Work of the second and third congresses were held at Basel in 1898 and 1899 respectively. Organization had now so far progressed that only delegates were per mitted to vote. A. proposition to acquire Cy prus was rejected. With a view of making propaganda the fourth congress (1900) was held in London; the fifth returned to Basel and decided that subsequent assemblages should be biennial. Herzl necessarily became president of all congresses held during his life time and chairman of the smaller executive committee which had its seat in Vienna. He practically gave up his life to the work, except in so far as his refusal of salary made it neces sary to continue his literary labors for a live lihood. He had interviews with ministers and crowned heads, including the Sultan and Kaiser Wilhelm II, from both of whom, he received sympathetic expressions, but he was never able to report more than "progress' to the congress. Negotiations with representatives of the Egyp tian and English governments for a concession of land at Al'Arish in the Sinitic Peninsula (1898) failed because of the necessity for irri gation, as diversion of any part of the Nile water could not be permitted. Herz! continued, however, to keep in touch with the British gov ernment and at the Sixth Zionist Congress held in Basel, 23 to 28 Aug. 1903, was enabled to make public the willingness of Lord Lansdowne "to entertain favorably proposals' from the Jewish Colonial Trust, Limited, "for the estab lishment of a Jewish colony or settlement" in British East Africa; with the "appointment of a Jewish official as the chief of the local ad ministration, . . . and permission to the colony to have a free hand in municipal legisla tion . . such local autonomy being condi tioned upon the right of His [Britannic] Majesty's government to exercise general con trol." The proposition to send a commission to examine the country offered and to report to a subsequent special session of the congress was bitterly opposed by the Russian delegates, who on its adoption withdrew, and only Herzl's personal pleading and the agreement that no funds of the Zionist organization should be expended by the Commission of Inquiry pre vatted upon them to return to subsequent sit tings. Much delay was experienced in form ing and dispatching the Commission; oppo sition becoming meanwhile more and more pro nounced in Russia, spreading to Germany, England and America. Simultaneously with the sixth Basel Congress, the first Jewish Con gress had met in Palestine in the colony Zikron Jacob, under the presidency of M. Us sischkin of Ekaterinoslav, apparently never pro ceeding further. Ussischkin, hor•ever, organ ized an aggressive movement within the Zionist organization to discredit and defeat the East African project. Others proceeded with greater Considerateness but no less determination. A conference of Russian members of the "Greater Actions Comite," held at Kharkof in October 1903, demanded the abandonment of all schemes of "Territorialism"; by which term the move ment for Jewish state-building outside of Palestine now became known. Meanwhile the East African Commission had reported to the Aotions Comite 16 May 1904. The report was not unanimous, but two of the three members agreed that the territory offered by the British government (the "Chas Ngishu Plateau') was insufficient for a large number of Jewish set-. tiers, and was fitted for grazing rather than agriculture. At the sixth congress, Herzl had exhibited signs of physical weakness. The worry consequent upon the dissensions that fol lowed this congress completed what nine years of overwork and anxiety had begun, and on 3 July 1904 he died after a few days of acute illness. The seventh congress (Basel 1905), at tended by more than 600 delegates, was con trolled by the followers of Ussischkin. It voted overwhelmingly to "reject either as an end or as a means colonizing activity outside Palestine and adjacent lands," and that "the Zionist or ganization shall not engage itself further with the proposal of the British government." As a result, the Territorialist delegates, under the leadership of Israel Zangwill (q.v.), met upon the adjournment of the congress and organized the "Jewish Territorial Organization" (Ito), which has since perfected an international or ganization, aiming to obtain wherever feasible, publicly, legally assured place of settlement upon an autonomous basis" for those Jews who are persectited in the countries wherein they now live. Within recent years, it has practically
ceased activity.
Many anti-Zionists and non-Zionists have joined the Ito, and many who remain Zionists, particularly in America, have united likewise with the new organization. It has recently appointed' a "Geographical Commission" em bracing such men as Lord Rothschild and Hon. Oscar S. Straus.
Present The number of Zionist societies throughout the world runs well into the thousands. They are comnos-ct of mem bers subscribing to the Basel program and pav ing "one shekel' (25 cents) yearly into the general fund, with such local dues as may be exacted. For every 200 shekel-payers one delegate may he sent to the congress. The societies in various countries are aggregated more or lets completely into federations. The president of the Jewish Colonial Trust and the head of the executive committee has been a citizen of Cologne, to which city the head quarters has been transferred. Here also is now published Die Welt, the Zionist or gan founded by Herzl, and here will meet the "yearly conferences" of the Larger Executive Committee, Which will probably take the place of frequent congresses. One of the most promising features in recent reorganization is the "Palestine Committee," headed by Prof. Otto Warburg of Berlin, which systematically studies industrial and other conditions in Pal estine. There are Many parties in present day Zionism — some being religious, others non-religious or even irreligious, and having various economic aims, such as the "Po'ale Zion," a frankly proletarian or even socialistic. organization. The "Ziyone Zionists," probably• representing the old "Chovevei Zion," demand immediate work in Palestine. The "Political Zionists," headed by Nordau and Wolffsohn and embracing Herzl's closet adherents, in sist on diplomatic action, while the "Practical Political Zionists," regarding autonomy as of less importance than legal authorization, favor systematic colonization in Palestine and neigh boring lands under the best attainable assur ances. "Moral Zionism* pleads for a national spiritual, rather than a political, centre in Pales tine. Doubtless in time the fusion of these varied elements will lead to useful results. Meanwhile the Jewish population of Palestine is increasing with rapidly developing activities, agricultural, industrial, commercial, educational; while Zionism has brought closer together the Jews of different lands; stimulated anew the study of Hebrew literature and Jewish history and led to a re-examination and increasingly better understanding of the fundamentalsi ethnic, religious and economic, of Judaism. A profound impetus was given to Zionism in the latter part of 1917 by Hon. A. J. Balfour's statement that "His Majesty's government favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home land for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achieve ment of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." A preliminary fund of a mil lion dollars — a hundred million to be raised later—was at once begun by Jews in America for the rehabilitation of Palestine.
Bibliography.— Theodor Herzl, 'Die Juden-' staat' (Vienna 1896); 'The Jewish State' (London 1896, New York 1905); 'Ukazatel Literatury o Sionizme' (Saint Petersburg 1903) ; Sapir, 'Der Zionsmus Briiner Judischer Verlag> (1903); 'Die Welt) (Vienna) • Schach tel, 'Register zu den Protokollen der Zion istemkongresse, i-vi' (Berlin 1905); R. Got theil, 'The Zionist Movement' in North Amer ican Review (1902) ; Max Nordau, in The In ternational Quarterly (1902) No. 1; Theodor Herzl's 'Zionistische Schriften,' ed. Leon Kell ner (Berlin 1905) ; Max Jaffe, 'Die Nationale Widergeburt der Juden) (Berlin 1897) ; Ben Eliezer, 'Die Judenfrage und der Socialer Judenstaat' (Bern 1898) ; Aron Sandler, 'An thropologie und Zionismus) (Brunn 1904) ; 'The Maccabean) (Washington and New York); Publications of the Federation of Amcr ican Zionists; R. Gottheil, in Encyclo pedia,' article "Zionism" (New York 1906).