I have some cheerful news for you today. The city is excited about the Keren Hayesod ["exchequer" of World Zionist Organization]. The Chicago Jews have awakened from their slumber and have become active. The Orthodox Jews of Chicago have become active and it looks to me as though they will save the situation.

The Vilna Synagogue, which is not a large synagogue, has already collected a thousand dollars for the Keren Hayesod, and will bring the check to the banquet that the Orthodox Jews are giving in honor of Mr. Sokolow. The Ezrath Israel Synagogue, of which Mr. Miller, an experienced Zionist worker, is president, has also collected a nice sum of money and will bring it to the banquet. The [Congregation Anshe] Kneseth Israel on the Northwest Side, headed by Rabbi B. Margolin and 2Mr. Berkowitz as president is very active and will have a check for over a thousand dollars on Wednesday. The leaders of the Kovno Synagogue on the West Side, headed by Rabbi Isaac Kaplan and President Rabinowitz, are not asleep either. I hear from trustworthy sources that Mr. Rabinowitz will bring a fat check to the banquet.

All this is cheerful news. It seems that the representatives of Chicago Orthodoxy are busy and are trying to do their duty. The representatives of the big synagogues should understand that real deeds and real money are expected from them. The two big synagogues on the West Side, [Congregations] Anshe Sholom and [Anshe] Kneseth Israel, must prove by their deeds that they are the leading synagogues. If small synagogues come to the banquet with thousand or fifteen-hundred-dollar checks, then the big synagogues must not come with checks of less than three or four thousand dollars.

The Orthodox synagogues of Chicago must not let their undertaking fail.

It must succeed. The Chicago Jews must recognize that Orthodoxy is a power in Jewish life. The minimum that the synagogues should give for the Keren Hayesod is thirty thousand dollars in cash, and this money must be raised before Wednesday evening. Whether they will or not, will greatly depend upon the representatives of the big synagogues.

I wonder what has happened to my dear Liebawitch friends. Nothing is heard of them. It seems that the Congregation [Anshe] Liebawitch always responds very generously to all Zionist appeals, and, in general, the Liebawitch people are good fellows. If they are still asleep, it would be no more than right for Rabbi Zevin, rabbi of the synagogue, to call them in and say to them: "Wake up and begin to do something. Now is not the time to sleep". The Liebawitch people always listen respectfully to their esteemed rabbi, and if he were to tell them that they must bring a check for at least two thousand dollars to the Sokolow banquet, they would certainly do so. Well, what do you say, rabbi?

The synagogues are active but the lodges are asleep. Up to now we have heard nothing from the lodges about collecting large sums for the Keren Hayesod. It seems that the leaders of the lodges are all good, devoted Zionists and that the Jews who belong to lodges are neither poor people, nor misers. Mr. Sam Epstein is asleep, Dr. Sultan is asleep, and the other leaders of the lodges are also asleep. How can we awaken those Jews from their deep slumber? Tell me, please!

I should like to know whether the Poale Zion, which is also a type of lodge, is asleep like the other lodges, or whether it is active. It would seem that they should be concerned about the Keren Hayesod--and if they are snoring, what's the matter?