist movement in America, Dr. Nahum Sokolow declared in his farewell address to American Zionists.
“‘If you wish it, it will not remain a fairy tale.’ This answer, which our leader, Theodore Herzl, gave to sceptics when they doubted the realization of the Zionist idea is still valid. American Zionists have undoubtedly succeeded in developing the will for Palestine, but they have not yet created in the Jewish and Zionist masses of America the desire for denying the Goluth. The negation of the Goluth is just as important as the desire for Palestine, if not more so. Only if you will succeed in arousing in American Jewry a readiness for negation of the goluth will the Zionist movement become deep rooted. It is not sufficient that the Zionist should want Palestine as a panacea for the ills of his brothers in Eastern Europe and labor under the belief that the Diaspora, as far as America is concerned, offers a solution of his Jewish problem.
“The Zionists of America must engage in educational work on a large scale. You have to imbue the youth with your ideals, with the spirit of Palestine, with the historical traditions of our people.
“The most touching tribute was paid me when, on may way to this reception, my taxi driver handed me a slip on which he had written my name in Hebrew,” Mr. Sokolow stated. “When I asked him in surprise how he had recognized me he said, ‘Haven’t I read your ‘M’shaboth L’shaboth,’ the weekly review of world politics, in the Warsaw Hebrew daily, ‘Ha’zephirah’! Napoleon said ‘when you scratch a Russian, you find a Cossack.’ When you scratch a Jewish taxi driver, you find a Jewish scholar.
“There are thousands of such taxi drivers, there are thousands who are being lost to our people because we neglect them. They can be a tremendous force,” he declared.
Mr. Sokolow emphasized the fact that during his visit to America he observed a spiritual hunger among American Jews.
Chaim Nachman Bialik announced that Mr. Sokolow is working on a lexicon of the Hebrew language.
Louis Lipsky presided at the luncheon. Dr. Schmarya Levin, Bernard A. Rosenblatt, Jacob Fishman, Maurice Samuel and Rabbi Milekeiwsky, Rabbi Israel Goldberg, Rabbi Sonderling, Judge Julian W. Mack and Mrs. Richard Gottheil spoke.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
